ARRR!!

Hi there, mates! My card for today uses some of my new goodies from the My Favorite Things June release. All of the stamps that I used are from the Party Like a Pirate set and I while the whole set is adorable, I decided to work with this sassy parrot.

There’s a good deal of steps to this card and once I get a good camera setup for card making process videos, I’ll film all of it start to finish. For now, I’ll walk through it and try not to be too wordy (the struggle is real).

I started with creating a treasure map for the background using an inexpensive thin watercolor paper. Don’t waste the good thick stuff on this! The thinner the better is the way to go to get this effect. I cut the paper 4″ x 5″ and began to tear the edges from one corner, working my way around the paper. You’ll want to tear from back to front to get that ragged edge that takes the ink. Once I got the paper torn down to the size I wanted for the background, I began inking it with a sponge applicator and Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tea Dye.

Next, I crumpled the paper up into a little wad of inky mess and then pressed it out relatively flat. You’ll have a bunch of wrinkle lines all throughout the paper that will take the next 2 colors of ink really nicely. I used a sponge applicator again first with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and then finishing up with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I used the Walnut Stain sparingly so I didn’t make the map too dark.

I stamped a skull and crossbones in one corner and used a Tim Holtz Distress Marker in Vintage Photo to draw an X and tick marks at the top of the card. I didn’t get too fancy with this since most of the map is covered.

Next, I die-cut a porthole with the My Favorite Things Ocean View Porthole die-namics from a piece of brown crinkle specialty paper that I purchased at Hobby Lobby. For the rivets on the porthole, I covered small white flat-back pearls with versamark ink, heat embossed them with a metallic bronze embossing powder and adhered them over the holes in the porthole die-cut.

The porthole die-namics die also cuts out a circle in the center which I die-cut from Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock. I stamped the small palm tree from the stamp set to one side of the circle and masked it before using a sponge dauber and 3 colors of Memento ink to create the sunset. I then colored the palm tree with Copics and stamped a small bird.

For the waves at the bottom, I die-cut 2 more circles with the porthole die-namics from Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock and then die-cut each circle towards the bottom (one smaller than the other) with a My Favorite Things Ocean Waves die-namics die. I colored the larger wave die-cut with Copic BG57 and the smaller one with BG09 and adhered them layered together at the bottom of my palm tree scene.

For my sassy parrot, I started out by drawing a pirate hat for him with a Copic multi-liner pen on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White. The easiest way to do this is to stamp the parrot on a piece of scrap paper and draw the hat to fit him. I then used a lightbox to trace the hat again on my Neenah cardstock and a piece of eclipse tape for a mask. I masked off the hat and stamped the parrot, then masked the parrot and stamped the treasure chest. I colored this combined image with Copics and fussy cut around the whole image. I stamped the pirate flag from one of the stamps in the set, colored it also with Copics and fussy cut around both the wooden staff and the flag separately.

For the black background of the card, I cut a piece of cardstock 4″ x 5 1/4″ and die-cut an oval for the sentiment with a My Favorite Things Stitched Oval Word Windows die-namics die centered at the bottom of the cardstock. I then embossed the cardstock piece with a Tim Holtz Compass embossing folder. I stamped my sentiment from the stamp set on the oval center portion of the die-cut piece in versamark ink and heat embossed it with a Wow! white fine detail embossing powder. I adhered the sentiment with dimensional adhesive over the die-cut oval at the bottom.

I adhered my treasure map on the black embossed background first, followed by the palm tree scene and porthole die-cut. I used a thin dimensional adhesive to adhere the parrot image and then tucked and adhered the wooden staff behind the parrot. I also used a thin dimensional adhesive on the pirate flag. I added a little pile of gold coins next to the chest to finish it off.

Whew! That was really wordy, but I hope you enjoyed today’s card!

Stay tuned for a video of this soon. I really enjoyed making this one and filming it should be fun!

Thanks for stopping by!