A blog devoted to the cards I make in my tiny upstairs space. When my sister stays there, she calls it an "artist's garret". I'm not an artist, but am an enthusiastic cardmaker - hence the title "Cardmaker's Garret".
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Saturday 2 June 2018

Watercoloured Ocean

It's the beginning of June so thoughts turn to summer activities and what better than something that involves the ocean?


A perfect month for the new CAS Watercolour challenge "Ocean":


June is also the month for Father's Day and while I was thinking about "ocean" ideas, I remembered my father building a small sailboat when I was a teenager.  So decided to combine ocean and Father's Day and a sailboat.  Here's close-up photo:


The background was created by sprinkling blue Brushos on cold-press watercolour paper and then spritzing with water.  I let it air dry and then stamped my image and sentiment with Versafine and heat embossed.  I wanted the boat, birds, and sentiment to be black (so used clear embossing powder over my black ink), but wanted the little wave lines to be white so carefully sprinkled tiny bits of white embossing powder over them.

I didn't want the blue Brushos showing through the sails, so painted over the sails with white Gesso, let it dry, and then used my Gansai Tambi paints to watercolour my sails in white with a couple of green stripes.

I framed the image and added a die cut seagull silhouette to the top right corner of the frame.

Please come and join us at CAS Watercolour.  We have great inspiration from our Design Team and our Guest Designer, Robyn (Waterlily Cards by Robyn).  Be sure to keep your cards clean and simple, and use the theme of "ocean".  You have until June 24th to enter.

I'm also entering the card in the Addicted to CAS challenge - code word "sea":

 





Supplies:
Stamps - SU sailboat, PTI sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and black cs, cold-press watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - blue Brushos, clear and white embossing powder, Gesso, Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Impression Obsession sea bird die, Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics dies (to create the frame), fun foam



13 comments:

  1. Thank you for your comments!

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  2. Beautiful ocean scene Susan. Love the pretty background. Great job with dividing your embossing colours ... not easy, but you did a great job. Love the white waves. Great idea to use gesso as a base for painting your sails --- turned out so great. The stripes make me think this boat is racing in a regalia! xx

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  3. TFS all your steps, Susan. I love how your watercolored your ocean and sky background and then adding your sailboat. Your sail looks great painted in white with green accents. I also love how you added your die cut seagull on your framing. All your details add up to a beautiful Ocean scene. TFS my friend. Hugs

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  4. What a wonderful card. The background is so pretty and love how you painted the sails with gesso..Thank you for the inspiration with your beautiful card x

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  5. Love that sailboat, Suaan! That green stripe in the sail caught my eye immediately and love the way you avoided having your background show through the sail. That was brilliant using gesso to white it all out. Love the way that made the sailboat just pop.

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  6. What a wonderful ocean background, Susan! Love the sailboat and the waves! The seagull in the top corner is a fantastic touch! Just a little something extra that makes this card special! I hope it will bring back happy memories for your father!

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  7. Sail away, sail away, sail away.... feel the ocean breeze, fabulous card Susan - the white capped waves and black seagull are the finishing touches... lovely memories too

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  8. This is so peaceful and fabulous for a father's day card, Susan! Your blue Brusho color is perfect and I love how you painted over the sails and added the green! Putting the sea gull as punctuation outside of the frame was genius!! Hugs, Darnell

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  9. Beautiful card, Susan! Your Brusho ocean background looks amazing. Love how you used Gesso on the sails and added the die cut seagull. xx

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  10. Fabulous father's day card, Susan! The blue Brusho effect/visual texture is perfect for the sky and the ocean. I love how you painted over the sails with white Gesso and added the green! It looks so natural that I didn't notice it until I read your blog. The black sea gull die-cut on the frame is a great accent too. Hideko xx

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  11. STUNNING card Susan!! Your background is so pretty and I love the sail boat sailing away. Loved reading how you made the sails white and adding the green stripes...such realistic touches!! Really like the die cut seagull you added too! Lovely, lovely card!! :0)

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  12. What a beautiful sailboat with the touch of green in it's sail, flying through the ocean waves with the long seagull hovering above!

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  13. wonderful card Susan....great look to the scene and the wash of colour is just great.
    xx Karen

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