castle by the Loch

Hi crafter's

I have just bought two new stamps from Clarity stamp. I did have a reason to buy them other than, I have to have them. The blossom stamp is really useful for adding something at the top of a card. The castle I have had my eye on for a while, it's going to be used for my father-in-law. Either for father's day or his birthday, not sure which yet. The castle just shouts out for a reflection, so I decided it would be by a lake (or loch). The first thing I did was to do all the stamping. The castle, trees and blossom stamps were stamped on to a splodge mat with archival ink. I put the trees and the blossom exactly where they needed to be in conjunction with the castle, this way the reflection is done all in one go. Lay your card down carefully on to the splodge mat so the ink isn't smudged. The impression you get will be softer than if you were stamping normally. When this is done stamp the castle, trees and blossom again on to the card lining up with the reflection. The next thing to be done is colouring the background. I use stonewashed, denim and juniper adirondack inks, also the clouds and hills clarity masks which make background building really easy. I'm really getting used to the ink dusters use them all the time, so quick! Need more! The blossom was coloured in with prismacolor pencils. I used the tall grasses stamp from clarity and the leafy vine from inkylicious to create the look of reeds at the bottom of the card, this gives a little perspective. The finished card was mat and layered on to first white card then buff coloured then black, this was then glued on to a white base card.

That's all for this time, hope you like the card. Any comments are very welcome. 

Thanks for looking. Bye

Sally