Inspiration By The Sea

I'm excited to begin sharing projects from Papertrey Ink's upcoming June release. Today's focus is on two nautical-themed stamp sets and coordinating dies: Ahoy designed by Maile Belles, and Guiding Lights, designed by Nichole Heady.

All the new products will be available in the Papertrey Ink store on June 15 at 10 pm. Be sure to visit Nichole's blog today for product details, giveaway info, and inspiration.

I adore Maile's trendy, clean style, and her flair with graphic elements. She brings all that to the classic nautical theme in her new set Ahoy. There's a little something traditional, sailboat and anchors; a little something graphic, super cool wave images; and a whole bunch of fantastic sentiments in a unique font.

Inspired by Maile, I went with a more clean, graphic look for today's card: lots of white space, skewed panels, plus a few fun extras with the jute twine and star sequins.

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Next up is Guiding Lights, an absolutely gorgeous lighthouse set! Nichole has said that she's been working on the designs for this set for a while, and I'm so glad it came together because it is brilliant! 

I have two lighthouse cards to share today. Both are scenes - the first is straightforward stamping and die-cutting; the second features watercolor elements.

For this first card, I used the same color combo as I did for the Ahoy card: Enchanted Evening, Blueberry Sky, Pure Poppy, Kraft, and Smokey Shadow. I started with a white panel that I die-cut and embossed using the Blue Skies Cover Plate. Next, I added some land and sea elements -- the land, in kraft, was die-cut using the Sentiment Splits: Curve Horizontal die; the sea, or waves, were done with the new Cover Plate: Waves die. I stamped and die-cut the West Chop Lighthouse and popped it up with dimensional foam adhesive. Last, I added a Scripture sentiment, from the new Light of Life stamp set, before mounting everything to an Enchanted Evening card base.

For my watercolored scene, I started with a watercolor panel that I first die-cut with the Blue Skies Cover Plate  then die-cut with one of the Stitched Rectangles dies.

For the lighthouse rays, I first created a stencil by die-cutting three rays out of a piece of scrap cardstock using the big ray die from Blue Skies. I positioned my stencil where I wanted it on the watercolor panel, and used it to watercolor the rays.

I did the same sort of thing for the grassy hill. This time, I die-cut a piece of scrap card stock using the Sentiment Splits: Curve Horizontal die, and used that curved edge as a guide for where to paint. Last I added the ocean, using a straight edge as a guide. 

All of these background scene elements were painted with traditional pan watercolors (I used Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors).

To get the watercolor look with the lighthouse, I used Zig Clean Color brush pens to color directly on the stamp, then spritzed with water and stamped onto watercolor paper. Last, I added some seagulls, a sentiment, and some linen thread.

For lots more Inspiration By the Sea, visit the design team blogs:

Nichole Heady

Ashley Newell

Betsy Veldman

Danielle Flanders

Dawn McVey

Heather Nichols

Laura Bassen

Laurie Willison

Maile Belles

Melissa Phillips

Thanks for visiting today!

SUPPLIES

Anchor Card

STAMPS: Ahoy

DIES: Ahoy

INK: Pure Poppy, Blueberry Sky, Smokey Shadow

PAPER: Kraft, White, Comic Strip Patterned Paper

OTHER: white clip, jute twine, distressing tool, foam adhesive

Lighthouse Scripture Card 

STAMPS: Guiding Lights, Light of Life

DIES: Guiding Lights, Blue Skies Cover Plate, Sentiment Splits: Curve Horizontal, Cover Plate: Waves

INK: Pure Poppy, Soft Stone, Smokey Shadow

PAPER: Enchanted Evening, Blueberry Sky, White, Kraft

Lighthouse Watercolor Card

STAMPS: Guiding Lights

DIES: Guiding Lights, Blue Skies Cover Plate, Stitched Rectangles, Sentiment Splits: Curve Horizontal, Blue Skies

INK: Smokey Shadow, True Black

PAPER: watercolor paper, white card stock

OTHER: Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors, Zig Clean Color Brush pens, foam tape, white linen thread