Seagulls and Driftwood

Hello my Crafty and Creative Friends!

Living on Islands for my entire life....I have always been surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean...beautifully peaceful bay waters...and a life filled with Summer shore vacations...sand between my toes...and the sound or crashing waves...and seagulls lingering overhead.

All of this leads me to have a love of ocean-related stamps and images...sailboats...lighthouses...beach scenes and more...
and now...with this new releases stamp from Blue Knight Rubber Stamps...I can add this SEAGULLS and DRIFTWOOD stamp set to my list of favorite ocean and beach stamps.....

This wonderful samp set comes with a large sand, reeds and driftwood main image... and 2 seagull stamps....
1 of the seagull stamps is a right-facing gull...and one is a left-facing gull.

After I stamped the large focal image, using a stamp positioning tool....I left the stamp in the tool...(because after the image would be colored...I will be restamping it again to sharpen up the image details) Adding one of the seagulls wold happen later....
Next, I added color to the image with PanPastels...doing some color blending to achieve the look that I was going for...for the sand...grass sprigs....rocks...driftwood...and water...
I used Blue Knight's Heidi Pettie CLOUD STENCIL to create the sky...also with PanPastels.
Then...I returned the colored piece to the stamp positioning tool and restamped it again.

This is always a good thing to do when coloring with PanPastels....
PanPastls can leave a bit of residue over your stamped image...
Restamping rejuvenates the sharpness of the image.

Finally, it was time to add the seagull ...
I went over the gull's body with white Panpastels and added a bit of grey to his wing.

When the image was complete...I sealed the PanPastel coloring with a light misting of NEXXUS COMB THRU HAIRSPRAY
(*Note...sealing with NEXXUS is not archival safe...If you want your colored piece to be archival safe you'll need to use an art-grade sealant that is archival safe.

After I sealed the finished piece...I chose the card stock colors for the mat layers...
I went with black for the image piece and a beautiful blue for the larger mat layer.
I chose to use a white base card...because I wanted a clean crisp look 

As an afterthought....I opted to add a seagull to the front of the envelope...
I'm glad that I thought of that!
I used to always add a small stamped element from a stamp set to envelopes when making cards..
Somewhere along the way I stopped doing that...for no particular reason...
I guess that I kinda just forgot about it....

This little gull seemed ideal for an envelope...so I added him to the lower righthand corner of the envelope.

I REALLY love this stamp set....
The stamp has so much nice detail...and it was a cinch to color with PanPastels....something that always appeals t me being that I am a "multiple -maker"....I rarely create just one of a card...
My thought is...if I have everything out...and am enjoying working with the stamped image...why not create a nice little stack of the card!

I hope that today's card has inspired you to find some time to create a card of your own today....

You can find today's featured stamp HERE, at the Blue Knight Rubber Stamps web store

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Thanks for stopping by today!
Wishing you a creative joy!
Michelle.