Dreaming of a Tropical Sunset

Aloha! 

I hope the long weekend was good for all! I realized two things when preparing today’s post.

• First: lately, I have been obsessed with land, sea & sky … and trying to master the look with ink & paper.
• Second: I soooo long to go on a tropical vacation! 😉

On my quest to find inspiration (and some tutorial help) with water and sand,

I found this great tutorial from Michelle Zindorf (find it HERE – Note: go to the bottom of her post), where she shows a technique using an ink pad directly to paper.

But, instead of dragging the ink pad across the paper, I (for the lack of a better word) “buffed or scuffed” the ink pad across the paper. Starting on the outside of the paper, apply the ink pad to the paper. While moving the ink pad towards the center, begin to lift it up off the paper. The same motion as when buffing your nails for a manicure … I hope that makes sense??? I used the flat part of the ink pad for wider areas of color and the edge of the ink pad for streaky lines of color. For the sand, I inked up an acrylic block and stamped directly onto the paper – (find Beate Johns’ “Stamped Acrylic Block Background” tutorial HERE).

I am very happy with how the water, sand and sunset sky turned out on this card … I sure wish I could have just stamped it! 😉

Stamps used: Multi-Step Palm Trees Clear Stamps, Multi-Step Lighthouse Clear Stamps (rock) and Multi-Step Owl & Autumn Moon Clear Stamps (sun) from Kitchen Sink Stamps.

Multi-Step Palm Trees color recipe can be found HERE.  

Here is a quick “how to” (ink colors are listed below). To start, masked off the horizon with some masking tape and stamp the setting sun. Next, cover the sun with clear embossing powder to act as a mask when creating the sky. You can see, I was a bit off with the clear emboss over the sun … but I’ll call it a happy accident because I think it helps define the sun from the sunset. After creating the sunset with the technique mentioned above was the water area. I moved the tape to the other side of the horizon and cover up the sunset area. Added torn paper that had a curve to mask over the beach area (save the other half for the following step). When the water was finished, used the other half of the torn paper to cover the water and created the sand. Next, removed all masking and sponged white pigment ink to create the “foamy” shoreline. I choose to overstamp the palm trees and the distant island (rock) on top of the sunset, for the effect that the sunset was casting its colors onto the palm trees and island.

 … if only I could be there, sipping on a Mai Tai!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hope you have a wonderful (and inky) week!

Don’t forget to check out what the KS Crew has cooked up for you today!

Connie • Julie • Lisa • Lynn • Tammy

•••

Stamps: Multi-Step Palm Trees Clear Stamps, Multi-Step Lighthouse Clear Stamps (rock) and Multi-Step Owl & Autumn Moon Clear Stamps (sun) from Kitchen Sink Stamps.

Paper: Solar White Classic Crest from Neenah. Metallic Amethyst from The Paper Co. 

Inks: (all Memento Inks)

• Palm Trees: color recipe HERE.  
• Sun: Dandelion, Cantaloupe, and Tangelo.
• Sunset: (application ink pad directly to paper) Dandelion, Cantaloupe, Tangelo, Rose Bud, Lulu Lavender, Lilac Posies, Sweet Plum and Paris Dusk.
• Water: (application ink pad directly to paper) Summer Sky, Teal Zeal and Danube Blue.
• Shoreline: Moonlight White from Brilliance.
• Sand: (application ink pad directly to acrylic block & stamp) Desert Sand and Toffee Crunch.
• Island (Rock): Step #3 –  Rich Cocoa, Step #2 – Sweet Plum, Step #1 – Toffee Crunch (did not use Step #4).

Embellishments: Fine detail clear embossing powder & VersaMark ink – used for the sun.