Thursday 21 June 2018

Ocean Friends

Hi and welcome!  It's time for a sketch from the team at Freshly Made Sketches and this week our hostess is the wonderful Amy O'Neill.



I colored up some NBUS from the latest release from MFT Stamps (seriously, I probably should just get my salary put directly into their bank account 😄)


My first task was to stamp and color a whole heap of the fish and plants from the Gill Friends set.  I googled "tropical fish" to get some different colorways and stuck to a predominantly blue, yellow and orange color scheme.  I added the line around the mouth and the stripe on the bottom right fish with a Copic Multiliner pen before coloring him.  Once colored,  I cut them all with my Scan n Cut and put them to one side to work on the "ocean".  

On a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock, I sponged over the Waves Stencil with Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, Mermaid Lagoon and Broken China ink, darkest at the bottom and working up to the lightest.  I removed the stencil then went back over the whole panel with a light coating of all of the inks before finally adding some Black Soot to the very bottom.  I then die-cut the panel with the Stitched Rectangle Stax 1 die set.

I arranged my fish and plants onto the panel and adhered them in place, making sure I had some off the panel to indicate movement.  In reality, the blue/yellow one at the bottom had to be off the panel because the paper slipped while it was in the Scan n Cut and I got a big cut across his belly before I could pause the machine!  



In keeping with the sketch, I went hunting for something for the bottom layer.  I was going to use some blue cardstock, but decided to stick with neutrals and used some Fog cardstock.  I die-cut this with the next size up Stax die and then shortened it with some partial die-cutting.

Finally, I stamped a sentiment and adhered all the panels onto a white card base, before adding some clear sparkle pen and black gel pen eyes.  Ha!  I thought sticking to a limited color palette would mean less markers - but no - below are all the Copics I used on these images 😄


Thanks so much for visiting!  The design team have created some gorgeous cards with Amy's sketch so I hope you'll head over and check them out.

Products used:

Stamps:  Gill Friends, Beach Buds (MFT)
Ink:  Black Licorice Hybrid, Versafine Onyx Black, Unicorn White (Hero Arts), Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, Mermaid Lagoon, Broken China Distress Inks
Cardstock:  White, Fog (SSS), X-Press It, Bristol Smooth
Dies:  Stitched Rectangle Stax 1, Slanted Sentiment Strips (MFT)
Accessories:  Waves Stencil (Newton's Nook), Copics, Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen, Black Jelly Roll Glaze Pen

Cheers
Karren


9 comments:

Amy O said...

I love your stenciled background! I thought it had to be dsp at first glance, but I wasn't surprised to read it was your incredible inky skills that produced it. Cute card, Karren!

Karren said...

..

I Card Everyone said...

Darling scene, fabulous coloring, and man, do I love that background! Well done, Karren!
=]

Barb Ghig said...

I really LOVE this card, Karren! Beautiful coloring on the fish and plants and your waves are amazing! I also love how you added details to make it 'your own', too! You certainly nailed the sketch with this beauty, my friend...Love it!

Linda Callahan said...

Well that ocean is too darn big! I'd love to pop over for some tea and stamp talk! Your scene is wonderful - so beautifully detailed with your coloring!

Laurie Unger said...

Awesome job on coloring all of those fish! This is a super cute little scene.

Jen Brum said...

Oh...this card is just too amazing! I love your underwater scene! Those fish are so bright and cheery! Love your colouring as always - and I would totally cross and ocean to see you!!! I probably would have to cross a few oceans actually!!!

Jen Timko said...

Best use of that stencil I have seen. And now I have to use this idea. Also, totally adorable card!! I hear you on the direct deposit to stamp companies....sigh. ;-)

Jen Mitchell said...

Well now, this is a pretty cool ocean scene! Those fish are really moving around - nice job with creating the motion! And what a super fun take on the sketch!