Dog Days of Summer: Tropical Lagoon

Is your creative process for a project always perfect?  I know mine sometimes is not.  Yesterday I worked on a project for my friend Trish in Australia.  What you see above is the final result.  Here’s the creative process it took me this time around.  I hope this helps some of you!

This time, I began with the following project. My  lagoon stamp was larger than my intended project size, so I wanted to only use part of it with still having room for a palm tree in the forefront for perspective.  It didn’t work out as I intended. 

My original project is at the bottom.  The grass didn’t blend with the palm tree well enough, I didn’t care for the extra grass and so much real estate at the bottom.  By accident I swiped red right over my sun, the card stock had divot’s  at the top that wouldn’t take in any ink, and the bungalows were stamped strangely.  Now, you may be saying I’m being nit-picky, but that’s a whole lot of things wrong for me, so I created a plan to fix my scene.

I began by taking a piece of scrap paper and stamping my scene on a larger card – 3 3/4” x 9” instead.  Here you see my beginning project, my test scene and the final project all next to each other.  I think you’ll agree with me – it’s MUCH better!

I used several colors of Marvy, Adirondack Lights, and Stampin’ Up! inks to get my desired look with a Colorbox Stylus Sponge Tool  Now I’m going to have to make one for myself! 

Creative Tips –

• I stamped the entire scene in Early Espresso rather than Black.
• I stamped the lagoon and then masked the sky.  I colored in my water – Aqua Adirondack Lights, Caribbean and Turquoise Blue.  I kept the color in streaks so to leave a little light in it.
• For the sand, I used Sahara Sand Stampin’ Up! ink.  I then masked the water and my sun.  The sky is made of Yellow, Brilliant Yellow, Crushed Curry, Peach Bellini, Crisp Cantaloupe, Tangerine Tango, Cloudy Blue and Oriental Blue.
• The huts were stamped after the horizon masks were removed and right on the horizon line.  The roofs were colored in using a Brushtix Sponge Tip applicator and Jungle Green with Early Espresso Marker accents.
• You can extend the dots that make up the surrounding scene with the fine tip of the Early Espresso Marker.
• The reeds and tropical plant are stamped with Jungle Green.  It was necessary to mask the tree with a little bit from a paper towel.
• Three of the birds were colored with the Early Espresso Marker and stamped in the sky.
• The Palms extend off the page and I stamped the lower parts of the leaves in Jungle Green.
• To brighten up the scene and give it some life, you can use a Uniball Signo White Gel Pen.  You may want to go over some of the natural waves from the stamp if you’ve gotten color on them like I did.  Add some dots in the sand for the foam left behind the wave that rolls onto the shore.
• Highlight the trees, huts and birds, keeping in mind where you light source is coming from.
• Here you see the difference between sponging the edge of the scene in Early Espresso and leaving the canvas as is.

I love the end result – it’s by far the best Stampscapes tropical scene I’ve done.  In the end, I used 9 various stamps to create this scenery.  I hope you love it too!  It’s a fitting end to the summer.

Online Brayer Class

Do you want to learn how to make creative scenery cards?  Try our Brayer 101 – Introduction to Creative Scenery online class.  You’ll learn how to master this technique using a brayer to create unbelievable scenes that will leave you feeling like an artist.  Find out more here.

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Stamp Sets – Stampscapes Stamps Ink – Marvy – Oriental Blue, Turquoise, Caribbean Blue, Jungle Green, Yellow, Brilliant Yellow; Adirondack Lights – Cloudy Blue, Aqua, Peach Bellini; Stampin’ Up! – Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Tangerine Tango, Sahara Sand, Crisp Cantaloupe, Early Espresso Marker Paper –Glossy White, Early Espresso Tools – Colorbox Stylus, Brushtix Mixed Media Brushes Finishing Touch – Uni-ball Signo White Gel Pen