High tide card

 I've been playing with the High Tide set again. The lighthouse, the ray of light and the bird stamps. The rest was  achieved with blending brushes and a sponge dauber. I don't really like the  stamp in the set that forms the base of the lighthouse, so  I created my own rocky base with torn paper and a sponge dauber loaded with black ink. I also added some random rocks in the foreground for extra interest.

To avoid the lighthouse looking the size a pepper pot,  position it at the top of your card. This will make it appear more distant and in proportion. 

High Tide

I don't have a card for you today, just an insight on how I created the image above.

I decided to have another play with the "High Tide" stamp set, after looking at the photos of my last attempt using this set, I noticed the proportions were all wrong, the lighthouse looked too small for the surrounding plant life. This sparked a couple of welcome comments, so this attempt is to try and make the lighthouse look much taller.

I think it has worked, but I'd really love to hear your opinions.(Please leave your comments  in the comment box below this post.)

I started by stamping the lighthouse stamps and masking it off. Then using the tiny grass/shrub stamp.  

 I stamped  a few twigs around the base of the lighthouse.

Rather than using the stamping platform, I used an acrylic block with the stamp above. Again I am not really sure what this stamp is exactly, I have been using it as shingle to add depth on the land stamp. Maybe it is meant to be foliage.   I  placed the end of the stamp close to the edge of the block and inked up the rounded tip of the stamp with Always Artichoke ink and stamped over the top of the twiggy bits to create the bottom, more shady section of the tree. ( See Right side of photo below)

Then I turned the card round and began to stamp the tops of the trees. I use Wild Wasabi ink for the tree tops and then I went over them again  with Always Artichoke, But this time I used the stamp at an angle stamping just the tip of the stamp to add some form and depth to the trees.

For the sandy area  I mixed three drops of  Hello Honey re inker to one drop of Sahara Sands together on an acrylic block and worked into a blending brush. I brushed off a little of the ink onto  my work pad before applying the ink to my work. 

Using the land stamp upside down and inking just the edge of the stamp with Tip Top Taupe ink. (Crumb Cake will work just as well) I stamped holding the stamp at a slight angle so I only stamped the edge of the shingle to form ridges in the sand.

Like so....

Using Pacific Point ink and a blending brush, I brushed ink over the sea area. Then I stamped the water ripples over the top using Misty Moonlight ink. 

At this point I decided the  shingle banks could use a little more definition.  

Using a torn post it note I placed it over the top edge of each bank and brushed a little brown ink over the edge of the post it. ( always starting on the post it)

I added the clouds by brushing a little ink over my cloud mask. I lost my acetate version. I guess that's because it's invisible, ha ha. So I made a new  visible version by adhering a piece of sticky back plastic to a sheet of copy paper, I drew on cloud shapes in different sizes with a marker pen around the edges and cut round them. Hopefully I won't lose this version as it is more visible.

After cleaning the the ripples stamp, I stamped over the sea area again with white craft ink, and stippled  a little more white ink over the shore line. White craft ink is a much slower drying ink, so it is best to use it last to prevent smearing it.

 

You may have noticed the  tiny ink spots in the sky area throughout the photos in this post. They are obviously not meant to be in there. They were ink transferred from the corner of the stamp  block, I  didn't  always check the block was clean after inking the stamp at an angle and  before stamping.

I decided to continue with this piece of work with the hope I could remove some of them with a tiny dot of bleach or disguise them when I added the clouds. The bleach did remove the ink spots , but it also left the card with a slight lilac hue on some of the clouds, which didn't look too bad. But that wasn't the look I wanted,  (you can see the bleach marks in the first photo of this post.) so I did something drastic.

.

I cut the sky off... Not looking so good now is it.

On a fresh piece of card, I lightly drew round the tree line and stamped over my sketch line and brushed in the clouds again.

Then I stuck the cut down image on top of the new sky.

Using a large-ish ball tool and working on a pad of paper, I drew around the edges of the tree line and the lighthouse applying just enough pressure to bevel the edge of the cut out lighthouse and trees. This makes the cut line less obvious.

Okay, You got me... I did say this wasn't going to be a card, But I changed my mine somewhere between the start of this post and the end.

 

So now it's complete what is your verdict?

Does the lighthouse look more in proportion on this card than in my first attempts with this stamp set?Do the trees help to give the lighthouse more height ?

 VeeCee  and Tonilea after  our  comment chats, I am eagerly awaiting your replies.