Sailboat and Flourish Tree

Hello! 

A friend called on me to make a few cards for her this weekend and I am done. The first card is one of two Father's Day cards she needed and has a nautical theme which really seems popular right now.

I realized that I really need some nautical themed pattern paper but I was able to make do with what I had on hand. I used this Mojo Monday Sketch

And I used the ColourQ #193 Challenge for the color inspiration. 

These colors were challenging for sure but it is fun to try out new color schemes and break out from the same old ones I use over and over.

For my focal image I used a little boat stamp from Hero Arts and paired it with a wave stamp from Raindrops on Roses (I don't think they are in business any longer) and I encircled it with an image from my new Verve stamp set "Strong Anchor" inked in Tumbled Glass distress ink. Fired Brick was used for the boat and Ocean Depth chalk ink for the waves.

I used a couple of embossing folders to add texture to the cardstock and added baker's twine from The Twinery along the scalloped edges.The twine seem to blend the edges together. Sometimes I just don't like seams to show and the twine was narrow enough and was another way to add more of the indigo blue color.

 I had to move the sentiment banner to the top instead of below the focal image as in the sketch. It just wouldn't work underneath. I stamped the sentiment, which is from Verve, in Ocean Depth and inked the edges too.

 Here is the inside of the card using leftover scraps off of paper I had to trim down and the ships wheel that I had wanted to go on the front but it didn't work out so I used it inside the card.

 Here is the next card:

 I used this sketch from Retro Sketches

 For the focal image I used this lovely tree image with the dear that I already had in my scrap box all ready to go and I even had the green mat to go with it. So this card came together rather quickly. 

The only thing I had to do to the focal image was ink it with Peeled Paint distress ink and then inked the edges with Walnut Stain.

 I just added the twine from The Twinery around the bottom and glued a maple leaf that I spritzed with Perfect Pearls. The sentiment is the same as on the first card just stamped on kraft CS in Walnut Stain distress ink.

 This photo shows the dimension and the texture from the embossing folders I used on the kraft CS and the leaves. I also inked the kraft CS with Walnut Stain and also the edges of all the papers.
Instead of using the banner in the sketch I thought it would be fun to switch it for leaf branches.

I am also entering both cards in The Twinery's Anything Goes... Twine Madness Challenge and in the  Hero Arts #25 It's a Man's Man's World Challenge.
My, there are a lot of fun challenges out there! So go ahead and check these challenges out. There is still plenty of time to play along if you want to.
If you know of other fun challenges please share them in a comment here. It is always fun to try new challenges.