Yesterday was a lovely day that started out with a flock of starlings lining up along my deck rail. Sadly whenever I tried to take a photo they decided it was time for a little exercise. Then just a few minutes later the fog rolled in, obscuring almost the whole garden. It didn’t stay long though, and by the middle of the day it was sunny and very warm. Definitely a great day to be at the beach, and of course that made me think of the Oceanfront Stamp Set.
OCEANFRONT SCENE
This stamp set has been available for a couple of years but it’s been ages since it last saw any ink.
I began by cutting a 3-7/8″ x 5-1/8″ piece of Basic White Card and choosing the images I needed to build my oceanfront scene. First, towards the top of my card I stamped the large squarish shape using Balmy Blue ink. Below that I stamped the larger wedge shape with Boho Blue ink, with the straightest edge close to the bottom of the Balmy Blue area. This gave me my sea and sky.
Next I stamped the smaller wedge shape in Wild Wheat ink to create the shoreline. Finally to finish the scene I stamped the two more detailed grassy images onto my sand dune using Old Olive ink.
TIP: I always do a test stamp onto scrap paper to check that the image comes out clear. This is especially important with DistINKtive stamp sets like Oceanfront. If my ink pad is too juicy I gently scrape the edge of an old gift card across the surface of the foam pad. This pulls the excess ink to one end so I can get a better stamped image. I know some people solve the problem by blotting their ink pad with kitchen paper but I hate to see all that lovely ink wasted. So I prefer using my method because the excess ink simply redistributes itself once I’m done.
Before putting away the stamps I wanted to create the coordinating pieces for my project. So I cut a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Basic White Card. Then using Old Olive ink once more I stamped the two grassy images in the bottom corners to mimic the grasses in my original scene. From there I inked up the smaller wedge image with Wild Wheat ink and used it to add just a touch of colour along the whole of the bottom edge. I really liked how this turned out so I repeated this simple scene on the front of a Basic White Medium Envelope.
HUGS
From there my project came together really quickly.
Using my Paper Trimmer I cut and scored some Misty Moonlight Card for my A2 card base. After folding it along the scored line I sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder. Then with Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I fixed the simpler scene on the inside.
Next I chose the “Sending hugs” sentiment from the Layering Leaves Stamp Set. I really wanted to keep the design simple so I stamped it straight onto my scene using Boho Blue ink.
With that done I cut a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Boho Blue Card and mounted my scene on top using liquid glue. Then I wrapped some Linen Thread three times around the bottom of the layers and secured the ends on the back with Tear & Tape Adhesive.
Finally I attached the assembled piece to my card front using Stampin’ Dimensionals and my project was complete.
Once again I’m reminded of why I was immediately attracted to the Oceanfront Stamp Set when it was first released. It really is easy to build a scene and that always makes me happy.
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