Wish BIG!

Hello and Happy Saturday!

Today I am sharing another birthday card using the adorable Penny Black stamp set called, Sunny Days. My inspiration came in the form of a photo taken by the recipient of this card, fishing in photos and mentioning that she was enjoying some quiet time. What could be more relaxing on your birthday than sitting by the water, enjoying the sun and fresh air? 

To begin, I stamped the dog fishing on Neenah Solar White 80 lb card stock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I actually thought about trying no-line coloring with this card but then I located my sanity and stamped normally. However, I did free hand the background with Copics. Can you imagine trying no-line coloring with this image? Craziness. Haha

For the dog, I wanted to color him black but I have yet to color an animal 100% black so I chose greys. Usually I have the most difficult time deciding how to color animals and flowers. Especially black hair/fur because it's intimidating to me. I suppose this means I need more practice! I decided to try coloring a dog with spots and this happened! Don't you just love surprises? 

I have been trying to color my light source from different directions but coloring the shadow in front of the basket made me kick myself. I thought that was far too ambitious for this coloring adventure. Considering I had no idea what I was doing, I think it turned out ok. For the water, I used four different Copic colors and plenty of colorless blender. 

I've only been fishing a few times in my life and besides catching boots, crawdads and other surprising objects, I have only caught rainbow trout. I couldn't remember what they looked like so I did what I always do in that case and googled images of rainbow trout. I don't have a large selection of Copics so I just did the best I could with the colors at hand. To make the fish look like it had just been pulled out of the water, I brushed clear Wink of Stella over the fish. For the water droplets and some waves on the water, I used a blue Wink of Stella glitter marker. The bugs flying above the dog and fish are from another stamp set; Avery Elle, Happy Camper, also with a light brushing of Clear Wink of Stella.

For the Wish Big, I used a small sentiment from a Craftin Desert Divas stamp set called, Short & Sweet Tags. I stamped the sentiment with Versafine and clear embossed to make it shiny and raised. For the clouds, I used a sponge dauber and Unicorn Pigment Ink from Hero Arts. I also used Fog from Simon Says Stamp to darken the bottom of the clouds. 

That pretty much sums up this card. Thank you for visiting and I will attach a few more photos below.

Have a beautiful day!

Kristin