Gone Fishing

January is here which means 2 men's cards in the first week of the year for 2 birthdays on the 8th of the month! Consequently I panic as they are always difficult, as we all know.

So here is the first one for the man who is a fishing addict. This is being entered into 2 challenges, the links of which are given below. The card layout is based on challenge #8 of the Sketch and Stash Challenge site - the challenge (#51) being to use my own choice of the previous challenge sketches. I have owned the stamp and CD ROM for well over a year and this is the first time I have used it. The second challenge is 'Anything Goes' , Challenge #17 for the CES blog.

Not my usual type of card, as you can see. I have had to resort to CD ROMs etc for the backing papers which I do not usually do.

This backing paper and border come from a Crafter's Companion CD for Men. The main image and the fish embellishments are from the stamp set that accompany the CD ROM.

The main image and the fishes were stamped onto watercolour card with Espresso Adirondack ink. A damp brush was used on the main image to colour it by drawing the ink from the image and painting with it. The fish were left, just as they were stamped - no brushing required.

Three colours of Distress ink were used to 'age' the edges of the picture after it was trimmed to size. Once dry it was matted onto copper mirror card to give some definition. The fish were cut out and put to one side for the assembly at the end. The distress ink was also used to tint the edges of the border.

The base card is 7" x 7". A piece of the background paper 6.75" x 6.75" was matted onto the card and the various other elements applied with double sided tape except for the main image which was raised off the surface with foam pads. The copper blobs in the corners of the brown layer were made with Pearlidoodles.

Challenge links: http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com/2010/12/challenge-17-anything-goes.html

http://sketchandstashchallenge.blogspot.com/2010/12/sketch-n-stash-challenge-51.html