Sunset Sails

We've been having a run of beautiful weather here; I hope I'm not jinxing things by saying that! The humidity has been down in the bearable range with mostly sunny skies, cooler evenings and absolutely gorgeous sunsets. On the flip side, the newspapers are full of back-to-school sales, which means summer is coming to an end, almost before it began! I tried to capture the feel of a beautiful summer evening on this card, which was one of three summer-themed cards that my stamp club made this week. I used the fabulous Sail Away a la carte (single) stamp from the Summer Mini catalog, which is only available to order until August 31st. The use of lighter colors, reverse masking and lots of white space gives the card an airy feel, reminiscent of sunset sails on the lake.

Recipe
Stamps: Sail Away, Sincere Salutations
Paper: Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Calypso Coral & Whisper White CS
Ink: Jet Black Staz-On, Baja Breeze, Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral & Not Quite Navy stamp pads
Accessories: Scallop Oval Frame die & Big Shot, 1/2" circle punch, Silver Mini Brads, 5/16" white Jumbo Brad, Daffodil Delight 1/8" taffeta ribbon, white Baker's Twine, paper piercing tool, sponge wedges, Stampin' Dimensionals

I first stamped the sailboat image in the right lower corner of my card front using black Staz-On. I ran the Scallop Oval Frame die through the Big Shot; it die cuts both an oval and the frame surrounding it. I used the frame portion as a mask, applying some repositionable adhesive to the back and then centering the frame mask on my card front. I then applied a mask over the sails; to make the mask, I stamped the sailboat image on Post-It note paper and cut out the sails, then stuck that Post-It mask over the stamped sails on my card front. Then I used another piece of Post-It note paper to mask off the top portion of the oval, and sponged Baja Breeze inside the oval frame on the bottom third of my card to represent water. I then moved the Post-It note mask to cover the "water" I had just sponged, and sponged the "sunset" using Calypso Coral on the top and Daffodil Delight near the water. The key to successful sponging is to use a light hand; applying too much pressure gives you dark blotches, while lightly sponging allows you to achieve a more blended look. I started the Calypso at the top and sponged down, applying less pressure as I got to the middle. Then I sponged the Daffodil beginning at the water line, and worked my way up and into the Calypso, overlapping the two colors a bit in the middle to more thoroughly blend them. When I pulled all the masks off I had a beautiful "sunset on the lake" oval! I also used my scallop frame as a template for the brad holes: I punched three evenly spaced holes in the lower left portion of the frame, and used the template to make sure I pierced evenly-spaced holes in my card front. I used three of the new mini brads to add a somewhat "nautical" look, and then layered the white card front onto Calypso, and then Not Quite Navy cardstock, and stamped the greeting in NQN ink. Once I had the layers together, I punched about a three-quarter circle out of all the layers in the upper right corner using the circle punch, and then used Dimensionals to attach the layered card front to the Baja Breeze base. I used the paper piercing tool to punch a hole in the circle cutout, wrapped the taffeta ribbon around the white brad and inserted it through the Baja base. To finish it off,  I tied some Baker's Twine around the ribbon and knotted it. I can't claim total credit for this idea, as I got it from a beautiful card on splitcoaststampers by Angela Helynck, tweaking it a little to fit my needs.

Doesn't this make you want to go sailing at sunset? I'm going to go sailing, but it's sailing off to bed instead! Sweet dreams!