A Day at the Beach

Howdy! Hope you're all doing well.  Got a quick card to share today. I think I've mentioned how I struggle with masculine cards. This was another attempt at overcoming that obstacle.

I'd recently purchased these cloud dies from PaperTrey and they were begging to get used.  I had this beach scene-building set that I picked up at a stamp show a long time ago. The beach scene seemed like it would work for a guy card, and there's always clouds at the beach (at least at our beaches!) so I just went for it.

I started by masking the horizon and sponging distress ink along the top to create the sky. I left a bit of white here and there for the impression of clouds, then I tore a piece of printer paper to create the "dunes" and sponged in the sand. Finally, I reversed the dunes mask, and, with the sky still masked off, I sponged in the water. The various elements of the scene--the fences, grass, and birds--were stamped separately. I cut out a couple of clouds, added a bit of shading to them with a T3 Copic, then popped them up a bit with dimensionals. I kind of like the way the clouds look--they seem to bring the scene to life.

To add a sentiment, I stamped a chocolate piece of cardstock with VersaMark and embossed in white (love how that pops), cut it in a flag shape and matted it with blue.  I simply repeated those colors for the mat and card base. It seemed like the sentiment still needed a little something, so I added a couple of "pearls" with my pearl pen. (Yeah, I know pearls aren't exactly masculine, but I figured pearls come from oysters and oysters are found in the sea, so there!!!  Anyway, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.)

So, there's my latest attempt at a masculine card. I think it works. What say you?