Home Sweet Home

Hello everyone! It's been a very slow couple of days for me particularly in card making. I was having a bit of a slump for ideas, then I saw MarkerPop's new challenge: Anything emboss (dry or heat). Once I saw the theme I instantly thought about doing a emboss/resist technique, but what to emboss/resist.  It was then i realized I wanted to make a card for my boyfriend's mom who just moved back to Bay Area from Seattle.  I thought maybe I could do a skyline of San Francisco with a distressed night sky.  The ideas kept coming, I remembered I have a Clearly Besotted stamp set with critter heroes and there is one image is of a turtle helicopter that could be flying over the Bay toward the San Francisco skyline.  I totally forgot to take pictures of my card making process as I was working on the card.  :/   Sorry! Hopefully you can get the steps I'm going to explain.

First, I did not have a die for the San Francisco skyline, but I do have a Cricut that could cut one out.  I looked online for the Skyline and converted the image into a SVG file (a cut file compatible with most cutting machines).  I used Chalkboard cardstock because I like the texture and color (its has a slight sheen to it) of the black to cut the skyline.  After, I used that as a guide as to where I wanted it position on my panel.  There had to be some water represented as the bay, so I penciled in a line where I wanted it to be.  Once I had an area for the Bay I used the Skyline cut out as a guide for me to put my stars and moon onto the sky.  I used the star and moon images in the set.  I also created a moon mask as I did not want it to be the same color as the sky.  Once that was done I heat embossed it with Rangers detailed white embossing powder and heat set it.  I then masked off the top area of the panel with painters tape, so I could start distressing the bay.  I used a combination of Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers.  I wanted Salty Ocean, which had a blue tint to be the color of the middle of the bay with Peacock Feathers being on the outside.  I kept some areas lighter to create light shadows on the bay.

Once I finished distressing the Bay, I took off the mask and used it to cover the water area so I could work on the sky.  I put on a mask for my moon so that it would not get distressed in.  I used a combination of chipped sapphire, seedless preserves and salty ocean.  The key to doing the night sky is to blend the edges with each color very well.  I went back and forth between the colors until I liked how it looked.  After which I took the mask off the moon and used mustard seed and squeezed lemon aid to distress the moon..  I loved how it turned out because I blended in some of the yellow color into the sky so that it looks like moon is beaming with light.    When that was done I still wanted more from the sky, so I masked my moon and Bay again as I did not want it to get anything on it.   I put some white acrylic paint on my acrylic block and watered it down, so that I could flick it onto the sky to create more stars! :) My first time using this technique, actually my first time making a night sky.  :)  I then heat embossed my sentiment onto the bay, as well as piece down the skyline and my turtle image, which I Copic colored onto the panel,  I had a lot of fun making it and it didn't take too long to make, if I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to do this would have taken much longer.  Anywho here is my card...