The Open Sea

Ahoy there!

(Please pardon my cheesy pun, it's quite early in the morning...)

     After having just spent a week at the seaside, I was particularly in the mood to play with another wonderful stamp set by Stampin' Up!, called The Open Sea. This set is from the new Summer Mini Catalogue, and one that I had originally decided not to include on my order, as I wasn't sure I would use it much and there were plenty of other exciting things I wanted; until I saw my husband's face when I told him the news. It was something like a shocked, frowny, pouty sort of face, with an "Ohh man I really wanted you to get that one!" So with a little gentle coersion, I had to get the set. (It wasn't hard to convince me!)

     Of course, after it arrived we went directly on holiday, and although I did want to bring some crafty things with me that week (and I still wish I had, sort of) we did have to change trains several times, and even had to navigate through the London Underground with a young boy, a wiggly toddler and three suitcases, all of which amount to quite a workout already. So sadly, there was no extra room in our luggage for me to bring any portion of my craft supplies, however small, and I had to postpone my excitement. Pity, I know.

     So a few nights ago, with fond memories of the beach still in mind, I decided to play with this new set. In the near future I want to use it again to do some scrapbooking with some of our photographs from the beach, but I had to just get my bearings first and get the feel for the images. Sounds complicated, but really it just means I wanted to experiment.


     A long time ago I bought Stampin' Up!'s distressing kit, but I haven't actually used it much yet. Before Stampin' Up!, the extent to which I had gone to make cards was to spend countless hours sketching and colouring kids' favourite cartoon characters onto plain white cardstock to make birthday cards such as this one:

     As you can tell, I am not a very seasoned paper-crafter. However I am very resourceful, so I worked with what I had, which at this time was a pack of supermarket-brand colouring pencils and some cheap white card. I will say, though, that the child who recieved this card didn't even know it was handmade! The mother was so impressed and told me I should try making cards and selling them, and I just thought, '...for the amount of time I put into drawing these images, I really just don't think it would be worth it!' Little did I know that I was about to meet Stampin' Up! just a few weeks later!

     Anyway, so I wasn't, and still am not completely, familiar with distressing. But lately I've been hearing a lot about it and so decided to give it another try. In my opinion, it was a perfect choice for this card, giving it a very masculine feel.

     The only stamp that I didn't use from this set was the little anchor, the rest are on the card. Which, by the way, was created via my husband's direction! See, he looks at my stamps and can envisage a certain card or certain theme, but he lacks skills when it comes to the execution of the idea. So when I know I'm using a set that he likes, or if I'm trying to make something for a guy, I ask his opinion several times throughout the process. I know that somewhere inside him is a closet crafter, he just needs practice!

     Here I used Crumb Cake cardstock for the background, which is so versatile and fits in with almost any colour scheme, and Crumb Cake ink to stamp the ship's log, the globe, and to stain the edges of all the pieces. I used Riding Hood Red cardstock behind the ship, Naturals Ivory cardstock for the ship and the sentiment, and Baja Breeze cardstock for the compass, punched out with a 1-1/4" circle punch. The ship, compass, and sentiment are stamped in Chocolate Chip ink, and distressed with the largest file from the Distressing Kit.

Not bad, if I do say so myself!

I think this set is great for retirement cards, anyone who is about to set off on any kind of journey or venture, for men, boys who like pirates, or even guys who are closet crafters and don't even know it yet! I can't wait to challenge myself to use it in a feminine way, I'm sure it's possible! I might just stay away from the Melon Mambo when I attempt it, though. Melon Mambo might not fit too well. ;)

So what do you think? What sort of card could you imagine this being used for? Leave a comment!

Thanks for reading, and as always, Happy Crafting!