Imagine the world

Happy Victoria Day!  Today is a holiday for us here in Canada and I couldn't be happier to have a day at home with my family.  We're planning to spend time outdoors and just enjoy the warmer weather - finally!!
Today I'm taking a break from flowers...don't worry there'll be more tomorrow...to bring you a masculine card I made.  Check it out:

Masculine card featuring the World Map background stamp, the Open Sea stamp set and sentiment from Loving Thoughts.

 First let me say this was NOT a quick and easy one!  It has been a very long time since I  had time to just create without a specific purpose in mind.  When I do, I tend to make projects that are very involved...this is one of those times.  Can you believe that background panel started out as a plain piece of Whisper White card stock??  I started by stamping the World Map background stamp using the Memento Black ink pad (available June 2nd).  Then I pulled out my Blendabilities and started colouring.  I used the Old Olive set for the land and the Coastal Cabana set for the water.  It took a while to colour that whole map, let me tell you!  Then I sponged the entire thing in Soft Suede ink to antique it.  The colours started out quite vibrant but the layering of the Soft Suede gives the whole thing an aged, faded look.  Then, and it was hard to do this after I'd spent an hour colouring, I crumpled the whole thing up!  I also tore the edges and sponged them with Early Espresso ink.

The focal image also started out as a Whisper White die cut on which I stamped the ship from the Open Sea set using Early Espresso ink.  I sponged the entire thing with Crumb Cake ink and then sponged the edges with Early Espresso.  I created the seal using the faux wax seal technique with gold embossing powder.

Inside view featuring the Traveler stamp set with sentiment from Something To Say (both available June 2nd)

 On the inside I stamped both the globe and the sentiment in Early Espresso ink on Naturals Ivory card stock.  Both of these images are from new sets which will be available on June 2nd when the new Annual Catalogue goes live...I can't wait!!
Stay tuned for more fun with Blendabilities tomorrow ;)