Prize-Winning Card! So, so, so happy!

I haven't been stamping very long...less than a year, in fact.  I love it and find it gives me the artistic, creative release that I crave.  The LNS challenge during the Super Bowl was my opportunity to test my card-making abilities against those of others.  I knew I had made a nice card.  My husband and son-in-law even liked it and they're tough to impress.  So I decided to submit it thinking that at least I was participating rather than hanging back and observing like I too often do.

My card can only be described as a masculine-type.   I used a stamp set that I saw in a card once and fell in love with...but couldn't find in the current catalogue.  When I was looking through the actual stamps listed on the Stampin' Up site, however, I found it and was ecstatic when I was finally able to order it.  It's called "The Open Sea" and includes five stamps:  a boat in full sail, an anchor, a compass, a globe, and a large block of what I assume if the ship's log in old script.

For my card, "I Miss You", I used all but the anchor.  I had just received an order of glossy white paper which I decided was perfect for what I envisioned for the card.

The actual stamp is just the boat, no background, and a bit of water directly around the bottom of the boat.  Everything else I had to fill in.  I had tried a cloud technique on a number of cards and decided to do that for this card and I had an idea of what could be done for the water but it meant having to stamp the boat first, stamping it again on another piece of cardstock, and then cutting the second image as close as possible to the stamp lines so that it would exactly match the boat and allow me to bring the clouds and sea up to the stamped image but not onto it.

It went better than expected.  I had virtually no touch up and was thrilled with the look of the clouds.  The water was still my big challenge.  For that I tried a sponge technique that I plan to submit to the LNS Technique Share.  I doubt it would have worked with "normal" cardstock.  The glossy white surface doesn't absorb the ink quickly and allows movement and blending.  And that is the key to this technique.

So there we have it...another milestone.  There is a prize of stamps...for which I am truly grateful...but my biggest prize is already here:  I won First Place!