A Stair-Step Card at Last!

Well, it took a week longer than anticipated but I hope it was worth the wait! I had a ball making this card. It represents a lot of firsts for me in card making. A first "step" card, first "dirty" Tilda, first Pirate Tilda, first time painting a card, and first time using gauze.

To make Tilda look a little grubby I added brown tones to the shadows on her hat and the stripes on her shirt...as I look at it now, I might go back and add it to the boots as well!

The diecuts are all from Cricut Paper Doll, Accent Essentials, and Life's a Beach cartridges. I tried something new this time (another first!) by cutting everthing, except the flag & ship, in white Neenah Solar White and then colored everything with Copics. It is so much easier than running little scraps of colored cardstock through the unit and the small items are easy to color. I added Glossy Affects to the crab, starfish, shell, anchor, & fish eyes for some fun dimension and also to the back of the ship to make it a little less fragile.

The waves were cut using a Fisker border punch. Each row was antiqued a bit with white paint & stamp pad then slathered well with diamond Stickles. I chose to use alternating rows in different colors with waves facing opposite directions to give the card some movement. The shadow of the little pirate ship from Cricut Paper Dolls in the background gives the illusion of distance.

The gauze is a simple 2x2 bandage that I opened and stained with coffee to make a net for my shells. It was tied to the pier with string as was the anchor. The pier is a stamp by Art Impressions that I stamped on kraft cardstock and colored with Copics #E25, 29 and O. I cut it out and glued it beneath the first row of waves. Tilda was fussy cut also and pop-dotted to the pier to give a 3D affect.

I used the following Copics:
Flesh - E0000, E21, E50, R000, R20
Hair - C3, C5, N7, 0
Clothes - E40, 43, R22, R39, R46, B91, B95
Boots/hat - C1, C3, N7, E40, E43, E44
Earrings - YR21
Pier - E25, E29
Sun - Y00, Y15, Y17
Sealife - R22, R46, R17, Yoo, Y15, Y17, C1, C3
This photo is inspiration over at Magnolia-licous Challenge blog this time around. I love the colors and the geometrical shapes with a plain white background!

I'm entering this in the following challenges:
7/31 Magnolia Highlites - Summer Bash, Fishing fun
8/24 All That Scraps - #12 Hot, Hot Days of Summer
8/8 Magnolia-Licious #22 - Photo Inspiration