Party This Way, Beware Pirates

I don’t know why I don’t use this set often enough as I fell in love with it straight away when it came out with the new catty. It looks like a pretty ordinary set, but has so many possibilities which I have yet to explore and this set is often overlooked. It co-ordinates beautifully with the Celebrations DSP (117164 @ £8.75 on page 89), B’day Party Rub Ons (119250 @ £6.75 on page 93) and Quick Accents (118708 @ £7.50 on page 92). The colours are so vibrant – just gets you in the mood for a party! I went big, with this card. It measures a whopping 6 1/2″ square when folded! That was because I’ve had some 7″ square envelops kicking around in the cupboard for yonks, and needed using up somehow! I made this card for my grandson who is turning 4 at the end of May. The card looks pretty inconspicuous apart from its size, until you open it to reveal… ..this! It was pretty labour intensive. I never seem to have a sketch jotted down as reference, my creations evolve! Often, I might have smudged some ink somewhere and need to cover up the mistakes – hence the shark, but I’m pleased with the way it’s turned out. The Whisper White layer was folded in half, and partially scored at 1/4″ intervals so I could swipe my ink pads across it to create the wood effect. I cut slots in it for the pop up mechanisms, cut strips of Woodland Walk DSP and glued card stock scraps to it to increase its rigidity for the planks. I had to mask the “sea” layer to create the wood effect on the uprights which were exposed as seen in picture. The sea was created by randomly sponging in Pacific Point. The shark was punched out with the wide oval punch in Basic Gray and Whisper White. I snipped a smaller V on the Whisper White so I could cut the Shark’s teeth, adhered it to the grey piece then sponged the exposed White side with Pacific Point to blend in with the sea. The sails were cut randomly, edges inked in Real Red and layered as pictured. I used the Timeless Junior Alphabet to cut my grandson’s name to finish.