I made 20 of these Valentine’s cards for my son’s preschool teachers, family, and friends.
Using the Avery Elle Viking stamp set, I stamped the Viking image onto Strathmore Bristol Vellum with MFT black licorice hybrid ink. I knew I wanted to use my ZIG clean color real brush markers, and the vellum is a great paper that allows the colors to blend well.
For each part of the Viking image, I used the following colors:
- Helmet: gray brown, light gray
- Horns: brick beige
- Skin: dark oatmeal, oatmeal
- Boots: dark oatmeal
- Pants: blue, cornflower
- Shirt: green, may green
- Beard: brown, light brown
I am just a beginner when it comes to coloring with these markers, so I did very basic shading and blended them out with a Pentel Aquash water brush. After the images had dried, I went over the eyes with a black Sakura Glaze pen and set those aside to dry again. I then cut the Vikings out with the coordinating die and my Sizzix big shot.
Once I had my Viking completed, I started to think about the design of the card. I wanted him to be standing on the front of a Viking ship, but didn’t think I could draw one well and really wasn’t up for cutting out 20 of them once drawn. So I Googled “Viking ship silhouette” and created a PNG for Cricut Design Space. Knowing I wanted a landscape A2 card, I figured out how big I wanted it to be, so that it was flush with the right side of the card but not touching the left, and I went ahead and cut out 20 of them from Bazzill peanut cluster cardstock. I have created a custom setting for the Bazzill smooth Card Shoppe 100 lb cardstock and the settings are: 290 cut pressure, multicut 2x, regular blade.
I thought the ship was too plain, so I found a woodgrain rubber stamp in my stash. I don’t even remember when or where I got it from, but the label on it says it’s from All Night Media. I originally used a brown ink, but the pattern was too dark, so I ended up just using my Versamark watermark stamp pad which gave it a more subtle pattern that wasn’t so overpowering. The stamp was slightly shorter than the width of my Cricut-cut ships, so I did have to try and line up the end with the front of the stamp in order to have the woodgrain pattern go all the way across. I didn’t get them all to line up exactly, but it was okay as I was adhering some circle shapes over the front of the ship anyway. At this point I realized that if I stacked 2 of the ships together, it created a nice thick piece that gave the ship more dimension and a better surface for the Viking to stand on. So I proceeded to cut out 20 more ships from the same Bazzill cardstock & adhered them together using my ATG gun.
I used the Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Circles dies to cut out two circles from Core’dinations 65 lb cardstock in blue and red. I adhered the red circle onto the blue one with a Tombow Mono Dot Adhesive roller, and then attached 3 of the layered circles onto the ship.
I knew I wanted to have a sky-colored background with clouds and 2 water layers. I cut some Bazzill Gumball cardstock to 4.25” x 5.5”, the size of an A2 card. I die cut two of the Lawn Fawn Puffy Clouds from some white shimmery cardstock I had in my stash. It’s called Aspire Petallics in Snow Willow. I used scraps left over from another Valentine’s project (Octopus Valentine’s Card). I then cut some Core’dinations Citrus Teal 12”x12” paper into long 5.5” wide strips, and used one of the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders dies to cut a simple soft curve that would be the wave behind the ship. I made sure that only the front part of the wave would be visible and the lower part would be hidden behind the Viking ship.
I found that Bazzill Baby Blue vellum makes the perfect translucent water layer (also used in the Octopus Valentine’s Card), so I cut a long strip 6” wide, which is the width of the Mama Elephant Ocean Waves Trio dies. I kept this layer wider than my card front so that I would be able to wrap the ends around the front of the card and hide the adhesive. I made sure that this vellum wave layer was just tall enough to cover the bottom half of the Viking ship.
I started by adhering the “back wave” to the blue background, lining it up exactly along the bottom edge. I then used my ATG gun to apply lines of tape to the body of the ship, and glue dots for the head and neck. I placed the ship over the back wave, making sure that it was high enough to cover the top part of the wave that I wanted concealed behind the ship, but also allowed for the back wave to be visible underneath the ship. I then placed the vellum “front wave” over the ship and lined up the bottom edge with the rest of the card front. There was about ¼” extra on each side, which I folded over and adhered to the back of the blue background with 1/8” scor-tape.
I figured out where I wanted my Viking to stand, which was between the two back circles on the ship, and adhered two clouds to the background using my ATG gun. I then used a foam square from Scrapbook Adhesives on the back of the Viking’s head, and two small pieces (cut from those foam squares) behind the horns of his helmet. I placed a glue dot at the bottom of his beard, and tucked his feet behind those circles before adhering him in place. The glue dot helped keep his feet closer to the background layer, while the foam tape behind his head allowed for some dimension to make him look like he was in front of the cloud, rather than on it.
Once the card front was assembled, I put some ATG adhesive down on the front of a top-fold landscape A2 card base made from Neenah 110 lb solar white cardstock. I made sure the tape was close to the edge of the card front, as I wanted to be sure to secure those little vellum flaps that were tucked behind the card front. To finish up the card, I used Simon Says Stamp’s Hello Beautiful set to stamp the sentiment “Happy Valentine’s Day!” on the inside of the card in Versafine Onyx Black pigment ink. As I was making multiples of this card, I used the MISTI to ensure that the sentiment was straight and in the same place on each card.
