Hi there! Without further ado, I present to you my pirate card for the “Coloring Virtuoso” category of the 2018 Card Design Superstar challenge.
The idea behind the pirate card
Coloring requires consistency and patience… to achieve great results, it’s best to practice on a daily basis. I usually focus mostly on the design or mechanism of a card, but sometimes I like to take my time and really enjoy the coloring process. For this card, I wanted to create a comic strip with the stamps from the “Party like a Pirate” set, featuring the cutest little wanna-be pirates.
I went through my stash of MFT products and stamped and die-cut speech bubbles and other shapes, but when I started assembling the card, I noticed that it wouldn’t be possible to use them. The card would have been gigantic! The final card actually ended up measuring almost 6 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ (16,4cm x 16,4cm ) which is big, but ideal to be signed by 11 seven-year-olds and given to a special little boy on his Birthday.
I believe it’s easy to understand the story line without the extra sentiments, but they would have really given the card an extra oomph, so I’ll share them with you anyway…
Extra sentiments for the pirate card
Picture 1: “Way back…” (from the set “You’re Rawrsome”)
Picture 2: “It’s Treasure Island” (Essential sentiments and Party like a Pirate)
Picture 3: –
Picture 4: “Let’s go” (“You’re the sweetest” and Birdie Brown Alphabet and Numbers)
Picture 5: “World’s best pirate” and “You’re grrreat” (“Superhero” and Party like a Pirate)
I also prepared a sign with a wooden texture that reads “Happy Birthday from the Whole Crew” (I modified a sentiment from the stamp set The Whole Herd) using one of my first ever Die-namics dies, but I’ll use it some other time…
Details of the card
Many of my Copic markers were dry or had a clogged tip, so I ended up using my Prismacolor pencils as well. It’s easier to use those for shading and texture and I’m quite happy with the results. There are a lot of different materials in this card and I think I did a decent job interpreting the felt of the pirate hat, the leather boots, the silk scarfs, the wood and the sand. I do have to admit though, that I totally forgot to give some detail to the parrot’s feathers.
The pirate stamp set has a whole bunch of great images for creating detailed scenes, so I only had to borrow a shovel from the You Gnome Me stamp set and some logs from the Die-namics Fireplace, to complete my card.
For the final sentiment, I ended up using a banner from the Die-namics Blueprints 28 set and a stamp from the Beach Bunnies stamp set. I inked the edges of the kraft colored banner and added a layer of Distress Glaze, to give it a weathered leather look, although it’s hard to see in the photos…
That’s all I can tell you about this pirate card which will be given to a seven-year-old tomorrow (his gift is a Playmobil pirate ship, so it’s extra fitting). I hope he’ll like it and I hope you did as well. There are one and a half days left to participate in the challenge, so I’ll start working on my third and last card in a moment. Click here if you missed my first card for the Innovation Master category and want to check it out. See you tomorrow!
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