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Stippled Lighthouse
(Author: Tyra L. Smith)

Stamp Credits: All stamp images are:  Impression Obsession

1. Using black ink, stamp the lighthouse image on glossy cardstock. Let it dry. If you are using King James Glossy, it will take a bit longer to dry than other brands of cardstocks.

2. Create Mask -Stamp image on post-it note, making sure you get the lighthouse so that it is on an area where there is sticky on the back.

-Cut out the mask using scissors or exacto knife (I prefer to use the Exacto). Make sure you cut just INSIDE the stamped outline of the lighthouse. Cut out the lighthouse, moon and bird wing tip.

-Place mask on stamped card image.

Note 1: Be careful when applying the mask to the cardstock, as you may have ink on your fingers and do NOT want it transferred to your project.

Note 2: When holding down your card and stippling, be sure to place your fingers) on the mask to hold down the piece. This will help keep skin oils from your fingers off the cardstock. A finger print WILL show up under dye inks.

3. SKY WORK.

3A. With a medium sized stipple brush, stipple orange along the horizon. stipple from left edge to right edge, or vice versa. The orange WILL look a bit splotchy, but that's OK, we'll smooth it out later.

3B. Stipple yellow just above the the orange, overlapping the yellow a tiny bit onto the orange.
-at this point, you may feel that the orange is too light. Just stipple more orange over the orange area until it's the shade you want.

3C. With a larger brush (because it's a larger area we are stippling), stipple light blue over the rest of the sky area, overlapping a tiny bit onto the yellow. Be sure to put down a good layer of the light blue as your base for the sky. IT WILL look splotchy, we'll smooth it out as we go along.

Note 3: You may begin to see little pieces of brush bristles, hairs, fuzz, etc...on your sky area. DO NOT WIPE THEM OFF at this time. Blow gently, if they don't blow off leave them alone. Continue stippling and ignore them. When you are SURE the ink is dry on the cardstock, you can use a soft cloth or paper towel to gently wipe them off.

Note 4: You may have what looks like a "rainbow" in the lower sky: clear bands of orange, yellow and then the blue. To smooth or blend out the rainbow, use a light yellow and stipple over the colors...starting with your first tap on the orange and working upwards into the blue a tiny bit. Work like this across the horizon. We work this way because the first tap of your stipple brush gives you the darkest color, each successive tap being lighter and lighter. This way, the darkest hue of orange will be along the horizon and slowly become lighter as you move upwards towards the blue.

3D. With a large brush, stipple the medium blue over the sky area, working from the TOP edge downwards. The helps the sky be darker at the top, and light as you go down towards the horizon. Because this is a darker hue of blue, you may want to "tap off" with the stipple brush before tapping on your project. Load up the brush, tap it off on cardstock, then stipple on the scene. -really work this color into your sky area, stippling over and over until you are pleased with it. It will still look a bit splotchy, but not as much as before.

3E. Stipple the dark blue over the sky area..once again load the brush, tap off on scrap paper, then stipple on the sky starting at the top and working down towards the horizon. Don't go all the way down on blue sky area as you want to leave a little bit of the lighter blue close to the yellow.

4. I now have my sky about the color I want it to be, but I need to smooth it out some more.

4A. Using the lightest blue, go over the entire blue sky area again. This will help fill in any splotchy areas that are left.

4B. Using light yellow, stipple over the orange, yellow and overlap a tiny bit into the light blue. This should smooth out any of the remaining "rainbow" effect.

OPTION: To make the sky appear even darker, I stippled purple along the top edge. Because it is a VERY dark color, I tapped off 2-3 times on scrap before stippling on the upper sky. If you do this and the sky seems kind of "ragged"...use your light blue again and stipple over it. Always go back to the lightest color in that area and stipple with it to blend.

Your sky area is now finished, and we can add stars at the end.

5. Remove mask from lighthouse and trim it a bit to allow for the moon. When you trim the mask, ONLY trim off the moon, leaving the large bird in tact. Replace the mask on the project and stipple light yellow over the moon and overlap the light yellow just a bit onto the surrounding blue sky.

6. You can now remove the mask and throw it away The post-it note masks leave a tiny bit of "residue" from the tacky area. Make sure your inks are dry, then take a soft cloth and gently rub over the lighthouse to remove the residue, then buff the sky area.

7. With a smaller brush, stipple grey over the open lighthouse areas, or if you stamped with a semi-permanent or watercolor ink pad, then you can use a gray maker to color in that area.

8. Stipple a "brick" color where the bricks are at the base of the lighthouse. Once again, you can use markers if you stamped the lighthouse with a semi-permanent or watercolor ink pad.

9. Work Red over the boat with a small brush. Once again, you can use a marker if you stamped the lighthouse with a semi- permanent or watercolor ink pad.

10. Ground Work

10A. Stipple brown over ground/sand area. Don't worry if it looks splotchy as it will add to the texture of the sand. Next, stipple grey over that same area to smooth it out a bit.

10B. Add shadows to the beach where indicated by the stamped image. Use a smaller brush, or marker, and brown ink and apply it to the shadow areas.

11. Water and Grass Work

11A. Stipple a little bit of light green in the water area, then stipple the light blue on top of it. This will make the water color different from the sky color.

11B. Stipple the light green over the grass areas..just sort of "fluff" it in there, no need to try to do each blade of grass individually, though you could if you wanted.

12. SIGN YOUR WORK ON THE FRONT.

FINAL OPTIONS:
--This size of this piece is perfect to mount on the front of a card. I trimmed the opposing corners with a set of Fiskar Corner Edgers, then I used the milky white gel roller to freehand in the stars. Gives the piece a nice feel to have stars in it. Then I simply glued the entire piece to the front of a card.

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