Back to the beaches!

From the horror stories we are seeing in the media, Brits are flocking back to the beaches in droves, and some of them are leaving  disgusting piles of litter behind them. But for one group of inhabitants, that is GOOD news - the seagulls! I've been noticing far more seagulls coming inland this year, probably because the scavenging opportunities along our seashores were so very much reduced because of the lack of tourists, and now they're back patrolling the seafronts looking to "help" people eat their chip shop lunches and ice creams.

First I masked off a band along the bottom of the topper for the sentiment to  go on, then used a Woodware stamp set for everything on this except the beach huts - the one in the Woodware set was a bit big for what I wanted  so I picked out this row of huts from a magazine freebie set. I stamped and masked  the gull before adding the huts and wooden post. I coloured everything with promarkers - I couldn't find a shade in my collection that was exactly right for the sand I wanted, so I coloured it with Vanilla first, then dotted it all over with tiny streaks of Sandstone, then blended another layer of Vanilla over in a circular movement until all of the Sandstone was blended in. I stamped the Marram grass over the top once all the ink was dry.

Then I removed the masking and stamped the sentiment - AND SMUDGED IT! But I rescued the card by stamping the sentiment again on a  scrap of card and matting it to match the main matting, and covering the smudged stamping with it.

I am sharing this with

Allsorts challenge -Summertime

Little Red Wagon - Summertime Fun   

Sweet Stampin - Holidays 

Stamping Sensations - All creatures great and small 

2 Crafty Critter Crazies - anything goes with a creature 

Passion for Promarkers - Make us smile