A Porthole View of a Hobby Art Harbour Village

Good morning to all! Well, we appear to be having some sunny days at the moment, which is great, as it's half-term and the kiddies need to run around...
Spring is in the air, my favourite time of year, when things feel fresh and you can go for a long walk spotting little 'smiles' as you go (daffodils, crocuses, snowdrops etc. to you normal folk!)

I am looking again this week at the Hobby Art Harbour Village Set and ways to create a scene.
A few years ago, when I first saw these 'create a scene' sets I loved what all the pros produced, but I never seemed to have the 'eye' to make that perfect scene in a couple of minutes like they all did. I admit, I found it hard and I would get cross with myself...do you ever get like that? I think it was the shadow of that negative 'voice' on my shoulder telling me how terrible I was at art etc... Then I decided to 'have a word' with myself and created some 'rules' or 'lessons':
 First lesson: when you see the pros, although it might look like it, that is not the first time they have used the stamps. They have all been working for a while with them and made all their 'mistakes' before you see them have a go!
Lesson two: it is ok to make mistakes! The idea is to play with them and not worry if you take an hour (or an evening!) to work out what combos work best.
Lesson three: don't try and make a finished scene straight from the off. Use some copy paper, stamp away and try lots of different variations!
Lesson four: Hobby Art stamps have the acetate overlays with images stamped on for you: keep this handy and use it help plan where your stamps 'fit' on your page.
Lesson five: work out your 'topper' panel size needed for your card and make a copy paper panel in the same size. Use this to plan the size you need to cover; you do not need to use all the stamps on one panel!
Lesson six: you are allowed to 'add' some details to the stamps; they do not have match up exactly! Use a thin black fine pen and don't be afraid to add a hill, wall, cloud etc. to the scene.
Lesson seven: do not try and paint or colour exactly, the stamps are detailed and if you use watercolour you have some license to let the colours take on a more 'free form' appearance.

 I am sure you can add to this list, and it is by no means an 'official' guide, just the result of my musings! Please let me know if you have some hints or tips!

To start my planning my card, I started by plotting a few scenes on some copy paper and seeing which stamps worked well next to each other.

I then measured the size of the topper panel I wanted from Super Smooth Card, stamped my images from the Harbour Village Set in Black Onyx Versafine Ink and  heat embossed with Clear Wow Powder. Can you spot where I have added some details/lines to join the images? I also masked off the small boat at the front and stamped another next to it, so that one sits just behind the other.

I then selected an area of my scene that I wanted to highlight. This was to be the focus of my card. I chose a small plain circle die and positioned ready to cut out.

Once cut, I coloured the small section using a selection of Promarkers.

Once coloured, I used Versamark Ink and 3 layers of Wow Clear Embossing Powder to seal the image and make a 'glass-like' window effect.

Again using more Super Smooth Card, I cut a circle one size bigger than my original aperture and then cut the middle of this out to create a 'porthole'. I embossed the die as well, so as to get the extra raised detail. In total I made two of these outer shapes and layered them together with foam pads to add some depth.

Using Vintage Photo Distress Ink, I coloured my porthole and added some decorative brads.

Placing the aperture back into position, I glued my layered porthole to the image and left the rest of the picture in black and white. Continuing the 'nautical' theme I layered the topper onto the card with red and blue papers, choosing a sentiment to finish the card.

Quite a simple idea, based really on me wanting to create attention to one section of the card and using the idea of a porthole on a ship. I have since seen other cards with just one area coloured or highlighted and it seems to work well across lots of different themes!

Hope you like it; do have a play with creating some scenes and making your own 'views'.

Thank you for reading,

Love

Martina

xx