Good luck card

My niece has just landed herself her first job in graphics having completed her degree in typography last year. She is very excited! I wanted to make her a card that was relevant, but struggled for a while with what sort of design to go for. This is what I came up with.

This pencil stamp is from Lost Coast. I hankered after it for ages and finally got it on my one and only visit to Happy Stampers in Port Sunlight when the company were over from the US. I have to say this is one of those stamps that was very difficult to stamp. I wanted to use archival ink as I was planning to watercolour the pencils and I stamped the image about 10 times and still ended up cutting off some pencils. It is stamped onto smooth hot pressed watercolour paper. I tried everything!  I reinked my small and large archival black ink pads, I tried a large curved acrylic block with a handle especially designed for large background stamps, I tried a flat acrylic block, I tried with a sponge stamping mat underneath and without, I even used a hard brayer to flatten the paper onto the stamp from above. It was driving me a but nutty, but I was determined!   Sadly I don't think this stamp is one I will be using too often, but I do love that image.

I coloured the image with Aquarelle watercolour pencils and added the sentiment which is from a Sam Poole Creative Expressions set which is so handy.  The words seemed so right for her chosen career.

I just hope she likes the card. I think she will, she likes stationery and vintage images like me!

Elaine