HHC14 Dude Card, plus SC211!

There's another great challenge taking place over at the High Hopes Blog starting today! This week's challenge is to make a "dude" card, in other words, a card that could definitely be given to a male without making him uncomfortable or feel threatened with lace and flowers and girly girl stuff, if you know what I mean! =) Niki, one of the wonderful Divas (linked on the right side bar) is the hostess for this challenge. The two cards below are my samples for the challenge.
Don't forget that every week, Tina, owner of High Hopes Stamps offers blog candy for one lucky winner! If you enter the challenge and link up a photo of your creation on the HH blog, your name gets entered into the draw!
I am approaching cardmaking differently these days, in that I am aiming towards turning my images into miniature watercolor paintings with each card. I am taking more time on the backgrounds and giving the color more depth than I used to. I am trying to anyway, and I still have a long way to go, but its fun to expand my horizons a bit. I am getting a lot of inspiration from Sirpaliina's wonderful art. If you've never seen her work, I encourage you to go visit her blog. Its like walking through an art gallery!
I made this card for my hubby Mike (he doesn't know it yet, nor has he seen it... I'm waiting for the right opportunity to give this to him! I might just wait til after his first fishing excursion this spring!).
I stamped Norman twice and cut out a mask, masked him and then used fillable beach scene, though I didn't ink up the sand castle so that it would not interfere. I had to draw a couple more sand bumps and add a few more sand dots with a marker under norman's feet. I didn't ink up one of the clouds in the sky either, I just preferred it to be simpler.
I also used the Great Escape for the lobster trap in the corner.
I watercolored all the images with artist quality paints. The sketch for the card came from this week's Sketch Challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers.

I stamped Matchmaking Maynard with Versafine Onyx black, watercolored him and cut him out. For the sky background, I did a watercolor wash, using a wet into wet streaked wash technique. Its done by using a very wet page, lots of water and pigment in your brush, and by adding random stokes of color. Then you pick the paper up and turn it this way and that, to get the pigment flowing in various directions until you are happy with it. Its a subtle way to make clouds appear in the sky and keeps the blue of the sky looking smooth, without showing brushstrokes. The trick is to have your paper wet, but not with puddles of water, or you will not get this smooth looking result. Try it, its fun and after a few tries, you will get the hang of it!
Thanks for looking today! Now you go and make a dude card, and link it up on the HH blog so you can have a chance to win sum rubbah!!!