Monochromatic Lighthouse

I had a lot of fun with today's challenges.  I had some of my nautical stamps out (The Open Sea and Uncharted Territory) and the awesome Nautical Expedition paper.

I will be entering Mojo Monday's Sketch Challenge #240:

I was also going to enter this in the Divas By Design  Monochromatic Challenge #33  but, again, I missed the boat.  ;-(  HOWEVER...this week's challenge is "One for the Boys" - Challenge #34 and I think this card perfectly suits that category too!!!  Woohoo!!

I stamped the lighthouse and then masked it so I could get the sponge effect that I wanted.

Since the Mojo challenge was looking for a circle (but I really had a tall image) I used the Oval Scallop Frame Bigz die.  I used Dotto (a temporary adhesive) and attached a square of paper the size of the die on the die and then cut it out.  I left the outside square attached to the die and used the scallop frame to find the placement of the image.  Since I stamped n on a rectangle I had a little space at the top and bottom so that I could see where the cutout of the die was.  I used a bit of Dotto to hold the image in place and cut out the oval.

What is your favorite technique? I haven't done any masking in some time and after seeing the results here I will probably do more.

Do you usually use a lot of color or are you a more "neutral" type person?  I don't usually use bunches of colors and seem to like the regal color shades best.

Do you like the monochromatic look? I don't do it much, but every time I do I really like the results I come up with!

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