how to work with detailed images????

[Tracyg]

ok, this is a pretty involved question. I tried a new stamp tonite that is very detailed, i also tried aqua painting for the first time (with ink pads). Ok, so picture my stamp, 2 very detailed horses running thru the surf. What I did....embossed with black ep and then colored in. The look I wanted for the waves didn't come off, I tried coloring them in with white gel pen, but that didn't do the trick, didn't give the 'pop' I was looking for.....thinking out loud...could I have colored in the horses and the water, then, colored the tips of the waves with versamarker and embossed in a white white???
That leads to my second question which is about back ground....I just ended up punching a sun mask and sponging on some ink for my background, but didn't like how it turned out. I thought maybe I should have done my background first, but then no, because then I would have had lovely sky colored horses and water....I actually tried masking a bit but the image is way toooo intricate to cut out, so that left a 'halo' around the image that just looked dumb....should I maybe color the image, then emboss with clear, then ink up my background, and wipe the ink off the clear embossed image with paper towel???? I've gotta post a pic of this image tomorrow lol and get you all's imput....i've never tried stamping a 'scene' before, so you'll have to tell me how 'you' would do it..... and if I stamped and embossed in black, colored in, then versamarked my waves and embossed that part with white ep, would it be too much to then versamark the entire image and clear emboss the whole thing so I could do the back ground????? and if i'm going to do all this, i may have to pull out my stamp a ma jig, which has never been out of the box....omg.....what was I thinking.......
ok, would love to hear some imput.....
thanks for listening to me ramble....
tracyg

[Dylansnanabella]

First, don't get discouraged!!! Second take a deep breath and decide what you want to tackle first. Lets try the background. Several things could work. Brayering is wonderful and gives a fantastic background but you really need a mask. Go ahead and cut the darn thing. If the stamp is as great as it sounds, you will use the mask over and over, just remember to cut inside of the lines. This will stop the "haloing". If this is really not an option, consider starting with water color paper, spraying on background and stamp and emboss then bleaching out what you don't want. Check out site for Stamp Zia. She has some great tech ideas. Next, for the waves, have you considered "puff paints"? They are paints that when heat activated will puff up and look like clouds, snow etc. I use the product sold by CTMH and I love it. It would look great for your waves. Next, what about the beach? Have you considered a little sand? Either tear sandpaper and attach at bottom of card or use a little glue randomly (where is spell check when you need it?) :confused: applied and sprinkle a little real sand on and let dry. Great look. Let me know how you do.