It’s Summer and Life’s a Beach!

Hi everyone!

Sometimes life can be a beach, especially in the Summer!

I loved making this card using an Avery Elle stamp I bought last year, but hadn’t used! I found it wedged behind my craft desk and the wall while I was doing a little tidying up of my craft room. (Yes, I do clean my craft room from time to time!).

The sky and the sandy beach were created using a cheaper version of the Picket Fence Life Changing Brushes which I purchased from Amazon. I have to say that ink blending with this kind of brush (really a soft foundation brush) makes the process so easy. I also used Bristol Smooth cardstock. Inks just glide over this type of paper when you use it for ink blending.

The images were stamped with a Copic-friendly ink and colored with Copic Markers and I list the colors below. I die cut the images using the coordinating die set for the stamps and raised the images  with bits of foam tape.

Hope you like this project. Have a great, beachy day!

 

Supplies used to make this project:

  • Stamps: Avery Elle: Beside the Sea stamp set
  • Dies: Avery Elle: Beside the Sea dies
  • Stencils: Rosie’s Roadshow Cloud Template (This may be hard to find, but MFT’s Mini Cloud Edges stencil would work).
  • Inks: Distress Inks: Peacock Feathers (for the clouds/sky); Distress Oxide Ink in Tea Dye (for the sand); Versafine Ink in Onyx Black (for the sentiment); Catherine Pooler Inks in Grass Skirt (for the tufts of grass); Memento Ink in Tuxedo Black, a Copic-friendly ink (for stamping the Copic-colored images).
  • Copic Markers: Blue beach house: BG15, BG11, Y19; Orange House: YR19, YR04, Y19; Green/Yellow House: YG07, YG23, YG21; Sun: Y19; Seagull: C1; Sand Pail: YR09: Sand Pail shadow: E33.
  • Cardstock: Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper (for the card front); Neenah Solar White 80# (for the stamped images); Papertrey Ink cardstock in Hawaiian Shores (card mat); Neenah Solar White 110# for the card base.

 

 

Gulls’ Night Out

I often buy cute stamps sets and then struggle with using them in projects other than the one’s that are already  demonstrated. I think that is the challenge for every card maker. We don’t want to copy, we want to be inspired and then go from there.

Here is a project I thought of on my own.

The sentiment is created by me, though I’m sure someone else in the universe has thought of this punny (and funny) phrase at one time or another. I typed the sentiment on my laptop, printed it, and then die-cut it with a sentiment strip die. This sentiment strip was from a set of slanted sentiment strips that I received with my order from My Favorite Things. Thanks, MFT!

By the way, all the stamps (other than the sentiment) and dies used to make this project are from My Favorite Things! Unfortunately, two of the dies used to create this project are no longer available at MFTSTAMPS.com but you may be able to find them at other online stores via a GOOGLE search.

Hope you like my project. Have a punny day!

How I made this project:

  • Die-cut an A2-sized (4.25” x 5.5”) piece of navy cardstock using the stars die. This piece will serve as your card front.
  • Adhere a strip of gold glitter cardstock behind the die-cut star openings of the card front. This will create the twinkling stars in the sky.
  • Using a piece of black card stock, die-cut the city silhouette using the skyline die. (Note: you will have to use partial die-cutting technique for this.)
  • Trim the height of the skyline to 3.25”. The width of the skyline should be 5.5” (the width of the card front).
  • Adhere the skyline to the bottom of the navy card front.
  • Using white cardstock, stamp the seagulls in Copic-friendly ink and color them using Copics.
  • Die-cut or fussy cut them.
  • Draw tiny eyelashes to each of the gull’s eyes using a fine line black ink pen.
  • Die-cut the shadow oval on which the seagulls will stand. I used light gray cardstock, but white can be used.
  • Arrange and adhere the gulls to the shadow oval and add dimensional tape to the back of the piece.
  • Type up the sentiment on your computer and print on cardstock. Cut out the sentiment and adhere dimensional tape to the back.
  • Adhere the gulls/shadow oval and sentiment strip to the card front.
  • Adhere the card front to a horizontal card base.

 

Supplies used to make this project:

  • Stamps: My Favorite Things: Seaside Seagulls stamp set.
  • Dies:
    • MFT Die-namics: Seaside Seagulls coordinating dies.
    • MFT Dies-namics: Stars in the Sky (Horizontal) die.
    • MFT Die-namics: Skyline Border (no longer sold at MFT) but 2 possible dies could be used and are currently available through MFT. They are: New York Skyline and Our Town.
    • MFT Die-namics: Oval Shadows die set. Note: This die set is no longer available. However, you could use an oval punch or die to create the same effect.
  • Cardstock: Neenah Solar White 80#, black cardstock from my stash, navy cardstock from my stash, gold glitter cardstock from my stash.
  • Inks: Memento Ink in Tuxedo Black.
  • Copics: Seagull bodies: C0, C1, C3, BV11; Seagull beaks: Y17.