By The Sea

If you know me at all you know I love beaches, shells, palm trees, nautical, etc. The colors and beachy feel of the Inspired By #IB395 had my attention as soon as I saw the photo! So here is my shells and sea card for their challenge.

The photo reminds me of birthday cookies my very talented neighbor made me a couple of years ago...soft almond flavored beauties!

What I used for my card:

• Hero Arts Sophisticated Shells die set
• Sizzix Vacation Words Block dies
• MFT Sand and Surf dies
• Vellum
• Card stock scraps
• Glue dots

I had fun making the two-layered shells in colors from the challenge photo. Next, I die cut aqua card stock with a wave die arranged at different angles on my card stock so that no two waves were the same shape or width. I attached the waves to the darker aqua panel, then scattered the shells around. I got the idea to put the sentiment (cut out of gold card stock) on vellum to sit over the water and shells. And that's it!

Thanks for visiting and hope your summer is relaxing!

Carol

Santa Claws

It's time again for the Gorgeous Gift Tags Instagram Hop! This month the optional theme is Christmas in July, which I fully embraced. Since we live not terribly far from the beach, I make these kinds of Christmas tags (in addition to more traditional ones) every year, adding to our collection.

What I used:

• Sizzix Christmas Characters stamp and die set
• Reverse Confetti Tag set
• Pink and Main Large Sentiment Strip dies
• Distress ink pad
• Hero Arts Hero Hues ink pad
• Altenew Obsidian black ink pad
• Ribbons

The Santa Claws die pieces are easy to put together and there are endless color combinations you can go with, of course. I have gotten SO much use out of this tag die set with the scalloped edge, decorative circle reinforcer and two dies that say "for" and "you."

I ink blended sand, water and a sunny sky, then misted it with water to get a grainy look like sea mist, which is visible in person but not so much in the photo. Then I stamped the dots for sand by inking up an old dotted SU! stamp, stamping off once on a scrap of paper, then stamping on the sand area of the tag several times.

I grabbed some natural looking ribbon and a frayed aqua one to make the ties for the tag. The crab is popped up on foam tape so he can look like he's crawling around.

We hope you will hop along and see all of the tag ideas this month. You can start at my account: https://www.instagram.com/sawithadtomakeit/.

Thanks for visiting!

Carol

Floppy Hats & The USA

I set out to make a 4th of July, Happy 250th Birthday America card but my patriotic sentiment stamps are an older style and they didn't quite fit the scale of the card I made. I have gotten so much use out of this summer sentiment set from Simon Says Stamp and I still have a lot to go.

Wherever you go for this holiday, or if you make it a staycation, wear your floppy hat out in this crazy heat!! I am playing along at Simon Says Stamp Stars and/or Stripes Monday Challenge as well as The Card Concept 228a with my clean and layered 4th of July-influenced card. I played off of the feel of their graphic for the summery/nautical, vacation and holiday spirit it has.

STARS AND/OR STRIPES

What I used:

• Papertrey Ink Go-to Gift Card Holder: Beach Bag dies
• Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Strips Summer
• Stampin' Up! Stars embossing folder
• Red rhinestones

The embossed stars are obvious in the design, and the stripes are in the stitching on the hats' crowns and brim edges. The hat has two dies, plus the bow. I die cut the top of the hat out of white for the bands around the crown. I fussy cut just the stitched part of that crown for the bands. The bows and rhinestones add detail to the hats in patriotic colors. I added the sentiment that I could only use on a hat card like this.

Happy 4th of July! Happy Birthday America!

Thanks for visiting,

Carol

Happy Summertime

I love purses, beach bags and other sorts of accessories. This tote bag set from Papertrey Ink is an older one that I did not use the past two to three summers, but for our Just Us Girls Die Week #830 "Forgotten Favorite" I decided I had to get it out to play. Here is the beach bag I came up with for the challenge, which is a gift card holder as well! The team has a big variety of cards for you with stories that go along with them, so be sure to visit their blogs and read up on each card. Bonnie Klass is our Guest Designer for the month of July, so visit her blog as well!

What I used:

• Papertrey Ink Go-to Gift Card Holder: Beach Bag dies
• Simon Says Stamp Summer Sentiments
• Patterned papers
• Hero Arts Hero Hues Core ink pads
• Ranger Distress Oxide ink pads
• Vellum
• Foam tape

The longest part of the process is choosing colors and papers for the bag and accessories. I started with the gray tropical patterned paper, then chose the rest of the colors by pulling out colors in the paper.

I used a favorite tropical leaf patterned paper for the background, but covered it with vellum to soften the look and not fight with the bag's pattern. I cut some sand, ink blended it, and stamped off some granules of sand on it.

I love seashells and had to add a few, so those were die cut and ink blended too. Tassels are in fashion these days on purses, totes, wallets, so I added one to the bag.

This was a fun card to put together and I hope you will get out some older dies that you haven't used in a while, but still love. See you in the gallery!

Carol

You Are Beautiful

I'm slowly adding to my Concord & 9th inks and I am in love with this Dragonfruit color! It's all I wanted to use for the stenciled flowers on this card, along with my oldies: Sprout, Parsley and Grapefruit. At Just Us Girls #829 it is Anything Goes with a Stencil this week and this C9 stamp, stencil and die bundle is so fun and versatile. Be sure to check out the team's blogs and that of our guest designer Kellianne, whose last week is this one. She as been a great guest!

What I used:

• Concord & 9th Filled with Joy stamp, stencil and die sets, ink pads
• Altenew Obsidian Black ink pad
• Black gems

I stenciled the whole scene (4 out of 5 stencils), then stenciled three flowers again to pop up on foam tape for dimension. I cut a 5" x 7" white card base, but cut it down to 6 1/4"from 7" to have even borders all the way around.

Get out your stencils and join us this week! Thanks for stopping by!

Carol

Time to Relax

It's a Photo Challenge at Time Out #316 and I took the photo for this challenge about a year ago. For my card I tried to recreate the scene in the photo, and the team has made a variety of fantastic cards inspired by the photo! Be sure to visit their blogs to read about their wonderful projects. We are in full summer mode now and the seasonal weather is here for outside fun!

Lawn Fawn is generously sponsoring us with an offer of a $25.00 store credit as a prize for our Challenge Winner, who will also get an invitation to join us as Guest Designer for a future challenge.

I used quite a few My Favorite Things Outdoor Decor dies and their pool water stencil, an Avery Elle Splash pool die and a Simon Says Stamp stamp set for the sentiment. There is stenciling on the outdoor rug, pillows and pool water. I ink blended the sunset sky on the card front. The die cut frame (MFT) is popped up on foam tape to make a diorama of sorts. When white string lights are on a patio I just smile, so I had to add them to my scene. (The Rabbit Hole Designs matte enamel dots) I added a pale gray pool deck for the outdoor rug and lounge chair to sit on next to the pool.

I can't wait to see how you are inspired by the photo and that you share your cards with us! Thanks for stopping by!

I'm also playing along at The Paper Players PP791 Weather.

P.S. The screened-in pool is a "thing" in Florida to keep mosquitos, flies and "critters" out of the pool and patio area. It is not glass. That would be horribly hot! we call it a lanai down here.

Carol

 

Father's Day 2026

Happy Father's Day to all the dads who work hard for their children and families. I made this card from my daughter and me for her dad and it did not turn out at all like I wanted it to, but a masculine card for my husband who isn't a cardmaker...and I know he will like it.

I used Papertrey Ink's Build a Sailboat die set and modified this version from a year ago which I was really happy with for a bigger project. It's a card box with gold edges to look like gold edged pages of a book. See photos below and the details in my link at the top of this paragraph.

Here is the card box from last year.

As for the other products I used, the sentiment is from SU! from eons ago and I used my trusty Altenew Obsidian black ink pad. I ink blended the sky, sail, tiny flag, sun, water and boat and I actually watched a video to make the knot in the rope in the photo. It's the overhand knot. LOL.

Hope you have a nice day!

Carol