Good Times and Tan Lines

Our Just Us Girls Challenge #831 Word Week is all about Play. I had a couple of options but I just love Colorado Craft Company drawings by Anita Jeram and went with her Beach Life stamp set. These little animals are definitely having a good time playing in the sand at the beach. I remember as a kid when burying someone in the sand was a fun thing to do. I was into sandcastles and collecting shells. Here's my card with its crude colored pencil skills.

The products I used:

• Colorado Craft Company Beach Life stamp set
• The Greetery Postage dies
• Papertrey Ink Build a Sailboat die set
• Altenew Obsidian black ink pad
• Prismacolor colored pencils
• Wink of Stella pen
• White Signo pen

I stamped the images, then colored for an evening and the next morning. It's not great, but you get the idea that there are bright colors amongst the animals and their beach tools, and more subdued colors in the sand, surf and sky.

Be sure to visit the team's blogs for all the details and why they chose something for "play" as the theme. Our guest for July is Bonnie and she'd love for you to stop by her blog as well! Please join us with your version of play: You can play an instrument/music, play a board game or sport, play a character in a play, play the lottery, etc. We can't wait to see the gallery!

Happy Summer!

Carol

A Breath of Fresh Air

Hello there! Thanks for stopping by. This card was a labor of love. These die sets have lots of die cutting and there is stenciling and stamping as well, but they are fun and offer lots of options for different versions of cards.

Our Time Out Challenge #318 is Inspired by Water, and there are so many possibilities for a card such as a lake, ocean, pool, a glass full of water, rain, a vase full of it, etc. We hope you will have fun making a "water" card and join us for this challenge. My card is about being by the water. Whether living there or staying there briefly, it is my kind of place to be.

Our guest this time around is Kathy Asper of myasperations, and you will want to read about her card on her blog, as we invite you to do with each Time Out team member. I learn new techniques from the team and guests and learn about them as people with the stories they tell. It is worth your time to visit their blogs.

Our wonderful sponsor is our own Design Team Member, Jaydee. She is generously offering Pinkfresh Studios Berries & Blossoms Stamp, Die & Stencil Bundle as the prize for our Challenge Winner.

What I used to make my card:

• Concord & 9th Seaside stamps, stencils and dies, ink pads
• Spellbinders Beyond the Door dies
• Altenew Obsidian black ink pad
• Stampin' Up! Classic Ink pads
• Ranger Distress and Distress Oxide ink pads
• Silver card stock
• Blending brushes

My card is two A2 card bases with the second one adhered to the back of the one on the left. I cut the doorway out of the front of the first A2 card base. The stenciled panel is adhered to the back of the second card base. Does that make sense? 

If you have any questions, comment below this post and I will be happy to reply.

We hope you will join us with an interpretation of water as you wish. It's he perfect time of year for this topic.

See you back here soon,

Carol

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