Because Beaches Make Me Happy

I am an East Coast girl. We live in a coastal town and let me tell you what the benefit of that is. The benefit of that, my friends, is that a nice walk on the beach or the simple happy making scent of ocean waters is never more than a few minutes away. And that, my dear friends, is what keeps me sane. Happy. Sane. I don't know... maybe both of those things. When I saw this amazing layered stamp set called Sea and Sky from Simon Says Stamp I was pretty sure it was designed for me. Or at the very least for the people like me. You see, my dear friends...it is FREAKING AWESOME!

So, I stamped the sky portion with cloudy sky ink because, well, I mean, it is a cloudy sky, so that just sort of made sense. I like to be practical sometimes. Sometimes. I stamped the water with a nice dark navy and then colored that with Spectrum Noir colored pencils. The sand is stamped with Stampin' Up Sahara Sand ink. Because it is sand. Again, with the practical. Who knows...maybe it will become a habit.

Finally, I added a whole bunch of sparkle with a Spectrum Noir clear glitter brush. You GUYS! If you don't have these get some. They add a TON of sparkle and shimmer. It's not subtle. I like my sparkle to...well, you know....SPARKLE!

I finished this card with a simply cut CZ Designs Wish I Could Hug You die cut sentiment because it was basically the perfect fit. I mean... the beach is like a hug. It makes you feel calm and cozy and happy. YAY beach! 

I hope you have a delightful day. Maybe with just a hint of salt water in the air.

Two Cards for the Price of One!

 Well, 'price' probably isn't the right word, but basically, I started out creating one card and ended up with two very different designs from the work I put into it. I kind of love them and how very different they turned out even though they use the very same basic supplies all around.

Here are the supplies I used:

Simon Says Stamp Leafy Leaves Background Stamp

CZ Designs Chunky Thankful Die

Prima Watercolors, Decadent Pies

And a Neat and Tangled Maple Leaf stamp that is no longer available, but you can find a similar one in this Simon Says Stamp set

Oh... and some cardstock, bristol, and May Arts twine. 

Fir this one, I stamped the background on bristol and watercolored it to create a nice fall background look. I then die cut the sentiment, saving the middle pieces, adhered the painted panel to a card base and then adhered the sentiment pieces back into the 'Thankful' to make a cool outline look. This let the background be the star of the show for this card.  A simple wrap and bow with twine finished it off nicely.

Now, as you know, I don't normally just jump into a supply list. BUT... for this one, I had to because... CHECK IT OUT! After making this card, I realized I had the perfect makings for a beautiful clean and simple design with the leftovers!

There is a slight chance I like this one even better. Even though the painting took a bit of time and effort and you can't really tell that as much here, BUT, alas...I still LOVE the way that die cut sentiment looks cut from the stamped and watercolored background. It's like.... perfect. So, I used the outline that was left over on a simple white panel and then just stamped a few maple leaves to finish it off in a nice deep red tone. 

Two cards from one set of work! LOVE IT! And I hope you do, too. Never forget to check out what your 'scraps' are giving you! You may just find some treasures in there!