too good to give away

Having spent a long weekend at Wells Beach in Maine, I was itching to pullout some ocean inspired stamps to create a birthday card. I have used By the Tide more than any other stamp set I own! It's so very versatile! 

I also pulled out my water color paper for this project. I knew that I wanted to soften up the coral stamp a bit, and water color paper and an Aqua Painter were the perfect tools to achieve that look. I used markers to color in the seahorse and then stamp it. Still, something wasn't quite right, so I added a script stamp with stamped off Island Indigo ink to create a subtle background with the feel of water. A little paper piercing around the greeting added a touch of texture. This card is one of my very favorites! It's going to be hard to give this one away!

Happy stamping!

Time to get girly

Sometimes, even I, get a little bit girly. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes, I get a whole lot girly! Like with this card. I couldn't help myself! I started with the flower image from Gentler Times, a retired set that I haven't used that much, but lately, I've fallen in love with it! I decided to use my Aquapainters and I had a great time water coloring. When I finished, I knew that I wanted to soften the look of the image. It looked too stark against the clean watercolor paper. 

I clear embossed the ledger image from By the Tide and sponged a bit of Crumb Cake and Pear Pizzazz over top of that. 

I couldn't leave the mat just plain. The girly side of me had taken over. I got out my Versa Mark, and embossed the Helli Doily stamp with Gold Embossing Powder. 

I went nuts and made the edge of the card all fru-fru with a fancy scalloped edge that I dry embossed. I love how this card turned out! 

Happy stamping!

Impressive gift card holders

In our family, August is one of our big celebration months! That's because my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and mother-in-law all have birthdays. And my in-laws celebrate their anniversary in August. So we find a day for all of us to gather and have one big party for everyone!

The party was yesterday. And true to form, I waited until the last minute to wrap their gifts. Thankfully, their gifts were all gift cards, and I had been working on a new gift card holder card! This was my brother-in-law's card, and he said it was the coolest card he'd ever seen! High praise indeed from a manly man!

To open the card you have to pull the belly band out from under the main image. And then you ate treated to a little surprise. A pop up card!

This one was for my mother-in-law's birthday, and for my in-law's anniversary.

It's a two-for! Because I had waited til the last moment to craft these cards, I was happy to combine two events into one card.

And this one was given to my sister-in-law.

Her husband said that the card was better than the gift itself! I've got to be honest, even though we were celebrating my family members, I felt like the superstar if the party!

Happy stamping!

The ocean is calling

Stamp Camp is in eight days, and I'm nowhere near ready! This is the first of 10 projects that we will be creating. I was going for the look of a porthole, and I think that I nailed it! The sponged water, coral in the background, and the fish swimming by, they all make me want to take a trip to the ocean. How about you?

Happy stamping!