Summer Fun cards

I am so ready for the beach - it is my happy place and I wanted to make a couple of cards to thank the owners of the condo we would be staying in later this month.  I kept the cards simple but with lots of die cuts.  The 

The first one is a regular 4.25" x 5.5" card and I used different shades of blue for my ocean. I added a layer of sand for my beach chair to go on and sponged a bit on the torn edges to give it a bit of interest.  Adding some brown dots just to make sure you know it's sand!  :)

I liked how the card turned out but it was just a wee bit crowded for me.

So I changed the size of the card to a 5" x 7".  I simplified the ocean and added some clouds to the sky instead.  Now I had room for two chairs under the umbrella and a pop of red with the sailboat.

Which do you like better?

I find it interesting in the pictures that you can't tell one is card is larger than the other until you look at the word die cuts and see how they fit on one card versus the other.  I hope that gives you some ideas on die combinations and space!

Summer means camping and smores

I'm over on the Elizabeth Craft Design with this card.  Hop on over for full directions and supply list - don't forget to leave some love!  :)

Sunshine, freedom, and a little flower

My neighbor has a sunflower plant that has grown over 2 feet from the top of her 7-foot fence.  So a sunflower is not necessarily a little flower but it's really petite here.  (The sunflower is another find at the Expo by Dies to die for.)  I framed it with a stacked Gina Marie frame for a quick and CAS card.

I also got this little field mouse stamp by Art Impressions that I thought worked perfectly with this same stamp.  I also kept this very simple by just stamping and coloring with Prismacolor pencils.

Just living is not enough mounted stamp set

Live like someone left the gate open

... but please don't actually leave the gate open!  My Shadow would run out and not know the way home!  But he is super happy chasing rabbits and squirrels which we do not want inside our own fenced yard.

It makes a really cute card though!  I picked up this Arbor die by Rubbernecker at the Scrapbook Expo and knew it would go perfectly with this stamp from Quietfire Design.  I sponged the sky and added the arbor - die-cutting the gate a couple of extra times to be used as the fence.

I layered up some grass dies by Impression Obsession and added tiny flowers (the stamens the Bougainvillea die by Elizabeth Craft Designs).  By arranging the flowers in a different patterns in different colors, I got the look of different flowers even though they are the same die.

Another find from the Expo were these two dogs from Art Impressions Dog House Cubbies.  I think that hound is actually laying down but I made him jumping with joy to go with the sentiment stamped about the garden scene.  

 I did not glue the gate down but used the latches as a hinge for the gate so it would open and close.  (My kids say it looks like the gate is closing on the door but I say he's busting out. In-house critics are the worst!)

Live Like Someone left the gate open mounted stamp set

Challenge I am playing in:

Simon Says Anything Goes

Personalized birthday card

My son had a birthday party to go to and it was for a 15 year old boy - my cute cards were not going to be appropriate at all.  So I made a quick one using my old color bursts (haven't used those in a while!) and large alphabet dies by Momenta.  The Happy Birthday is white embossed on black and I'm pretty sure it came from My Favorite Things.  (I had stamped and cut out the strips a while back at a crafty play date so this is not a set I have in my stash.)

I was going to do an eclipse card but found it very hard to read so I stacked four layers of black die cuts and shifted the top layer just a bit so that it popped up and had a shadow.

I heard he liked the card!