Day at the Beach

Hello Scrapping Cottage friends! Thanks for taking the time to stop and visit with us today. It's Mary Marsh here bringing you the Thursday edition of the Blog.

We have a brand new release of Beach & Tropical dies in the online store. We have 14 new designs in this release and they are currently on sale for a limited time at 25% off. They are so perfect for creating beach themed birthday cards, thanks you, thinking of you etc. Let your imagination soar! The Design Team has begun showing cards with these fun dies so take a look back on the blog for some creative ideas. 

For today I am using the new Day at the Beach die to create a birthday card for my daughter-in-law's August birthday. We just came back from a beach vacation in Sandbridge, VA. Sitting under our umbrellas on a beach chair and relaxing is just what her and I like to do at the beach.  She will definitely like this card. Let's get started on some details of how I created my card.

Design Steps:

I started off this week with a sketch that I found online. I thought it would help me create a beach scene. The rectangle layer would allow me to have the water in front of the beach chair and the circle to create the beach scene.  

Next, I cut out the beach images in various colored cardstock. I cut the chair and the umbrella from a patriotic designer paper. It looks like the ones that we have and use at the beach. For the sand, I cut in white cardstock and sponged with crumb cake ink (kraft).

I used the largest circle die for the 3.5" circle in the sketch. A cloud stencil helped me sponge in clouds with tumbled glass distress ink. I wanted a sun in this scene and decided to use the sun image from the Stitched Sun, Clouds & Umbrella die. The sun rays were a bit longer than I wanted so I trimmed them to fit in the circle. 

I cut the center rectangle piece (2 1/8" x 5 1/2") in a light blue cardstock and stamped my sentiment. I used just the words "our memories of the sea". 

For the horizontal rectangle, I used the same blue cardstock and embossed it with a wave embossing folder. I sprayed the cardstock very lightly with a little water before I used the embossing folder. Sometimes the paper will crack and rip when I emboss and this helps the fibers to break down a bit. 

Now that all the elements are cut, embossed and stamped I am ready to start card assembly. I attached the sentiment and embossed panels with double sided tape to the white card base. 

I attached the images to the circle panel with dimensional adhesive. I also used dimensional adhesive and attached to the the card base. To complete the card I added a few yellow enamel dots. 

Well, that's it for me for this post. I hope I have given you a fresh idea for a way to use this new die. See you again on Saturday. Also, we just added an Instagram icon to our Blog that links directly to our account on that site. Check us out there and follow us on that site as well. 

dies I used to create card:

Pink Isn't Just a Color, It's an Attitude!

Hello!  This is Sukie and today I have a new post to share for my design team day!  There's a fun new Beach & Tropical die release in the store which is showcased on my card.  All of these dies are also on sale!

I used the adorable Flamingo w/Hibiscus, the greenery is from the Sloth die set and the surfboards from the Surfer Van die set.

I created a simple background by blending a couple of different colors of Oxide Inks and bit of water. The bottom portion of my card was also splattered with some paint to replicate a sandy beach.

The adorable flamingo was placed on my card striking a contrast against the pop of color on the background.  

The bold and fabulous surfboards were tucked into the sand and accented with the tropical palm die cuts.

The sweet sentiment was stamped on some inked up card stock and was the perfect addition to this card.  I embellished the sentiment tag with a few more tropical palms and a tiny flower. 

Here is my final card, a fun tropical scene!  This card definitely showcases my love of flamingos!

Here are the die sets used on my card, available in the store: 

Tropical Birthday Bouquet

Hello Scrapping Cottage friends! Thanks for taking the time to stop and visit with us today. It's Mary Marsh here bringing you the Monday edition of the Blog.

For my card today, I am featuring the new Hibiscus Flower & Tropical Bouquet dies to create a birthday card.  There are 14 new designs in this release and they are all Tropical and Beach themed. I am finding them so easy to use for cards for my beaching loving friends and family. 

My colors for today's card were determined by the color challenge #803 on Splitcoaststampers. 

whisper white, real red, crumb cake

I love hibiscus flowers in a vibrant red color. For this challenge you can use a dark green as a neutral shade. So using these new dies to create this card was a win-win for me. I started off by stenciling an oval using the crumb cake ink. From there I layered the hibiscus and leaves around the oval. 

The sentiment is stamped in the same dark green ink as the leaves. I added some crumb cake ribbon and a few red glitter enamel dots to complete my card. That's it for me for this post. See you again on Saturday.

Just a reminder that the dies are on sale at 25% off for a limited time. 

dies I used to create card:

Seahorse & Sea Turtle

Hi!

It's Anja here. I have two cards for you today. I made a cute set with a Seahorse and a Turtle. 

 For this project I used:

- Cottage Cutz dies (Seahorse, Sea Turtle, Circle Set),

- Dye Inks,

- 2 white card bases (15x15 cm),

- white card stock for die cuts,

- water color paper (2 14,2x14,2 cm),

- acrylic paint sprays (blue shades),

- sentiment stamps,

- acrylic block,

- black pigment ink,

- white pigment ink,

- black pen,

- white pen,

- Wink of Stella glitter pen,

- heat gun,

- adhesive foam pads,

- paper glue. 

First I cut and colored the turtle. I used white pigment ink and a brush to emphasize some parts of the turtle. I also added a bit of glitter to it.

Next I cut and colored the seahorse.

Then I cut two paper stencils.

I put the stencil over the watercolor paper and sprayed it with acrylic spray paints. I used three shades of blue.

Next I removed the stencils and added a few drops of the lightest blue shade to add over the paper. I dried the paper with the heat gun.

After that I added some color to the edges of the background paper. I also stamped the sentiment.

When I had all the pieces ready I assembled the cards together. I added the turtle and the seahorse using adhesive foam pads for dimension. And my cards were done.

This is all from me for today. Have a nice Sunday and see you again next week.

Anja Z.

 

Cottage Cutz dies I used for this project:

Aloha Friday

Aloha!  It's Jeanne to day with a fun vintage Hawaiian card featuring dies from the new Beach and Tropical Release.  This release is perfect for summer and right now it's 25% off for a limited time!

The card is actually quite easy to make but does involve some ink blending.  I wanted to make sure that there was a good variety in my browns and I tend to use the same colors all the time.  So before I undertook the coloring, I organized my Distress Oxide inks to see exactly what I had.  Previously they were all thrown in a drawer!

So....I cut all the pieces in white from the Aloha & Ukulele and the Tropical Fruit dies. Then I used blending brushes and colored them using these Distress Oxide inks:

It may seem like a lot but you'll notice there is overlap in the colors I used on the objects.  It really didn't take long and I love the color depth I got!

Next I cut a slim line card (folded size is 3 1/2 x8 1/2 inches) and a panel from wood look paper 3 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches.

I took a scrap piece of white cardstock and stenciled a sky background.

Using the middle size of the Stitched Wide Circle Frames, I cut three from the sky and three from green cardstock.

I inserted the middle part of the sky into the center of the frames.  I now have some "sky" patterned frames which I am storing with my dies for future use!

I cut the word Aloha from dark brown cardstock.  I toyed with the idea of using a bright color but I really didn't want the greeting to compete with the colors of my objects.

I arranged the word and the frames on my panel....

and then cut off the overhang.

I then added all my objects. I used the watermelon slice and turned it into a pineapple slice simply by changing the colors!  This card was fun to create and went quickly once I knew what colors I wanted to use.

Dies:

Mahalo for stopping by!  I hope you have a fun and creative weekend!