Birthday Bliss By the Sea

With all the recent tropical storms, the ocean has been a bit choppy and at times a surfer’s paradise. It reminded me of this recent birthday card I created using a color palette of two bright colors mixed with a neutral. The beige tone ink is Sahara Sand, the polka dot 5/8" grograin is from Bo Bunny’s Double Dot collection. The color is coffee. The blue ink is Pacifi Point and I used the stamping off technique to get lighter waves in back. The red ink is Poppy Parade and the two stamp sets are Just Surf and Birthday Bliss. All inks and Stamps are from Stampin’ Up!®. The red patterned paper is from Cosmo Cricket’s Garden Variety collection. It is the opposite side of Tossed Salad Cardstock sheet. The Royal Blue cardstock is from The Paper Company. I used dimensional adhesive foam and the Glue Glider Pro with high tac adhesive from Glue Arts.

Technique Spotlight:
Stamping off - create lighter shades from a colored ink by stamping image onto pad, then stamping onto a scrap sheet before stamping on project. For even lighter shades, you can stamp multiple times on scrap sheet before stamping on paper.
Dragging - to make a cardstock layer pop out without matting in a contrasting cardstock, simply drag the edges of your cardstock over an ink pad to frame it and make it stand out.
Sponging - use a sponge stamped into ink to apply light shading to cardstock or to drag around paper edges for a soft framed effect.

Out of the stash pile

Have you ever started punching a border or die cutting a design and ended up changing your mind on a color or layout? What about those times when you find the right combination of inks and stamps and decide to make a whole bunch for later....thus the creation of the infinite stash pile[zzzzz]! Some times I just can't help it when I have a certain die out, I just feel compelled to punch the design from a variety of papers to use for later. Well, I just had to prove to ya’ll that I really do use these stashed items. Hmmm, or is it that I am trying to convince myself that I really do! You figure it out! For this fast, adorable birthday card for my cousin’s daughter, I went to the stash for the patterned flower diecuts and the textured scallop heart. It is always nice to grab and go, and knock out a card in a hurry, especially when it is already late! LOL. You may recognize the paper set, a retired SU designer series set. The heart is a current Embosslits die from Stampin’ Up!® And the verse is also an SU stamp.

This next card was a belated Birthday card for a friend's special birthday, sent a wee bit late. I used some more of the stashed diecut patterned papers along with a crinkled paper border strip and a punched border to match. The verses are from the current SU set called On Your Birthday.

So if you don't already have a stash pile, get building one today and save time. Go to it for immediate inspiration on your next project and be sure to report back on your creation!