Ahoy Scene

Can't do a mermaid card without also having some pirate fun. I played with making my own water texture on simple colored cardstock with a Copic marker and a white gel pen. I think it turned out pretty good and really makes the cute Pirate stamp shine.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Smile!

I'm sharing a quick project today that I'm entering in an Instagram challenge. The challenge is summer-themed, and I just had to use this fabulous shark from Avery Elle's Sea-Prise set. I added a fun die sentiment and a smattering of stars and dots to tie the scene together.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

SEAsons Greetings!

If you know me, you know I absolutely adore quirky and unusual stamps. If there's a touch of whimsy, I can't resist it. So, when I saw this merman Santa from Waffle Flower, I just had to have it.

Once again, I created a fun little scene. I liked this patterned paper that seemed to merge the idea of snow and sea and fit perfectly with my scene. Don't you love when you find exactly what you need in your stash?

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Dolphin Yay

Ever have one of those crafty days when it feels like nothing goes right? Yep, me too. I messed up stamping, coloring, adhering things crooked, finding mysterious stains on the white cardstock and even poking my finger with the super-sharp tip of scissors. At one point, I got so frustrated that I was just about ready to throw in the towel.

But I thought I'd give it just one more try and make something extremely quick and simple. And this is the card I came up with. It's not perfect, it's not the most amazing thing I ever made. But it is complete and error-free. So, I'll take it.

Thanks for taking a look.
~Elle~

Jelly Hugs

Lawn Fawn - So Jelly

For today's card, I went in a nautical direction and made a fun little creation featuring the starfish and jellyfish from Lawn Fawn's So Jelly stamp set. I kept the palette fairly monochromatic - but I finished it off with some sparkly iridescent sequins that bring extra shine to the focal panel.

I also used one of my coveted Lawn Fawn wood veneer that has been sitting in my stash for ages. Since the veneer is retired, I hesitated a little about using it. It really fit the card, though, so I just had to add it in.

Thanks for reading.
~Elle~

Keep Swimming!

It's sweltering around here lately, and it's that time of year I'm both grateful for AC and wishing I could take a long and leisurely swim in a pool. I channeled that swimming energy into today's card and made a simple encouragement creation. I used a nautical paper to help the center panel pop and added some enamel dots for embellishment.

Thanks for reading.
~Elle~

CAS Nautical birthday

I needed a couple of quick birthday boy cards, and I pulled out a nautical Doodlebug patterned paper and sticker sheet that featured some fun colors and designs.

I kept the overall layout/design same for both cards, but switched up the paper and the stickers. I think they turned out pretty fun.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Hello Beautiful Mermaid!

 Honey Bee Stamps - Swimming By stamp

It has been terribly cold and snowy here lately and that, apparently, put me in the mood to make a mermaid card. So, I grabbed the lovely mermaid from Swimming By and colored her to look like Ariel. Little Mermaid was my favorite childhood movie, so I just had to give her that iconic red hair.

For the rest of the card, I used a die-cut circle frame and some letter stickers that I playfully arranged around the frame. A striped background and a scattering of enamel dots finished everything off.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Golden Breeze

My Favorite Things - (PI) Sailor Girl (retired)

Up until this card, I had gone very traditional in my sailor girl coloring - mostly white with a touch of red or blue as an accent. But I thought it might be fun to add another summer color - golden yellow. I think it added a different feeling to the card, and it definitely made me dig into my paper stash to find some colors to match.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

PI- You Float My Boat

My Favorite Things - (PI) Sailor Girl (retired), My Favorite Things - Nautical dies (retired)

It's time for yet another nautical card featuring the adorable Sailor Girl stamp. This time around, I went in a more conventional "nautical" theme and paired the girl with some sailboat paper and a pop of bright red as a card base. I added a porthole window out of shiny silver paper (that's really hard to capture on camera, btw, as it always looks just white) and a sea made from vellum.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

PI - You are my Happy

 My Favorite Things - (Pure Innocence) Sailor Girl (retired), My Favorite Things - Essential Sentiments stamp, My Favorite Things- Fab Foliage die

Today's card features a stamp I fell in-love with ages ago, but somehow never got around to using - My Favorite Things' Sailor Girl. I was lucky enough to grab it just before it was retired, and I wanted to make good use of it.

I tried a different style with this card, adding some resin flowers and foliage for something that feels a bit more feminine and vintage. But since I used bright colors, it still feels modern and matches my Copic coloring on the girl.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Idea: Anchor

Dina Wakley - Mighty Wave stencil

A while back, I started an idea notebook - a stenographer notebook where I would jot down card layout sketches, color palettes and general ideas or techniques I wanted to try. It was my own version of a Pinterest board that I could look at and use without a tablet/phone/computer. But for whatever reason, I haven't used it a whole lot lately.

So, I thought I would dust off the notebook and start sharing cards made with the ideas I wrote down. For today's card, the idea was to use a wavy water stencil and an anchor die to make a dreamy nautical card. I added some patterned paper and stars for extra interest, and I really like how it turned out.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Mermaid Heart

Honey Bee Stamps - Swimming By stamp

Of course, I could not resist making another card featuring Honey Bee Stamps' adorable mermaid. For this card, I was inspired by a foiled enamel hearts that I got from Freckled Fawn.  I just loved the combination of bright red, gold and a little white - so, I used that as inspiration to color my mermaid. I added a few jewelry details (pearls, necklace, bracelets) to match the rich palette.

To bring the nautical feeling, I used a striped blue patterned paper and I die-cut a heart from aqua vellum to repeat the heart element. For the sentiment, I used a sticker with a lovely quote.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Bits 'N Pieces: Kraken Birthday

It's time to make another Bits 'N Pieces card! This is where I take some ready-made elements from my stash and put them together on a card. For today's card, I'm using the kraken from Lawn Fawn's Lovable Legends.

I adhered the kraken to a scalloped rectangle die-cut and added a skinny birthday sentiment. It looked a bit like a label, so I played with the idea of having it go on a notebook. In the end, I placed it onto a striped pattern paper. To make the space at the top look less empty, I added a banner and a heart. Looking at it now, it looks a bit like a page bookmark, so I'm happy with the design.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

SK Sea & Cats: Bubble Birthday

 Lawn Fawn Lovable Legends,
Papertrey Ink - Keep It Simple: Birthday II Mini Stamp Set

Card 3 in my Sea and Cats Stash Kit features yet another adorable Lawn Fawn squid, along with a sentiment from PTI's Birthday II mini stamps.

I kept this card a little more on the masculine side - as it feels like it would be fitting for a boy birthday card. So, a palette of green with some sparkly enamel dots as bubbles worked perfectly for what I had in mind.

Being a boy card, I kept it very simple beyond that, adding just a sentiment and a small circle to ground the images.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

SK Sea & Cats: Squid Thanks

 The second card in the Sea and Cats stash kit features an adorable giant squid and tiny boat from Lawn Fawn's Lovable Legends stamp set, along with WPlus9's Dockside (retired) sentiment. I also used a navy polkadot paper and die-cut a stitched rectangle out of a white cardstock panel for my scene. If I was making this card again, I would probably cut another panel to make the sea and sky look different - but I'd already adhered everything together when I thought of it.

This card is very simple and easy to put together. I like how the rope "thanks" matches the nautical theme of the squid and boat. As a last touch, I added a pink anchor to the end of the "T" to tie in the pink cheeks on the squid.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

SK Sea & Cats: Nautical Retirement

 The first card in my Sea and Cats Stash Kit share is a retirement card, using the WPlus9 Dockside stamp set (now retired). I was inspired by the nautical patterned paper that featured some classic colors  (navy and aqua) along with coral, pink and taupe. The softer colors made the palette feel neutral, which was just perfect for the retirement card I wanted to make.

I used some Lawn Fawn inks along with a couple of enamel dots as an embellishment.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Stash Kit - Sea and Cats

Today, I'm sharing the stamps that I'm using in my Sea and Cats stash kit (read about my stash kit project here). I've named this kit Sea and Cats because it includes some nautical elements and a kitty stamp set. I don't think I'll be combining the two ideas necessarily (though the idea of a seafaring kitten does sound fun), but I will be using elements from all sets to create birthday cards.

Here are the stamps that I'll be using in this kit:

Lawn Fawn Lovable Legends

My Favorite Things - Cat-itude

WPlus9 Dockside (large set from 2013, now retired)

Papertrey Ink - Keep It Simple: Birthday II Mini Stamp Set

I have also selected various patterned papers from my stash, with a combination of darker (muted) blues/teals/greens and a few bright pieces for the kitten cards.

Lastly, I'm using up some enamel dots:

Thanks for reading!

~Elle~

Illustration Friday: Waves

It's Friday, and it's time to share another self-made illustration! This week, what I really wanted to practice is my line-work -- i.e. get more comfortable with using a pen to draw directly onto paper. So, my illustration is the swirly sea you see in the image above.

My inspiration for the waves was a painting I saw a few years ago in a World exhibition at our local museum. The painting in question was from Japan and it featured lines and swirls in the sea, with bright Koi fish intermingled into the design. It was both fascinating and meticulous, and I loved the idea of making waves with thin repeated lines and swirls. I've seen the design since in a lot of modern nautical art, and I always enjoy seeing it.

I started this card by cutting out a stitched rectangle panel and stamping the boat from Avery Elle's Knotty stamp set. I stamped the boat in blue ink because I wanted it to be a bit faded and fit into the image in a subtle way. I quickly sketched in some pale color with my Copics. Then I drew in the sea! I didn't plan any of the images, I just started with one swirl and build up from there. Once I'd filled out a few of the swirls, it became a lot easier to figure out the rest.

After that was done, I used Copics to color in the background. I stamped my sentiment onto a thin piece of white cardstock and trimmed one end into a flag shape. I adhered it to the front panel.

For the background, I used nautical striped patterned paper (theme 49 for OHC was stripes!), and I adhered the front panel with foam squares. As a last touch,  I scattered a few enamel dots around the card.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Ahoy! (blog hop)

Since I'm a big fan of Pretty Pink Posh, I really wanted to take part in the fun new blog hop -- which is all about dies!

And, here's my card:

I started by creating my card base from Kraft cardstock - a standard A2 card base which measures 4 1/4 by 5 1/2".

I decided on a nautical card, so I grabbed Sweet Stamp Shop's Ahoy! stamp set and stamped the boat in black ink onto some Copic marker paper. I colored it in with my Copics and carefully cut around it, leaving a small white border. I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of white cardstock in navy ink, and also cut it out.

Then came the time to have fun with dies! I created a base panel from white cardstock, using Mama Elephant Femme Frames dies. I also cut a plain white circle using my Sizzix Circles framelits. I then grabbed a couple of papers from Carta Bella's Ahoy There! paper pad. I cut the red paper with a die from My Favorite Things' Blueprints 13, and a wave paper circle from the Sizzix circles framelits.

I adhered the base panel and the red piece straight to the card base. I also adhered the white circle and the wave circle with dot adhesive, then added it to the card with foam tape. I used foam tape to adhere the boat and the sentiment.

The last touch was a few Pretty Pink Posh sequins - in cobalt and aquamarine.

Supplies:
Sweet Stamp Shop Ahoy! stamp
My Favorite Things Hybrid Ink in Black Licorice
Stampin' Up Night of Navy classic inkpad
Neenah Desert Storm Environmental Cardstock in 100#lbs
Neenah Solar White Cardstock in 80#lbs
Copic Mini Marker Pad in 70#lbs
Copics (C4, C6, C8, E23, E25, E27, E29, R08, R46, B00, 0)
Carta Bella Ahoy There! 6x6 patterned paper
My Favorite Things Blueprints 13 dies
Mama Elephant Femme Frames dies
Sizzix Framelits Circles
Tombow Dot Adhesive (pink)
3M Scotch Foam Tape
Ranger Studio Multi-Medium glue
Pretty Pink Posh Sequins, cupped, 6mm in Cobalt and Aquamarine