Happy Birthday with Seashells and Blended Alcohol Ink

 I'm not ready to stop making seashell and coastal themed cards! It is summer after all and this is my favourite theme! This time I wanted to explore more with Alcohol Ink blending techniques on vellum so I made this wonderful background design with it, then promptly covered it up with my seaweed and seashells and lighthouse. Oh, well, it was so much fun, I know I'll be doing some more of them.

I used the Friends are Like Seashells and the Sailing Home stamp set and their coordinating die sets to create all the wonderful seaside accessories added to the card front.

• On the Bermuda Bay card base I added a piece of DSP from the Bloom Where You're Planted series, which has a rough, sand-like look to it.
• On a piece of vellum, 3 3/4" x 5", I added some Dark Bermuda Bay Stampin' Blends Marker Ink and with a paint brush, lightly added some 99% isopropyl alcohol to it. I let it work then dried it with the lowest setting on the heat tool. When dry I added more ink, beside it or over it, added more alcohol, usually less and dried it again. 
• I also added some Dark Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends Marker Ink beside it and gave it the same alcohol and drying treatment until I had a background shape and texture I liked.
• I masked the bottom line of the two lined Happy Birthday sentiment from the Friends are like Seashells stamp set and inked it up with a permanent black ink. I prefer using our old Basic Black Archival, which I still have refills for, but StazOn ink will also work as long as you wipe it off right away from your photopolymer stamps. If it remains on any length of time it will stain your stamp and you can't use the StazOn remover to take it off because it will damage the photopolymer material.
• I stamped the seashells and the lighthouse on Sahara Sand cardstock in Soft Suede ink and coloured them when needed with Stampin' Blends.
• The seaweed was die cut with Just Jade and Granny Apple Green cardstock.

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If you live in Canada, and don't have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the right side bar at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in Canada by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the top menu or clicking on any of products below from my Online Store.

Product List

Friends Are Like Seashells Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) [158203] $35.00	Friends Are Like Seashells Bundle (English) [159516] $72.75	Sailing Home Cling Stamp Set [149457] $33.00	Bloom Where You're Planted 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper [155696] $15.75	Vellum 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [101856] $13.50
Bermuda Bay 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [131197] $12.00	Sahara Sand 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [121043] $12.00	Just Jade 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [153079] $12.00	Granny Apple Green 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146990] $12.00	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [147115] $10.25
Mint Macaron Classic Stampin' Pad [147106] $10.25	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [147116] $10.25	Bermuda Bay Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154878] $12.00	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154885] $12.00	Pool Party Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154894] $12.00
Mint Macaron Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154889] $12.00	Soft Suede Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154906] $12.00	Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154882] $12.00	Metallic Mesh Ribbon [153550] $11.00	Seaside Seashells Dies [156095] $46.00
Smooth Sailing Dies [149576] $44.00	Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [149653] $163.00	Stampin' Seal [152813] $11.00	Mini Glue Dots [103683] $7.25	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.50

More Layering Diorama Dies for As You See It Recipe Challenge

 It's TGIF everyone and one of the good things about every other Friday is that we get to play a brand new As You See It Challenge. This week it's a Recipe for a Happy Birthday and here is the challenge banner as cooked up by fellow Design Team member Joanne!

This week I've been playing with the Layering Diorama Dies, so I thought I'd continue using them for this challenge....that, and all my Design Team Members aced me on the gorgeous florals this time, so I did a 180 degees and designed a masculine birthday card.

• This time I only had 3 layers and the bottom was a Basic White panel that I blended with ink. I used a taped off horizon line to get it really straight and a piece of Post It Note die cut in a circle to mask where the setting sun should be, then sponged both the ocean and the sky before I realized that I was going to need some patterned paper somewhere on the card. So I had to replace my beautifully blended ocean with some Expressions in Ink Specialty Designer Series Paper. The greens blended with gold veins really actually works well for the ocean as the gold works as the reflected sunlight!
• The blended sky is a mix of Bumble Bee, Flirty Flamingo, Highland Heather and Night of Navy, applied with Blending Brushes. The sun, after the mask is removed, was filled in with a bit of Daffodil Delight.
• I used Night of Navy and Sahara Sand as the layers die cut with the Layering Diorama dies. I added die cuts of seaweed on the Sahara Sand using the Smooth Sailing dies and more Expressions in Ink DSP.
• On the Night of Navy I added a Lighthouse, stamped in Night of Navy then embossed with Clear Embossing Powder to fulfill the Heat Embossing element of the challenge. The sailboat on the back layer is also heat embossed with Clear Embossing Powder along with the sentiment from Timeless Tropical.

• The die cuts are the lighthouse, the sailboat, the sentiment label, the seaweed and the ship's wheel. The lighthouse and sailboat were also coloured in using Light Poppy Parade Stampin' Blends, Gray Granite Stampin' Blends and So Saffron Stampin' Blends.
• The ribbon or twine is a sailor's knot at the bottom, tied using White Baker's Twine and Linen Thread.

I hope you'll play along with us!

This is the last weekend to take advantage of this promotion:

I'd love to have you join my team! To purchase the starter kit for only $135 and get $206 worth of your own choice of any current Stampin' Up! products (regularly $165 worth) click HERE!

If you live in Canada, and don't have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the right side bar at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in Canada by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the top menu or clicking on any of products below from my Online Store.

Product List

Sailing Home Cling Stamp Set [149457] $33.00	Timeless Tropical Cling Stamp Set (English) [151497] $31.00	Expressions In Ink 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper [155464] $20.00	Night Of Navy 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [100867] $12.00	Sahara Sand 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [121043] $12.00
Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock [159276] $13.25	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad [147110] $10.25	Basics Embossing Powders [155554] $24.00	Bumblebee Classic Stampin' Pad [153116] $10.25	Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Pad [147052] $10.25
Highland Heather Classic Stampin' Pad [147103] $10.25	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad [147094] $10.25	Poppy Parade Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154958] $12.00	Gray Granite Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154886] $12.00	So Saffron Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154905] $12.00
Linen Thread [104199] $6.75	Baker's Twine Essentials Pack [155475] $15.00	Heat Tool (Us And Canada) [129053] $41.00	Blending Brushes [153611] $16.25	Smooth Sailing Dies [149576] $44.00
Layering Diorama Dies [155565] $39.00	Layering Circles Dies [151770] $48.00	Stampin' Seal [152813] $11.00	Mini Glue Dots [103683] $7.25	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.50