RELAX--ENJOY and SSSC162

Happy Monday,

Here's another card that I made this weekend. It's a birthday card for one of my BFFs, who lives almost in the opposite corner of the U.S. from me. I live in San Diego and she lives in the Boston area. Our birthdays are two days apart. We met through working together, and became fast friends. Now our families vacation together frequently. While she has moved on to another employment opportunity this year, we still talk frequently. (Love IChat with our IPads!)

So, this is her card. One of the places that we vacation together is on Cape Cod, and while this may look a bit more tropical than the North East, Cape Cod in the summer does have a "tropical" feel to it.

I used Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch #162 for the layout. As usual, a fun sketch to play with. Lots of layers. I love my layers! I also love how this card turned out.

The stamp set is the latest Taylored Expressions cottage series called Coconut Cove. So cute! I stamped it on TE water color paper with Memento tuxedo black and colored it with Tim Holtz Distress Markers. Clearly I need more practice, but I think I did OK for my first time using them. After coloring the image, I fussy cut it because I wanted the cloud PP behind. For the two hibiscus flowers, I colored directly on the stamp with one of the markers and spritzed it lightly with water before stamping onto the water color paper. The images are all popped up with dimensionals and I sewed around the edges of each layer. I stamped the palm tree tops twice and used dimensionals to add more depth on the trees.

Supplies
Stamps: Coconut Cove set by Taylored Expressions
Papers: all from TE June Key Ingredients kit. TE Parakeet and Choice Snow White CS and Echo Park Hello Summer PP
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Marina Mist and Tim Holtz Distress Markers: Walnut Stain, Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Brushed Corduroy, Weathered Wood, Picket Fence, Old Paper, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge, Peeled Paint, Barn Door
Other: Large scalloped and classic circle Nesties, TE Clouds border die, TE blue ribbon, yellow candy dots, sewing machine, the Big Shot, and dimensionals

Thanks for checking in,
Colleen