Relaxing at the Beach

Hello Friends, here we are again with another go at the Oceanfront stamp set.   I figured I couldn't let it get the best of me, so I sat down and played around some more with the colors and layout.  And I'm glad I did!  I was determined to stamp on a quarter sheet layer and work with it from there.  It actually worked out nicer than I thought it would.

Start out with Basic White cardstock cut at 5 1/4" x 4".  The first item I stamped was the water stamp with Coastal Cabana ink approximately in the center of the piece.  It's important to get the horizon line straight at this point.  I noticed after it was finished that the left side of the water was a little low.  Since everything else was stamped already, I just let it go.

Next the sky was stamped with Balmy Blue ink.  Again, like the last card I shared, I chose to keep the horizon area lighter and the darker inking on the top edge.

Lastly, the sand area was stamped in using Crumb Cake ink.  I stamped it once angling it against the water.  It was re-inked, then turned around to stamp upside down and stamped once.  At this point, without re-inking, I turned it right-side up and stamped it partially over the area I just stamped but down a little farther.  I was paying attention to the size of the image, wanting it to stay approximately the same distance top to bottom and side to side.

Now it was time to add the extras.  The Oceanfront stamp set has two different sizes of rocks, speckly sand, and 3 different styles of grasses.   Lots to choose from to add accents.  I stamped the double rock image to the bottom left corner of the stamped image with Soft Suede ink.  I added some of the speckly dots to the sandy area using Crumb Cake ink.

At this point, I decided to use the Stitched with Whimsy Die set to sort of frame the picture.  The 2nd largest die from this set was used.  It gives a fun, double-line stitched look.  Most of the scene was contained in the stitching, but a few little spots snuck out.

A few more accents were needed to finish this picture.  For those, I turned to the On the Horizon stamp set which coordinates with this one so nicely.  Of course, you can't have a beachy scene, without seagulls in the air.  The seagulls needed to be flying by in the distance, so they were stamped in with Smoky Slate ink.

There's a nice little grass or plant cluster die in the Perfect Plants Dies.  One each were die-cut from Soft Succulent cardstock and Just Jade cardstock.  These were attached near the rocks in the bottom left corner just using adhesive.   

Then this whole layer was attached to a folded Thick Basic White cardstock base that was cut at 11" x 4 1/4".  Dimensionals were used to lift the layer from the white card base.

The sentiment is also from the On the Horizon stamp set.  I used a Soft Suede marker to ink only the word "relax" and stamped onto a small scrap of Basic White.   It was fussy cut around the word and added to the card front with Mini Dimensionals.  And the very best accent for the card was added last - Pebbles Enamel Shapes.  I added five of them in the different shapes and colors.  I love these colorful little rocks as an accent for this style of card!  (ps - they are back in stock as I write this!!)

If you've got this stamp set, get it out and start playing with it!  It's not as scary as you think it's going to be to get some lovely beachy scenes going.  And the best part?  Each one will be different from the last, even if you're using all the same colors of ink.  Just by stamping each one individually, each one will be unique!  Isn't that awesome?

Thanks for stopping in to see what I've been creating today.  Please leave a comment if you would.  I really love hearing what you think of these cards I make.  Thanks for hanging out with me for a bit today.  Hope you had fun and maybe were inspired to get your stamps out and play.

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon