Since my dad was a professor, we always got to travel in the summers, via station wagon, all over the country. As a result of that and work travel, there is only one state I haven't been to - Alaska! Everyone says it's the most beautiful one too. Maybe that will be my next big vacation.
But at the end of the day, my favorite vacations are still the ones I drive to. Something about just the freedom that being in the car instead of someone else's timetable just speaks to me. That's pretty much the only wanderlust I have is the driving sort. I'd drive everywhere I travel to if I had the luxury of time.
Thankfully, there's all sorts of fun within a day or so of Austin - including the beach.
Possibly with a mercat on it, like on my card today. This hilarious little beachy kitty set is new at Simon Says Stamp today, along with some other summer fun in their Good Vibes collection that is out now.
The background stamp is one of the center cut ones - I love these for building scenes. I left out the center and stamped it using Morning Mist Versafine Clair because I wanted a softer grey to match my umbrella and also to let the kitty be the star. I colored the kitty and umbrella with Copics: BG11, BG34, BG49, Y19, YR27, C5, C7, RV13. After I colored the umbrella to match the kitty, I just colored over the underside with C5 for a shadow effect. The stamp set comes with matching dies, so I cut out the kitty and umbrella after I colored them, and before gluing them down, I scribbled with a Versamarker and then used the Golden Sand embossing powder from the Beach kit to put some sand on the ground. The sentiment is stamped in Nocturne.
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I fell super hard in love with the new Strangeness set. You know that I love the woodcut look, and I adore all things bird, so this one has found a loving home with me. The bird images had to be in black for maximum drama, so I stamped them in Nocturne, and cut them out on my Scan 'n Cut. I stamped the STUNNING floral image from the set, which you'll see more of shortly, in Cheerful ink. I used the FABBY new glitter paper from Concord & 9th with their Shine die - THIS GLITTER PAPER DOES NOT SHED! I have finally found my perfect glitter paper. Cuts like a dream too. This one is from their neutrals pack, which you'll see more of too.
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First - I sprayed a piece of watercolor paper with water and dropped Bombay India ink onto it in turquoise and aqua. Then I dropped rubbing alcohol onto it to distress it a bit while it was still wet. After I die cut the snowflake and the Noel from the neutrals pack Pearl glitter paper, I glued the snowflake down to the watercolor paper, and glued the Noel onto a strip of vellum, and then used the invisible vellum adhesive to attach that to the card.
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Then, I zoomed back into summer with this gorgeous new hibiscus die, that reminds me of my friend Dana - who loves all things hibiscus. Again with the glitter paper - I cut the flower center from the pearl paper. Then I cut a piece of watercolor paper with the die, and picked it all up with a piece of Press 'n Seal so it would all stay together. I removed the frame, leaving the inside pieces on the Press 'n Seal, and then painted the flower and the sky with just three colors - Quinacridone Pink, Aussie Red-Gold and Phthalo Blue Green Shade. The sentiment is from this set.
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But I saved my favorite for last. I've been into sepia lately, so I wanted to do some vintage watercolor on that big floral spray from the Strangeness set.
I set it up on my MISTI and stamped it a few times onto watercolor paper in Vintage Photo. The stamp image doesn't need to be perfect since you will end up watercoloring it. Then I painted over all the lines with water - all over the whole image. Then after that dried, I took my Elegant Writer pen and outlined some of the areas that should have shadows and then went over them with water to pull out that green color - just in the area of the main flower.
Next, I smooshed the ink and scribbled some Elegant Writer onto my craft mat, added water and did a combination of small washes and splatters over the image and the background.
You'll die of surprise here - but I finished it with - THAT'S RIGHT - my new favorite glitter paper. I punched small circles from the gold with my 1/8" punch, and then also die cut this beautiful sentiment from the gold as well.
This is on an oversized (business envelope sized) card so that I didn't have to cut off any of this beautiful image.
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If you are taking a vacation this summer - leave it in the comments for me - I'd love to hear the places you'll go!
Loveyameanitbye.
Hey girl!! Road trip starts tomorrow. Headed East this time to Ohio and KY. I will send you entertaining texts. Also, you can slap that Noel card in an envelope with my name on it since it has my middle name on it! Love every card (and story) in this post.
ReplyDeleteoh Lydia, these are all awesome! I thought I loved the kitty best, that beach sand! then I saw the Noel card, eep! each is a work of art. Thanks for sharing your talent with us. Gail
ReplyDeleteI love all of these cards!! The set from SSS says there is no...but I can't read the rest of it...great set, you know how much I love birds. We are on a two and a half month vacation starting with your retreat last month and ending at junkie fest!!! We have seen the Atlantic and might even go to devils tower and mount Rushmore!! I adore car trips. Been on all sorts of vacations, and car trips are the best by far!!
ReplyDeleteAmazing cards! We have a cabin up north and we spend a lot of time there in the summer. Occasionally we take a trip out of state, but nothing on the books as of now.
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