Tuesday 18 July 2017

Hello Sunshine!

I've had a pair of NBUS 'beach hut' dies for quite a while, waiting for a first outing. We had an overcast day last week so I set to and made this card - in the hopes of enticing the sunshine back:
I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank, tent style - I left the width of the card blank at 8" until I'd added the 'sky' and the 'sand'

- snippet of 'sky' paper from LOTV's 'Up, Up and Away' paper pad to cover the top two thirds of the card

- snippet of Neenah 'Desert Storm' card, roughly torn along the top for the sand

- glued the sky paper and the sand card in place using a tape runner, butted up to the left hand side and also the top and bottom where appropriate

- only then did I trim the right hand side down by an inch - that ensured a perfect 'edge to edge' fit of the background :)

- before going any further, I added the sentiment using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from the really sweet Paper Smooches 'Summer Lovin' set - of course used the Misti as well!

- then I backed mauve, cream, pink, green and peach snippets of coloured card stock with Stick-It Double sided adhesive sheet

- die cut four beach huts using the pair of 'Beach Hut' Signature dies from Joanna Sheen - and carefully kept the little pop out pieces as well

- drew a fine pencil line along the 'sand' and one by one added the beach huts as well as popping the little pop out pieces into opposing colours - fiddly but satisfying

- then added the sun, die cut from peach card using the sun from the Joy! Sun & Moon set

- stamped three seagulls using the same Paper Smooches stamp set as before (tried it out first on a teeny scrap of the patterned paper as sometimes papers may lend themselves to 'bleeding')

- rubbed out the pencil lines on the 'sand'

- asked the in-house critic for his opinion as I had also stamped and fussy cut a pair of flip flops from the same stamp set to add to the sand strip

- he agreed with me that the flip flops didn't look quite right - a bit like Shrek was in town! 'Shame you don't have a crab' he said - result!

- in the very same Paper Smooches stamp set there's the cutest crab, so I stamped him onto a little leftover already Stick-It backed snippet of peach card, added a little bit of shading with a darker Polychromos pencil and fussy cut him out before sticking him to the side of the sentiment

- final touch for more fun, I added a couple of little googly eyes to 'Clarence the Crab' 

I noticed after cropping and linking the image that the green hut needed pressing down a bit more, but didn't bother retaking the photo as it's a bit of a palaver. Should have run it through the Cuttlebug before adding the eyes to Clarence, but it's well pressed down now!

If you're tempted by the beach hut dies, do be aware that they're approx. 2" tall and over 1.5" wide at the widest point. That does mean they're big enough to add your own colouring of course, which adds to the versatility.

And guess what, just as I was clearing stuff away from my desk - out came the sun! 






23 comments:

  1. so cute, it reminds me of my friends beach hut in Poole :)

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  2. Hi Di, a gorgeous beach card, love the little huts in the pastel colours and the googly eyes on Clarence, Have a wonderful week... Megan

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  3. What a lovely summertime seaside card. ADORABLE crab, glad u added him with googly eyes for extra fun. The beach huts look great & the background is perfect.

    Hugs,Sarn xxx

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  4. Wonderful summer beach scene and Clarence crab is just the right finishing touch - glad it brought the sun out again.

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  5. YAY!!! and it worked, the sun has been out for days now...lovely card, very fresh, love seaside designs as it reminds me of home xx

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  6. What a sweet card Di - love your beach huts (something that are not widely used here) and the crab is the perfect finishing touch :-)
    Blessings
    Maxine

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  7. Just the sort of card for today Di, with the sun shinning brightly. I love the little beach huts.

    Sue xx

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  8. Fab card, Di, and the beach dies are magical too, or is it Clarence that can bring out the sun? The dies are great for using up snippets of card and the crab stamp is just perfect. The sun is blazing here today so we're off out with a picnic to enjoy it. Hugs, Elizabeth xx

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  9. Love your coloured beach huts Di, fab card!
    Janice x

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  10. Beach huts are the very essence of Summer and the seaside and love what you have done with them Di. The cloud paper is perfect and the desert storm card looks great for the sand. I adore that cute crab too. x

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  11. Ooh this is absolutely gorgeous! Love the different coloured beach huts and the lovely summer scene. Of course, Clarence clearly steals the show - he is soooooo cute! Hope you are ok. Take care, hugs, Chris xxxxxxxxxxx

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  12. This card takes me back to my youth. Wonderful!
    Hugs, Liv

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  13. What a super summery card Di. The beach huts are great and the cute crab is a fun addition.
    Jean x

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  14. This is totally brilliant Di, love everything about it and brilliantly put together.
    How lucky you are to have Len, Chris has no interest whatsoever, well apart from the fact that we don't have to go out and buy a card, good job he doesn't know about the prices of crafty stuff.

    Kath x

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  15. I'm glad your delightful beach hut summer card enticed the sun out, Di! Way to go! And way to go to the IHC for mentioning the crab ... Clarence is perfect, especially with his googly eyes!! Hugs, Darnell

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  16. This is such a pretty card lovely beach huts reminds me of the one's we still have on the sea front and hopefully the sun will come out again here too! x

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  17. Such a lovely scene and the little crab just makes the card. Good to know that they do have their uses occasionally, now if I can just train mine to put the seal of the milk in the bin.....not a chance!

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  18. Great card Di.

    I love the beach huts and of course little Clarence with his googly eyes .. .. he is the perfect finishing touch.

    Could you perhaps make one of these very early each day so that we can have more sunshine please?

    Love Jules xx

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  19. Now I know where the sun has gone LOL! I love beach huts and this card is so fab with the little crab too.

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  20. Oh this is such a lovely summery card. Very pretty indeed and I love Clarence's goodly eyes. Barbxx

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  21. Fab card - I have beach hut stamps but not seen the dies before. xx

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