Crafty Lizzie: Sand between toes, relaxing.

When the amazing Jenn Shurkus offered up an opportunity to appear on her {creative chick} blog, I didn't wait one second to jump at the opportunity! Ok, maybe I waited a little while, because I am so horribly backlogged on my email (hangs head in shame)... but as soon as she sent a reminder, THEN I didn't wait one second more! :)

Anyway, this is a very exciting day!

Jenn's chosen theme for this guest post is ocean/nautical, and so you know I had to grab some of the awesome custom images designed by and sold at Colorful Creations. I had picked up most of this custom collection last summer, but let's just say I hadn't necessarily used them as much as I had wanted... so I was thrilled to get to ink them up!

The card base is A Muse's wheat (I had never before realized how few paper colors actually approximate sand -- and I have a HUGE paper stash!), and the waves are punched from Stampin' Up!'s tempting turquoise. I stamped each of the three images in black VersaFine. The beach umbrella was paper pieced -- I tried coloring it with the coordinating SU tempting turquoise pen, but the color "coordinates" i.e. does not match 100%, and it looked off. Paper piecing is a little too fussy for me, usually, but for this card, the effort was definitely worth it.

I colored in the adirondack chairs with a white watercolor pencil, to give them a slightly weathered finish that would stand out from the card base (but wouldn't be as bold as, say, a Signo white uniball pen). I punched three sets of waves using my Fiskars border punch, and used a little ultrafine glitter to depict snowcaps. I finished the card off with a bit of SU's tempting turquoise grosgrain ribbon.

Don't forget to head on over to Jenn's blog all month for some inspiring ideas created by her and her friends.

Jenn's friend Christy's mom was just diagnosed with stomach and lung cancer. It is in-operable and not a good situation. I have decided that I am going to offer up my creation to the *highest* "bidder" and will donate that money to Christy's mom. So if you would like to bid on my item, please go here and make an offer. I will ship out my purse to the winner as soon as the auction is closed.

Thanks for stopping by!