Celebrate Summer

This week's theme for the HoneyBee Showcase over at Betty Bee's Buzz Blog is "It's summertime and the living is easy". I love summer at the beach. I live close enough that I can go to the beach any day I want.  I work in my kids' school and I have summers off.  Fabulous! The countdown is on. We get out June 15th.  Most of my best summer memories involve the shore (as we say in NJ when we speak of the beach). I have been mulling this project over for days. I had a panel that I had embossed some time ago with Spellbinders Seascape Impressabilities on SU Blush Blossom card stock. I knew I would use that as my background. I have had so much inspiration lately from so many fellow crafters... My friend June Houck made something fabulous recently using cork (HERE) , so I was inspired to pull that out and use it as "sand". I just got this new MFT Die-Namics Catch a Wave and used it for my for water... The seahorse is from this wonderful stamp from Outlines Rubber Stamp Company Split Layer Collage - Splash. I CASE'd the colors on the seahorse from THIS post. My friend Shirley inspired me to color it with Twinkling H2O's. I usually use Copics, but Shirley's post about Twinkling H2O's (HERE) being alive and well, inspired me to color my image with them. They are so shiney and sparkeley - I love them. I thought the addition of the rope made the whole thing look nautical. I used a white Gel pen to make the dots on the seahorse stand out.  I really fussed with the colors for the base and the first layer, but I am happy with the final product. I love that this project made me go to places I have not been.  Thank you for coming by and thank you always for your feedback!

Relax and Enjoy

I don't usually combine lots of challenges, but there is something in the air out there in challenge blogland -SUMMER!  Summer officially opened for me yesterday.  The criteria for the first day of summer in our family is not a date.  The first day of summer consists of going "down the shore" (New Jersey speak for "to the beach") and stay there for at least 4 hours, and in addition you have to go to Strollo's Lighthouse for Italian ice - Lighthouse Italian Ice is the "taste of the Jersey Shore" and for diehard fans like me and mine, it's the taste of summer itself.  Yesterday, my boys had a half day at school.  We packed the car in the morning, and left right from there and headed down the shore.  We had Italian ice for dinner, and pizza for dessert.  It was a perfect first day of summer.

There are three challenges out there on the challenge blogs I frequently visit, for which this card is perfect:
Less Is More has a really fun and creative challenge this week.  It was the inspiration for my design. 
It is:

PICK A SQUARE

For their "Pick a Square" challenge, Chrissie and Mandi offer us a multiple choice.... well sort of ... you can choose which of the 5 SQUARES from their plan that you wish to use to place the image of your card, leaving the rest as PURE WHITE SPACE! Isn't that so fun and clever? I just love it!

The C4C challenge this week - C4C89 - is to create a project that features your favorite vacation spot or activity.  Well, my favorite spot is the beach, and my favorite activity is relaxing in my beach chair! Voila!

The Stamp Something challenge last week was to use beachy colors, and this week, it is to use a sentiment.  I did not get time to play last week, so with the beach in mind, this card combines the two.

The image I used is from Outlines Rubber Stamp Company's Split Layering Collage Collection - Seaside. I colored it with Copics and mounted it on 2 layers of square Nesties.  The sentiment is from MFT's Catch Some Rays.  I could not find it on their website to link it at this time.

Thank you for coming by.  I hope you have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend!