Paper Smooches Cool Shades - Turtle Birthday Card

This is my first time participating in the paper smooches cool shades challenge. I just bought my first one of their stamp sets - Party Posse. Super cute! I can't wait to make some more cards with this set.

Fish More Thank You Note Set

(Click to view larger)

For Father's Day, I made my Grandfather a set of Thank You notes using WPLUS9's "Fish More" set.  I had a few more colors of lures than the photo, but I wanted to make sure I got a snap before the sun went away.

Unfortunately, it was windy and one card blew away and got ruined.

A few close-ups. (Click to enlarge)

I also made him a card to go with his gift set using the latest card kit paper from Studio Calico. This card uses oval dies from Papertrey Ink as well as their Bountiful Banners Die. I think the heart is cut from a Simon Says Stamp die that includes hearts and stars.

WPLUS9's Mood Board #14

I decided to make a card for WPLUS9's Monday Mood Board #14. This is what I came up with based on their inspiration photo.

 I only have one of their stamp sets that I just ordered a few weeks ago (though I now have more on my wish list!). Since that one stamp set I have is called "Fish More" and is full of fishing lure stamps, I had to get creative! I used the "Honey" sentiment, squiggly fishing line, and the small fish stamp which I used as flower petals! I just stamped the little fish over and over until it created a full flower!

Magic! I wish I could say using unconventional stamps in this manner was my idea, but I've seen other stamps used this way. I thought the technique could work for me with this little fish, and it did!

WPLUS9 "Fish More" Birthday Card

This is a card I made for my Dad's Birthday. I used the fishing lures and "Dad" sentiment from WPLUS9's Fish More stamp set and coordinating dies. This is my first stamp set purchase from them. I was inspired by this beautiful card by Jean Martin. The Happy Birthday, anchor, and banner are from Papertrey Ink's Bountiful Banners stamp set and coordinating dies. The giant "Birthday" running along the side of the card is also from Papertrey and is from Wonderful Words: Birthday.  Aren't the lures adorable? I used the corner of my black ink pad to make the zebra top on the green fish. I also used some tape to mask the stamps to make it easier to multi-color them. All the lures are stamped with ColorBox pigment inks and embossed with clear powder.

I also made a matching envelope for the card. I glued two sheets of pattern paper together and then used my Martha Stewart Score board thing to make the envelope. It has a special triangle gadget that tells you what size to cut the paper and where to score to get specific sizes of envelopes.  I added a little tape on the corners and some scor-tape between the layers of the envelope flap to make sure the envelope didn't start to separate.

Also, my card didn't get this beautiful on my first try. Check out my epic fail/first try below!

I quickly discovered that my pigment inks from Amuse and Impress were not working for me. I ended up using my Colorbox pigment inks with clear embossing powder to get the lovely lures you see on my finished card. Also, before my next try, I googled "fising lures" and got inspiration from a lure manufacturer!

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