Life is Better in Flip Flops!

Have you missed me? I have missed being home in my stamp "shack". We got back Wednesday night from our trip to Port Aransas. I was thrilled on Thursday evening to have a chance to go play a little with some of my "new" goodies I got at the Great American Scrapbook Convention last Friday. Yes, let's first talk a little about the convention. I had hoped there would be some stamps there for sale ... well, there were and lots of them! I spent way too much money but I am pleased with my purchases. I stayed on track and got stamps and supplies perfect for my cards I post to my blog. I got a number of new nestibilites because one booth had them for half price ... can you believe it? I just don't understand how they were able to make any money! Of course, part of me feels that they shouldn't do that because that really hurts any local store that does sell them. Oh well, that is of course, beyond my control! That same booth had all the Just Rite sets for half off too! These sets I have often debated about getting, but until now haven't purchased. So, in the future, you will see these stamps on my cards, too. The booth that got most of my stamping money was Inky Antics. I love all their cute designs. All of their stamps are either wood mounted or some images are grouped into a single clear set. To get more images for my buck, I mostly got the clear sets I liked but, I couldn't resist a few wood mounted that were not on any clear sets, too. I can't wait to use all my new stuff for you and me!

Now on to today's card. Since I just got back from the coast, I decided to go with a beach theme. And I wanted to use my new "stuff", of course. A couple of months ago, Jen delMuro had a card on her blog where she used a ric rac die from Papertrey Ink to look like water. I absolutely loved the look and had planned on ordering the die from Papertrey at some point. Well, at the scrapbook convention, I found in the Sizzix booth, a sizzlits die (12") with a ric rac border and a loopy border on one die. Now I think the Papertrey one is probably made to cut thru thicker items, but for my purposes, I thought the Sizzlits one would work just fine! The palm tree and the flip flops are from a new Hero Arts clear set I got at the show. The set is awesome and includes images you will see again like a crab, a beach ball, a bird with sunglasses, a hibiscus, a party drink glass, a fish, and the words "Let's Chill". The booth that had the Hero Arts was actually my ex-competitor but I figure at this point, I would rather have a new Hero Arts set than worry about that! The sentiment is one that I got back at the January stamp convention and have been waiting until summer got here to use! Finally, here is my card ... enjoy!


Let me explain quickly how I did the main rectangle. I took a piece of white cardstock a little larger than the nestibilites I was going to use and adhered all the pieces to it including the ric rac pieces, the orange cardstock at the top and the cork at the bottom. Then, die cutted the whole piece with my big scalloped rectangle die. I love the way it came out, don't you?

Recipe:

Paper - Stripes by My Minds Eye, Cardstock White, Orange, 3 colors of Blue, Aqua, Cork.
Stamps - Hero Arts clear set called Let's Chill, Life is better ... by Morning Star
Ink - Versafine Black, Prismacolor Pencils, Gamsol
Die Cuts/Punches - Sizzix Loops & Ric Rac, Big Scalloped Rectangle Nestibliites, Cuttlebug Polka Dots
Other - Buttons by O'Scrap, Tiny clear Rhinestones by Hero Arts, Twine by The Cat's Pajamas

I will try to get back to my room sometime this weekend, so hopefully, I will be back posting by Sunday or Monday. Until then ... Happy Stamping!
Tina