I went on a Cruise Kinda!

Hi Everyone:

I know I didn't really go on a cruise with GinaK Designs but I did go on a Land Cruise at GinaK's forum on Splitcoast Stampers on Wednesday night. Yeah, me and about 100 other ladies, I'm surprised my boat didn't capsize!

I followed along with the forum, if you have ever been to a release party for one of the Stamp companies on SCS it is craziness trying to keep up. I know it and once in a while I will chime in but for the most part I just sit and "listen" to everybody else and enjoy the time with my stamping friends.

As part of the Land Cruise there are challenges. I thought I would play along as I usually do but I only liked one of the cards that I made and then only because it fit the criteria of the challenge. I'll show you what I mean later but just so that you don't go to another blog before finishing reading my story here is my last card(I had to do a second card for the water challenge) which I am pleased with.

The only problem I had with this card was it is really more pink tones but in dark gloomy rainy light it is more orange. The flower is from Melanie Muenchinger's A Year of Flowers, I can't get enough of coloring her beautiful flowers, which I colored with my Copic Markers.

I used the shoreline , the grass and the Sentiment Relax from GinaK Design's You are my Sunshine. I used my Copic Airbrush system to color in the sand and the water. I tore a sheet of cardstock to mask the water so that I could try to make some ripples or darker areas, like real water has. I think it still looks more like sky but for today it is water. That's my story and I am sticking to it, LOL. I had to draw the lily pads by hand because I don't have any lily pad stamps, what's up with that? I forgot to mention that the Challenge by Cammie was to have water on your card somewhere ( and not just what got spilled on it).

The first challenge I did was Donna Baker's challenge which was called Easy as 1 2 3. Not so easy for me. Challenge card had to have 1 piece of ribbon, no more than 2 layers and 3 embellishments that were of a like kind. Here is what I came up with:

I started with my angel. I didn't want to color her dress red because I have been making a lot of Christmas Cards and wanted to do something else. The angel is from Asela Hopkins Stamp set Christmas Blessings available at GinaK Designs. I colored her with my Copic Markers as usual and sponged around the edges with Stampin Up bordering Blue and Stampin Up Basic Brown. Then I went to grab a nice country piece of Background paper and remembered that we could only have one layer besides the card base. I decided that the Sanded Background stamp from Stampin Up would look nice and country/rustic so I inked it up with Basic Brown ink and gently placed it on my paper because I didn't want to have it be too dark. I sponged around the card base with the same bordering blue and basic brown. Okay almost done. I had to decide what to use for my embellishments. I grabbed out large country brads, nope. I grapped out buttons and fought with them for awhile, nope. I cut a piece of brown checked ribbon. I liked that but because of the size that I cut my main image I didn't really have anyplace to put three of anything I had, so nope to that too. I finally decided on some tiny heart antiqued brads and put one on the Angel's heart and the other two are attached and holding the 1 piece of twill ribbon in place. I stamped Friend from none other than GinaK Designs Botanical Dreams stamp set.

I think it turned out cute and I know my sister will like it when I show it to her this week-end. I haven't seen her for quite a few months and she is coming to see me tomorrow. That means I need to quit making cards and clean my house. It's a good thing I love her, making me stop coloring to clean.

I will probably post again this week-end but it depends. Thanks for listening to me ramble and looking at my cards.

Until next post Bye,

Cathy