Life is a Beach Inspired Project

Hi Everyone!  It’s Wini from LooneyBugDesigns here with your inspiration for the day.
 
As much as I love this months cartridge Life is a Beach (LIAB), for some reason I do not own it yet.  Even though it is on my list of cartridges to get, there are others that I want more so I decided not to go out and get it right now.  Instead I turned on my Gypsy and started looking over the images on LIAB for inspiration.  I loved the Orchid Image and decided I would use that as my inspiration.
Next I needed to pick an Orchid type flower from a cartridge that I do have.  I decided to use 50 States since it has so many different flowers and found one that I liked.  I placed 4 flowers and the matching layer on a mat on my Gypsy and used my favorite feature Hide Contour to erase all the parts I didn’t want.  I LOVE THIS!  Here is a picture of my Gypsy Mat all ready to cut.

Now why did I use 4 flowers?  Because that is how many fit on the paper that I was planning on using.  No other reason then that.  I cut them out of white paper so that I could color them with my Copics any color I wanted.  I love to start with a blank canvas.

I airbrushed the Leaf on all 4 of the bottom layers (I only ended up using 2 of the bottom layers but I colored all I had in case I made a mistake – and besides it is so fun to airbrush! I ended up using 3 colors of green and a hint of pink on the leaves.

Next it was time to color the flower layers.  I airbrushed the tops and backs of all the flower layers so that I could curl them up and add lots of dimension to the flower.  The flowers have 3 colors of violet, some pink and on the top sides (sorry didn’t get a picture of that) some yellow in the center.  I shaded them lightest in the middle and darkest along the outside edges – because that is the way I thought they looked good.

Next I layered my flower, curling up the edges as I went and added some yellow Flower Soft to the middle because I felt it was too flat.

My last step before putting my airbrush system away was to color some cream ric-rac to match the flower.  The dimension on this card is perfect and reminds almost more of a Lilly Pad flower then an Orchid but I still like it anyway.

Remember just because you don’t have a cartridge that someone used on a project doesn’t mean you can’t make something.  I love to improvise and add my own twist to things.  So break out your cartridges and imagine what you can make with them!
Thanks for visiting today and come back Tuesday for another great LIAB Project. 
Wini aka LooneyBug aka PoohBearBaby from the Cricut  & Circle MB’s

Lifes a Beach Bon Voyage card

Hi, I'm Flo and I am a guest designer this month for Tuesday Treats. I am Flohill on the cricut message board and my blog is http://flos-a-scrapin.blogspot.com/ This months cartridge for Tuesday Treats is Life is a Beach and I designed a card from this cartridge.

The first Pic shows the gypsy and the icons from LIAB that I put on the screen.

The 2nd pic shows where I placed the papers to cut the icons. I have always used CDS or a gypsy. I have used the whale, the dolphin, the gekko, the starfish and the chairs at 2 inches. The waves at the bottom are at 1 inch and the 2nd layer is slightly smaller to fit the mat. The wording is 1 inch. I used textured cardstock from http://www.grant.com.au/ and A5 designer Paper 'Azalea' from Rosie's Studio. Both of these I cut on medium speed pressure 4 cutting blade 5 and double cut. The tops of the starfish did not cut well so I discarded those. Once cut I put together the layers of the dolphins, the chairs and the whales but the gekkos I left without the layer as I had cut them in coloured paper.

I used a premade card from a pack and used SU ink pads to sponge the background inside the card. I used 3 shades of blue- Brocade Blue, Brilliant Blue and almost amethyst and for the sand used creamy caramel, barely banana, and summer sun. To get the sun I sponged around a circle and left the centre white. You can see in this 3rd pic. I have added the whale and also added the first bank of waves.

I have added 3 sets of waves and have made these stand up by making them pop up like a pop up card with the attachment to either the waves behind or to the back of the card. I have added the whales to the back of the card and the dolphins to the waves so when you open up the card the waves and the dolphins pop out from the back of the card. You will see I got a bit messy and ended up with blue ink on my sand so I used the starfish to cover this and then added the gekkos. The life's a beach wording came from the cart and has been cut at 1 inch and outlined in gold pen.

The wording on the bottom of the card reads Bon Voyage again from the LIAb cartridge.

This is the front of the card and again the wording is from the font on LIAB and the whale and the beach chairs.

Below I describe how I have made the waves pop up.

I made the waves from the card pop up so I could put the dolphins in the waves. I used the system I describe here but made the boxes very small so they would be hidden behind the waves.

How to do the popup parts. I have made this box large so if you are unsure how it works you can see it but when you are using these to do popup cards make the box so the object you are popping up hides the box.

Take a strip of paper and make a square.

Adhere one side of the square to the base of the card directly in front of the fold of the card.

Adhere the back of the square to the top of the card so now when you open the card there is a square box in the fold of the card.

Adhere the object that you want to popup to the front of the square. Look at the pictures and you will see the card now can close and the object lies flat and pops up when the card is opened.

The waves I made were quite small and the boxes behind are about 1/4 inch but they have worked well and the waves and dolphins pop up. I hope you have enjoyed looking at how I di this card as much as I enjoyed making it. Check out my blog to see other things I have done.