Toucan Birthday for PP792

Hello friends!  I'm here with my card for the new sketch challenge at the Paper Players.  This week the fabulous Joanne is hosting and has given us a wonderful sketch.

Paper Players

I'm also joining the Anything Goes portion of the current Seize the Birthday challenge.

STB #329

I had recently attended The Weekender Goes Wild retreat and created a card with some of the products.  I did take some liberties with the sketch, but I'll explain that below.

The retreat is all about tropical animals and environments.  This is Tiki Toucan and the branch upon which she is sitting, which extends across the panel and has vines and flowers hanging from it, represents the horizontal strip in the sketch and the larger leaf and flower on the left represents the heart.  Unfortunately, I had to move the sentiment up above so it wouldn't cover up many of the flowers and vines.

I started by die cutting all the parts of Tiki, along with all the other elements, from colored cardstock.  Since I'd already used the toucan twice in the class, putting her together was easy.  I did find a Toucan reference photo on the internet and the one with a similarly colored beak had blue feet!  So, of course I had to use that. ;-)

For the background I used the Tropicana Texture embossing folder. It is sized at 5.5" x 8.5" and creates two different A2 patterns, which is so handy!  I used one half which was layered on a lighter piece of green cardstock, then all the scene elements were added, and I thought I was good.  Somehow, though, it looked unfinished to me, so I ended up layering it on a larger black panel, with the card ending up at 6.75" x 5". The black really made Tiki pop and I had a better place for the sentiment.  I love how this turned out, and I hope you don't mind how I riffed a bit on your sketch, Joanne!!

Thanks so much for visiting and I encourage you to visit the challenge blog to see how my amazing teammates used this sketch.  The challenge will remain open until Friday July 3rd at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll join us this week!

Stef

• *Items from The Weekender Goes Wild 2026 Craft Kit.  The kit and the retreat (on video) is still available on the Spellbinders website.
• *Tiki Toucan die set
• *Jungle Blooms die set
• *Tropicana Texture embossing folder
• Spellbinders Just Add Cake sentiment set (from the Just Add Cake card kit)

Beach Time for The Paper Players

Hello friends!  Today at The Paper Players we have an appropriate theme - Beach Time!  I'm hosting this week and would love to see your beautiful cards depicting time at the beach.

The Paper Players

I'm also playing along with Time Out Challenges and their words of inspiration "It's always summer somewhere"

TOC #269

I love the beach on the Oregon Coast, where I've spent lots of time, but today my card has a more tropical vibe and I would love to spend time on this beach too!

Isn't that little beach house the cutest?  It's one of three beach houses included in Honey Bee Stamp's Lovely Layers: Beach House die set. It also includes to two smaller palm trees; the larger one is from the Lovely Layers: Hammock set.

To start, every piece was die cut from white cardstock, then I used my Copic and Olo markers to color everything.  It's a bit more work but I find I get more texture in things such as the palm trunks and fronds.  Plus, many of the pieces are so small I find it easier to color than ink blend.  With the coloring complete, everything was assembled and I moved onto the background.

I kept the background very simple to keep the focus on the die cut images, just ink blending what might be perhaps a little lagoon away from the main beach, then adding the sand and the sky. I used a white gel pen to create the gentle waves and add a bit of detail to the flag.  The sentiment was stamped and then the scene was created.  I had created a second beach house but the scene just seemed to busy to I will hold onto it for another card, maybe on a 5" x 7" size - this one is 6" x 4.5".

So what do you enjoy when you're at the beach?  We would love to have you share your beach-y themed card this week.  The challenge stays open until noon Friday 8/9.  In the meantime, my teammates have some fabulous cards to inspire you at the challenge blog, so I encourage you to pop over and take a look.

Also, if check back later, I'll have a second post with my card for The Flower Challenge.

Take care!

Stef

• Honey Bee Stamps Lovely Layers: Beach House and Lovely Layers: Hammock
• HB Sunkissed Summer Stamp Set
• Altenew Sea Glass, Sea Breeze and Turquoise inks
• Simon Says Stap Latte Ink
• Sakura White Gelly Roll pen
• Olo markers - R2.4, 2.2
• Copic markers - BG07, E75, 55, 37, 33, 31, 30 YR23, Y13

Ocean Silhouettes for Sunday Stamps

Hello, friends!  We have a new challenge for you over at Sunday Stamps and this time we bring you a colorful palette to spark your creativity!

Sunday Stamps

I'm also joining the current challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Summer.  

After thinking a bit about the colors, I felt they would work well for a tropical sky just after sunset, using the turquoise, yellow, orange and a little bit of purple. So here's what I came up with.

I started with an A2 sized panel of Ranger Distress Heavystock, which is wonderful for ink blending, and masked off where I wanted the horizon line to start and inked up the sky.  I began with a light yellow ink and went from up about 2/3rds of the way, then came down with the orange, and blending back and forth so I had a thin line of light yellow up to the dark orange.  I then blended some purple into the very top of the orange to add a bit more depth to the color.  Next, I reversed the masking and used a beautiful turquoise color for the ocean.

The panel was then place in my Misti and I used black pigment ink to stamp the lovely scene and sentiment with Gina K's Ocean Silhouettes stamp set.  When the ink dried, I used a white gel pen to create some waves in the water, minimally trimmed down the panel, then adhered directly to a black card base.  Ta da!  All done!  I love this silhouette stamp set - I used it for a couple other cards that I hope to share in the future.

I hope this has given you a bit of inspiration and for even more, please head over to the blog where my talented teammates have a bevy of beautiful creations to share with you!

Take care.

Stef

Stamps:  Gina K Ocean Silhouettes

Paper:  Hero Arts Pitch Black, Distress Heavystock

Ink:  Simon Says Stamp Surf and Orchid, Altenew Lemon Ice, Citrus Burst and Mandarin, Versafine Clair Nocturne

Other:  Sakura Gelly Roll White Gel pen

Party Like a Flock Star!

Hey, friends, just popping in with a quick post.  I made a fun birthday card with my new Inner Flamingo stamp and die set from Ellen Hutson and thought I'd share it over at The Paper Players, where they have a very fun Tic-Tac-Toe challenge going on.

PP651

I ended up going across the top row - flowers, green and embossing.

I'm also sharing this over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme this week is Summer.

I totally love these cute flamingos!  I did some very basic Copic coloring of them, along with the drink glasses and party hat.  A gold gel pen was used to color in the spots on the hats as well as the birthday girl's crown.  The leaves and flowers are also by EH, from their Tropical Foliage stamp and die set, and were stamped using a few Simon Says Stamp ink pads.

Because I wanted to make this a little tropical party scene, the card base ended up being 5x7".  I trimmed down a separate panel slightly smaller than the base, lightly ink blended it with Concord & 9th Aqua Sky, then adhered it to the base.  After gold heat embossing the sentiment (which totally tickles my punny sense of humor!), the strip of paper was added to the panel with foam tape, then all the other elements were adhered.  The flamingos were layered on two additional die cuts to give them some dimension.  I want to give credit to the card samples at EH (by Julie Ebersol?), which is where I got the idea for the placement of the drinks.  So clever and fun!

Lastly, I added Glossy Accents to the glasses, the gold spots on the party hats and the crown, and used gold glitter gems for the flower centers.

Thanks for taking time to stop by.  Take care!

Stef

Stamps and dies:  EH Inner Flamingo and Tropical Foliage

Paper:  Neenah Solar White, CutCardStock Super Smooth White (Amazon), Hero Arts Pitch Black

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Clair Nocturn, Versamark, C&9 Aqua Sky, SSS Seafoam, Limelicious, Fairway and Sherbet

Other:  Altenew Gold Gel pen and Antique Gold embossing powder, Ranger Glossy Accents, Studio Katia Gold Glitter Gems (not sure if they're still available)

Copics:  R11, 01, 00, YG05, 01, YR16