A Clean and Simple Oceanfront card – #simplestamping

Sometimes you need a card to let a friend know that you are thinking of them – no occasion or any particular reason – just thinking about that person. The combination of the Stampin’ Up! Oceanfront stamps with the Go To Greetings are perfect for these messages.

My friend, Ro, mentioned to me that it is very hard to find a greeting card that just says that.  Sometimes you need to reach out and contact a friend whom you have not seen in a very long time – like my friend, Peg, was talking about.  Sometimes you want to check in with someone after the “Sympathy card” timeframe has passed – but your sympathy has not.  Or maybe you have someone who is on the mend – or perhaps, and sadly, not on the mend – who needs to hear from you.  These are just some applications for a “thinking of you” card.

Today’s card is very easy to make.  The card cuts are few and the technique is not complex. 

Are you just beginning your cardmaking journey – or seeing if this is something that you would even enjoy doing?  This might be a good first attempt.

Here are the card cuts:

The first step is to cut one more panel to 3-3/4” x 5” to be used as a “stencil” for the circle on the front panel.  I used a circle die to make a 3” circle.  But you can easily use anything at hand that will let you trace a circle of approximately that size so that you can hand cut the shape.  (Do not be too concerned if your cutting is not quite perfect – this technique allows for that very gracefully.)

Once you have created a stencil, place it on top of the Very Vanilla panel of the same size.  I chose to adhere the stencil to the panel using a “Post it” type paper that has a full stick backing.  These are available here at Amazon – or in many other places. 

(Please note that I am NOT an Amazon affiliate as of this post.  However, if that status changes in the future, it will be disclosed in the right column of this blog.)

This paper is useful for all kinds of things in my cardmaking.  But they are useful in many other tasks as well!

Once you have the stencil in place, use Stampin’ Up Blending Brushes to brush on the ink.  I used Balmy Blue and Crumb Cake for my colors.  The blue of the ocean up north is closer to Balmy Blue during the summer, where more southern waters might be closer to Coastal Cabana.  This is all a matter of taste!

Remember that you are trying to achieve a watercolor look for this design.  Making sure that the colors are wispy is much more important than making them uniform.  Check on the intensity as you continue to brush on the ink to be sure that you get the effect that you like.

I inked the top two-thirds of the circle with Balmy Blue and the bottom third with Crumb Cake ink.  Be sure that you blend the colors together just a bit so that the sand fades into the water as it would at the shoreline.

Once the stenciled circle is complete, the Stampin’ Up! Oceanfront Stamp Set offers a beautiful set of sea grass that I have stamped in Crumb Cake ink.  I did use a Stamparatus so that I could darken the stamping if the first impression was not intense enough.  However, that is not necessary if you do not happen to have one.  An acrylic block works perfectly too!

I added the “Thinking of you” sentiment from the Stampin’ Up Go to Greetings – which has easily become one of my Go to stamp sets!  It has greetings in multiple sizes and multiple fonts, and they are all beautiful as well as useful.

I stamped another impression of the sea grass on the inside panel but left most of the area ready for a message to the recipient.

These cards are wonderful candidates for creating batches of cards if you want to make gifts for folks – and, of course, I just cannot resist that option!

I decided to enter this card into two challenges:  Color Throwdown #703 and Just Us Girls Challenge #643.  The Color Throwdown for this challenge was amazingly looking for the exact colors that I had chosen – great summer, beachy colors for sure – cream, Kraft, and powder blue.

 Just Us Girls wants a design that is a CAS’d design from another designer who inspires us.  My designer for this project is Lisa Freeman whose card appeared on a YouTube video.  I watch Lisa very often as we have a similar style, and she loves creating beautiful cards in batches!  Thanks for the inspiration for this one, Lisa!

Whether you are new to stamping – or not – think about giving this card a try.  It will fill a wonderful niche in your card needs as well as being a beautiful creation that will make you feel a bit accomplished.  (Ok, maybe that’s just me…)

The supplies that I used for this card follows!  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to brainstorm through other variations of this design…in fact, stay tuned…I am working on a few more applications of this technique as I write this!