Howdy, friends, and happy Tuesday! Yesterday just completely got away from me, and by the time I got this card finished, it was well past time for me to be snoozing.

This week, our designs are going to be all about summer. There are so many great summery products in my crafty stash that need some love, so I’m looking forward to working with this week’s theme. Today we’re getting started with a super simple card using the new Splash & Relax stamps and dies. And I have to give credit for the layout to fellow demo and Luv 2 Stamp team member Patti Dolan.

We get started on today’s card with a base of Gray Granite cardstock. And then our focal panel is a quarter panel of Gray Granite that is torn to make a lazy river in the middle. Our lazy river is a sheet of the blue shimmer vellum that’s machine embossed with the Soft Waves embossing folder and mounted over another panel of vellum to give it a bit more structural integrity and depth of color. The panel is then adhered to the card front with dimensionals.

Next we work on our fun elements using the new Splash & Relax stamps and dies. The innertubes are all stamped first in a variety of happy colors — blue-greens, yellows, and pinky-oranges — and then diecut with the coordinating die and adhered over the lazy river with dimensionals. I needed a few more fun summer elements and decided to make some flip flips and sunglasses. The flip flops are a combination of Barely Blush and Melon Mambo papers with some small rhinestones as the decorative element. And the sunglasses combine Blackberry Bliss and textured silver metallic paper for the perfect mirrored shades.

The sentiment is from the Splash & Relax stamp set and is stamped in a combination of Lost Lagoon and Pretty Peacock onto a scrap of Pool Party cardstock and then cut into a banner shape with paper snips. We finish things off with a combination of white and blue shimmering dots.

When I chose the Gray Granite, I was going for the look of a pool deck, which I think it accomplishes, but it doesn’t give me that ahhhhh feeling I was going for. In hindsight, I might pick a different neutral next time — maybe Crumb Cake or something like it — to give a more beachy feel. And here’s a hot tip for you! It’s always better to decide where you want your sentiment before you adhere the piece you’ll be stamping on onto your card base. Otherwise, you may not get a clean image and then you’ll have to make a quick pivot to create a separate sentiment panel that fits in the tiny space you allotted. Ask me how I know this. Ooops!

Hope you’ll drop in tomorrow to see what’s next in our summer card series!

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