I Challenge You Wednesday: Sea Theme

When we moved here four years ago, I moved six hours away from my family. My mom and sister are my best friends, and I missed them terribly. I hadn't had a close "girl" friend since college days, and all of those "girls" have moved away so our friendships must continue long distance. I'm sure you know that sometimes you just need a friend to do something with. So I prayed for a friend, and I even had some long distance friends praying, too.

It wasn't more than three months after we first started praying that I discovered a fellow pastor's wife just an hour and a half down the road. (That might sound like a lot, but it's a lot closer than six hours to see my family!) They had moved around the same time that we had and were just as lonely, but it took us a year to "discover" each other.

Not only was she of the same beliefs theologically, we discovered that we had A LOT in common. Her daughter and my son were born a year and a day apart. She enjoys crafts, especially rubber stamping. I could go on and on, but you get the point. She was my answer to prayer! To top it off, our husbands hit it off, and our kids did, too. So we literally have "family" friends!

We get to see each other a few times a month since they come up our way to do some shopping on a regular basis. But we thought it would be fun to "get together" via our blogs every week and create together. So we're calling this "I Challenge You Wednesday", and our first challenge was to create something sea-themed.

Here is what all I came up with this week ...



This uses my cheap graduation cards, the seashell stamp my husband recently found at the thrift store, my homemade glitter brads, and the Fiskars textured rubber brayer that came in the same pack as the stamp. I also used my Nestabilities Labels 1, D'vine Swirls embossing folder, gold embossing glitter and gold embossing powder.

I liked the effect of using the textured brayer with my Versamark pad and gold embossing glitter. The background sparkles every time you move the card. I wanted it to mimic sand, and it does remind me of it.



This second project is very similar, but I used different supplies and it looks quite different. Here again, I used the cheap graduation cards, my thrifted seashell stamp, my thrifted Fiskars textured brayer, and my homemade pearl brads.

I also used my Nestabilities Labels 1 and D'vine Swirls embossing folder with the double embossing technique to highlight the stamp. I stamped the seashell in Versamark and then rubbed over it with chalk. I created the same type of card background, but this time I used the iridescent embossing powder.



My sister-in-law's birthday is today (so is my husband's, since they're twins) and I wanted to make her notecards to go with her other gift, which I'll share another day. She loved the last set of notecards I gave her, so I had fun personalizing these to her. She loves the sea and the beach, so this was the perfect theme for her notecards.

For the focal point image, I combined a lifesaver digital stamp from Leaves of Time and a free "message in a bottle" PhotoShop Brush called SS Beaches. I added Paper Glaze to the bottle to make it look more like a bottle (translucent). You can see it upclose below:



I also used my Nestabilities Labels 1, D'vine Swirls embossing folder, and my MS scoring board. I printed the sentiment from my computer. I think she's going to like them!

But wait - there's more. I couldn't just give her a set of notecards tied up with a ribbon when I just ran across the perfect packaging! So here's the gift "bag" that the cards will be stored in:



It's from a free template by the ever-talented and generous Mel. Doesn't it look just like a beach tote? There's a Technique Lover's Challenge on Splitcoast right now using these bags, and I saw one that added a fancy cut-out around the handle. that reminded me of the lifesavers on the cards, and the rest of the decoration just fell into place. I also added Paper Glaze to this bottle, and it gives it just the right touch.

I had to adjust the template a bit since my cards were too big for the original size. I just printed out her template and used it as a guide on graph paper to make mine big enough. (Hers fit onto an 8.5x11" paper, and I stretched mine to a 12" paper.)

So there you have my creations for our first "I Challenge You Wednesday". Now you'll want to visit my friend's blog to see what she came up with! And feel free to play along, if you'd like. Just add a link to your project(s) in the comments.

And if you'd rather just observe, that's fine, too! :)