Bron’s Birthday Blog Hop #6

 Theme #6: Tropical Holiday

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the sixth and final blog hop celebrating Bronwyn Eastly. We're a group of stamping friends that are recognising Bron's 60th Birthday in 2022 with six blog hops, over six months, with six fun themes! And today is Bron’s special day - HAPPY BIRTHDAY Bron. Hope you are having a fabulous day and wonderful tropical holiday.

Photo from australiantraveller.com

I had a concept in my mind, but as I started my project the card morphed into something different. I have used the Sunkissed stamp set that can be found on page 69 of the July - December Stampin’ Up! Mini Catalogue. These stamps spoke to me of a relaxed tropical holiday. I have used a number of colouring techniques, including Marker Direct to Stamp, Watercolour and Stampin’ Alcohol Blends.

The card size and fold were a couple of things that changed during the development process. Working around the size of the images I had stamped and coloured, there was a lot of cutting of card-stock and Designer Series Paper, discarding pieces and recutting, then trimming to fit. As I was finishing the card I mused that I actually had no concrete idea of the dimension of pieces of card-stock and DSP used. Not my usual practice.

The card is slimline has images on the 3 front panels so the place to write the personal message is on the back of the card. 

I started by stamping the images from the Sunkissed stamp set onto Shimmery White cardstock using the Marker Direct to Stamp method. I used my Stamparatus and coloured the images in sections using a range of Stampin’ Markers, including Calypso Coral, Petal Pink, Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand, Smoky Slate, Evening Evergreen, Parakeet Party, Soft Succulent, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Tahitian Tide, Coastal Cabana, Soft Suede & Gray Granite.

The images were further coloured with a number of Stampin’ Blends, including Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Balmy Blue, Smoky Slate, Old Olive, Petal Pink, Calypso Coral combos plus my trusty Colour Lifter. Extra panels of Shimmery White card-stock were water-coloured to represent sky and sand. 

In thinking about what I would use to mat the focal pieces and the back of a couple of the panels, I thought of the now retired Waves of the Ocean Designer Series Paper. This gorgeous DSP was only available for a short time as a special promotion when the Waves of Inspiration bundle was released early. It seemed to be perfect for this tropical theme.

I am planning to give this card to a male family friend so I didn’t want to use my usual bow and sparkles. Instead I added a brilliant finish that I have seen Susan Wong, Artisan and member of #thecraftycarrotco use, ie securing a brad and tying twine to it; then wrapping the twine around the card multiple times to hold it closed. A sentiment from the Waves of Inspiration stamp set was stamped in Crumb Cake directly to the third panel so it could also be seen when the card is closed. A number of Classic Matte Dots added that final touch.  This slimline card fits into one of Stampin’ Up!s Slimline Envelopes.

Thank you so much for calling by.

Hop on over to the next blog by the very special Bronwyn Eastley (and birthday girl) and check out her delightful creation. Just click on Bronwyn’s name or the Next graphic below to be taken to her Blog, Addinktivedesigns.

If you come across a broken link or want to head to Bron's blog for a list of everyone in this blog hop, just click on this link. 

Apart from this Blog Hop there is also an Instagram Hop starting with Bron at @addinktivedesigns. Check it out too - there is more creativity to find.

#bronsbdaybloghops #stampinup #stampinupsouthpacific #stampinupdemo  #handmadecards #makeacardsendacard #stampinupdemonstrator #papercrafting #sunkissed #wavesofinspiration