Soak Up The Sun

Hi Crafty Friends,

It's challenge time with my friends over on the CCEE Stampers challenge blog, we are all ready for another year for fun challenges. Being a brand new month (and year) it's time to introduce our challenge hostess for the month which is Lynn McAuley.

For our challenge this week, Lynn has given us the theme .... It's June in January. 

Some of our fans may not realise that two of our CCEE Stampers Design Team Members are living down under in Australia. Their seasons are the exact opposite of ours. They have always gone with the flow and designed cards to conform to our climate. Let's turn the tables this week and make some  summery cards they can put to use right now! Bring on the heat!

Well Lynn asked for it .... and we got it. Maryann and I both live in Queensland, just outside Brisbane. This year we have have the hottest weather with a lot of westerly winds, the winds are very uncommon for this time of year. As I am making this card the week before Christmas ... we are experience our hottest day in a long time ... 40 degrees celsius which converts to approximately 102 degrees fahrenheit. Where Maryann lives, it is probably 1 or 2 degrees hotter for her, she is only about 30 mins away for me,  but it sure gets hot where  she lives. 

 Our state, Queensland and also New South Wales have also been burning for at least 2 months, we are safe where we are, but it has been very sad to see so much damage and thank the hard work of all the wonderful fire fighters and emergency service. I know we have to thank some who have come from other countries too and given up Christmas with their families to help with the fires.

Since writing up this blog post prior to Christmas, the fires seem to have been controlled for the most part in Queensland. However the fires are still burning out of control in NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia to my knowledge. The photos shown on the tv and social media are heartbreaking. So many have lost their homes, lives lost and over 1/2 billion animals have died. 

Anyway back to the challenge, when I was sorting out some stamps and dies on my desk, I found Lawn Fawn's Tropical Backdrop die set which was released last May I think and I hadn't gotten to use yet, so I pulled that out to use for this challenge. I decided to create a Easel Card.

I added another sand hill to my tropical backdrop panel, by using one of the borders from Lawn Fawn's Stitched Hillside Borders die set, which I colored using Distress Oxide inks and blending brushes.

To decorate my card I used stamps from MFT Stamps Sunshine & Friendship, and also Drink Up The Sunshine stamp sets.

I added sand to the base of my card and added a sentiment to a strip also sand colored to hold the easel part of the card in place.

Along the edge of the card I added the "sea" using cardstock and the waves border die from Karen Burniston's Tropical Scene die set.

Here is a look at my card when it is closed ready to be placed in an envelope.

Don't forget to check out the CCEE Stampers blog (goes live 12 AM EST) to see the rest of the creations the CCEE Stampers created this week. You can also see more details of their creations on their individual blogs:

Anne Harmon

Liz Williams

Lois Bak

Lynn McAuley

Maryann Einam

Vicky Gould

Kelly McKown-Santi

Supplies:

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