RELAX....

We live at the beach...right across the street from it, actually. We can see dolphin swimming by from our bedroom window, watch the ships come and go and, if we go "up top" to our widow's walk, we have a tremendous view of the entire island! Ahhh...to live at the beach I hear you say. We oftentimes fail to take advantage of it! Too busy with the "gotta do's", the "to do's" and the "must be done's" that often don't mean much past the time that it seems imperative that they be done. We all get caught up in the tyranny of the urgent...

Well, this card makes you want to stop and take a deep breath of that sunny, salty air and stretch out in that hot sun and just...RELAX. I made this for a couple who were celebrating their wedding anniversary. The beach chair image as well as the sea oats are perfect beach-scene stamps by Artful Legacy (http://www.artfullegacyrubberstamps.com/). I was in a conundrum however, as the chair faces to the right and I needed a mirrored image-one that faced to the left so they chairs would, ultimately, be facing one another. If you've tried mirror image stamps, they don't work too well. I quickly gave up on that. But then I thought about vellum--vellum is see-through...and I had brown Staz-On ink that would stamp on vellum, so I simply stamped the chair as you normally would, turned the vellum over, and stamped the second chair on the backside. Whala! Facing chairs! : ) I masked the chairs and stamped sea grass to make it look as if they had been there some time, just waiting for someone to come and occupy them.

With summer coming on...beach themed cards, pages and whatnot will be calling for great images like those Artful Legacy has. Why not curl up in YOUR favorite chair and check out their blog (http://www.artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com/) today?! You'll be glad you did!

Until next time, try the vellum trick and happy stamping and scrapping! Blessings, Sharon

Other Elements: DP: "Peaceful Dream by My Mind's Eye/29th St. Market; white cardstock & vellum-unknown; Ink: Timber Brown Staz-On; Sentiment: Printworks & Clost to my Heart; Letters: Boutique Alphabet Stamps by Clost to my Heart; antiqued brass brads, brown twine