Life is better in flip flops!

I'm needing some distractions in my life right now, how about you? Who knew the world could get crazier than it already was?!? My heart is feeling so sad and I'm truly looking for the good when there seems to be so much ugliness all around! I always feel happy when I'm creating and doing! I thought I'd give you all some more summer cheer with two cards that I worked on today!

My inspiration for today comes from the water park, which it so often does with my summer designs! Our county has moved to yellow, which means more things are opening up. We got season passes for Christmas to the local amusement park which also includes a water park. I honestly didn't know if we would get a chance to use them at all this year, so the fact that it has opened with safety precautions is awesome! We headed out on Monday not knowing quite what to expect, but it was fabulous. Sun, water, Vitamin D, people, laughter, happy kids...it was all worth it. The few hours that we were there made life seem normal, except the  large crowds were non-existent, which is a plus in my book! LOL! It's still crazy seeing everyone with masks on and dots on the ground keeping us all 6 feet away, but I'm grateful for these precautions so we can enjoy ourselves a little bit more! We didn't have to wear our masks in the water, thank heavens! Anyway, I know you didn't come here to listen to me ramble on! My cards were inspired by a woman's swim suit with blue palm fronds on it, but the rest just evolved from there! I was excited to try some unconventional leaves to get a fresh look!

Since the leaves were the inspiration, that is what I worked on first. I die cut the palm fronds, which are from the Botanicuts Palm dies from The Greetery. They are cut from watercolor paper and then I colored them using my Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor set and a water brush pen. I also spritzed them with Shimmer Spray and set them aside to dry.

While they were drying, I cut two 4 by 5 1/ 4 inch panels from Bitty Big: Harvest Gold pattern paper and stamped the two different sentiments. They are both from the Flipping Out stamp set. I don't have a lot of summer sentiments, but I knew these could be fun. I wasn't planning on adding any of the actual flip flop images to the cards, but once I had it out, I decided to give it a try! I ended up really liking it, so each card got a pair of flip flops as well. I die cut them using the Flipping Out die collection and then stamped them using my mini MISTI.

I die cut the flowers using the Some Like it Hot die collection and then stamped those using my mini MISTI as well. Once all of the elements were created, I was able to start working on an arrangement that looked nice. I used the Press'n Seal technique to arrange both the leaves and the flowers/flip flops. I really should use this technique more because it makes things so easy!

When I was fiddling with the palm leaves, I accidentally got some blue paint on one of the striped panels, so rather than get irritated, I used it to my advantage and just added some additional blue splatter using my color spritzing tool and a blue marker! Problem solved! I actually ended up by doing that on both cards even though only one got the paint on it! I added some white Nuvo drops here and there and a few sparkling clear sequins to finish off these tropical designs!

And last but not least, here is today's "left over" tag creation. I had toyed around with adding a pineapple to the cards, but opted not to. It was the perfect thing to add to this tag. I die cut the tag using the Made with Love Tags 3 die out of the same striped paper. I stamped the "happy summer" sentiment, which is also from the Flipping Out stamp set in black and then arranged the die cuts. I went a little crazy with the Nuvo drops, but since it's just a simple tag, I'm just going with it! LOL! I added some of the same blue ink splatter on the tag as well and tied it up with some True Black Baker's Twine.  I love making tropical cookies this time of year and this tag will be the perfect accent to add to some simple packaging! Thanks for fluttering by!