Salt Air Summer {You are so Loved}

I can't believe we've made it to June! This has been a long year so far and I'm ready for some summer vibes! Our temperatures are heating up, which I don't love, but I'm going to enjoy all of the other delights of the season! I love making summer cards but I feel like it doesn't last long and we're diving into Back to School, autumn and Halloween before we know it! Anyone else feel that way? I decided that I'm going to soak it up and make as many as I can!

I was 100 % inspired by one of the Bath and Body Works soaps that I have in my powder room right now! Every time I wash my hands in there, I make a mental note that I want to make a card just like it! ha ha! Today was the day, and I got to work using my underused and neglected Salt Air: Fauna Stamp Set. It is one of my favorites, but I haven't done much with it! I'll share a photo of the soap at the bottom of the post and you will see I took a VERY literal approach in my execution, but it was so much fun to watercolor the underwater plant life and small fish using the Reef Builder Die . 

To begin both cards, I stamped the seahorses and the seashells and then die cut them using the Salt Air: Fauna die collection. I also added some extra details to the seahorses using colored pencils. I die cut all of the pieces from the Reef Builder die collection out of watercolor paper and then colored them using watercolors using the soap bottle as my color guide. 

I set the watercolored pieces aside to dry and got to work on the heat embossed sentiments. While I LOVE the whimsical sentiments that are part of the Salt Air Sentiments stamp set, I wanted something a little more traditional and classic to keep in line with the look and feel of the soap label. For one card, I used the "thanks" sentiment from the Never Enough: Thanks stamp set heat embossed in gold onto a strip of vellum. For the second card, I used the "You are so loved" sentiment from the Expressions of Empathy stamp set.

I die cut two panels using the Love to Layer: Notched Die using Fresh Snow Linen Cardstock. For the "thanks" card, I added some watercolor spatter AFTER I had everything assembled, but for this one, I added the splatter ahead of time so I didn't have to cover up the sentiment and the seahorses. I also added some Essentials: Jewels to this card and some dew drops to the other design. I also gave them a spritz, or two, or three of Shimmer Spray for added sparkle and shine!

I layered the panels onto two card bases; one is Tropical Teal and the other is Mint Julep. I added some pierced detail around the edges of the card bases using the largest die in the Nesting Basics Pierced Rectangles. I was hoping it would show a little bit more, but I like the little detail it gives to the corners. 

I had some die cut pieces left over so I decided to make a few tags with the extras. I used the sentiments from the Frame It Out: Wishes stamp set to keep with the classic look I was going for.

I punched a hole at the top of each hole using my Crop-a-dile and then added a gold eyelet to the hole for some extra detail.  I'll add these to my "everyday" tag collection that I have been starting. You can see the first tag in THIS post. I'm planning on making tags with any extra pieces I have leftover from my card making sessions! I hope you've enjoyed today's summer inspiration. Thanks for fluttering by!

P.S. As promised, here is the inspiration for today's designs!