Reader's Choice Life's a Beach Cut at BBTB2

We've added a new feature this month at BBTB2; Reader's Choice. That's right, once a month YOU will be picking the challenge so if there's a cartridge you'd like us to explore or a special cut you'd like to see, let us know. There were alot of calls for something from Life's a Beach so this week we're featuring the Leaf1 cut. I went for the simple, making a shaped card (big surprise, LOL) but because the cut has no shadow and is quite open I had to do a bit of tweaking. For the base I welded the hibiscus to the end and hid selected contours of the leaf so the holes would fill in (and there'd be someplace to write inside). The leaf layers are cut in 2 coordinating pattern papers and run through the Cuttlebug using Tiny Bubbles and Tiny Mosaic and popped. For the rest of the cuts I cut them first in black, then in colored card stock and popped them slightly offset to give some semblence of a shadow. The top layer of the hibiscus is embossed with Swiss Dots and inked. I trimmed the stamen off of the hibiscus base layers and just added the 2 individual stamen layers at the end. The top is glittered with Doodlebug glitter, both chunky and fine.

"Aloha" is welded using the Life's a Beach font and I used my Copics to shade and make them look like bamboo. Of course the finishing touches were adhesive gems. Now if you haven't been there already, RUN to BBTB2 to see the fabulously creative things my DT sisters have done with this cut. I promise you won't be disappointed. P.S. It's safe to come back today, Sandy!

Wish You Were Here! - Peggy Loves Vintage

Well, actually I wish I were there! LOL This sexy lady is my fave (notice the red hair!) from the Sexy Ladies Cutouts from Peggy Loves Vintage. Did you know that besides the fabulous CD's Peggy offers, there's a full line of cut out pages for immediate gratification? The card was inspired by some vintage souvenier cards from Florida I found in with some of my great aunt's photos; two of which I used on the card. Aunt Bob (Barbara) was quite the traveler and I've inhereted all of her photos and memorabilia. The cards have a really cool lineny texture so I printed out my image on textured card stock to match as closely as I could and further enhance the vintage feel. I used my Nesties deckle rectangles to mat the cards and Making Memories letter stickers for the sentiment. The white on black reminded me of the captions she had in her albums. I popped the sexy lady (slightly askew because I thought it looked better that way, LOL) and used an EK Success punch for the photo corners. The cool beach umbrella paper is by K&Company. Peggy Loves Vintage has images for all sorts of occasions so be sure to take a browse. Be sure and pop by the Peggy Loves Vintage Blog too. That sweet Peggy is offering up an adorable free April Showers kitty image just waiting to be played with. You might want to sign up to follow too so you don't miss the tips and tricks, new product info and contests. Lots of happenings going on there.

Lei Back and Relax

I made this for my good friend and next door neighbor who was going to Hawaii. It is still one of my very favorite cards and was soooo much fun to do. I was excited to get the oppor- tunity to use this sort of tropical paper from the DCVW Summer glitter stack. The words were all cut from Plantin School- book (roly poly) and the flowers are from A Walk in my Garden doodled to look like hibiscus. They were strung on DMC floss to look like a lei and I added tiny ribbon stamins. I made little flip flops for the foot paper clips with cardstock, ribbon, flower buttons and skittles but they just didn't look right without soles so I added some of corregated (sp?) cardboard. This made the card pretty thick so I used the crayon box on Tags, Bags, Boxes and More to make a matching envie. Thank goodness she lives next door so I could hand deliver it. I wish the pics had been in better focus but you get the idea.