Paper Smooches August GD - Covering all the Angles...

So excited to be presenting another Paper Smooches Guest Designer spot this week!  Today's cards cover all the angles - with the first card featuring trendy triangles and the second featuring colourful chevrons!

The first card focuses on the sentiment, die cut Paper Smooches Thanks, paired with the August release Many Thanks "bunches".  To create this card, I cut the Crate Paper Maggie Holmes paper into 2.5cm squares (about 1 inch), then cut them diagonally to create the series of triangles.  To make the cutting easier, I had already sketched the layout before cutting.  I used the leftover triangle as a template to create the strip for the sentiment, secured all the triangles in place, stamped the sentiment and secured the die cut, then pop dotted this layer over the chevron background.  Right about now I'm wishing this pattern was actually a lovely quilt on my bed I could snuggle under as I've been laid low with a nasty flu virus - I can tell I'm not feeling well when I don't even feel up to crafting LOL!

Card # 1 playing along with Moxie Fab Trendy Triangles Challenge, and 

Simon Says Stamp Triangles

This second card is well and truly inspired by Jennifer McGuire!  Playing along with this weeks CASE Study,  I used the Paper Smooches Borderlicious chevrons to create a rainbow of sun's rays. Stamped in Tide Pool, Green Hills, Butter Bar, Orange Soda and Bubblegum, with the Paper Smooches Many Thanks sentiment stamped in Bubblegum too.  Lil Inkers circle and rectangle dies are used to add the stitching details.

Card #2 playing along with CASE Study Inspired by Jennifer McGuire, 
Paper Crafts Connection August Gallery - Sending Sunshine,
 Keep it Simple Chevron Challenge, 

Addicted to CAS Summer, and
Little Red Wagon Use a Sun.

Addicted to Birthday Smooches...

As soon as I saw this fortnights Seize the Birthday Sketch,  I thought of a goldfish bowl - don't ask my why - my brain just works that way LOL!  So I teamed that idea with this weeks Paper Smooches Sparks Trend Watch Ocean, Addicted to CAS Water Challenge and the On-line Class Summer Camp 2 Pre-Class Colour Challenge too!

The ocean backdrop was created by stamping Paper Smooches Wicked Nauticool waves in navy ink on Echo Park Here & Now paper and tracing around the diecut circle outline, then filling with all different sizes of turquoise sequins - which looks AMAZINGLY sparkly in the sunshine!  The Paper Smooches Surf & Turf fishes, pelican and post were paper pieced in Echo Park papers (try saying that quickly!) and the Paper Smooches Flag Tags (appropriately) fish-tailed were die cut.  The sentiment was created using Paper Smooches Party Posse "birthday wishes", and substituting with an "f" from Alphadots.  Then the white cardstock layer was pop dotted to create a frame, together with the sentiment and pelican on his post.  Just to make sure the sequins and fishes stay in place, they were adhered with Helmar 450 adhesive.

Don't forget Paper Smooches August Guest Designer Search is open til July 17th!
Playing along with Paper Crafts Nautical July Gallery Challenge too.

Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge

These made me smile...

You're Never Too Old to Craft Dash...

9 minutes and 16 seconds later...

This weeks 10 Minute Craft Dash colours with its red, butter yellow and pale blue, reminded me of a day by the seaside, so what was more perfect for a day by the sea than this gorgeous boat!

This week I die cut my Paper Smooches flag from some Crate Paper cardstock, then stamped it with this gorgeous Verve sailboat and sentiment.  Next up I stamped the same images directly onto the card base, then stamped just the boat and waves onto red stripped and yellow polka dotted Echo Park papers. I fussy cut the waves, the boat and the sails before using a glue pen to adhere the boat and sails to my card base.  I positioned a strip of double-sided tape on my card base across the "you are" on my sentiment, and used this to secure the twine wrapped twice around the card, before adding pop-dot tape to the back of the sentiment flag, making sure they were positioned above and below the level of the twine (rather than at the same level as the twine), and adhering the sentiment flag. The two bottom corners of the card were rounded using a corner punch (yes, I forgot to do this before I stuck down my sentiment flag, so I had to lift it out of the way before rounding the corner, then stick it back down again LOL).

10 Minute Tip

• Plan to do all your die cutting at once, all your stamping at once, all your fussy cutting at once and then assemble and adhere everything as the last step - not swapping back and forth from one to another saves TIME :)

There's 10 days to enter, and in case you need any more motivation, there's a gorgeous prize up for grabs from Timeless Twine too!

Playing along with the Paper Players Summer Holiday Challenge,

Cupcake Inspirations At the Beach Challenge,
CAS on Sunday Make it Masculine Challenge.
Simon Says Stamp Masculine / Father's Day Challenge
and Paper Crafts July Nautical Card Challenge 

Bee my Honey...

Couldn't resist using The Alley Way Stamps new Cover Ups hexagon stamp for the Hooked on Hexagon Challenge over at Moxie Fab World, Paper Crafts Shaped Card Challenge and Shaping Up Blog Hop & Give Away.  Papers are a combination of Bo Bunny and  Echo Park, stamped with sentiment from Alphabet Soup and Chatterbox, with the little bee from ei-ei-o.  Used the neat trick of laying down a glue line to create my bee trail using The Twinery Stone twine.

Hope you had a FAB weekend!