Flamingos!!!

Flamingos! 

Hello!  Thanks for joining me today!  For us here in the US it is a holiday.  It's Memorial Day, a day to remember and appreciate those who served our great country.  My father in law and my father both served years ago. I am grateful for their sacrifice and hard work to help keep this country safe and free.  Thank you to those who have served, are serving, and the families of those who have and are serving our country.  Thank you.

Today I had the opportunity to get some card making done.  I initially was thinking of making a card for my friend that was a shaker flamingo card but I recently learned that she is making that for her daughter's birthday invites!  Yikes! There went my idea! It's okay though, it gave me a chance to think outside my shaker cards and figure out a new plan of attack.  She is really into flamingos right now so I had to come up with something cute. :)

I had made a flamingo the other day using my Cricut Explore Air machine, it was a free design from access that I was able to use as often as I wanted during the set time period.  The flamingo is adorable.  She has a little tutu and a ribbon on her head.  Her sassy attitude just made me fall in love with her.  I cut one out with my friend's birthday card in mind but at the time I was not sure what I would do with it. Today I thought I would put this cute flamingo to good use! I wish I had cut out a bunch of them!  She turned out so cute!

Planner paper clips are so cute and fun to make!  I decided to make this cute little flamingo into a paper clip bookmark.  I glued her to the paperclip and wanted to create a scene around her.  My thought was something fun for summer.  What comes to mind when you think of summer?  Beach? Vacation? Sun? Well, those are the things that came to mind for me.  I cut a few waves out using my Cricut Explore Air and then I die cut the beach out of some pink cardstock from Stampin' Up using the Impression Obsession Hills die set.  I cut the sun out using a die as well.  I love the stitched look on the sun!  Then I created a border using the Queen & Co. nesting rectangles.  I love these because they have a thick border around the edge which I used to hide the glitter tape I am holding the paper clip in place with.  I know no one can see it so I didn't have to use glitter tape, but I am in love with the shinny glitter tape!

After cutting everything out, I assembled the front of this card to look like a post card that was sent from a sunny beach somewhere where this adorable flamingo is relaxing on the beach.  I added a few wriggles on the sand with a white Signo Uniball gel pen just for some texture on the beach sand.  I popped up the entire frame with foam squares and the front was complete with the exception of the sentiment.

For the sentiment I use the Hero Art Stamp & Cut set DC150 which has a die cut for the word happy which is written in script and then has a bunch of sentiments included like "birthday," "anniversary," "mother's day," etc.  I love that it can be used with so many different sentiments! I ended up double cutting the "happy" and layering the two cut pieces together to give the word a little more stability.  I also put thin strips of foam tape before the letters so they were popped up off the sun.  I stamped the 'birthday" with black ink on the sun.  Did I mention I am obsessed with these Nuvo drops?  So after I was done I came back and looked at the card and I couldn't help it, it needed some Nuvo drops!  So I added three along the side.

Before the Nuvo Drops! 

My card is complete!  This card was super fun to create and I really hope my friend enjoys it too.
Today I ordered a bunch of products from My Favorite Things Stamps so I will be sharing my haul with you once it comes in!  I can't wait!

Thanks for joining me today!  Have a wonderful day!