Hey There Brew-tiful with Penguin Palace Stamps

Hey There Brew-tifuls! Today I have a punny mermaid/coffee mash up that I hope you enjoy. One of my goals this year is to practice creating flatter, more easily mailable cards, and to let a few stamps be the focus of my cards instead of the visual overload I usually generate. It’s hard. I see these gorgeous clean and simple cards that people make and I swoon over the simplicity of letting the illustrations shine. Then when I make an attempt, I feel as though the card looks unfinished. I know it’s in my head, and it’s something I have to work on. So lately I’ve been trying to “meet in the middle” and really focus on not over doing it.

I wanted to send a card to my cousin, and add a gift card in it, so I needed a light & flat card, that wouldn't get ruined in the post. The adorable mermaids from Penguin Palace are my favorite mermaid stamps, and the cuties from Take a Break are the best. The two with the pizza and coffee are my absolute favorites.

I gathered up the last few pieces of an adorable and colorful Birthday paper pack I had in my stash, and decided to cut the sentiment from the colorful print. Normally I would mount them on fun foam for dimension, but since I am trying to keep this flatter, I also cut each letter from a thin glittery champagne colored paper. I doubled up each letter with liquid glue allowing the glitter to peak out from the top right. I placed all of these under an acrylic block while they dried so no edges would lift. Next I cut my layers, and used more of the glitter paper directly underneath my top panel to unify the colors.

I used my older little mini cubes of Distress Inks to create a small watercolor palette that matched the paper print, and splattered across the white top panel, for a rainbow of splashes. Then, I adhered my double layered letters across the middle to form the sentiment. Next, I stamped “Brew-tiful” from the Rabbit Cafe set underneath in black ink. I stamped some images from Take a Break, Summer Sunshine, and Rabbit Cafe using black ink and my stamp platform. Then, I colored everything in with a few Copic markers in coordinating colors.

Finally, I adhered my images around the sentiment and added a few iridescent sequins before mounting all of my layers together with Scor Tape, and attaching it all onto my card base. I felt so accomplished at not overdoing it. I love that the adorable mermaid girl is the star of the show and not lost in a ton of images, and that this will easily mail with no added postage or damage. Yay! I did it.

Thanks for stopping by,
Davina