Livin' It Up!

Stopping in today to share with you a card I made using the Brentwood Summer Owl digi.  You can get it free until June 14th and Jessica just asks that you make something and share it in the Create and Share Group.  You can find the discount code on the blog here and then share in the group here!  I can't wait to see what you create!   I had this idea mulling around in my head for a few days and when I thought of the die I recently got from Our Daily Bread to quickly cut out one of these Side Step Cards the lightbulb went on!

I'm linking this one up to the Always Fun Challenge #9 with a Summer theme... you should check it out!  I'm also playing along with the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge to create a masculine card... I hope they don't hold the flower against me :)!  They are featuring Tim Holtz products over there this time around and I used the distress oxide inks and the sunburst stencil on this background... raving about the oxides in just a bit... 

Love this cutie!!  He looks like he's really enjoying his summer!  I put him front and center and then die cut some waves using dies from CDD... the front in vellum of course... he's standing the water to keep cool along with his Starfish friend!

I also took the opportunity to crack open this sailboat from MFT... I liked the idea of it floating around in the background... and that sky background... can I just say... Oxide distress inks... they ARE better and you DO need them even if you have the originals... they are awesome!  I bought mine over at Kat Scrappiness when I won a gift certificate to her shop during the last Coffee Lovers Hop (I went a little over :) )

 I started with the originals and the yellow was mixing with the blue to make a greenish tint... brought out my spiced marmalade in the oxides and went over the yellow and it totally took the green away.. you need them!!  I purposely left the tops of the rays a little light because I wanted them to fade out... 

I used the distress ink to color up my sentiment base and then used the Peace, Love and Sunshine sentiment from the JLO Tiki Brentwood stamps and set about looking for the right sized Happy Birthday for this card and came across the Live It Up in my Paper Smooches collection.. it was perfect.. although I had to mask it a bit to put it on the two lines, but I think it worked perfectly... and then I had that beautiful flowery arrow (arrows are masculine... flowers maybe not so much...lol) in my JLO stash waiting to be colored and added and I thought it added the perfect tropical feel to this card.