Tropical Oasis sponged card

So much for being organised! I had this card ready to go for Crafty Friday this month, but had to change my plans due to the Lockdown as this doesn’t lend itself well to distance crafting.

It is inspired by Tina Wardell at tinascraftyinkspot.com and uses products from the Tropical Oasis Suite. I love a technique card and this one is packed with fun techniques; sponging, masking, embossing paste to name but a few.

It uses products from the Tropical Oasis Suite, which is well worth checking out.

Take a look at your dies; can you create something different from them? This card uses a couple of leaves to make a grassy mound.

Seven Tropical Oasis projects with measurements for a simple card wallet

It may not feel particularly tropical as I type this but it was on Saturday when I held my All-Day Craft Event using the Tropical Oasis Suite.

Everyone received the stamp set to use at the event, plus half a pack of Memories & More Cards to use on their projects. We made a simple card wallet to hold six cards, which used the Magnolia Lane Memories & More Large Specialty Cards & Envelopes (item 149487) for ease and speed. 

These are the measurements for a wallet which will comfortably hold six multi-layered cards. Once you have scored as above, cut the grey areas away as shown here...

And these are the cards we made to go inside. Well, these are my samples – some people went quite a bit off-piste! That's the beauty of having all that choice in the Memories & More Cards.

Inspired by Gail Ellis of Blue Rose Paper Treasures

Inspired by Brian King of Stamp With Brian

 Plus the one you’ve already seen...

To colour the image quickly, use sponge daubers! Simply swirl in the centre of the big flower with one colour, then add a paler colour to the edges. Or keep going with the same colour, working outwards so it gets paler towards the petal tips. Because you’re die-cutting or fussy-cutting the flowers, it doesn’t matter if you go over the edges.

Choices, choices... with Tropical Oasis Memories and More cards

I’m busy preparing for my Spring All-Day Craft Event tomorrow, where we’ll be using the Tropical Oasis Suite to make one big project which should take all day. Intrigued? All will become clear sooner or later.

While designing projects for this session, some inevitably were rejected. Here’s one that got away. One of these is NOT one of the planned projects for tomorrow, but can you guess which one I rejected?

However, the nature of the event means the guests will have lots of choice; they can copy my designs or make the projects just how they want to. Flexibility is the key!

These projects both use the Tropical Oasis Memories & More cards, which are ideal if you like quick projects. You get the same designs of the Designer Series Paper plus many more, so they’re perfect if you rarely use big pieces of DSP or if you find you’re reluctant to cut it up! There are sticker sheets, too, which make projects even quicker. 

Meerkat Week: Silhouetted meerkats

I take my hat off to the first person to come up with this silhouette idea. But there are so many versions of this by now that I can’t work out who was the originator.

Begin by masking and brayering a lovely bright sunset, then all you do is stamp your image, then colour the whole lot in black. How easy is that?

Brayering is easy but most people, in my experience, give up too early and are disappointed with their results. The keys are:

1. Start OFF the edge of the paper so you don't get a hard line where the ink begins... AND

2 Keep going: brayer over and over and over again until you get a good even colour distribution.