Find Your Paradise Card by July Guest Designer Milene Tiberius

Hi friends! I'm back for my second project and I'm so excited to be here!

How have you been enjoying the summer?

I have a dreamy and beachy card to share with you today, featuring some of my favorite products from Newton's Nook Designs. The color combo was inspired by my home country of Brazil, as green and yellow are our national colors. When we think of Brazil, we often think of a sandy, tropical paradise. Today, I wanted to incorporate that into my card.

I started out by creating my background, using the Tropical Leaves Stencil. I ink blended the leaves on a piece of Bristol smooth cardstock with an ink blending tool and Evergreen Bough Distress ink. I thought the harsh lines did not work too well for my design, so I lightly ink blended over the leaves. This softened the lines and gave it a tone on tone feel. I also sprayed the whole thing using a shimmer spray I had in my stash.

I stamped the image of Newton in the hammock, from the Aloha Newton Stamp Set, on a piece of watercolor paper. I used Antique Linen Oxide ink to stamp it because I wanted to do no-line coloring. I love that look so much! I used just basic watercolors to color in this image. Keep in mind that you will need to work on layers when watercoloring, especially if you're doing no-line! I almost gave up on the painting several times, but I'm glad I persisted.

The sun you see behind the scene is from the Paradise Palms Stamp Set. I again stamped this image using Antique Linen Oxide ink and went over the whole thing using a yellow shade of watercolor. I chose to do a sunset because that's my favorite time of the day during the summer.

The sentiment I chose for this card is from the same stamp set.  I white heat embossed the sentiment on a piece of Bristol smooth cardstock. I had watercolored my paper prior to heat embossing, to resemble a very light shade of wood. The stitching on the edge of my sentiment was created using a die. You could use any die that has the stitching detail, including the Framework Die Set, and partially run it through your machine.

I added a few strings of a thin, natural twine, for an organic look. Above the twine, I adhered my painting, that I die cut using a circle die, and my sentiment. I used foam tape for dimension on both pieces. The final step was to add some embellishments, so I added some white sequins and enamel dots to my card.

And that was it! I had so much fun creating this card that I ended up creating a second one! I'll be sharing that project on Wednesday over on my Instagram, if you would like to see it. I used the Hibiscus Die Set and it turned out beautiful!

I'll see you on Wednesday! Stay cool!
Milene