California Dream

Palm trees,
Ocean breeze,
Salty air,
Sunkissed hair,
Endless summer,
​Take me there.

Hi everyone and welcome!  I'm so glad that you could visit with me today. 

Today I'm sharing my "California Dream" with you all.  I'm a Cali girl born and raised.  Now, the other day I was driving down the streets of Los Angeles and took a short cut and found this street lined by palm trees.  It reminded me of the typical post card picture.  This is my inspiration for my card today.

It was a sunny sky early morning when I took this.  Everyday I take different short cuts through out the city to get where I need to go and everyday I find something new and special.  At times you can even find film locations.  

Anywhoooo...I think it's time to get to crafting 🤪.

So here is the list of items you will need to make this card:

• ​A2 Card Base
• 2 - White Cardstock 4 1/4" W x 5 1/2" L
• Acetate 4" x 4"
• Work Lipstick Distress Oxide
• Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide
• Flag Banner Dies
• Shake It Up Dies
• Beach Scene Dies
• Shaker sequins or shaped glitter
• Copic Markers (colors listed below)
• Double Sided Tape 1/8"
• Foam Mounting Tape
• Tacky Glue
• Ruler
• Exacto Knife
• Die Cutting Machine

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Let the Magic Begin!

1) We will begin by creating a partial die cut using the circle dies from the Shake It Up Dies set.  You will doe this by first positioning your die onto one of the white cardstock pieces.  Use washi tape to keep it in place.  Place the paper onto your cutting plate and then position your pressure plate so that it partially covers the die.  You will run this through your machine it it this way so that it does not fully cut out the circle.

This is what your cut will look like.  As you can see the die cut only where the pressure plate was applied. 

2) Using a ruler as a guide, place the ruler from edge to edge of the die cut.  Using an Exacto knife or blade, place it along the edge of the ruler and cut from one side of the die cut to the other.  This will make a semi-circle.

3) Cut down you acetate to 4" x 4".  I used a static pillow on both sides of the acetate (because we don't want static).  Then add double sided tape all along the edge. adhere this to the underside of the recently cut out semi-circle.

4) Using the foam mounting tape you will line the underside so that this will create a buffer and allow for the shaker glitter to sit in.  Make sure you do not leave any large gaps between the pieces. 

5) Using the remaining white cardstock, blend Squeezed Lemon from the top and Worn Lipstick from the bottoms of the card.  Blend between the two colors where they meet until you are satisfied with the overlapping colors. 

6) I had this shaped glitter from Recollections (at Michael's) that had yellow stars and pink hearts.  I decided to use this as my color theme.  Pour in a mixture of the two into the open area of the card.  Then remove the foam backing

7) Adhere the blended piece to the foam mounting so that it when you turn your card over it looks like a sunset.  Now glue the whole thing to your card base using tacky glue.

7) Now it's time to work on the palm tries.  For this I opted to use plain white cardstock so that I can color in the dies to my licking using Copic Markers. 

Palms:

YG03:  Light Tone/Base
YG17:  Mid Tone/Shadows
​YG87:  Dark Tone/Details

Trunk:
E31:  Light Tone/Base
E33:  Mid Tone/Shadow
E15:  Dark Tone/Details

8) Once all the coloring is done we are ready to adhere the palms to the card.  I decided that I wanted to partially use double sided tape for the areas that would be attached to the acetate and tacky glue for the areas on the paper.   Line up your palm trees first so you know where you will be adhering them.

9) The last item is the sentiment.  For this I used the same colors as my sunset and die cut it out using the smallest of the Flag Banner Dies set.  Also make sure to practice your handwriting as I used a Faber-Castle dye pen to pen in my sentiment "California Dream".  Adhere it to the upper left hand side trimming off the hang over portion of the banner.

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Dream On!

And here you have it!  I hope that you have enjoyed this how-to.  I know that I had a ton of fun making this card.  It is a simple card with a big impact. 

Share the California Dream!  Subscribe for more how-to's and tutorials.  

​MUAH!!!!

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Challenge Entry:

Crafter's Castle - Challenge #5