Mele Kalikimaka

 

Mele Kalikimaka! Double Trouble Challenge #32 begins on Monday, July 1, and runs through Sunday, July 14, 2019. Our theme is Christmas in July using a square card. The optional twist is to show Santa enjoying the beach. I selected Hawaii's North Shore for my beach. We are also partnering with Retro Rubber Challenge #114, which requires that you show a little love for an older stamp (at least one year old), either rubber or photopolymer.

 

I didn't have any whimsical or beachy Santa stamps so I used digital images for Santa and the lone reindeer. I downloaded, resized, printed and fussy cut them. I added a floral haku-lei to the reindeer's antlers and a hibiscus to Santa's straw hat and placed a ukulele in Santa's left hand. The lavender mountains, the Pacific waters, clouds and the sandy beach were die cut. The banner was cut freehand and placed in Santa's right hand with a strip of black cardstock.

The palm trees were the result of using an older stamp. When I first started this hobby, I came upon two old wood-mounted rubber palm tree stamps at a yard sale and had never used them. (Based on the label scrap, I believe they are Recollections brand.) After stamping the images, I colored them with Copics and discovered I needed larger palm trees. I have an excellent laser printer/copier, so enlarged the colored palm trees to better fit the front of the card. Once printed, I clear embossed all of my images, fussy cut them and used two large images on the front of the card. The clear embossing gives a fabulous shine to the trees. The two smaller original images were added to the inside of the card.

Here's a photo of the originals and the enlarged images during card construction:

After sponging the sky a bright yellow for sunshine, the elements were adhered to cardstock using varying heights of foam tape to add dimension. Finally, the finished panel was adhered to a white square card base. As mentioned above, the inside was decorated with the original stamped palm trees.

Play along with us by visiting the DTC #32 blog and the RRC #114 blog. You could win something special!

Techniques: Stamping, coloring, sponging, fussy cutting, die cutting, heat embossing
Size: 5.5" x 5.5"

Materials
Stamps: Pre-owned Recollections rubber palm tree stamps & free digital images
Inks: Stampin' Up! Daffodil Delight; Memento Tuxedo Black; Versamark; Copic Alcohol Markers
Cardstock: Stampin' Up! Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder, Island Indigo, Basic Black; Xcel for alcohol markers; Tonic Studios Satin Mirror Card (Silky Sky); The Paper Studio Solid Glitter (copper)
Dies: Reverse Confetti "Doin' the Wave", MFT (clouds), Lawn Fawn (mountains)
Misc.: Stampin' Up! Embossing Powder (clear), foam tape