Tropically Yours Stamp of Approval Collection

Tropical Cards

I love everything tropical - the foliage, the birds, the animals, the colourful water and the humidity.  When I heard the theme for this Stamp of Approval collection (by Catherine Pooler Designs), was Tropically Yours, I was sold.  It falls squarely in my wheelhouse.  The stamp sets are so fun and so well coordinated - they work wonderfully together.  I just had to get inky! (And I took this collection on vacation so I wouldn't have to wait. 😉😊😇)

I used a variety of stamp sets on this card, starting with the Grunge Background, which I stamped in Coral Cabana ink (Catherine Pooler Designs).  I stamped the leaves from the Leave Me In Paradise set using green ink from Gina K Designs (because I could take the ink cubes with me!).  I stamped a variety of border stamps from the Good Vibes border stamp set, using brown ink (also GKD).  Of course, I had to add some tufts of grass and a border underneath the flamingo, so he would have a place to stand.  I used the Coral Cabana ink pad and the direct-to-paper technique to create some flamingo coloured paper, then stamped and die cut the flamingo from the Stand Tall stamp set.  And, flamingos (at least in my world) love bling, so I added some Nuvo Clear Sparkle pen over the entire die cut.  After it dried, I popped it up on the card with some dimensional adhesive and added my sentiment (also from the Stand Tall stamp set).  The final touch was to add some iridescent gems on the flamingo's path and in the top palm leaf.

I stamped a frame of tropical leaves in Jelly Bean, Grass and Fresh Asparagus green inks by Gina K Designs for the next card.  Then I added several small flower accents in Coral Cabana (Catherine Pooler Designs) and a lovely bright yellow (Wild Dandelion by Gina K Designs).  I stamped the sentiment, from Leave Me in Paradise, and added some iridescent gems to the centres of the small flowers.  The last step was to stamp the hibiscus flowers in Coral Cabana and the stamen in Wild Dandelion before adding Nuvo Clear Glitter pen to them.  Once they were dry, I popped them up on the card panel and added the panel to an A2 size card base.  

The next card is a similar design, but I used the leaves from Tropically Yours and stamped them over the entire background panel.  Then, I used a border stamp to provide a grounding for the hibiscus flowers and added a sentiment from the Stand Tall set to finish it off.  I used the same ink colours as for the card above, except I added Coral Reef (GKD) for the centre hibiscus.

Geometric Themed cards

The tropical style is not for everyone. This collection includes some geometric dies that are to die for!  I saw a card by Iliana Crouse that was incredible and I had to make a variation of it.  As I was on vacation I did not have coloured cardstock with me, so I made my own using my ink cubes, Coral Cabana ink pad and some Neenah Solar White 80lb cardstock.  Then, I die cut a bunch of pieces from my handmade coloured cardstock and started adhering them to my card panel.  Each hexagon has three separate pieces.

I stamped the sentiment and border stamps from the Stand Tall stamp set on a square of cardstock that I had coloured with Coral Cabana ink, but it didn't stand out enough from the card front.  My solution was to create a slate coloured geometric border on a strip of of white cardstock and adhere that behind the sentiment panel.  The finishing touch was to add gemstones to the centre of each hexagon stack.

I just couldn't leave the hexagon dies alone and had to make another card.  I used the same direct-to-paper technique with my ink pads to create coloured cardstock, then die cut my hexagons and traded the inner pieces of the die cuts with the outer frames of another colour.  It was a little time consuming, but I like the result.  I added a border along the bottom because there was too much white space for my taste and then I simply had to add a sentiment to finish the card.

I am a huge fan of the Stamp of Approval sets because they make it easy for my to coordinate stamp sets and dies.  This is definitely one of my favourite collections.