Beautiful

Happy Tuesday! Laura here, bringing you another little taste of paradise your way. One of the days, on my Costa Rican adventure, we went kayaking in a mangrove estuary. There was just a sliver of mangrove trees separating this channel from the ocean. I live in the Pacific Northwest and LOVE the coast! It is often cold, windy, rainy and the water turns your toes numb in a few minutes. This was a different section of the Pacific, for sure! The water was so warm and the sand dark and silky. There wasn't much wind and, as you can see, thunderstorms were brewing, which means it was really humid. Whilst waiting for our kayaks to be prepared, we strolled over to the beach to take a look. It was so beautiful!

I decided that making a mosaic using Quirky Quilt was the perfect background for this scene. It's a great cut because it comes with 3 versions, the full cut and 2 cuts with just some of the patterns. I used the full cut with white cardstock and that became my frame. I laid it down on a piece of nice patterned paper, then I cut the blue from one of the 2 partial pattern files and used foam tape to add them into their places inside the frame. Hint: try to remove just the frame from this step, leaving the patterns still on the mat. Then lay your mat close to the frame you'll be filling, so you can tell where each piece goes without a lot of thought. I added the pieces in whilst watching tv and had no trouble.

I used the waves from Make A Splash and Life's A Beach to add in both color and a relevant embellishment. I cut them from plain white card stock and misted them with some shimmer mist, then sprinkled some of the same mist to the background. A few beach themed bit here and there and a super fun wood title completed the piece.

Stop by the shop and pick up these cut files today! I love all three and use them a lot. Thanks for stopping by.

Lifeguard

Hi everyone. It's Madeline here, new to the design team and thrilled to be sharing for the first time on The Cut Shoppe Blog! The photo I scrapped is one serendipitously captured a couple of summers ago, when my middle son was stationed on the pool deck, working his summer job.

As soon as I saw the Life's A Beach files from The Cut Shoppe, I knew that lifeguard stand would become a favorite of mine. It brings to mind swimming pools packed with kids, broad beaches dotted with sunbathers, and surfers braving the waves.

 

First I cut the stand from white, weathered wood-look paper, but then added another dimension by piecing a life preserver from red and white cardstock. I used the outline of the Life's A Beach triple cross icon and cut concentric circles, sizing them to match the ring on the stand. I love the impact made by this extra little detail.

Another fun and summery cut file, Make A Splash, provided my page with a whimsical sun:

By adhering only the center of the sun to my page, its "rays" are left to curl up slightly. You can also see my banner in the photo below. Fashioned out of polka dot kraft tape, it is embellished with red crosses from the Life's A Beach cut file.

Supplies: Patterned paper-American Crafts, Carta Bella, Crate Paper; Stickers-Crate Paper; Ephemera-Crate Paper; Envelope-Fancy Pants; Flair-Scraptastic; Chipboard letters-Jillibean Soup; Chipboard word-American Crafts; Kraft paper tape-Jillibean Soup.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today!