Frantage and Shells Card

I can't decide whether I like this one or not. It was one of the first cards I made with the Frantage products from Stampendous.

Last July when I was getting an oil change in my truck, I got a chance to run into JoAnns. They had stamps on sale for 40% off, so I got this one, another shell one, and the trees I used on my Moose Christmas card. This shell one was beautiful, and I decided to pair it up with a sentiment from Our Daily Bread Designs.

I wanted to use the Frantage Shabby White around it, so I stamped everything onto some pearl blue paper using VersaMark and Cobalt Blue EP. After running my VersaMark pad around it, I embossed it with the shabby white. The card is matted with darker blue CS and Gold Mirror card, and pearls were added to the top and bottom.

I think the card would have been prettier done on some distressed type light brown paper from a K&Co pad I have and stamped in a dark brown. The shabby white kind of overpowers it, but I was trying to do a seafoam type frame around it. I also think that next time I will try stamping the sentiment onto a die cut and just using the shell-stamped paper as a background. Oh well, it's not too ugly, and someone bought it almost as soon as I put it into my shop!

I finished cutting all my new dies today at the shop, and used the parts I cut to make some cards. I got one finished, and another one is almost done. The cards I've been working on are completely made with the new dies layered and shaded. It was so much fun! Unfortunately I forgot to bring my phone with me to take pictures with, so I'll have to take them tomorrow.

It's getting pretty cold up here now, so I suppose we will have to close up soon. I will miss the shop and seeing so many people, but most of my friends from away are gone now, so we aren't seeing many people at all now. On a brighter note, it means I will have some time to visit you all again. :-)

This is an infrared photo I took years ago of the building where my shop is. As you can see, it is on pilings over the ocean. It was once a clam factory, where they canned clams. It's beautiful there, but it gets pretty cold and drafty in there this time of year!