Today's Technique Challenge

With graduations, weddings and some new baby celebrations coming up, this little gift card holder is the perfect quick project for personalizing your gift. You can find links to directions here for now, but I will probably post a tutorial on this during the coming weekend.

I stamped the boat from Boatloads of Love in Black Stazon on watercolor paper and then watercolored the boat with Real Red, Brocade Blue (very light) and Bordering Blue for the water. The clouds are sponged with Bordering Blue using my handcut cloud stencil and a sponge dauber. The anchor is colored with a silver Zig painty to match the shimmery silver tag (from Target) that holds the sentiment.

The Real Red background is stamped with the compass stamp from the Nautical Cube by Northwoods. Brads were added for dimension and interest. The tag sentiment is from Stampin' Up!'s So Many Sayings and is raised on dimensionals.

The inside has the three other stamps from the Nautical Cube on the top half of the card, and then another sentiment from So Many Sayings on the bottom half.

What is fun about this pattern is that you can use it for gift cards, or certificates, or even money. You can also turn it to open the other way, like a book/portrait, rather than horizontally/landscape like I did with this design. The holder closes with a string tie.

Thanks for stopping by, and try one of these! They really are easier than they look!
Stamps: Boatloads of Love, So Many Sayings, Nautical Cube by Northwoods
Paper: Real Red, American Craft, DP, SU watercolor, Very Vanilla
Ink: Black Stazon, Bordering Blue, Real Red, Brocade Blue
Accessories: red and blue brads, string, silver tag (Target), Zig Painty (anchor), Crystal Effects (to hold the string in place on the tag), handcut cloud stencil, sponge dauber, oval punch, word window punch, designer label punch, circle punch
Techniques: watercolor, sponging