Magnolia-licious blog hop Nautical - Sail away with me!

Hi everyone! I sure hope you had a fabulous weekend, and today, Magnolia-licious is having a nautical themed blog hop! How fun! Especially with all the adorable nautical themed stamps that Magnolia has released lately! If you arrived here from the amazingly talented Janiel, then you're on the right track. If not, you will want to go back to the start with the uber talented Cheryl! If you lose your way, just go to Magnolia-licious Highlites to continue on your journey through the hop.   I chose to use one of the cutest Edwins that I think they've ever released. He's Dangling Sea Edwin from the brand new "Bon Voyage" collection which is available for preorder right now at Magnolia-licious!  I also used #413 Pelican, and #739 "The tide always turns" sentiment. As soon as I received this Edwin, I knew I wanted to put him on a boat shaped easel card. 

And fortunately, I had the perfect shaped card to accomplish that task!! The Cutting Cafe' has this adorable sail boat shaped card, so I just cut it out and turned it into an easel card. EASY PEASY!! Isn't it too cute?? It even comes with an envelope template!  I knew I couldn't use a paper with a busy pattern because Edwin would just get lost in the background. So I picked a nice and simple red and white polka dot digital paper along with some white and blue Bazzil cardstock to stay in the nautical theme.

When I made the easel card, because the top portion of the card is the narrow mast, I wanted to reinforce it so it wouldn't sag down from all the weight of the card front. So I just cut four strips of heavy cardstock that were a little narrower than the mast, glued them on top of each other, and attached it to the back of the card. It worked perfectly and added a lot of strength to the card. The stamps are colored with Copic markers, and Edwin is popped up from the card with dimensional tape.

Finally, I added a big white button topped off with a red gingham bow for the easel to rest against. That was it! Now for some fun stuff! If you would like to win a Bow Easy plus an assortment of May Arts silk ribbon (same ribbon I use on almost all my cards), then please leave a comment on this post before midnight Pacific on Saturday, Aug 7th. I will pick and post a winner on Sunday, Aug 8th. Now it's time to hop on over to the fabulously talented Suzanne! I'm sure she's got an amazing project for your viewing pleasure! Thanks so much for hopping with us today! Hope to see you again soon! Hugs!