Hello! I hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July! Today, I'm sharing a 5x7 card that I made using Honey Bee Stamps products, Shoreline Scene Builder, Lovely Layers: Beach Houses, and Seas The Day. I love Honey Bee! I was going to only use the new set, but decided to make a larger card so I could use some older sets, too. I'm also going to show you how I set up an assembly line for mass producing cards. When I have a die set out, I like to cut out multiples. Even if you don't use them right away, it's nice to cut out several of each die while the product is out and everything is set up.

I started by die cutting images from the older set, Shoreline Scene Builder. I live on the East Coast, so I love the beach grasses and fencing. I didn't know how many cards I was going to make, so I just Cut out four or five of everything. I started by grouping all like items together. 

I felt like using these as background images in the shadows, so I inked everything with Distress Oxide ink in Scortched Timber. I thought about using Black Soot, but thought that would be too much of a contrast against the bright colors I planned on using in the foreground. Because these are silhouettes, I didn't use the layers for the cat's tail.

Here are the pieces for one of the houses. I cut out three of everything. I have ADD and it's difficult for me to sort through things unless they are kept together, so I cut the three houses separately and kept their pieces together. It makes it much quicker to assemble. I ink each like pieces, then assemble all of the same items, too.

All of the small houses inked and assembled. I chose colors that gave a Caribbean vibe.

These are the accessories that go with the Lovely Layer Beach Houses. I diecut them, inked, and assembled the way I did the houses.

For the background, I chose my favorite watercolor paper: Distress Watercolor Paper by Tim Holtz. I lightly sketched a beach, hillside, and sky. I watercolored them with Distress Inks in Tea Dye, Forest Moss, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, and Ripe Persimmon. I used a large, flat brush just to lay down color. I wanted the background stylized so as not to compete with the detailed foreground images.