Distress Oxides - By The Sea

Hi all! I have been keeping busy with lots of garden and baking projects, but wanted to share a new project I've started with a few friends of mine. I bought Eileen Hull's amazing new Journal die and we were cutting out book covers when it occurred to me that they would be perfect books to hold swap pages. So each month we have a theme and we'll be creating pages to put in each other's books. How fun is that?! I'm really excited to have an ongoing project like this and it's so fun to see what everyone comes up with. I still need to finish my book, but I'll be sharing that very soon.

Our first theme was patriotic/summer. I obviously went for summer. :) I am still getting the hang of working with the new Distress Oxides, so I thought I'd use this as an opportunity to experiment some more. I used a combination of Broken China, Faded Denim, and Vintage Photo to create the backgrounds. I used Elizabeth Craft Designs' soft finish cardstock as my base and I love the way it looks. I was really happy with how these turned out - there were no duds in the bunch!

The image of the women and the ticket are both rubber stamps from Oxford Impressions. The women were stamped on matte coated cardstock with black Archival ink and colored with Distress markers. I was so thrilled with how well the cardstock took the ink! I added a few rub ons to the 'photo' to add some intereste. To finish my card, I added some tissue tape and a bit of cheesecloth. I checked the OI Etsy store and I didn't see this particular stamp set available right now, but you might be able to message Suzanne, the owner, and see if she can make a special order for you. It's a really wonderful stamp set - one of the first of hers I owned! UPDATE! I just checked and By the Sea is now in stock. Thanks, Suzanne!

Here's a 'taste' of what I've been baking! Do any of you watch the Great British Baking Show (Bake Off in the UK)? I'm obsessed! When I saw this pies and tarts class that Craftsy was offering, I snapped it up!

I made these from the leftover tart dough from the tart in the photo at the top. So good! It was based on a King Arthur Flour recipe. Scrummy!

This was the pie that caught my attention in the Craftsy class. I made if for the 4th of July and it was a huge hit! The pie crust is almost like a puff pastry. So flaky and light. And no soggy bottom! :)

And here's an actual GBBO recipe - Paul's Schichttorte. It was really not as hard as it looks; just very time-consuming. And very yummy! I can't promise that this won't turn into a baking blog, but you might see a few of my latest kitchen projects from time to time. :)

One more thing - there is a great sale at Sizzix going on this weekend. Lots and lots of my favorite dies at incredible prices. Click the banner above to shop!

The inks I used can be found at Simon Says Stamp via the link above.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I'm entering my Distress Oxide collage in the Simon Monday Challenge - Distress It,  and the Frilly and Funkie challenge - In the Good Old Summertime.

Hope you have a great weekend.