Nautical thank-you card

I was excited to see the stamp set From Land to Sea in the new Stampin' Up! catalog last month. (I know a lot of people thought the jellyfish image was a weird choice, but I bet it would made a beautiful watercolored focal image.) I thought the images would coordinate beautifully with two other sets: The Open Sea and By the Tide. To test my theory, I made this nautical-themed thank-you card:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: The Open Sea, By the Tide, From Land to Sea
Paper: Basic Black, Very Vanilla card stock; Typeset Specialty Designer Series Paper (DSP)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Linen thread, Neutrals Candy Dots, corner rounder, Dimensionals

I love the crisp look of the cream and black color combo, from the Basic Black card base and DSP background to the images stamped on Very Vanilla card stock with black ink. I kept the embellishments neutral, too, with just a bit of linen thread and a Candy Dot.

The grid-style design is a great layout for these images. And it's easy to make if you have a piece of grid paper on hand. On your grid paper, outline the shape of the card (this one is a standard A2 size, 4-1/4" x 5-1/2"). Decide how much space you want to have between the pieces of card stock, and start drawing different boxes. Once you have an arrangement you like, determine which images fit in the boxes (you can even stamp on the grid paper to test them out). Then stamp the images on card stock, trim the card stock to the sizes of the boxes on the grid paper, and adhere them to your card base. As a variation, you could replace one or more of the stamped images with an embellishment. To add some visual interest on my card, I rounded opposite corners on two of the panels and added a layer of black card stock behind the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!