Here is last night’s hostess club layout! It was alot of fun to make and I love all the sea creatures.

Recipe:
STAMP SETS: Sea Street                                      By the Tide
      By the Seashore                                                What’s Your Type?
CARD STOCK: Maritime DSP                               Real Red
      Night of Navy                                                   Whisper White
      Gold Foil
INK: Real Red                                                       Night of Navy
        Coastal Cabana                                               Baked Brown Sugar
        Soft Suede
ACCESSORIES: Circle Framelits                         Big Shot
                            Window Sheet                           Wiggley Eyes
                            Candy Dots (White) (I had to substitute pearls)
                            Stamp-a-ma-jig                         Ruler
                            Dimensionals                            Sticky Strip
                            Punches for Anchor:               1” Circle 
                            1/2” Circle                                Word Window
                            2-1/2” Circle                             Pennant Punch

I have lots of tips so I’ll start at the “tiptop”!
TIP: For the “AHOY MATE” I practiced with the stamp set and only used 2 colors. I made a sample on Coastal Cabana to look at while I did the real thing! I went “full strength”, inking up the stamp and stamping a letter and decided I liked the more subtle look you get when you stamp off first. To do this, load the stamp up with ink (look at inked side to make sure all is covered) then stamp on scrap paper, then on project.

I also used this stamping off technique on the background. some I stamped off, some I didn’t. It gives the background deminsion!

TIP: I used the stamp-a-ma-jig for the rope. Practice this too before stamping your project. I made little mistakes where the seashells are. Something I heard at a crop: mistakes are excuses for embellishments!
TIP: When I cut the window sheet, I used a “shim”, I put a couple pieces of cardstock under the clear cutting boards to add pressure. Depending on your Big Shot, and material you are using to 
cut out as well as type of die cutting tool you may want to try this.
TIP: For the “porthole”, I cut 2 circle framelits at the same time. And even though I was using the magnetic plate, I still used my painters tape to ensure they didn’t move.
Now for the anchor, here are the punches I used:

TIP: When you need to punch out something that needs to be
centered, always punch the inside first, then you can center
the larger punch.

TIP:  I traced the crescent shape to use as a guide when using
the large circle punch. 

TIP: In order to be able to hold on to the punched shape, I
used a sticky note.

TIP: For the small triangles on the sides of the anchors
crescent.

All the pieces–the long bar is 3/8″ x 2-1/2″.

Finished!

I hope you find these tips helpful!
Happy stampin’,
~Laura
P.S. My blog doesn’t always cooperate-thus the uneven look it some-
times has:(