Check out this idea for square cards for summer hand stamped by you to delight anyone!

We don’t see a lot of square cards and often they are the perfect size and scale for a specific scene you might have in mind. This card by Dawn is an excellent example of these square cards for summer hand stamped and decorated all by you! Scroll down for all the steps and some great shots of Dawn’s expert Copic coloring that brings these happy little penguin pals to life!

Dawn started by stamping her images from our Summer Penguins set with Copic friendly ink onto white card stock. She then colored up her penguins first using the following Copics for the different sections:

• Black W10 W8 W6 W4,
• White – C5 C3 C1 and Colorless Blender 0,
• Yellow – BV00 Y38 Y35 Y23.

Note how Dawn used her shades to create those beautiful shadows on the penguins to give them depth. Follow along with her lines and see what happens to your own little buddies!

Next Dawn colored in her flamingo floatie. Note that she used the same curving technique when coloring it in to add to that illusion of depth. Just follow along – these shots are so helpful! The flamingo color combinations are”:

• Pink – BG01 RV09 RV06 RV02,
• Green – BV13 G05 YG23 YG21.

When she’d brought everything to life, she used our coordinating Summer Penguins dies to cut them out. Dawn likes to hold her small dies in place using a little washi tape to make sure nothing shifts when going through the machine. She says “To keep your washi tape from being too sticky, first put it on the back of your hand and pull it off. Then use it to hold down the die.” Great tip!

Dawn stamped her sentiment with black ink, trimmed it down closely and then layered it over another scrap just a whisker larger than the stamped piece and set it aside with her characters.

Now Dawn turned to creating her spectacular square stenciled background! She cut a piece of white card stock to 4 3/4″ X 4 3/4″ and secured it under our Wavy Stencil using magnets on her magnetic surface. You can use more of that washi tape if that works better for you; securing things down makes it easier to get those beautiful details.

Starting with Sonata Color Fuse Ink from Set #8, Dawn applied ink through the stencil over the lower third or so of her panel. She then applied some Sierra from the same set. Using two shades of blue that are so well coordinated adds a lot of depth and visual movement to the “water”. Dawn says to make sure you leave room for your sand and sun!

To create the beach area, Dawn applied some Mocha Color Fuse Ink from Set #3 across the panel and then deepened the area with a little Caramel ink.

Now Dawn secured down our Sun Burst Stencil and used Lemon Color Fuse Ink from Set #1 to create her rays.

She removed the stencil and used a smaller blending brush to fill the round portion of the sun with Custard Color Fuse Ink – can you feel that glorious warmth?

Then with a narrow blending brush, Dawn added hints of Sonata Color Fuse Ink between the rays to accentuate the sky. PRO TIP: keep the colors from overlapping so you don’t get a green sky. It’s fine if the colors don’t touch – with a sun this bright, there would be a white glow around the rays anyway!

Because Dawn is all about the delightful details, she now took a white gel pen and drew in some squiggly lines where the water meets the sand to create the look of waves washing up on the beach. She also added some little dots to her water to create that sparkle that the ocean has.

For even more dazzling definition, Dawn used the chisel tip of Copics in colors E55 and E51 to add some groups of dots to mimic sand. She added more “sparkle” with dots from her white gel pen.

Now Dawn played around with the positioning of her little summer friends. She cut a slit in the Flamingo, little slits on the bottom of the penguin and trimmed some of the white from around his feet. She slid the penguin in so he looks like he’s sitting right on that floatie – how CUTE! After she’d laid everything out she took a pic with her phone to remember where everyone went.

She cut a 4 7/8″ X 4 7/8″ piece of orange card stock as a mat and adhere it to a 5″ X 5″ white card base. She adhered her stenciled background over than and added in her exquisite elements with dimensional adhesive. She added her layered sentiment and this card was ready to tickle someone special!

Here are the goodies from our store that Dawn used today:

If you’d like to see another pair of summer cards using these adorable characters, take a peek here:

Tuck this away where you save your ideas for square cards for summer hand stamped, stenciled and colored all with your own two hands – it’s a keeper and Dawn’s tips are great!