Just keep swimming!

 I might be *slightly* addicted to this Mermaid's Tail stamp set, but...I made this card for my daughter's Hope Squad group at school. so it's going to a good cause. I just love all of the cute, fun and silly sentiments that are included in the set. Once again, I was dreaming up this card while floating on a tube down the lazy river with my 3 year old on my lap as we soaked up the sun! The best part is when he falls asleep on me, even when we get splashed, and he just snoozes away! 

 It's no secret how much I LOVE my Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi Pearl watercolors! They have brought me so much joy! LOL! They really are so much fun to work with and provide amazing results. To begin, I diecut the mermaid's tail using the designer dies out of 140 lb watercolor paper and painted the entire piece with the blue pearl watercolor. I also embossed just the very end of the flipper using silver embossing powder because I knew the rest of the tail would be covered up with all of the fabulous seashells. 

 I created a beautiful panel of watercolor so that I could die cut the seashells. I didn't want all of the seashells to just be one color, so I made a point to overlap the dies onto two conjoining colors as I ran them through my Cuttlebug. I had a lot of fun adhering them to the watercolored tail diecut. After they were all on, I added some Rainbow Sparkle Jewels here and there as I have done in previous projects which you can see HERE, HERE and HERE. They are so fun to add to my projects!!!! I also added a little bit of glossy accents to a few of the shells as well. I didn't want to overwhelm the piece, but just give it some fun details. Since it is the main focus of the card, it does have more gems and embellishments than I would if it were mixed with other images.

I created a fun background that reminds me so much of bubbles. I have used this particular Cuttlebug embossing folder for so many projects, mostly sports related. I actually experimented a few days ago with dry embossing acetate. I kept the panel that I am hoping to incorporate into a design, but for today, I did the dry embossing with vellum! Absolutely delightful!

 I really liked how it looked over the top of the Aqua Mist card stock but knew that I could create even more dimension with some ink. I sponged some Broken China Distress Oxide Ink onto the BACK of the vellum piece. The result is fabulous! I think I will be revisiting this idea in the future. I was hesitant to have the oxide ink on the front of the vellum, but I will experiment and see if it dries well. I turned it over and adhered it to the base I created using the Aqua Mist card stock. 

 You can see the depth that it gives that panel! So beautiful!I used Scor Tape along the edges, which is a fabulous adhesive to adhere vellum. I attached it slightly crooked and was pleased to see that I was able to lift it and reposition it, which came in handy later, too!

 I hadn't given enough thought to the sentiment before I added the vellum piece to the card front, but I was happy that the vellum was easily lifted so that I could adhere the sentiment. I chose to stamp the sentiment onto a strip of acetate using black StazOn ink. I wanted it to have a floating quality and not have any bulky sentiment strips! I just love how it turned out. 

I added a few more rainbow sparkle jewels, some Morning Dew Nuvo Drops, and a few Sparkling clear sequins here and there! I was pleased with the simplicity but awesome sparkle! 

I couldn't ignore the inside and I just HAD to add a shrinky dink sentiment. I thought the "Seas the Day" sentiment coordinated nicely with the sentiment on the front. It warped a little bit but I liked the wavy look that it added to the card. I may have gone a *little* wild with the embellishments on the inside, but these are for Jr. High kids so I am sure it will be fine! (wink) Thanks for fluttering by!