Let's be Mermaids!!!

 How fabulous is this new Mermaid's Tail stamp set?!?! I am completely IN LOVE! I have been absolutely enjoying making bright, fun, and summery cards! As soon as the mailman rang my doorbell with my package from Ellen Hutson I had to play... immediately! Like it says; I'm done adulting...especially with new stamps to play with! ha ha! I shared a sneak peek of this card on Instagram yesterday and I mentioned that it was proving difficult to photograph.

I FINALLY ended up with the best pictures I could get around 6:40 in the evening, which seemed late to get the best light, but it was the best I had all day. I have taken a boat load of pictures of this card!

 To begin, I stamped the mermaid's tail in Versamark ink onto Hawaiian Shores cardstock and heat embossed it using gold powder. After that was done, I used the coordinating designer dies to cut it out. I set that aside so that I could work on a few more elements that I had in mind for this design. I realized after I placed my order, that the stamp set didn't come with any aquatic sea plant images. I don't have anything that would work very well either. I decided to create my own seaweed-esque plants myself. 

 I used a piece of 140 lb cold pressed watercolor paper and painted both sides of it green using the fabulous (and addicting) Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi pearl watercolors. I painted enough of the paper so that I could cut strips in varying sizes to create the seaweed. I twisted the strips while the paper was still wet from the watercolors so that I could manipulate it into the desired shape. Once they were the right size, I snipped the tips at a sharp angle to make them look a little more realistic.

 I set those aside to dry and got to work on the background. I had watched a video on Jennifer McGuire's blog on water stamping with distress oxide inks and since I just got some, I was dying to try. I used the Glorious Petals stencil from Hero Arts for the actual "water stenciling". I made a card a few days ago using the same technique and the image came out much crisper. I actually didn't mind in this particular case because I didn't want it to compete with the fabulous design on the Mermaid's tail. After that had dried a bit, I added a spritz of shimmer spray like Jennifer had done in her video. The result is spectacular!

 I ended up adding a few more colors of pearl watercolors to the piece of watercolor paper I had been using for the seaweed. I used the seashell die cuts to make an assortment of shells. Because they had the pearl shine, I decided to add some Glossy Accents like I did on THIS card because I liked the effect so well. Once all of my bits and bobs had been created, it was time for the fun part; assembling it all.

 Originally, I had planned on having the mermaid's tail splashing off of the card horizontally, so I heat embossed the sentiment accordingly. I then changed my mind and decided I liked it vertically; as though the mermaid was taking a dive into that glorious ocean. I really liked how the rainbow background ended up looking like a sunset with a deep ocean underneath. I love surprises like that! So...the sentiment is a little off, but I like it anyway!

 I used Tombow Mono Multi to glue the paper seaweed down as well as a few mini glue dots as it would allow. I used a few heavy things around my desk to place on the seaweed so that the glue would dry without is springing back off of the card. The funnest part was adding in all of the seashells, sequins and dew drops. I just HAD to get the mermaid mix sequins! They are INCREDIBLE and they are limited edition, so grab 'em while you can! I also added a light layer of wink of stella to the tail as well! I "may" have been singing "I'm so shiny" from Moana while I was putting this all together! LOL!

To finish it off, I just COULD NOT resist making a little shrinky dink tail! Can you blame me? I mean, look at this cute little thing! LOL! I stamped it in black Palette ink onto the shrinky dink sheet, colored it in a rainbow pattern using Copic markers and then let the heat tool work it's magic! I glued it to the inside of the card with the "just keep swimming" sentiment as well as a few sequins (of course). I also gave the inside a generous spritz of shimmer spray as well. (that's why it appears like the sentiment is grainy, but it's not) I created this card for a friend who has had a particularly bad week and I am certain this will cheer her up! That's what I love about this crazy business!!! Thanks for fluttering by!