No grit, no pearl

 Happy Tuesday everyone! Today is my birthday! Yay! ha ha! I thought I would quickly pop in today to share a card I made a few weeks ago. I made this one before I created THIS one. I had so much fun creating the background so I thought I would share how simply it can be done!

 To begin, I cut a piece of Cool Caribbean cardstock to 4 by 5 1/4. I then blended some Broken China distress oxide ink leaving a little bit of clean space for the sentiment. 

 Once that was blended, I used the shimmer spray/stencil technique that I saw on Jennifer McQuire's blog. I simply spritzed the shimmer spray onto the polka dot stencil and then placed it over my inked cardstock panel. I let it sit with a heavy bottle on top for a few minutes. The result was this shimmering, bubbly background that is perfect for a sea inspired card.

 As soon as I saw the "no grit, no pearl" sentiment, I knew it would be awesome to use Heat and Stick powder to heat emboss it with sand. I had some shimmery sand left over from a baby shower I helped with a few years ago, so I used that for the sentiment. I used the Mermaid's Tail stamp set as well as the coordinating dies for the fun seashell wreath. 

 The seashell wreath was created using the dies as I mentioned above. I created a watercolor panel using the same supplies and techniques that I used for THIS card if you are interested in the links. Once they were all cut, I traced a circle onto my panel using a pencil. I glued the seashells on in a gradiant pattern for optimum effect. 

The finishing touch was a half back pearl glued onto the wreath as well as just a few clear Nuvo drops for some added shine. I left it very simple so that the sentiment and pearl could be the shining star. I think my 3 year old's bracelet was the inspiration behind this seashell wreath. LOL! He got it last year as a trick-or-treat prize and he calls it his "magic bracelet". It's so cute! Thanks for fluttering by!