Thanks a ton!

Thanks for stopping by today! I have a fun shaker card design that I'm excited to share with you! My mom took us to the Aquarium during Spring Break and I have been wanting to make her a cute aquatic themed thank you card. I'm ashamed it has taken me so long to do it, especially because it was so fun to put together.

The starting point for this design is the Keep Swimming stamp set that I just love. Once again, I have only made one card with this set and I didn't even take a picture. It has been fun to pull out my under-utilized stamp sets and start creating.

I chose a cooling and predictable aquatic color combination to start my design. I was actually very inspired by one of the photos I snapped at the aquarium...you can see it at the bottom of the post.

To begin, I created the watercolor background and die cut three different sizes of circles  in a bubble-esque pattern, starting from largest to small, working my way to the top of the paper. After that was finished, I adhered the transparency to the back of the watercolor paper to begin the fun part; stamping.

I stamped the cluster of bubbles in the middle circle because I knew that Mr. Whale would be perched underneath and I wanted it to appear as thought he was making them. The bubbles are stamped in white StazOn ink. The other two circles don't require any additional stamping, so I die cut the little fish and the whale. I actually used both the bold image and the line art image for the whale for a fun and quirky result. I also wanted to add in a little bit more black since the sentiment is stamped in black as well.

I just love how the whale turned out. I stamped the entire image in Hawaiian Shores ink and then added some additional color using a marker for some detail and interest. I added some clear micro beads to the bottom with liquid glue to mimic the barnacles that are commonly found on whales. I think it looks so cute!

While the whale was drying, I began stamping and working on the circles that were removed from the watercolor paper. I wanted to keep them so that they could be put back in place behind the acetate. 

The bottom circle has a few of the little minnow fish stamped as well as a die cut fish which you can see in this photo. The top circle doesn't have any stamping but the middle one has a few additional bubbles stamped in a darker ink and then I added some crystal drops for sparkle and shine.

You can see in this photo that I also added some of the wave images to create aquatic plants-maybe seaweed or something. I also added a few more die cut fish here and there for balance and some crystal clear sequins. I also stamped a few more bubbles here and there in Hawaiian shores ink stamped off once so they weren't too obvious. They are a little hard to see in the photos, but in real life they have a subtle presence. The sentiment is also included in the set and I stamped it onto a strip of white paper and then layered it over the bottom circle. 

This is the photo that I took at the aquarium that inspired today's design! Join me Thursday for a new inspiring challenge from The Challenge! Thanks for fluttering by!