Make a Splash!

Today's card was inspired by sketch #47 @ Paper Play Sketches and will also be entered @ Craftaholics for "Beach", @ Glitter 'N' Sparkle for "Summer Sunshine" and @ My Creative Scoop where "Anything Hand Colored Goes".

The first thing I did was cut my layering papers to fit my stamp size according to the sketch- then to add some texture I ran the lagoon strip through a bubble embossing folder and then highlighted it using blueprint distress ink and the distressing dauber tool.

Next up, I used more distress ink  -that same blue and then a peacock green -to swirl over the stencil from Stamplorations on the white card front panel. the card itself is a top folding, horizontal A2 base in a dark teal/lagoon green color. 

I stamped the lovely mermaid from Stamp AnnieThing in black Momento ink so that I could color her with Prismacolor pencils and then blend it with the alcohol based Prismacolor blender pen and not have the image bleed out on me. But, I learned a very important lesson working with this stamp for the first time...don't try to draw the nose in after you've start coloring her...I used a micron pigma pen and ended up with a horrible smeared mess in the middle of her face -WAH!!! I was soooo upset...but I took a deep breath, pulled out my trusty white art eraser and went to work on the repair. At one point, I almost gave up...but I was persistent and got it to the point where I don't think you would even notice the flaw if I hadn't told you about it first -at least that is what I am telling myself, lol! Next time I will draw it in first, give it plenty of time to dry and even heat set it if necessary.

I stamped the sentiment in versamark ink and then embossed it in black powder for added dimension on the card front.

To add some glitter and shimmer, I used the Stardust Gelly Roll pen to color the pearls in her hair and the details on the starfish's body. I used the clear Wink of Stella pen to highlight sections of her hair and to color her tail fin. I glued 3 teeny tiny rhinestones over 3 of the pearls in her hair, added 3 enamel dots in graduated sizes and coated them also with the Wink of Stella pen so they would stand out a little better from the stenciled background. Before layering her on with some mini foam dots, I edged her panel with a pale blue ink for added definition.

For the inside sentiment, I stamped the brushstroke stamp from CTMH in the distress inks and sprayed it with water to mute out the colors a bit. After drying it with my heat tool, I then stamped the sentiment (from the ACMoore $ bin) in black ink over the top. Not sure who this card will go out to quite yet, but I just loved working with my first Chibi Kids stamp that I won from the very generous Stamp AnnieThing during a podcast from So Suzy Stamps earlier this summer -love those 2 gals!!! 

Until next time~

P.S. -I made a last minute edit to this card to add some sequin stars to the design so that I could also enter it on the Stamp AnnieThing FB Fan Page Group contest "Seeing Stars"...and I thought you might enjoy seeing it too, so here it is...enjoy!