I Whale Always Love You!

Today's card made for the Itsy Bitsy design team embraces the cool tones of winter and celebrates everlasting love...in large, oceanic, mammal style, lol! 

You may be wondering why I am showing you this pretty piece of tan, vintage paper from the Retro Paper Pack below...but believe it or not,  that is what I started out with for this project! I used only the top right portion of this 12" x 12" sheet (cut to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2") as the base for my stencil work. Follow along with the step -by -step below to see how it's done.

The first step was using stencil tape to secure the Chevron Stencil down to my work surface over top of the Retro patterned paper. Using gray Hickory Smoke Distress Ink, I gently tapped the color through the stencil on to the paper. 

When it was covered completely, I removed the patterned paper, sprayed the inked surface of the stencil with water in a fine mist and then pulled a print of that watercolored design on to a separate piece of White Card. 

I then repeated that same process with the blue Tumbled Glass Distress Ink, but I offset the paper under the stencil to alternate the two colors.

I also used the two ink colors to add watercolor splotches on a small scrap of white card that I'll use for my sentiment banner. Below you can see the 3 pieces I was left with after my session of playing around with water, paper and ink.

After I gave it some time to dry, I used my diecut machine and the thin cut Banner Die set to cut a large banner from the water printed chevron paper, a medium banner from plain white card and a small banner from the watercolor splotched paper.

Then I got out my Black Chalk Ink and the Fintastic Birthday set to stamp the sentiment on the small banner and the whale on a scrap of white.

I tapped the Distess Ink pads in both colors on to a clear acrylic stamp block and pulled ink off using a water brush to watercolor the whale. After he was dry, I fussy cut him out and covered him with a little dusting of glitter.

Using Foam Tape adhesive and an office/desk stapler, I layered and adhered the banners and the whale to the front of a white A2 side folded vertical card.

Tiny silver stars from the Moon Light Shaker Sprinkles pack were randomly glued on to the card front for some subtle bling and then it was all done!

Check out Itsy Bitsy's webstore to find all the supplies used here today and until next time, happy crafting~