Happy Saturday!
Well, how’s everyone feeling after the first week back into the new/old routine? We are surprisingly unscathed! The teenager is happy with all her classes and teachers for Grade 9, and announced that she forgot how much her brain loves to learn so now she’s determined to take summer school classes from now on just to keep her brain happy. Um … okay? The younger two have yet to be assigned their “forever classes” as the new principal put it. Seriously? How long does it take to tell the student body what the teachers have known since June?!
Apparently a week, as we find out on Monday.
But I digress … I took advantage of a quiet house this week to play with my September card kit from Simon Says Stamp. If you missed it I filmed my unboxing for you here. As you can see it is heavy on product of a mermaid persuasion! I dove right in and created these three cards.
Card #1 – Shell Phone Mermaid
For this card I first stamped the mermaid image in Versamark ink onto white card stock and embossed it with white embossing powder. I then used the two Distress Oxide inks from the kit and blended them all over the card and the image to create an underwater feel. To colour the mermaid I stamped other Distress Oxide ink pads onto my desk (I have a wipe-able mat on my desk top) and using a water filled paint brush, lifted the colour off my desk and used it to coloured certain aspects of the mermaid – namely her tail, hair, and shell accessories. I love the soft look I got!
A couple of the sentiments paired together gave me a fun greeting and then it was time for finishing touches. I first splattered the card with water droplets to emphasize the watery feel of the card then used one of my stitched rectangle dies to give a bit of interest around the edge of the card front. Once I’d adhered it to a card base, I glued on some of the gold sequins from the kit.
Card #2 – Diving Mermaid Shaker Card
I decided I didn’t want a blue mermaid for this card, so I stamped the image twice – once onto a piece of the white card stock from the kit, and a second time onto a piece of scrap white card stock. I then fussy cut out this second image and used it as a mask to keep the first image clean while I blended one of my blue Distress Oxide inks all over the card. Once that was done and I peeled off the mask, I could colour in the image underneath. To get the orangey-pink hair I blended my yellow and pink Oxide inks together on my desk before painting them on with my water filled brush. I decided to position her as if she was diving to the bottom of the ocean to collect shells or treasure so put my Happy Birthday Beautiful stamp on an angle to emphasize that motion.
I also wanted to give this an extra special touch so I turned it into a shaker card by die cutting a scrolled recatngle shape into another piece of the white card stock from the kit and filling the inside with some of the gold sequins from the kit. A few stamped and fussy cut sea weed images glued onto the front of the card complete the scene.
Card #3 – Sitting Pretty Mermaid
I decided not to add blue to the back ground of this image. Instead I prefer to think of her as being above the water! I still used my Distress Oxide inks to colour in the image and then chose yet another of the sentiments to stamp beside her. I trimmed the image down and mounted it onto a piece of the blue textured paper from the kit. It was still looking a bit bare so I went diving into my old kit supplies and found that pink glitter paper. Pairing that with the sea foam green card stock seemed a match made in Mermaid Heaven! All it needed to finish it up were a few sequins from my stash.
Well, there you have it, three fun and girly birthday cards. There are still a fair number of stamps in that set that I haven’t used yet so I’m not finished with this kit. I keep saying that colouring is not my favourite thing to do, but I am actually quite enjoying colouring these mermaids. Go figure!
We just got an invitation to hang with some friends we don’t see often so I’d better get myself ready. Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone and I’ll see you again soon!
Follow
