Ahoy there, matey?  Well, there aren’t any actual pirates on this card but that’s the only sea themed greeting I could think of ☠🚣.

I recently had a request for a ocean fishing themed birthday card.  I find I work best if I have some idea of what I’m going to do so after a lot of research, a lot of thinking and a few sketches I dove into the blue!!!

I started with some Bristol Vellum cardstock and blended three different Distress Ink blues over the bottom 2/3rds of the card.  I had masked off the top 1/3rd for the sky.  I then used two more blues and the new MFT cloud stencil to create the cloud/sky scene.   Such an easy way to create a great sky!

I had recently purchase some Impression Obsession dies (Mini Nautical Set, Sailboats and Seabirds) and they were perfect for this card.  I die cut all the images I wanted to use out of scrap cardstock.    I played a bit with the seagulls as I wasn’t happy with them being just plain card so after a bit of Pinterest searching I found some great reference photos.  I recut them out of X-press It Blending card and did a bit of copic colouring.  I am really happy how these turned out.

Next I moved onto the fish.  I had seen a great box card that gave me the idea for how I wanted the bottom part to look.  The corner part of the scene is the Memory Box Oceana Corner die which I cut down to fit the window.  I sponged the die cut with the same colours of distress ink as the ocean.  I also cut a few of the fish from the parts of the die I didn’t use and either copic coloured or sponged with distress ink.   The window section is covered with transparency sheet.  I was initially going to make it a shaker card but decided to just use Nuvo Jewel Drops in Grey Mist instead, which dry transparent, to mimic water bubbles.

The waves were die cut with the MFT Otterly Love You dies.  I then assembled the card and added a bit of extra dimension by popping up some of the items with thin foam.

But…I had completely forgotten about the sentiment.  Luckily I had the perfect spot to put it.  The sentiment is from the new Avery Elle release “Bubbles” and this was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.

Finally, I adhered the whole card front to dark blue craft foam and added that to my cardbase.

Phew…the card did actually take a few days to come together but I didn’t want to rush it and I’m glad I took my time.

So thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Handmade by Pip

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Supplies

Stamps: Avery Elle

Dies: My Favourite Things, Impression Obsession, Memory Box

Stencil: My Favourite Things

Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Chipped Sapphire, Mermaid Lagoon, Salty Ocean, Broken China, Faded Jeans)

Embossing Powder:  Clear Embossing Powder

Colouring: Copics on X-press It Blending card

Cardstock: Strathmore Bristol Vellum, Base Cardstock Advance A4 300gsm Long Grain Laser

Other: Memento Tuxedo Black Ink (used for copic colouring), MISTI Stamping Tool, Heat Gun, Transparencies, Nuvo Jewel Drops, Versafine Onyx Black Ink

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