You Are Mermazing

Happy Friday!  I hope you had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend as much as I am!

Today’s card features the Mermazing stamp set and the Radiating Rays stencil from My Favorite Things.  I was inspired by a recent card by Francine Vuilleme as well as a few others on Instagram.  Rather than have sunlight filtering downwards, I decided that I wanted the light to radiate outwards from this sweet trio of ocean friends.

I started with an A2-sized piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock.  Using a foam blending tool, I added a circle of Salty Ocean Distress Ink beneath where I planned to have the mermaid float.  I then blended Blueprint Sketch around that and all the way to the edge, adding a heavier layer of ink towards the outer edge of the card.  I made sure to go back and blend in more Salty Ocean to get a smooth-ish transition of color.  Then, I blended in Chipped Sapphire at the very edges of the card and near the bottom where I planned to put the sentiment.

Next, I used the stencil to add radiating rays of Chipped Sapphire.  The center of the stencil is solid so after removing the stencil, I blended in Chipped Sapphire into that open circle.

With the blending done, I decided it was time to add the sentiment.  I rubbed an anti-static powder tool over the background and then stamped the sentiment in VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with white Hero Arts embossing powder. To finish the background, I sprinkled clean clear water over it, let the droplets sit for about 10 seconds, and then dabbed the water up with a clean paper towel.

Then it was time to color.  I stamped the mermaid and her pals in Copic-friendly Hero Arts Intense Black ink onto a piece of Neenah Solar White #80 Classic Crest cardstock.  I’m still new to coloring and decided that I would try to use some of the techniques that I’ve seen other cardmakers use.  I don’t know their proper names, but I used one on the mermaid’s hair (I call it the flick-flick technique, lol) and the other is on the turtle’s shell (I think it’s called stippling).  I got a little lost when I was shading the mermaid’s hair, but I learned something and that’s what counts, right?

When I finished coloring, I used a Brother ScanNCut2 to cut out the images and then I backed them with foam tape.

I trimmed the background to 4″ x 5.25″ and adhered it to an A2-sized piece of navy Recollections cardstock.  Then I adhered the mermaid, fish, and turtle.  Finally, I adhered the entire card front to an A2-sized card base.

Thanks so much for coming by!