Voyage Beneath the Sea with Graphic 45 stamps

Hello lovely peeps, 

I hope you are all well. :)

It seemed like it was time for a trip, so the other day, I took a voyage to the bottom of the sea with Graphic 45 stamps.  Here, I have used set one (mermaid and sentiments) and set two (man riding fish.) 

An 8” x 8” Card was chosen to allow me more room to work with and decorate. It began with creating a shimmering background with mica spray inks, followed by two panels, one square (coloured blue/green) and another rectangular (more blue) with an embossed white puff edge. Then they were sprinkled with blue, green, white and silver embossing powder.

   

Crafty tip:  Personally, I never pre-cut the background paper to fit the card base, it is always a safeguard in case it slips whilst applying it to the card blank, then you get full coverage. I may use glue or red doubled sided tape (much stronger than the white) but I line up the bottom left corners and once this is in the correct position, I stick the corner down and run my left index finger up along the side of the card as I gradually stick my panel to the base, this way I know it's straight. Then I turn it over and after I have made sure all the edges are properly stuck down I trim the excess with a ruler and craft knife.

Several of my foliage dies were perfect for this project and would easily make the coral reef plants. These were actually Tonic Regal Fern, a pine branch, a Die’sire small pine branch (from Crafter’s Companion), Die’sire small Mistletoe die, a Die-namics Formal Flourish, (I use this one a lot, it’s very handy), Creative Expressions Splendid Swirls and the vine base from the Spellbinder’s ivy die.

 As you can see I coloured these in different shades, I also used copper and green embossing powder on the larger pine branches, to add more texture and richness.

The sea anemones were created by using Spellbinder's and Lea’bilites flower dies, these were layered together to give them depth and fullness, as I wanted them to appear as if they had lots of arms which would sway about in the water. They were coloured with alcohol pens. The largest was made with an icicle die from Die’sire. A thin strip of card was coloured and quilled and then I wrapped the icicles round this, folding the tentacles back, opening them out and adding gold Stickles to the centre.

 I began to position things, I had a basic layout in my head but it’s always good to play about before you stick things down, layers would be built to create a busy reef.  A wooden strip of waves, which has been in my stash for a while, was excellent for this project, it would complement the white around the mermaid panel.  It was painted with Docrafts paint (a mixed shade to match the spray inks) and then embossed with white puff embossing powder (from WOW.)  Glitter was later added to the blue sections with Star Dust Stickles, I also thought it would be good to represent the ocean currents.

 The mermaid, seahorse (a kaisercraft stamp and die) and gentleman with fish were stamped with black Stazon ink and coloured with AquaBlend pencils from Crafter’s Companion. Shimmer was added to the fish, seahorse and mermaid’s tail with a Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen (clear.) Cogs were included, in keeping with the Steampunk theme, in various sizes and hues. Sequins, pearls, and gems were scattered throughout the reef to make it glint here and there as well as drops of Glossy Accents and White Liquid Pearls to create texture.

 The mermaid was glued to her background panel, leaving the tail and head free to stand away from the card, so it would seem like she was swimming along. The fish was fixed in the centre, leaving its head to come forward out of the picture. I then applied Peacock Stickles around the edge of the square and Star Dust around the rectangular panel.

This is the finished card as a whole, it took a long time to make but I enjoyed every minute. I'm sure I will be undertaking many more voyages to the bottom of the ocean in the future. :) 

Here is a recap/ further information for you about what I used for this project. 

 Stamps:  Graphic 45 Voyage beneath the Sea set 1 and 2.

Colour Cloud Inks: Summer Sky, Ocean Blue and Basil Leaf

Embossing powders:

From Wow: Metallic Copper Super Fine, White Puff Powder, Metallic Silver Sparkle, Primary Blue Topaz Regular, Clear Hologram Sparkle.

Other embossing powders:  

Blonde moments Ultra Thick Savoury Tropic and Papermania Superfine Silver.

Crafter’s Companion:  AquaBlend pencils and Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen (clear.)

Stickles: Peacock, Star Dust and Gold.

Crafty Notions Colour sprays: Kingfisherlicious, Bluebell, Luscious Green and Silver. 

Dies:

Tonic Regal Fern

Die-namics Formal Flourish

Spellbinder’s Ivy die

Kaisercraft Nautical dies and stamps.

Creative Expressions, Finishing Touches- Splendid Swirls

Large Pine die (apologies can’t remember do not have original packaging)

Crafter’s Companion dies:

Small pine branch from Die’sire Christmas Classic Robin die set

Die’sire small Mistletoe die
Die'sire icicle die.

Cog dies are Memory box (small) and Cheery Lynn (large.)

Also used:

Mixed blue sequins, 

blue and white pearls of various sizes, 

Papermania Glazed Iridescent Gems,

Glossy Accents

Foam Tape and glue

Docrafts Artiste Acrylic paint: Metallic Emerald Green, Metallic Sapphire and Pearl medium.

Adele

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