Oceanic Fun!

Summertime means oceans and animals to this SoCal-at-heart girl (I no longer live there but I'll always be a beach girl). So when I got the Creative Expressions Whale of A Time Stamp Set, I knew I wanted to make fun summer CAS cards.

For all three cards, I used Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks in Broken China, Salty Ocean and Blueprint Sketch to create deep ocean ombre backgrounds. I varied the amount of the card front that was inked up but because the colors used were the same, there is a consistency to the card set. I also splattered water on them to create a splotchy, more watery effect.

Then for the first card, I used a scrap of Bristol Paper that I had inked up and sprayed with Ken Oliver Color Bursts to stamp out and fussy cut five jellyfish from the stamp set. The fussy cutting was a bit intricate, but it was well worth the dimension and detail. I doodled some black and white squiggles and swirls to give each jellyfish a slightly different look and to add some extra interest. I hand wrote the sentiment to simply say, "FLOAT ON" with a white gel pen and black ink pen for the shadow.

I only blended ink on about 1/3 of the second card front. I wanted it to look like this was a peek into a much larger ocean scene. I also used the Lawn Fawn Waves Die Set to die cut in some wave details into this inked area. This also gave me a place to tuck in the adorable whale from the stamp set, which I Copic colored and fussy cut (including around the fin so it could be tucked over the wave). For a little added interest I also added some water drops spurting out from the whale's blow hole and coated those drops with Glossy Accents. The sentiment, "Have a WHALE of a time" is also from the stamp set.

For the last card, I wanted to give the sense of an ocean teeming with animal life. I had blended ink on 3/4ths of the card front and stamped in the octopus and the schools of fish directly onto the ink blended area so that I could avoid fussy cutting all those thin arms and tiny fish. To color up those images, I used Sharpie Markers, which provided great opaque coverage over the Distress Oxide Inks.  I stamped the dolphin, some splash droplets, and the turtle on separate pieces of paper, colored them up with Sharpie and Copic Markers, and fussy cut them out. I popped both up on double sided foam adhesive to add a little dimension. The "Oceans of Love" sentiment is from the stamp set, and to add a bit of shine, I traced the stamped sentiment with a Black Sakura Glaze Marker.

These ocean critters were so fun to play with to create these cards. If you'd like more details about the products or would like to watch a process video, please check out my blog post HERE.