Birthday Fishes

A friend of ours celebrates her 19th birthday this weekend. Since she has an aquarium and likes fish, I decided this card, which I found demonstrated in the "Digital Crafting Essentials" magazine, would be perfect for her. The pattern for the fish is the "Cute Fish" by Anna Marie Designs.

I cut the overall fish and small fins (for the side of the body) from blue glitter paper that I had in my scrap stash. I cut the body from a smooth silver cardstock, also from my scraps. I embossed the body with Cuttlebug's "Spots and Dots" embossing folder. I glued the body in place, and glued the small blue glitter fins on top. I cut the small fin accent pieces from the same silver cardstock, painted the backs with silver paint to cover the stark white, and scored the larger piece before gluing both in place. I set the fish aside to dry while I worked on the card front.

I wanted a watery-looking background, so I started with a mid-tone blue cardstock. I rubbed Picket Fence Distress stain over it in a swirling motion to lighten it and add a sense of movement. I painted the seaweed along the bottom of the panel with green acrylic paint. Then I used Heidi Swapp Color Shine spray inks in Teal & Seafoam; and Dylusions White Linen and Vibrant Turquoise sprays, until I got the look I wanted. Finally, to get the look of bubbles, I thinned down some white acrylic paint with water, then used a paintbrush to spatter some drops on the background. All this moisture made the piece pretty warped, so after it dried, I set it under a heavy book overnight to flatten out.

After the glue on the fish dried, I punched the eye from white cardstock using a 5/8" circle punch. I punched the pupil using a 1/4" hole punch, then glued it down in a slightly wonky position, to give the fish a bit of character. I glued the eye to the fish, and coated it with Glossy Accents to give it some shine and dimension.

I printed the greeting onto white cardstock, then cut it out & inked the edges with Salty Ocean Distress ink. After the card front panel had flattened, I adhered the fish and greeting strip with foam adhesive. I added a few silver sequins layered on blue sequins from Tree House Studio. Then I adhered the front to a card base with my ATG tape runner.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Spots & Dots"
Simon Says Stamp's Work It Wednesday: "Anything Goes"