You're Fintastic

Lawn Fawnatics has been having a "Watercolor" challenge. I created this card with Lawn Fawn's "Fintastic Friends" stamps & coordinating dies, supplemented with "Otter Ware" stamps & dies from the Essentials by Ellen line.

I began with my background. I cut a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper to 4.25x5.5", and die cut it into sections with the "Stitched Hillside Borders" dies from Lawn Fawn. For the water sections, I applied Mermaid Lagoon & Salty Ocean Distress inks onto my non-stick craft mat, & sprayed them with my homemade Perfect Pearls mist. After taping my watercolor paper pieces back together how they would be on the card (applying painter's tape to the back of the pieces), I smooshed them into the ink puddles. After I got an all-over coverage, I dried the ink with my heat tool, then daubed it back in the ink droplets, to create the look of bubbles. I dried it & dunked it one more time, then mostly dried it again with my heat tool. I set that aside to dry completely while I worked on the rest of my card.

For the sand, I took the bottom-most section of watercolor paper, and inked it with Tea Dye Distress ink and a blending tool, adding a little Brushed Corduroy around the edges. I spritzed that piece with water from my Distress Sprayer, and blotted up the water & ink. A little too much ink came up, so I blended on more Tea Dye & a bit of Brushed Corduroy, spritzed it again just a bit, and blotted up the water/ink. After that dried thoroughly, I stamped my greeting, from "Fintastic Friends," in Versafine Onyx Black ink.

I stamped several fish & the hermit crab from "Fintastic Friends," as well as the greenery from "Otter Ware," onto scraps of Strathmore Smooth Bristol paper. I used the "Otter Ware" stamps because I wanted this to be an ocean underwater scene, and the seaweed stamps in "Fintastic Friends" were just too small. I used Ranger Archival Jet Black ink for the fish & crab, and Hero Arts Green Hills ink for the greenery. Then I used my Tombow markers and a water brush to watercolor them. I also used a green Tombow marker & my water brush on the solid greenery, to add a bit of shading. After I had finished the coloring & everything was dry, I die cut all the images with the coordinating dies.

To assemble my card, I removed the tape from the watercolor pieces, then adhered them to a white A2 card base with my ATG tape runner. Then I laid out my images to determine placement. I first glued the greenery pieces just at the very bottom of each with liquid glue, so I could later layer them over a few of the fish. Once I had determined placement of my fish, I glued them in place, and finished gluing the greenery over the fish. As finishing touches, I added some bits of sparkle to the sand with a Sakura Star Dust glitter pen, and accented the eyes of the fish & crab with a black Sakura glaze pen. I also added a coat of clear Wink of Stella to the hermit crab's shell.

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: "Anything Goes"
Through the Craft Room Door: "Anything Goes"
Dies R Us Challenge #76: "Layers"