Seize the Birthday: adding stripes

Hi everyone this is my 3rd Guest Designer card for Seize the Birthday and the optional topper is stripes this time, but as always you can just enter a birthday card to play along.

 

I normally love adding stripes using a stencil but thought I would try something different and use my Pinstripe background stamp by Altenew. One of the cool things about Altenew is that all stamps come with an idea booklet with multiple examples. I've played with one of the ideas for my card and used some left over flowers etc. from a Virtual mixed media event I took part in awhile ago with Hero Arts using their Beautiful Day set, so this was a very easy card to create and packs a bit of WOW. The sentiment comes from Pinkfresh's Simply Sentiments. I've also added some black splats using Liquorice IZINK Dye Spray by Seth Apter.

Well I hope I have inspired you to go "stripey" with your birthday cards this week.

✿Karen✿

Just Add Ink 700th Challenge

Gosh what a worthy achievement, now I thought I would start of by reminiscing about MY Just Add Ink journey, as they have been a BIG part of my challenge life and blogging. 

The very first challenge of theirs was January 2010 and I was a day too late to enter - that's often the story of my challenge life I get the closing time wrong. You can read that blog post HERE and this is my card and the challenge colours (sob I loved all of these colours and ALL retired). Gosh what a fab card even if I say so myself, I still love it, feeling like I need to recreate it again!

I also see I didn't know how to blog as well as I do know and I've just linked to the generic Just Add Ink blog with my blog post.

Back in 2010 I was pretty busy with a full time job running a hospital laboratory plus running my Stampin' Up! business which included prepping for classes, workshops, extravaganzas etc. so I wasn't really into challenges but tried to play along with Just Add Ink, NZSU Blogs (which I ran for awhile) and my stamping idol Kristina Werner's Make a Card Monday's. In all honesty the card I entered for the first challenge I can see was totally inspired by Kristina looking at it now.

So skip forward to 2022 and again I decided I was going to restart doing card challenges to refind my lost MOJO and Just Add Ink (and CAS on Friday) was the first challenge I chose to play along with and you can read about that card HERE. Again it was a colour challenge and no. #598.

So thanks to all the Design Team over the years I see Chantell has been their since the beginning and I can see why I played along originally, my friend Delys Cram was on the original DT. HERE is the link to the first Challenge FYI. I love that Just Add Ink has a range of things for us to do with their challenges, each week is different.

So here we are in 2024 and they want shimmer and shine, now I might have gone overboard and I don't think my photo taking skills have improved but you may need some sunglasses when I really show the shine I got on my card to celebrate this FAB MILESTONE WITH JUST ADD INK.

I decided I would try to do a Mixed Media Technique Libby Hickson taught for WCMD 2023 which I meant to try and never did at the time. So a call out for Shimmer & Shine deserved me having a go at it.

I'll start off with the FINAL card and then show how the card was created and the supplies used. Libby's name above is linked to the blog post with a video if I'm not explanatory enough.

Just in case you can't see the shimmer and shine above:

This is how I KReated my card, I used Hero Art's Neon Bright Watercolors : Brights Sunshine, Brights Orange and Brights Pink and added to a wet watercolour paper panel.

Apply Hero Arts White paste through a stencil; I used Art Deco Dancing Lights stencil (HA).

Remove stencil carefully and throw the stencil and palette knife into water (clean later). Sprinkle Iridescent Gold embossing powder (HA) all over, I was a bit shocked as I thought my panel should have been dried as I had left it for 2 hours plus I had also dried with my Ranger heat tool. At this stage looking at my panel I was worried powder was stuck to more than just the paste.

But nothing to lose so onwards and you heat the paste/powder with a heat embossing gun until the powder "bubbles and bursts" and hopefully you can see below all the "extra powder" actually brushed off.

Now this is where I wish I hadn't used my deckled rectangle die to cut out the panel as I can see it has flattened my puffy gold paste and also my plates have scratched it . You don't see the scratching looking at the card IRL but you can see it is flattened a bit. I actually own Tim Holtz's deckled edge guillotine so wish I had used that but always think a die is more accurate. The deckled rectangle comes from a Mixed Frame rectangle die set by Altenew.

Card stock mat is Sweet Pea (C9) it seemed to tie in with the pink in the watercolours, the fab glimmer paper is an old Rainbow Glimmer paper from SU!. Wee butterfly is from Memory Box Intricate Mini Butterflies and has been die cut out of black glitter paper with a Magenta glitter drop (PFS). The many thanks die is an oldie from Essentials by Ellen.

Well that was a lot of fun and this card packs a wow IRL so I know whoever  receives it will think it's pretty cool as who doesn't love shimmer and or shine!

Once again HAPPY 700th challenge Just Add Ink. Hopefully I'll still be around to do your 1000th ;) I'll also enter my card in Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge for feminine cards as I have been  stuck in bed with a cold but really wanted to make sure I played along with this milestone for the JAI team.
✿Karen✿

Friend Flower

It was lovely to do a live class again as it has been quite awhile. I'm actually sitting on my hands and not signing up for new Virtual classes as I need to get on top of the mound under my desk "still to do one day".

Today's class I made it to live was held at 930am on my Sunday and was part of Hero Art's weekend Spring Stamp-a-Long and taught by my favourite teacher Kristina Werner. It was funny looking at the sneak she provided, I actually thought I'd forgotten to buy some groovy flower die that she was working with. But as it turned out, it was using one of the FIVE things I actually did buy to do the event with, namely the Rounded Jewel  Infinity dies. We've used the 2 smallest sizes of these dies to create the petals and leaves. 

The lovely big friend die and sentiment is from the Smile Friend stamp and die set (2nd item). The 3rd item I bought was the Teal Hero Pearls. I also have a Mandela stamp set with a matching stencil (4 and 5) but I felt it was minimal what I needed to buy to participate fully, plus I liked them and I had nothing similar. I am also working with stuff I have in my stash already too.

I used Distress inks to blend my die cuts with: Peacock Flowers, Wilted Violet, Picked Raspberry and Squeezed Lemonade. For my background I used an older stamp from Hero Arts I had in my stash: Rough Dots Bold Prints. I stamped it firstly with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink, then ink blended Charcoal ink (also HA) lightly over the whole panel, before blending the edge with a black ink, Memento Tuxedo black ink as I thought that it would dry faster. The stems are drawn with a white Gelli roll 10 pen. It is a really quick and effective card.

That was a great start to my day and I have to be honest the next card I am most interested in doing from the weekend event is also using these Rounded Jewel Infinity dies. I think they are going to be a great addition to my stash.

If you've ever thought about doing a Virtual class I can highly recommend the Stamp-a-Longs with Hero Arts, they are really are a reasonable price to register, especially if you sign up early, you don't need to buy everything they're working with either. Use what you own where possible and if you do buy a few items like I did their prices are really reasonable and I find their shipping from the States to be the cheapest and even more incredibly the quickest. As it's their 50th anniversary this year, it sounds like their Summer event in mid-July is already being touted as huge and not to be missed.
✿Karen✿

Creative Art Retreat: Simple blending for a sky scene aka "card 6"

I really liked a lot of things about this older Hero Art's stamp set we received in our kit. It's called Sky's the Limit Balloons but apart from the images and sentiments which I think are delightful we received in our card kit die-cuts from Cloudy Sky Scene die (also HA) in white and Pearlescent vellum (LF). 

I've never seen a cloud die like this before and the clouds and the balloon looked amazing peeking trough the Elegant Window Fancy die (also HA). You can find the stamp set and the 2 dies on the Hero Arts website plus various stores are still stocking them all (just not in NZ).

We stamped the balloon directly onto our white card and then masked the balloon and the basket and did a really simple sky using Salvaged Patina and Shaded Lilac distress inks. It's quite subtle but it allows the balloon to shine and pop.

Some fab Crystal Glimmer enamel stickers from Honeybee Stamps to finish off the scene. I'm really liking these enamel stickers they really do look like small water drops.

✿Karen✿

Rainbow birthday card

The first official challenge card created in 2024 was an easy one to pick up and run with and today I'm playing along with AAA Birthday Card challenge wanting rainbows or rainbow colours.

I always think of Laura Bassen when rainbow colours are mentioned and I'm using some products that she taught with at SCT's Fall 2022 class and I loved that card and was going to remake it using different colour inks this time, when I had a brainwave; maybe because I'd had the DSP pad out to use for the tag card I made the other day, just to use rainbow DSP. 

You can see my tag card HERE and the card I made with Laura and SCT HERE.

There's actually minimal colouring, the DSP does all the heavy lifting but still a rainbow of colours in the jar of Copics used:

I've used die-cuts to add dimension as "dimension is life" and I've slightly offset a black HOORAY die-cut to add a hint of a shadow. I have to admit the scalloped mat was one I had cut for another project and didn't use and as I am still tidying up odds and sods for the grandkids day care to create with that seemed a really good use of the mat.

Supply List:
Stamps: Little Gnome Agenda (ME), Yah! Birthday (HA), Itty Bitty Celebrations (MFT)

Paper: Really Rainbow DSP (LF), Chamomile (SP)

Dies: Scalloped Contour (SU!), Large Stitched Rectangle Stackables (LF)

Other: Copics

Challenges: AAA Birthday #57

Well it's great to start replenishing my birthday card box as I must admit it's been full on Christmas cards and tags creating at the end of 2023 and if you do join in you have until the end of January to enter, so lots of time and who doesn't like a cheerful rainbow card for their birthday.

✿Karen✿

AAA Cards Challenge 253: you brighten my day

It's time for another challenge at AAA Cards and we're looking for Fall/Leaves done CAS (Clean and Simple). You've also got 2 weeks to submit your card, so plenty of time to join in on the fun.

I'm totally taking my inspiration from that gorgeous pink raincoat on the right as I've been looking at one of my stamp sets for quite awhile thinking why haven't I coloured you up. Fall is not really a big deal in New Zealand and we certainly don't send out cards but if we had gorgeous leaves like the bottom right hand cluster I would definitely embrace it as that is something to celebrate, unfortunately ours are more like the lower left hand side slippery and brown and make a MESS everywhere.

Anyhow it's time for my shocking pink raincoat and you may need sun glasses but I do sincerely hope it  "brightens up your day".

This gorgeous image is an oldie from Fun in the Rain (Hero Arts). My shocking pink Copic combo is RV09/06/04/02 and I coloured the dog up like I colour bears up, we decided he was a Jack Russell or some kind of terrier E37/33/53/51. For his lighter patch I used the lighter two E's; E53/51. A wee bit of R20 for his tongue and ear lobes plus T6 for the nose and dangly bits on the coat.

Thanks for popping in and I hope you can join in with this really fun challenge and do check out the other really inspirational cards from the Design Team on the AAA Cards blog; there really is some great ideas to inspire us all.

✿ Karen ✿

AAA Cards Challenge 252 : Colour Scheme Inspiration

Hi everyone there's a new challenge at AAA cards and we have a fab picture to inspire us (just remember to keep it CAS).

I have tried to mimic the colours in the hot air balloon with Copic colouring the wee umbrella and I think I got a pretty good match (colours used are listed below).

I also tried a bit of ink smooshing directly to my base card using a wash of Blue Blitz shimmer powder and even though I used a smaller piece of acetate it 's maybe a tad bigger than I was aiming for. But if you've ever tried this fun technique we do have minimal control.  I did it twice, heat drying between each layer. I also splattered with my white gold Gansi Tambi paint with a no. 1 round brush to make little splatters and a bit of shine.

Supply List:
Hero Arts : My Monthly Hero Kit February 2017
Other : Blue Blitz shimmer powder (Nuvo), white gold paint (Tansi Gambi), Lavinia smooth & multifarious white card, Versafine Nocturne Clair, clear EP, Copics, heat tool (RNG)

Copics (darkest to lightest blend): BV08/13/02; V17/15/12; B04/02/01/00; E00

Well I hope you can join in with us and do remember you have 2 weeks so there is plenty of time to play along, we would love to see what  inspires you but definitely check out all the fab cards on display at AAA#252

Thanks for popping in and hope there are no storms to weather where ever you are in the world and especially in NZ hope you're keeping safe and dry as the remnants of Cyclone Lola hits our country tonight.

✿ Karen ✿

Simple Sympathy Cards

Firstly happy world card making day (WMCD). I think it's the first Saturday in October and not an actual date. BUT IT IS TODAY, we just need the rest of the world to catch up to us ;)

I've been playing in the craft room but it's for an upcoming challenge so can't share yet with you all so thought I would blog about the "Simple Sympathy Class" with Libby Hickson for Hero Arts which I really loved. This was part of my #cropandcreatedelivered with SCT aka "my big box event". These are the four cards we created:

And this was our class kit of goodies (post class which is why my dot palette looks "used":

One of the things I was looking forward to in this class was that we were doing some simple watercolouring using a Daniel Smith Dot Dream palette. I've actually received a dot palette a few times before in kits but had no idea how to use it. In essence it is very small drops of Daniel Smith watercolour paint dried on a printed palette. It must be quite an effort to create them when a lot of dots and our one had a lot of dots but they are allow you to try DS watercolour paints which are incredibly EXPENSIVE $50 in NZD approximately a tube. I am very happy to say in my hands I do not need incredibly expensive watercolours. If I'm honest I could see no advantage over these than any other watercolour medium I already own. They were very bright but I don't think the expense is justified for the kind of dabbling I do with watercolouring but it was certainly fun to try them out under tuition.

We received as well as the dot palette With Sympathy stamps, dies and transfers coming in the Spring release for HA in February 2024. I loved this set and the transfers were amazing with white ones and black ones. My 2 pages of transfers has been cut up quite extensively and Libby suggested it was a good idea to use a small staple to keep the transfer sheet with the backing sheet.

The card below is just a wash of Mayan Yellow, Green Gold, Kingsman Green and Manganese Blue Hue paints from the palette. Dried and repeated. Dried again with a heat tool and then the transfer applied, it stuck so well to the watercolour paper. All the transfer images are in the stamp set but I love them and definitely going to buy more when released.

This card is multiple stamp images gold embossed onto black card stock (don't forget your embossing buddy powder tools) and then each image coloured in with the same shade. Some of the dots on the palette were iridescent or duotone so they are actually very sparkly in real life.The sentiment is also a transfer added to a white scrap.

This was the easiest card - it's all transfers. I love, love the white transfers on Kraft cardstock.

Last but not least the same image stamped and gold heat embossed and then Copic coloured up, die-cut out, popped up on foam and arranged in a wreath. The base card was supposed to be a very pale blue Hero Arts ink blended around the edge of the base card. I ended up doing a blend with Aqua Sky and Sea Glass which are light blue and light aqua inks from Concord and 9 as I felt that was a good match to the BG11 Copic used on some of the leaves.

I really loved this class and the images in the stamp set can be used on all sorts of cards. I've even used a black transfer on my recent play with faux dip dye play card.

✿ Karen ✿

Another art journal page

I've just completed what looked like on paper to be the prettiest page for our art journals with Hero Arts Mixed Media stamp-a-long. I was in a bind whether to do it or should I wait and buy some reactive inks to do it but decided to just do it with my Distress Inks and then decide whether I should outlay some more cents/dollars.

Well I was really pleasantly surprised my page turned out so brilliantly. This was the first page we taped down to help prevent warping but it made the first step white embossing the Rough Dots Bold Prints (HA) slightly interesting as obviously we also stamped on the tape with the stamp and embossing ink but it meant we just had to brush it off before heat setting it. I also worked on a bigger piece of watercolour card stock so I had lots of room to trim to size at the end. This class was taught by Channin Pelletier.

After this stage we swiped our ink pads and then misted them all wet and blew with an air blaster or a straw. 

When dry we stamped in a waterproof black ink the Encouragement Sentiment Strips stamp (HA). Allow to dry naturally or heat lightly with a heat tool and check dry by placing scrap of paper over and rubbing lightly to see if any black ink on scratch paper.

Let dry then apply some Hero Paste through the Stacked Circles stencil (HA), let dry then re-swipe with same ink pads, re-mist and blow again to fill in all the gaps. 

Allow to dry again and I added a wee touch of Gold Hero Wax to some of the stenciling. A die-cut word and a sentiment strip, plus a few drops of Hero White Pearls to finish off. I was lazy and used one word die-cut, Channin had a sentence plus I placed my sentiment strip where I had a straight line from my random stamp of rough dots.

I used the following distress inks; first swipe, Kitsch Flamingo, Saltwater Taffy, Squeezed Lemonade, Peacock Feathers and Mermaid Lagoon. I changed the 2 blues for the 2nd swipe as I thought they were too "greeny-blue" and used Salvaged Patina and Salty Ocean instead and that looked so much brighter even if they were on top of the other blue approximately. I think Channin's panel is brighter than mine so if possible I'll get some reactive inks when I can afford them PLUS the biggie question I also need to find somewhere to store them. I tried a friends when I was working out what supplies I should buy for my add-ons. I could see/feel how well they blended and how fantastically they reacted with water. They are a bit like Distress Oxides without the chalkiness but I decided that I could live without them in my stash for the moment.

✿ Karen ✿

Technique Tuesday #4

Lydia shared on the Hero Art YT channel last week our weekly inspiration using masking tape, it was a fun video and she made a pond with a cute duck.

To be honest I just started the process with no idea where I would finish which is just as well as "magic can happen all by itself".

The technique is just to grab any old masking tape, especially if the grotty stuff that tears easily and you should throw out as it's perfect for this technique which is sticking down and ruffling up in part of your cardstock. You then paint it with white gesso so you can work with it/ I'm working on and A2 panel of Heavy Distress (RNG)  card stock and to be honest I needed something heavier or I needed to tape it down. My  panel was often left with something heavy on it to stop the bend.

The next day I sprayed with my favourite Two Tone spray - spring green and gold (HA). 

It was looking pretty magical and pretty at this stage but was unsure where I was going with it all but was thinking of making it a tree top ie adding a tree trunk up one side and hanging a bird house in it. The next day I decided I would use a cure frog I have sitting on a water lily so back to a pond, a bit like Lydia so needed to add some blue to the mix. I thought I would spray the Ocean Blue and Gold spray through a stencil but I it didn't really work because of the warping of the cardstock. I would have been better spraying the stencil and then "stamping" it into the paper but too late and if I'm honest it looked fabulous IMO!!!

So there was only one place I could see this panel was going and we are back under the sea again.

I decided I would add some Glitter Paste tinted with some white glimmer metallic ink (both HA) through Speckled Egg stencil (AS) as thought they would look like air bubbles. I left the panel to dry in the sun before returning to it.

Once dry I stamped at the edge just above the masking paper with Versafine Morning Mist (grey ink)  various images from My Monthly Hero card kit from May 2017, called Mermaids different seaweeds etc. and tried colouring in with my Gansai Tambi pearl watercolours but it  blended into the background. So the MMH kit also came with add-ons including seaweed dies, so I cut out a few shapes out of watercolour paper and then used greens/teal/pink Lindy's Magicals to colour them. The wee pearl image was just in my spare Copic coloured images (LF) and worked really well with my under the sea vibe. I added a few iridescent pearls (SU!) as they were perfect for the sentiment which is found in MFT's Mermaid For Each Other stamp set.

Well another card which evolved as it was created. 

#heroartsmixedmedia

A beautiful page by Jessica for Hero Arts

This was the 4th page for my art journal from Hero Art's Mixed Media Stamp a Long. This class was taught by Jessica Frost-Ballas. Jessica's "official" photograph you see online is quite serious; doing a live class with her she is a lot of fun, she loves splatter but she is also very precise. Thankfully she went over the size of the page we were supposed to be doing and OMG I had it slightly wrong, so if you're doing the online class and reading this the correct dimensions for the "homemade" accordion journal are: covers; 5" x 7" with the inside pages; 4-7/8" x 6-7/8"

This means our mats if we use one should be no bigger than 4-3/4" x 6-3/4" so we can close our accordions nicely. Therefore our base card should be 4-3/4" x 6-3/4" if no mat or 4-1/2" x 6-1/2" if we have a tiny mat.

I "heard" the page size and thought that was the size for the paper we are working on. I have cut slivers of 2 of my 3 completed pages and my first page is now the cover and it has the words Create on it, so that should be perfect in all honesty. I only matted it as it was quite warped with the techniques I had done on it.

But back to the "beautiful" card with Jessica:

I have to be honest I wasn't really that sure I liked this page looking at the images and the prep before watching the class video.  I'm still a little bit undecided but I learnt quite a few different ideas and there is really a lot I like about this page. I wish I had more coloured sprays and kicking myself after completing the page I actually do have the purple and gold spray which I thought I bought but couldn't find. Jess used on her page four two-tone sprays Spring Green, Ocean Blue, Fuchsia and Royal Purple; all with gold as the 2nd tone. I did not like the Ocean Blue flowers at all on her card to me they jarred and didn't go with the other colours. So I used Spring Green and Fuchsia happily enough, then thought I would use my only other 2 sprays I own; apart from black, white and shimmer ones, which are Lavinia Golden Temple (in the picture above it's the flower between the 2 fuchsia flowers and is golden with almost a copper mica) and Izink Gold Mine dye spray (Aladine) - it's the very motley gold flower above the sentiment and then I hated it so much on the bigger flower I sprayed on some Ocean Blue, which I think made it worse. I'm not liking the Izink spray at all when applied directly to card stock. I used both these sprays at SENZ making my fab AALL and Create card and the sprays were great used through a stencil on an ink blended background (you can check out the yellow card HERE).

What I liked about this project was actually working on Charcoal card stock, we used Charcoal and black ink to darken 2 opposite corners. We then stamped the Positive Script Bold Print with firstly the black ink, then we made a puddle of a few drops of  White Glimmer Metallic ink and a drop of two of water and used this for stamping with the same stamp set (we stamped off once onto scrap paper before stamping on our card panel). Left over metallic white was splattered randomly around. Jessica's tips for splattering were (a) the harder the tap, the bigger the splat; (b) a bigger brush makes a bigger splat and  (c) your paintbrush needs to be moist with water already otherwise what you're trying to splat just gets absorbed into the brush. 

We then used our finger tips to rub some Glitter Paste around the edges, I probably didn't add enough but there's some between the 2 gold patches on the RHS and it looks fab IRL. We also finger dabbed what was quite a lot of Gold Hero wax for me around the edges plus also made a wee pool of it too by adding some to a few drops of water on our craft mat. I actually thought this was looking pretty damn amazing at this stage after my initial reluctance to do this project.

Then it's really just a matter of arranging your flowers from the Beautiful Day bundle we had coloured up with our sprays. Jessica's placement was different the 2nd time around so it's about placement with the background you have achieved. She also discussed about making triangles with our flower colours plus having odd numbers when planning where are flowers were placed. I also added some Gold Hero Pearls to my flower centres.

I think I would be happier with my efforts if the flowers with the Goldmine Izink spray wasn't on my project page, but overall I was really pleasantly surprised how fun this was and it has a lot of wow. Only 2 more projects to share I am very thankful Hero Arts has started up the Facebook group page and the weekly inspiration. I am hanging out till my discount code I get from SCT big box event I can use in the Hero Arts shop as my wish list is growing and no one down under seems to sell much Hero Arts  which is a shame as the kiwi dollar is not very strong at the moment and US shipping kills me and my craft budget when we sink too low:(

They also have planned a Stamp a Long for their Holiday catalogue which I am really tempted to do as I have loved, loved this event but I have my SCT big box event coming up real soon plus my Pinkfresh Studio and The Stamp Market combined Holiday event so my plate is full, as is my craft room shelves. So guess I'll just work on getting some more mixed media products for the moment when I can use my discount code. Hopefully it covers the shipping.

Thanks for popping in and I hope you do Have A Beautiful Day!

✿ Karen ✿

Technique Tuesday #3

I actually had a really loved "mixed media" weekend as I ended up KReating 3 things and all 3 had different mediums other than ink on them!

Today is the day Hero Arts share on their Facebook page new inspiration for the week at Monday noon kiwi time (8pm EST Sunday), it's a great way to enjoy my lunch.

Our challenge after last week was to use a paper towel on our project either but using it to apply texture or even incorporating it into our project.

I wanted to choose a different colour combo than my 2 previous cards so decided let's go blue this week. I received as part of my Stamp-a-long bundle from Hero Arts an Ocean Blue + Gold  two-tone metallic spray. That name made me think of the sea so I started off stamping a vortex of fishes in Twilight ink onto Distress White Watercolour paper (smooth side). The vortex was too big for my card in all honesty so stamped to one side then I thought ohh I can add my glitter paste that I wanted to press my paper towel in too for the challenge through a stencil. I used a Fish Net stencil from Waffle Flower. I have to admit once done I was thinking ohh maybe that wasn't nice putting a net around them but was hoping I'd find a sentiment that I could use to "free the fishes". I then set aside to dry.

When it was dry I grabbed my two-tone spray and was thinking wonder what I can use with it when I remembered this mystery "nail-polish bottle" of Turquoise Silk Liquid ink (iridescent) I received in My Monthly Hero kit in May 2017. The nail polish applicator always confused me but I just used it to paint the colour on at the top of my now dry stenciling and misted downwards over the fish net with my Mista bottle. I then sprayed in my splat box the left hand side with the two-tone spray and let dry.

It was very blue at this stage so decided I needed a Jenn Shurkus mermaid to brighten it up plus I have been really wanting to play with my new mermaid set from MFT stamps.

I then added one of the sentiments from the Vortex of Fishes stamp set which says "meet me by the sea for that's where i shall be" in silver pigment ink randomly alone the left hand side. One of the coolest technique Jessica Frost Ballas shared in the Mixed Media Stamp-a-Long was stamping into White Glimmer Metallic ink, stamping off once on scrap and I added some "bubbles" from a very, very old SU! set called Timeless Textures which I have never used but never retired as it's a bit like the Mixed Textures set I received in my box from Hero Arts so many versatile stamps in the set for adding texture.

I love how the "bubbles" look on the LHS.

I stamped and embossed a  sentiment in fine silver detail from another MFT set on Dragonfruit card stock. My wee mermaid is E00/02, RV02/04/06/09 and BG10/32/13 (lightest >> darkest).

Supply List:

Hero Arts: Glitter Hero Paste, Ocean Blue + Gold two-tone metallic spray, White glimmer metallic ink,

Turquoise Silk Liquid ink (iridescent) 

Stamps: Vortex of Fishes (PF), Mermaid for Each Other (MFT), Oceans of Fun (MFT), Timeless Textures (SU!)

Ink: Versafine Clair Twilight, Silver pigment (Encore)

Paper: Neenah Solar White #110, Distress White Watercolor (RNG), Dragonfruit (C9), Xpress IT blending

Other: Fish Net stencil (WF), Copic markers, Distress Collage Medium Matte (RNG), Distress Rock Candy (RNG), detail silver embossing powder
 

Well I had no real idea where that card came from but it all started off with Technique Tuesday and my Ocean Blue and Gold spray and I love it! Thanks for popping in.
✿ Karen ✿