Fin-tastic Birthday - watercolour pencil, die cutting

Hello! My card today features a mermaid surrounded by bubbles as a Fin-tastic birthday card.

Putting It Together

I can't find the mermaid available anywhere, but the file name and the folder in which I put it indicates it's from Whimsey. I'm pretty sure it was from one of the Kit & Clowder events freebies.

I printed the mermaid on lightweight watercolour paper and then took her to work in my travel art packet. I used all of the pencil sets I usually carry with me to colour her during lunch over a couple days. I kept getting interrupted by, well, work, or I would likely have coloured her in one day.

I like colouring at work, it's so relaxing. I like watercolour pencils because I can use both pencil and watercolour techniques with them. And, they're very transportable. I use brush rolls from Micheals to hold the pencils and keep their tips safe. I have a makeup bag with other supplies including waterbrushes and a manual pencil sharpener as well as a ziplock baggie of printed and stamped images on watercolour paper. I keep the images in the plastic bag to keep them clean.

At home I dry fit an idea. I die cut the oval dot frame and put it on pearled paper. I like the bubbly look with the mermaid. I used a glittered paper for both the frame and an oval behind the mermaid. I used a holographic paper for the "hello" because I like the iridescent bubbly look of it.

To give the word a bit of dimension, I die cut it twice more from white scrap cardstock. If I don't get the stack perfect, the white will blend with the holographic paper.

I ran all three through the Xyron to add adhesive.

I kept one of the white words on the release paper and stacked the other two die cuts on top. Leaving it on the release paper while stacking is a lot easier because it's stable. I always build my word stacks from bottom to top.

I popped-up both the oval and the mermaid with foam mounting tape. The word crosses the low of the bubble frame to the higher oval. Because it's sticky across the whole back, it stays in place quite well.

Inside, I used a sentiment from a Kraftin' Kimmie set and an underwater pier pile from Emerald Creek for a detail tying into the theme.

Supplies

Challenges

Outlawz Sunday Songs and Rhymes: Under the Sea

Chin-Chou Kuik: Under the Sea

Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes Birthday

The Paper Shelter: Digital Image

Penny's Paper-crafty: Anything Goes