Under the Water Card

Hello there!  When I planned to post this card, I didn't realize it would be raining again today.  I sort of feel underwater with water dripping down the windows and everything wet and all sorts of green tones outside.  I didn't plan it, but it really goes with my idea today.  This card all started with a 3" x 6" piece of the Fancy Flora Designer Series Paper (pg 14-15 Mini Catalog) sitting on my desk.  It reminded me of masterpieces of the Impressionist painters and especially of some waterlily pond pictures.  I kept looking at it and just contemplating what should be done with it.  It looks so much like our pond right now with all its greenish colors.  The watercolor feel of the paper fit right in with that thought.  Here's what came of that vision.

I started the card by pulling out several choices of green cardstock and played around with the different combinations.  I really liked the Soft Sea Foam, Soft Succulent, and Lost Lagoon color combo together with that piece of DSP.  The Soft Succulent cardstock was the choice for the card base.  It's cut to measure 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" that is scored and folded in half.

The DSP was cut down to 5" tall.  Then Soft Sea Foam cardstock was cut to 3 1/8" x 5 1/8" to back the DSP later.  

Trying to find just the right underwater pieces to stamp on the card turned out to be quite interesting.  The seaweed stamps I have were not quite big enough or bold enough for my idea.  This plant from Botanical Layers stamp set (pg 93 A.C.) sort of looks like seaweed and was the size I was looking for.  So, why not?  It's stamped with Evening Evergreen ink near the bottom left side.  The ink was dark enough to show up over the print colors but wasn't too harsh like black would be.

The card still needed fish.  I checked with all the current stamps I had and there were no fish that were the right size.  The Whale Done stamp set has fish, but they were too tiny for this card.  In my retired stamp stash from last year, I found the Seascape stamp set.  The little school of fish were just what I was looking for.  They were stamped a couple of times with Lost Lagoon ink on the DSP.  I thought it was cool how the colors and design on the DSP showed through the ink of the fish.  Interesting.

The DSP was attached to the Soft Sea Foam cardstock that was cut earlier.  Then it was attached to the folded card base using the Multi Purpose Liquid Glue.  I didn't center this layer but placed it a little left of center.

One of the sentiments from the Botanical Layers set was used here.  It's stamped on Soft Sea Foam cardstock using Evening Evergreen ink.  It was trimmed to measure 1" x 1 3/8".  This layer was attached to a small piece of Lost Lagoon cardstock which measures 1 1/8" x 1 1/2".  It was popped on the card using Dimensionals.

Did you notice all the Faux Sea Glass on the card?  I'm not sure I like it on the sentiment, but I love how it looks by the seaweed.  What do you think?  Should I make a different sentiment without the sea glass?  Should I add any other embellishments???

Just not sure what I should do about this, or do I leave it as is?

The inside of the card uses the same colors and brings in that piece of DSP that was cut off originally from the 3" x 6" piece.  Because it's only 3" wide, it doesn't go right out to the edge of the white, but I thought that looked ok anyway.  I tried a layer of either Lost Lagoon or Soft Succulent cardstock to go under it, but I just wasn't impressed with the look of either one right here.  The Basic White layer measures 3 1/4" x 5" and the Soft Sea Foam layer is 3 3/8" x 5 1/8".  There's plenty of room for adding your own thoughts.

That's my post for today.  Hope you enjoyed your underwater adventure.  It's interesting trying to find just what fits when you have an idea, but not quite the right stamps you need.  Go through your retired stash and always feel free to "improvise" when needed!

Thanks for joining me today.  If you're placing an order soon, I would appreciate you using the current Host Code shown at the top of this blog post.  

I find the Fancy Flora DSP makes me stretch my creativity into other avenues than I would normally go.  And that's part of the lure of stamping - it's all up to you how you want to create something.  I'm sure you can take this same print and come up with something that's totally different, but totally you!  I suppose it's time to think about what's retiring in the near future, and this Fancy Flora DSP is one of those items that are going away.  Consider ordering an extra pack now before they are gone.

Have fun stamping and creating,

Sharon