Paper-Paisleys Art Adventures: Birthdays and Mermaids Again

Happy Saturday, my blog friends!

It got chilly willy down here again since the last time I mentioned it and it got even colder! Down to freezing, lol, for a few hours. Lord Only Knows what would happen if it lasted days. We lose all common sense down here at the first sign of sleet, ice or snow.

So if you are shivering where you are, allow me to take your mind off it with this tropical mermaid birthday card I have to share today using the current Cheerful Sketch. I tried something new and learned something from it, so grab a cuppa - here we go.

Supplies Used:
Bazzill textured card stock and stash card stock scraps for matting
Hot press watercolor paper
Basic Grey Cupcake patterned papers
The Crafters Workshop Microbial and Octopus stencils
Artist Cellar Water Series Ripples stencil
Stamps: CC Designs
Inks: Memento, Versafine Clair, VeraMark, Ranger Distress
Clear embossing powder
Wax Colored Pencils and blender pen for focal image and Copics for focal image background
Fiskars Waves border punch

Okay, so left to right, photo #1 is how this card looked after I cut all my layers and mats and arranged it per the sketch "dry" (no adhesive). I call it my "mock-up" and I always take a photo of it so I can display it on my screen as I'm actually glueing it all down. And it looked really plain to me. I wanted to keep it flat for mailing. I got the idea of stenciling on the blue solid base mat and photo #2 is after one stencil, the water ripples. Photo #3 is after the second (the sea floor) and third stencil (the circle of bubbles - microbial). I used my Distress inks to sponge the color through the first two stencils, then I applied embossing ink through the third stncil and clear heat-embossed to give the bubbles shine.

This photo shows my coloring of the focal image really well. I usually use alcohol markers to color with but I just got a wild hair to use my wax colored pencils so I did. I also filled in the mermaid's face a bit with some eyelashes, lips and nose. And on some areas I practiced using a blender pen to smooth out my strokes. I stamped and heat-embossed the sentiment and then colored and edged the background with a couple of blue Copics.

This photo shows the sea floor stenciling really well at the bottom of the card. Here is where I learned something: I should have outlined the objects I stenciled with my epic carbon platinum fountain pen so they would stand out clearly. You kinda get the idea there is all that down there, and it's fine as is, not gonna tear my layers off to re-do, but it would have make a big difference for the better, so lesson learned and hopefully remembered!

This photo shows the microbial bubbles well up in the top right. This stencil area is actually round and you do see them all over but the layers cover up most of them. In real life though, it's textural and cool. I stamped and fussy-cut a fish from this stamp set to put in the top corner, but I was following the sketch and there is no element up there, so I put it inside the card.

Here's the inside, which I decorated with other stamps from this set and punch waste from what I did on the back. And speaking of the back....

Here it is. I used a waves border punch on the sides of the patterned paper and remembered a siggie stamp I have featuring a fish, so dug that out to use. You know, I RARELY ever use only one paper collection or only one stamp set on a card, yet here I've done both. Ha! First time for everything, I guess.