Swimming By to Say Hello!

Hey crafty friends! I’m back today to share the cards I created with my Greeting Farm Mermaids Galore stamp set. The Mermaid’s Galore stamp was a limited release that was available as a pre-order. I didn’t see it listed on their site as of this blog post, but hopefully they will have it for sale soon. I will list some of their other adorable mermaid stamps in case you’re looking for similar images for your card making. Everything the Greeting Farm puts out is too cute!

I’m knee deep in preparing my final projects for my AECP Level 1 certification but did want to get this post up. You’ll be able to see that post here around July 11th so stay tuned. It’s a HUGE project!!

I did some quick photos and edits (not my best) of my cards that I created using the images colored from my Alcohol Marker Review blog post about a week ago. If you’re interested in some alternative options to Copics you can check out my post here.

I was able to make 3 cards with the 4 mermaids and 3 critters that I colored. I’ll start with the Red-orange mermaid. She was colored using the Art-N-Fly alcohol markers on Springhill Digital 100 lb cardstock from Amazon. I’m really loving this paper for coloring my stamped images.

To create her background, I used a piece of Canson XL watercolor paper and created a wash using my Karin Brush Markers in teal, blue and green colors.

Once the panel was dry I added some ink splatters using some Hero Arts metallic blue ink and some Lawn Fawn Liquid Stardust ink.

The finished background was die cut with the Nordic Frames dies from The Greetery. I love the delicate details on these dies. They’re so simple and pretty and I think in made a perfect border detail around my background for this card.

I stamped the Swimming by to say Hello sentiment with some Versamark ink and heat embossed using some Hero Arts blue embossing powder.

Finally I added my fussy cut mermaid and norwahl onto the card front with some dimensional foam and added some blue iridescent gems to the front.

My finished card measures 4 1/4 x 5 1/2.

My next card features the other mermaid I colored with Art-N-Fly markers. She has a nice teal blue and purple color mix.

To create my background for this card I used some Hero Arts Distress. I used Broken China, Tumbled Glass and Cracked Pistachio and smooshed the ink onto my glass media mat. I added a little bit of water and then laid my watercolor paper into the pools of ink on my glass mat. I’d lift the paper and then move it around to smoosh ink into another area. This is a very relaxing technique and it’s very forgiving for a unique looking faux watercolor technique.

While my background was drying, I die cut another panel I’d created with my Karin Brush markers using the Brutus Monroe Shell Background die. Since my background was very similar to the color of my die cut sea shells, I added a piece of the Mermaid Skin cardstock from Brutus Monroe behind it. The nice pop of pink really makes the sea shells stand out against the background. To add the cardstock behind the seashells I traced the outline of the die and then carefully cut it just inside of my traced line. I adhered the sea shell background to the mermaid skin cardstock using my Xyron machine.

The sea shell panel was popped up onto my inked background with dimensional foam.

I added the embossed sentiment Let’s Shellebrate from the new Brutus Monroe Sea You Soon stamp set.

My colored mermaid and her otter friend were added to the card panel along with some white pearl accents. I added pearls into all the holes in the Sea Shell die cut. They fit perfectly which was so awesome!

My final card today is a slimline card. This is actually my first attempt at a slimline but I wanted to add both of these mermaids to one card and the best way to do that was by creating a tall and skinny card.

The purple and pink mermaid and the lime green and teal mermaids were colored using the Croma alcohol markers along with their sea lion friend.

To create the background, I used a piece of Tonic Holographic cardstock that I’d cut to 6 x 9. Any cardstock that has a holographic look to it would work for this technique. This was a technique that Kristina Werner had tried a few weeks ago and the results were amazing – she did it on an envelope.

I got out my Ranger Alcohol inks in Cobalt Blue, Mermaid (fitting) and Limeaid. I added several drops of alcohol ink to the cardstock and then added some Alcohol Ink Blending solution to move the inks around on my paper. I added color and blending solution until I was happy with the look of the background. The cool thing is that the holographic nature of the cardstock still shows up through the alcohol inks so it gives lots of depth to the background. In this case it really looks like it’s a deep, tropical ocean.

While my alcohol ink background was drying, I used a slimline scalloped card panel die from Trinity Stamps and cut a piece of blue glitter cardstock. I used the smaller scalloped card panel to cut my alcohol inked background out when it was completely dry.

For my sentiment I used the Just Keep Swimming sentiment from the Mermaids Galore stamp set. I stamped it with Versamark and heat set it with some Hero Arts fine detail embossing powder.

Both mermaids were popped up onto the background panel with some dimensional foam along with the adorable sea lion.

I added some blue iridescent gems to the card front to finish the card off.

The slimline card measures 8 3/4 x 4 inches and fits into a standard business size envelope.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my finished cards using the various alcohol markers I’d reviewed. I absolutely love how all of these cards turned out and they came together pretty quickly since I had my images pre-colored.

As promised here’s some links to some other Greeting Farm mermaid stamps in case you’re looking for something similar:

Maisea Mermaid

Trishell Mermaid

Merisa Mermaid

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hope you have a wonderful long, holiday weekend!

Tonya