Shimmering Depths

Hello Everyone!

I hope you've all had a wonderful week filled with lots of summertime activities.  This week I'm bringing you another ocean themed card using a new-to-me product.  Let's get started!

Supplies I used:

• Simon Says Stamp card stock in Sea Glass (as an A2 card base and as a 4x5.25 panel on the top)
• Dreamweaver Pearlescent embossing paste
• Ultra fine glitter in silver and teal
• Nuvo Shimmer Powder in Atlantis Burst
• Newton's Nook Tropical Fish Stencil
• Blue Painters Tape
• Spray bottle with water
• Palette knife/squeegee/credit or gift card
• Gina K Ocean Mist Premium Dye Ink
• Hot Off the Press/Paper Wishes Sea Horses Die set
• Teal Mirriboard
• Sparkle and Shine Mirriboard Patterns by Hunkydory 
• Navy Pearl
• Pretty Pink Posh Marshmallow Confetti Mix
• Silver Thread
• Double-sided tape

To start off I taped my cut panel of Sea Glass card stock to my glass craft mat and taped it on all 4 sides with painter's tape.  I sprinkled on the Atlantis Burst Nuvo Shimmer Powder and sprayed on water.  Since this was regular card stock, I was a bit leary about using all the water, but I taped it down firmly and it worked great.  I allowed this to dry for quite a while.  I wanted it to be bone dry before moving onto the next step.  I left it taped to my mat and taped the stencil over top of it.  I then mixed glitter in with my Embossing Paste.  I added quite a bit as you can see:

I mixed the glitter in very well with the paste.  I didn't want any of the paste to be without it.  I then layered a thin coat on over the stencil.  I had cut this panel to 6 x 6 to begin with so I would have enough room to get it off my mat without messing it up and trim it up when it was dry and get nice crisp edges.  It has been so humid here that this really took a while to dry.  Before it dried this is what it looked like:

In the meantime, I cut out my images using the Sea Horses Die set.  I used the darker plain mirriboard for the outline of the horse and one of the seaweed.  Then I used The Sparkle & Shine Mirri Patterns for 2 of the seaweed and the solid image of the sea horse.  This piece of mirriboard was a light green blending to teal ombre with a gold swirl pattern on it.  If you have never used mirriboard before, it die cuts like butter!

Once my panel was dry I cut it to size and edged it with Gina K. Designs Ocean Mist Premium Dye Ink.  Then I wrapped the silver thread crisscrossing around it.  Before I glued it to the card base, I swiped the front of the card base with the same ink.  It was not solid color, but mottled:

This ink really dries back, so I tried not to freak out about how dark it was!  The ink really bowed out card, so I sandwiched the whole card between some copy paper and sent it through my die cutting machine.  It flattened it out great.  I then adhered the stenciled panel to my card base.  

I next glued on my seaweed placing the darkest one in the back, then the lighter one in the front and I cut another lighter one and placed it higher up on the left.  I glued my 2 seahorse die cuts together and glued on a navy pearl for the eye.  I backed it with foam tape and added the Marshmallow Confetti mix to act as bubbles and my card was done!

I really like working with these embossing pastes and this pearlescent paste is really pretty.  The longer it sits the more translucent it becomes and lets the glitter in it sparkle!

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial.  I had lots of fun making this and using products together that I hadn't tried before.  Sometimes I love being adventurous!!!

Have a good week everyone!

Happy paper crafting and remember...it's only paper!

Betsy