Oceans of Birthday Wishes

Hello again, and welcome.  I've got two birthday cards today that are the result of using the positive and negative images from some die cuts.  I love getting a 2 for 1!  Here's a look at the two cards:

 

 

Paper Rose Supplies used:  Dolphin Dance Metal Cutting Die 19556, Splat Nesting Metal Cutting Die 19145, Birthday Layered Metal Cutting Die 18297, Inky Colour 6x6 Paper Collection 31896, Little Foliage 2 Metal Cutting Die 21102, Happy Birthday A5 10pc Sentiment Sheets 30720 - Foil , Wave Borders Metal Die Set 19562, Fish Family Metal Cutting Die 22477 , Cracked 6x6" Stencil 19298.

 CARD 1

The first card is a shaker card.  I started by adding some Catherine Pooler inks to my card front in Aquatini, Stone Blue and Seafoam.  I added in some water drops and then reinked over those once they were dry.  I repeated this several times until there was some depth and interest to the cardstock.  Then I used the Cracked stencil over top and spread some Nuvo Jewel Drops in Sea Breeze over the card front. 

When this was dry, I used the Dolphin Dance dies to cut out the center.  I also cut the dolphins from white cardstock and set them aside.  I had originally thought I was going to create more layers for this card (which is why the second card has so many layers), but changed my mind and only cut one lighter green-blue piece of cardstock, using the Splat Nesting die for this.  I used one of the pieces of Inky Colour papers to place at the back of the opening. 

I covered the back of the card front with a piece of acetate.  I put a second piece of acetate behind the lighter green-blue layer as well.  I placed double side foam tape around the back of the opening on the card front to create a well for my shaker. 

I had to get a little creative with the coral and seaweed as I did not have any dies for this.  So the "coral" is acutally one of the branches from the Little Foliage 2 set that I coloured, cut apart and then glued back together to look a little like coral. The "seaweed" is made from the wavy border die in the Wave borders die set.  I cut it from some inked up green card, and then cut it out to make seaweed by following the die cut lines.  I glued these element onto the back of the card front before adding the shaker bits and attaching the second die cut layer.   

I positioned the Inky Colour paper onto the card base and added the one dolphin so he could be seen through the opening.  I then attached the shaker layers to the card front.  Finally, I added the second dolphin and the sentiment. 

CARD 2

I started this card by cutting through the card base with the bubbly border die from the Wave borders die set.  I cut through both the front and back and had to run it through my die cutting machine several times. I then added a lighter blending of the same inks used in the first card.   Then I used the Cracked stencil over top and applied some Liquitex Gloss Heavy Gel that was mixed with some of the Aquatini ink. 

Once the card front was dry, I started layering up my die cut pieces.  I had used the Splat Nesting dies to cut all of them except for the top layer.  The very top layer was applied with foam tape to give some added dimension. I added in my seaweed and coral in a few places.  

I die cut the fish from white cardstock and then backed them with some scraps of the Inky Colour papers.  I added these to the card front and then added the sentiment.  I created the sentiment on my computer as I didn't have anything fishy enough in my stash! 

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope I may have given you some inspiration.