I had finally got my hands on some of the Tim Holtz distress oxide sprays and I was itching to use them, but I was not sure how or what I was going to do and use them for.  I rummaged through my Paper Rose stash to see what I had not used in a little while to get some inspiration.  I noticed the Trio Fish stamp and die set and knew immediately that I wanted to create an underwater scene. 

I pulled out some water-colour paper, heavyweight white cardstock, my gel press, the stamps and of course the distress oxide sprays, in mermaid lagoon, peacock feather, mowed lawn and twisted citron.  I also pulled out the stamps I planned to use and paper towel, as it got really messy really fast.  As you can see from the above pictures I was just playing around to see what I could create.  I ended up using the green panel for the seaweed portions of the card.  I then thought, what would it be like if I sprayed the ink on to the gel plate, and well I really had fun with this.

I also pulled out some of my distress oxides in the matching colours and added them to the gel plate as well as spritzing with water to get the ink to move around and adding my paper on top.  I really like the look of this and will be doing again for other projects.  

Once I had the backgrounds the way I liked, I pulled out the Fish Trio set and used the bubbles stamp to add some detail.  I did this also with the gel press by spreading white gesso onto the plate and rolling it out, then stamping the bubbles repeatedly until I was happy.  From there I gathered the backgrounds and pressed them into the plate.  I repeated the process a few more times using different shades of blue paint from Dina Wakley media to get some contrast and interest.  I set those backgrounds aside to dry and moved on to the focal images of my card.

I decided that the fish would look awesome stamped onto an alcohol ink background.  I rummaged through my stash and pulled out this beautiful red one.  To create this I used Yupo paper, blending solution, rubbing alcohol, a straw, chili pepper, sunshine yellow and crimson alcohol ink, as well as gold mixative. As that was drying went over the panel with gold foil, not needing to add extra adhesive as I had used a lot of ink which pooled and left a stickiness that grabbed the foil nicely. 

I pulled out my panel, my Misti stamping tool, archival ink and the Fish Trio set once more.  I used my press as I wanted to make sure I got a clean impression on the alcohol ink background.  I knew from previous attempts that it was a very hit and miss process because of the foil and layers of ink, and the fact I was stamping on plastic.  

Now it was time to start the die cutting.  I took all of my beautiful inky panels and started to figure out what I was actually going to do.  I started by die cutting the fish using the coordinating dies and from there moved on to the blue and green backgrounds.  I chose to create a little ocean scene on the front of the cards by die cutting the green background using the Under the Sea border die.  Then move on to two of the blue backgrounds that had the bubble images on it, out using the line circle die from Paper Rose.

 To create the ocean floor for the front of the card, I took the previously cut out seaweed and ran it back through my die cutting machine using the same circle line die.  This way it would fit perfectly together. 

Once more step before I was able to put it all together.  I once again rummaged through my stash to see if I could find the perfect element to layer the ocean seen onto, and what do you know, found these beautiful fitting embossed panels my mom had done for from one of her folder at Christmas time.  Now they looked fine just as they were but I could not leave well enough alone.  I decided to add yet another element to them by covering them in Enchanted Gold gilding polish.  Oo baby did it look good once it was done (but very hard to get clear and crisp photos)!

Now it was time to put things all together. 

I created a standard A2 card base from blue Bazzill cardstock, trimmed down the embossed panel to 5¼ x 4 layering that on top of the base using fun foam.  For the ocean scenes placed it into my Misti and stamped the sentiment directly on using Versa Clair Nocturn ink.  From there I added fun foam to the backs of both, the layering panel which was created using the same blue as the base, and the ocean scene. I adhered the seaweed to each of the gel pressed backgrounds and then glued it all together.  I created a scene for the inside of the card as well.  This is where I placed the bigger of the fish to represent the mom.

 I added in the cute little fish, tucking them behind some of the seaweed for a little fun, as twins sometimes like to hide behind one another in the womb. (I know as I had twins)   

For one last finishing touch I added some sparkling clear sequins from Simon Says Stamps and some clear drops from Pretty Pink Posh, onto the corners of the card.  It just added that little extra sparkle and also looked like bubbles

 I am sorry if this is long winded, there was just so much to this card. 

I would love to hear what you thought, so please do leave me a comment below. 

Have a beautiful week 

~Nancy