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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Birthday seahorse

I just had to post this cute little seahorse card I made. Here's what I love about it...
1. I made it entirely from scraps (including the card base)
2. It has a seahorse on it...and it's purple!
3. I got to try a new technique (crackle embossing) that I've wanted to try for a while now.

The card is about 3.5 x 5.5 (a strip left over from a 5.5 x 5.5 card I made for something else). I'll let you in on a secret, when I'm testing inks and embossing power, I'll test on the strip that's left over from when I cut my card base. The base of this card was the left over strip so there are all kinds of stamping and embossing samples under that blue paper! I'll try to remember to take a picture next time. 

The blue strip runs from the front to the back of the card. I adhered it to the base and then scored both to make the folding easier. Then I trimmed the edge with a scallop paper trimmer (not an edge punch). The paper has a big floral print, I thought with the white lines of the flower and the variation of the blue, it looked pretty ocean-y. 

Finally, the seahorse was cut using my gypsy and the Doodlecharms cartridge. I cut the base and the layer to fit the card (I made a rectangle the size of my card so I could size the seahorse to fit). Both were cut in the same purple paper. Then I embossed the layer with Versamark (just press the entire piece into the stamp pad or vice versa) and extra thick embossing powder/crystals 3 times. After the third time, I bent the paper in different directions to get the crackle effect. Depending on how this turns out, I sometimes apply a thin coat of glossy accents. That does two things, (1) seals the crackle so little bits don't fall off and (2) makes is glossy. To top it off, I used a thin layer of glossy accents on the bottom layer so it didn't look too boring against the cracked layer. (It was also really thin paper so it didn't look so great without a little extra touch.)

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's very first stamp set, Papertey. I cut the circle from the Cricut as well (probably Alphalicious, but there are tons of circles on many cartridges) and tied it with some thin rope I picked up from a floral design center. 

Hope you enjoy this "under the seahorse" card!