The Ink Road Stamps - Mermaid Samantha

Happy Sunday, blog friends! I hope that you've had a wonderful weekend! Mine has been quiet & lazy with my hubby being away...and I got a bit of crafty time in too! I've been dying to ink up this adorable mermaid, and finally got the chance! This is Samantha, she was the July Inked: Stamp of the Month at Ink Road Stamps. If you've never looked into the Inked Subscription at Ink Road Stamps, be sure to check it out!

The stamp set is always adorable, it is affordable, and you can skip the months that you don't love. I've received two, and skipped two so far. The ones I skipped were SO cute, but just not something I would likely stamp. Also, if you haven't ever tried out any Ink Road stamps before and want a little discount, use this referral link. It will give you a 50% off coupon, and give me a little reward when you use it! You win, I win! :) If you end up using a different code or take advantage of a different deal, just put my name in the notes of your order if you want. This will just let Lara know that I sent you her way. ;) 

Alright, how about we get to my card! I'm going to be real with you...there is A LOT going on with this card. At first I was going to do a video...but that really felt daunting. So, instead...I will write out how I created this card with as much detail as possible. This is probably going to be a long post, so scroll through and just look at the pretty pictures if you want. I promise I won't be offended! And as always, all products used will be linked at the end of my post for your shopping convenience.

The first thing I did was create a watercolor background to diecut the Leafy Frame die from. I used my Pinkfresh Studio liquid watercolors in Emerald City & Aquamarine on Tim Holtz watercolor paper. To start, I put a generous wash of water on the paper block, then dropped the two colors directly onto it. I purposely didn't tape the paper down, and most of the watercolor pooled to the sides and onto my craft mat. I had my heat tool readily available, and dried the first layer.

Then I used the smooshing technique, and just started placing it back down on the excess watercolor pooled up on my craft mat. I did this about 5 times, drying with my heat tool each time. After the final time I also sprayed it with shimmer spray. Then made sure it was bone dry with my heat gun, and diecut the leafy frame from it, plus two more times from white cardstock. I layered them together with a Zig glue pen, and splattered it with watered down white paint. At this point this first piece was finished, and I set it aside to fully dry.

Next I ink blended the background on a white cardstock block using Distress Oxide inks in Peacock Feathers & Cracked Pistachio. Once the blending looked the way I wanted it, I spritzed it down with both shimmer spray and my Distress Sprayer to make it look more like water. This time I set it aside to dry naturally, rather than with a heat tool as I didn't want it to push the water around. 

Next was stamping & coloring the mermaid, Samantha and the cute starfish! Aren't they SO adorable! The starfish is from Simon Says Stamp, and is a small accent in their Summer Cuddly Critters stamp & die set. I colored them in with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, using tiny bits of water and a size 2 round watercolor brush to blend it. Here are the colors I used for each part:

Skin: flesh color, pale pink

Hair: ochre, dark oatmeal

Tail/dress: persian blue, persian green, emerald green

Starfish: brown, light brown

Once they were colored to my liking, I fussy cut Samantha and diecut the starfish with their coordinating die. Then I proceeded to add a bunch of shimmer with my Tonic Aqua Shimmer pen, and then accented with some white dots using my Uni-Ball Signo Gel pen. Finally, I added the clear iridescent gems to her headband using mixed media glue & a jewel picker.

 With the ink blended background being completely dry, I stamped & heat embossed the sentiment to the middle of it in white. I used the MISTI stamp platform and applied my powder tool to it generously so that the embossing powder would only stick to the stamped sentiment. I use Clearnsap Top Boss ink for embossing, but you can use whatever works best for you! I know a lot of people use Versamark. I used Top Boss because it is tinted, and I can see it way better, and make sure that I am getting a good enough stamp impression. If you find that you are having a hard time with that, I highly suggest trying out Top Boss!

After all this, it was finally time to start putting the card together! First I adhered the ink blended background directly to a top folding, white A2 card. Then I adhered the leafy panel to the top of it, popping it up with foam time. {I trimmed super thin strips of 3M foam tape in order to do this, but you could just adhere it directly to the card front if you'd like. I wanted to be able to tuck things underneath it, so I had to use the foam tape.} I adhered Samantha to the lower left corner, then tucked the starfish around her.

My final step was to add my signature jewels tucked here & there! How CUTE are those mermaid scale gems?! They are from a Little Things from Lucy's Cards sequins mix called Let's Be Mermaids. So cute...and linked below!

Just look at how shimmery she is?! So fun!!

Alright friends, that is what I have for you today! Unfortunately, I think that Samantha is sold out. BUT...there is another cute mermaid bundle from Ink Road Stamps featuring Samantha. I think the images are a bit smaller, but you get a few different poses, rather than just the one! So, that is a good alternative if you want to recreate this card and don't have the original Samantha set. :) And don't forget about my referral link that get's you a 50% off coupon if you are a new customer!

Okay friends, if you've made it this far with me...thank you! You are a saint! Lol! This card had a lot of working pieces to it, but it was SO fun to create. I had a blast, and I never worry about how long a card takes to create. I enjoy doing it, and hopefully whoever receives this will see how much love went into it!

Before you move along, I wanted to invite you to follow me on social media. I hang out on Instagram a lot, and share my work in progress in my stories...along with REALLY cute photos of my dogs! :) Plus, I just started a YouTube channel, and while there are only a few videos right now...I will be adding new content consistently!

INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE

 

Have a wonderful rest of your Sunday!

SUPPLY LIST
For your shopping convenience, all products are linked below. {Includes affiliate linking where possible - this allows small compensation for me at no cost to you. Never fear - I will only ever link to products that I truly love & use!}

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