Hello Crafty Friends! It’s Marie back on the blog with a bright and punny underwater themed birthday card! Today’s card inspiration contains a medley of adorable fish images from the Sea Life Stamp Set,  Sea Sentiments Stamp Set, and Sea Friends Stamp Set.

I started off by stamping out all my images onto watercolor paper with Distress Ink in the color Antique Linen. I gave some of my fish fun birthday hats using a tiny birthday hat image from the Word Buddies Jungle Stamp Set.  In my favorite no-line coloring technique, I colored all my images with Faber-Castell WaterColor Pencils. I then cut out all the images using the Sea Life Die,  Sea Sentiments Die,  Sea Friends Die, and Word Buddies Jungle Die.

To create my card front, I die cut a square base panel using the largest die in the Nesting Square Die. I used Neenah Solar White 110 lb heavyweight cardstock for my base.  For my background, I die cut some heavyweight glitter cardstock from Memory Box using the beautiful Ocean Overlay Die . I adhered the die cut ocean overlay background to my base panel. Next, I ink blended the edges of some watercolor pattern paper using a combination of Distress Inks in the colors Evergreen Bough, and Uncharted Mariner. After creating some turquoise vignetting to the outer edges of my pattern paper panel, I used the Ocean Overlay die once more to die cut the waves pieces. I then paper pieced the waves into the glitter overlay like a puzzle creating a gorgeous flowy scene.

To create the punny “Happy Birthday Fishes” sentiment, I used the Jane Small Alpha for the word Happy, the Happy Birthday Words Die for the cursive Birthday word, and the Charlie Large Outline Alpha Die to spell out the word Fishes. I cut out all the letters twice using a heavyweight glitter paper and white card stock paper for the white shadow. I die cut the word birthday from white cardstock about five times and adhered them together to give it a raised look.

Finally, after playing around with the placement of the fish images, I adhered them using double sided foam tape. For the smaller fish, I used Bearly Art Precision craft glue to adhere them directly to my background.

Thank You so much for joining me today!  I had such a fun time coloring all these adorable fish and putting this card together! I hope you enjoyed and until next time, Happy Cardmaking!!!