#483 – Cupcake Inspirations Challenge Surprise Sweetie!!

PE: Showstopper at Curtain Call Challenge!!! (Can you believe it!?!)

The Hear Desires Honorable Mention!!! Yippie!!! 😀

Hello!!

I had won the Cupcake Inspirations challenge in May with this card, winning the honor of being a Sweet Six. Imagine my surprise when Naki mailed me asking to be the Surprise Sweetie!! I re-read the mail a couple times – I thought she had mailed me by mistake or something! 😉

So, there was no way I would say no – and then, when she sent me the theme for the Challenge 363 – “Under the Sea”

Ah.. I got a little tensed. See, I am no good when it comes to sea and fish. I right out avoid challenges with sea theme, beach theme, fish theme – you name it. I have nothing against them, mind you, in fact I love the sea and beach – I spent most of my childhood summer holidays near a beach and the smell of sea in the air is one of my favorites! But when it comes to making a card with the them …. errr… no, not my favorite! I didn’t want to miss the chance to be a part of CIC, but this was going to become a nightmare soon.. And that’s when Naki calmed me down.. she asked me to just have fun..and even gave me ideas – use the colors that remind you of the sea, or bubbles, waves, sea creatures, etc.. Yup, that got a couple of ideas in my head! 🙂 And this is what I came up with –

I decided to put my acrylic paints to good use. I first gessoed a watercolor panel then added colors of the ocean, similar to the inspiration picture. Well, I would have stopped right there, if I could – the colors were looking really delicious! 😀 I then proceeded, albeit taking the risk of finally trashing it, to add a few plant life – I painted sea plants (or maybe leaves?) and some corals (do they even look like corals??) and left he panel aside to dry.

Next, I wanted to add a few fish too. The problem – I don’t own any stamps dedicated to sea theme – I could have hand drawn them, easy, but I thought of searching my stash first. I am glad I did – these fish are from My Favorite Things Cat-itude stamp set – you never would have guessed! :DI stamped the fish using MFT Hybrid black ink, and colored then using distress ink before fuzzy cutting them out.

Once the painted panel was dry, I trimmed it, layered it with a panel of pattern paper from K & Company – I felt that the colors were reminding of sand and beach – and adhered both the pieced to the card base double sided tape. I then added the fish, giving them a little dimension and the sentiment panel, where the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp One With Nature, stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black.

Once done, I added quite a bit of glitter to the fish using Wink of Stella clear glitter pen, and some Ranger Glossy Accents. I also added the bubbles in white acrylic paint. And that’s my card! I am pretty happy with how it turned out, considering I had no idea what to do when I started! 😀

Submitting this to Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge – Sail On and The Heart Desires Challenge #1 (thank you Cris for reminding me of this challenge!) (and it makes me so happy to participate in the first challenge!! :D) –

A big thanks to Naki – for the chance to be the Surprise Sweetie and giving me the encouragement to make this card – I really had fun making it! 🙂

Do stop over at the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge – I’ll bet you will be totally inspired to make something “under the sea”! 🙂

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

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