I can’t believe that we’re this far into my sneak peeks from the Stampin’ Up! 2018/2019 Annual Catalogue and I’ve only just got around to sharing the new Sea of Textures Stamp Set and coordinating Under The Sea Framelits Dies!  Although I wasn’t sure how much use I’d have for an octopus image, I could see a lots of possibilities in the rest of the bundle, and I have to say since getting the them I’ve not been disappointed.

So my first project is a card and although there is a gorgeous pack of Designer Series Paper (DSP) that coordinates with the stamp set and dies, that will have to wait for another day.

I began by creating the background for my card, using pieces of Stampin’ Sponge to add a layer of Mint Macaron ink followed by a light layer of Blueberry Bushel ink over the surface of the card.  Then using Tranquil Tide ink I stamped the long weed image at various heights along the bottom edge.

Embossing was needed next.  I wiped the background layer with an Embossing Buddy to remove any oils and static from the card and then used VersaMark Ink to stamp the net image.  I sprinkled the VersaMark with White Stampin’ Emboss Powder, tapped off the excess and removed a few stray specks, before melting the rest with my Heat Tool set on 2 (high).

While I was at my embossing station I wiped a piece of Blackberry Bliss Card with the Embossing Buddy and stamped the Octopus image with VersaMark Ink then embossed that with White Stampin’ Emboss Powder as before.

One of the problems I’ve found with white embossing is that you can’t sponge with dark ink after you’ve embossed as the embossing tends to take up some of the ink.  Today however I decided to take advantage of this by deliberately sponging some Blackberry Bliss and Night of Navy ink over the embossed octopus.  Once I was done, I wiped the image with a tissue to remove the excess ink and reveal the tinted embossing underneath.

The octopus image is quite intricate and fortunately there’s a coordinating die in the Under the Sea Framelits so I was able to use my Big Shot and Magnetic Platform to cut it out.  While I was there I cut a little shoal of fish from the top of my background layer using another die from that same set.

It was actually only at this point that I decided to make this into a thank you card when I stamped the ‘thanks for reaching out’ sentiment onto a strip of Very Vanilla Card with Tranquil Tide ink.  I thought it would make a fun banner so used Paper Snips to cut the top and bottom edges of the sentiment into soft curves and added a deep V in the end.  At the other end of the sentiment I used my Paper Piercing Tool to poke a couple of holes and added another to the octopus tentacle on the left so that I could thread the sentiment onto a wooden toothpick for him to hold.  With that done I used my Bone Folder to curve the banner and then added a short piece of Night of Navy Medium Baker’s Twine to the top of the toothpick.

Now to put all the pieces together.

I used my Stampin’ Trimmer to cut and score a piece of Tranquil Tide Card, folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder.  Then using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I fixed a piece of Pineapple Punch Card behind the shoal of fish cut into the background and added the background to the card card base.  The octopus and banner came next, attached with Stampin’ Dimensionals, while the top of the toothpick was secured with a Mini Glue Dot under the baker’s twine.

The card front was done but I still needed to finish the inside of the card and the envelope.  I took a layer of Very Vanilla Card and used Tranquil Tide ink to stamp the long weed image along the bottom edge in the same way as I’d done on the front of the card.  This was then fixed inside the card base with liquid glue.  With the same stamped weeds along the bottom edge on the front of a Very Vanilla Medium Envelope my project was finally complete.

This project turned out so much better than I could ever have imagined.  It was so easy to combine the images and I can’t recommend this stamp set and dies bundle highly enough.  My octopus obviously agrees with me as his other ‘hand’ appears to be giving me the thumbs up.  I hope you like it too.

Tomorrow I’ll have a much simpler project with a video tutorial, do join me if you can.

For now though I’ll leave you with a look at the Sea of Textures Stamp Set available from June 1st.