Special Fish Birthday

Hello and happy Monday to you :-) Today's card is for another family member's birthday - we have so many this month and it's a challenge to keep up but we are getting there!
As the recipient for this one loves to go fishing, I knew I'd be using the now retired By the Tide stamp set. So what I needed was inspiration for a design and that's where Jen B's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches  came in and the ideas began to flow....love that :-)  It's been a while since I've had a moment to play and enter a challenge but FMS has long been a favourite so it is exciting to be able to be join in today and hopefully it won't be long til I'm back again.

Here is the sketch:

And here is my card:

Yes, this is a masculine birthday card that has pink on it!! That is because I've coloured the fish to be Rainbow Trout - a favourite of the recipient to catch and eat :-) The design idea was a version of the  "spotlight" technique for the raised panel with the fish seeming to come from behind it. Hence the stamping of the seaweed...but now questioning whether a black layer behind it would've been better.

The silver 70 is run through an embossing folder before being added onto 3 layers of white card stock to give it height and strength to go through the mail.

The fish are coloured with Pencils and an Aqua Painter on ordinary White card stock - so just a tiny amount of water is used and then some Wink of Stella has been flicked over the background and 70's panel to add some water - like bubbles and sparkle.

Card stock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Silver Foil

Ink: Black Archival, Bermuda Bay, Versamark. Water color Pencils: Old Olive, Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay

Stamps: By the Tide (Retired), Sunshine Sayings

Accessories: Big Shot, Large Number Framelits, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Argyle EF (Retired),White EP, Metallic Enamel Shapes, Aqua Painter, Wink of Stella

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Freshly Made Sketches and join in the fun too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan