BIRTHDAY FISHES

We had a very busy family weekend, hitting both sides from Friday through to Sunday. On Friday evening it was a visit to Hal's youngest nephew's new home. Saturday was filled with my nephew, his   wife and their three children, his sister and her daughter, and my son, daughter-in-law, and their three children. Sunday was brunch with my husband's brother's widow and her middle son. Whew! But somehow I managed to squeeze in some cardmaking.

This first card is actually one I made a couple of weeks ago and just hadn't photographed. My youngest granddaughter will turn 7 later this month and she is crazy about fish (and just about anything else occurring in the natural world). For her birthday I'm buying her a small tropical fish tank set-up and some of the usual "beginner" tropical fish. She has a betta already, but they don't play well with other fish so he will stay in his own tank or we'll add a beta divider. She's really good about taking care of her betta, so I don't have concerns about adding a larger tank and divider or a 2nd one.

      

I started with a side-folded white 5-1/2" square card and added 2 layers of iridescent card stock (a pale aqua and bright yellow-gold. The dies I used for this card were borrowed from one of my card-making buddies and I don't know who the manufacturer is (Hero Arts?). I die-cut the tank from the same aqua iridescent card stock and mounted it on the face of the card. Then I die cut it a second time with a darker aqua glitter paper (that I hand cut off for the water in the bowl) and again for a second layer of the aqua glitter to suggest the bottom sand. Then I cut it yet again from gray glitter card stock, and using one of my Lawn Fawn stitched waves, I trimmed both of those layers for the bottom of the fish bowl. I added die-cut leaves in dark green card stock and brighter green vellum and placed those in the bowl. Finally I die-cut the fish from the yellow iridescent stock and colored him with some Copic markers and gel pens. The last step was a black gem eye and 4 bubbles with Nuvo Chrystal Drops.

It's hard to really see how glittery this card is, so here's a shot of it close-up:

I haven't finished the inside of the card yet, but it will say "Birthday Fishes"! I'm sharing this card with Happy Little Stampers October "Anything Goes with Dies" Challenge.

Happy Little Stampers: HLS October Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Best fishes to you all - thanks for stopping by!  Fran