Whimsy Stamps ~ Framed Ocean Scene

Hey crafty friends, I'm popping in today with a new release creation for Whimsy's latest release which went live today! Oh my heart, this creation was a joy to create but a nightmare to photograph! I have chased the light around my house for the past week trying to capture the sparkle! The background for these cards was made using a delish underwater scene background rubber stamp from Whimsy called Ocean Fest. It's such a beautiful scene with lots of intricate details and being red rubber stamps like a dream! I made several panels, but with this one, chose a silver embossing powder and ink blended the background in lots of shades of blue. I then splattered it with water and carefully 'water-lifted' the colour from all the underwater creatures to make them lighter than their surround and then painted in sparkle with a sparkle pen. So I really wanted to share the shimmer with you and having chased the light all day, finally got a couple of sparkly shots! Every one I tried to capture previously just came out so blurry. I'm sure I'm not the only crafty who has struggled trying to capture the sparkle. I did show this background in a reel on Instagram, before I turned it into a card and it showed the sparkle so nicely. You can check out that reel here.

It was so difficult to capture the sparkle and still have the sentiment be clear, so I had to stop here. The lovely sentiment which is from the previous new release set that I shared, reads Happiness Comes In Waves, which I think is so lovely with this fabulous background stamp. I've included a non sparkly picture below, so you can better see the sentiment, the lovely frame and the colours of the ink blended background. 

The sentiment I stamped on white cardstock and the I grabbed my B21 Copic Marker to try to colour match with the paper I used for the frame. It came up pretty well I think. The gorgeous die set that frames the scene is brand new in the release today and sure to become a well used and well loved die by me, it's absolutely fabulous! The frame I've used is one of several frame layers and with slightly different edge finishes. You could cut apart the dies to get panels with lovely edges, but I chose for now, to keep mine together and cut open frames with them. So much fun!

Another sparkly shot above with a peek at the lovely matching envelope I made for this creation. Whimsy Stamps have the most amazing range of envelope dies. This one is the A2 envelope die, but they have a full length slimline die and also a mini slimline envelope die. They all come with a great selection of 'extras' which you can use to line the envelope, add addressee details etc. The loveliest envelope dies I've seen and can be used two ways to cut either a side opening flap or end opening flap. There's a great tutorial by our Video Team at Whimsy showing how to put the envelopes together. For me, as our envelope sizes are different here in New Zealand to the majority of the A2 dies I'm working with based on US sizes, so it's been well worth the investment to get the different envelopes. I do have all three and will be sure to show you some makes including the other sizes soon.

Another less sparkly shot, but again shows the envelope nicely, so I wanted to include it, even though the background is not shown in its best light here. Forgive me for that. It's been a wet Winter here and I just cannot get a break with the lighting. I am a natural light photographer with my cards, I prefer it to artificial light and it usually is fine for me, but I must confess, when it comes to sparkle, an artificial light does seem to catch the sparkle better. Like walking into a jewellers with 'diamond' lights, hehe. 

Thank you so much for popping in to visit and to read through my long post! I hope you enjoyed the sparkle! I'll be back again soon with another crafty adventure and 'part 2' of this Ocean Fest background. Until then, I wish you a lovely week and happy creative days. Hugs, Wends xoxo

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