Hello friends!

Today I’m sharing this adorable birthday card I made for my cousin’s 7th birthday. When my cousin turned one, I took photos of her in the cutest mermaid outfit that her mom bought for her, and she’s loved mermaids ever since. When Lawn Fawn released this die, I immediately thought of her (but I also love mermaids haha) and knew this would make the perfect birthday card.

This project uses products from Lawn Fawn, Honey Bee Stamps and almost all the cardstock I used is from Concord & 9th with the exception of the light purple. I had a lot of fun making this card, it’s the first project I’ve done where I’ve ink blended multiple Distress Oxide colors on a background, and man, do I feel addicted now! Ink blending is one of those things that I’m not quite confident in. I think it’s just that I’ve never had good paper to ink blend on until now. From Concord & 9th Summer Camp, I have learned that their white cardstock allows you to blend like an absolute dream. I’ve also heard that Distress Oxides are the best things to start blending with since their formula is more forgiving than inks since it has a lot more pigment to it.

So, I started off this project feeling about 50% confident, but as I started to blend Salvaged Patina on my card base, and then picked up Mermaid Lagoon, my confidence was soaring! By the time I got to Blueprint Sketch, I knew this project was going to turn out alright. As with all ink blending, you have to have enough ink on the panel, and you have to go back and forth with your different colors to achieve a seamless blend.

When I was brainstorming for this card, I was also thinking of using the Stitched Ripple backdrop from Lawn Fawn, but I only had the landscape version of it. However, I decided I would use it anyway and cover up the seam with the sand layer of the card. I don’t love the idea of buying portrait and landscape versions of backdrop dies since they cost $30 each and those two dies alone would be a lot of money. I think this worked out pretty well since the corals and seaweed also help to hide the seam a bit.

While I love what Lawn Fawn designs, I wish they could make one general stamp set with ocean themed things. I knew I wanted seaweed, coral, and fish on this card, but I didn’t want to spend money on stamp and die sets just to use the small stamped images. When I saw Honey Bee Stamps Perfect Day release, I ran to buy the Ocean Deep Sea Builder die set. These dies are exactly what I’m looking for, I love the variety of coral and fish and it’s at a good price point of $22. I almost wish they included a small stamp set that would allow you to add some color/shading to the die cuts, but I just did the most basic shading using colored pencils since they had a finer tip than my alcohol markers.

For the sand layer of the card, I ended up using a Lawn Fawn Slimline Stitched Hillside border die and cutting out a panel of white cardstock that was 4.25 wide. I ink blended some Antique Linen Distress Ink on it and flicked some Vintage Photo Distress Ink off of an acrylic block to add some texture. From here I glued both pieces of my ocean background panel (which was cut at 4.25 tall by the landscape die, the extra piece is the 1.25” left of the blended piece) to a card base and glued the outer perimeter of the sand piece down. This gave me a little bit of room to wiggle coral and seaweed under the sand to help hide the seam in the ocean panel and give the card depth.

I die cut the mermaid out of Buttercup, Sea Glass and Sprout cardstock from Concord & 9th, Ivory from Simon Says Stamp, as well as a scrap of black cardstock for the outline. For the mermaid’s top and her tail, I took a couple of alcohol markers and added some dots and flicks to add a little bit of dimension and visual interest. I love how the tail turned out!

With the mermaid done, I started to lay out all of my coral, seaweed, and fish, and once placement was finalized, I glued them all down. At the last minute, I decided to have the mermaid holding a present, which I had found colored and die cut in my stash (I believe the present is from Giant Birthday Messages from Lawn Fawn). In order to make the present fit in more with the mermaid, I decided to take a Sharpie to the white border around it. I think this really helps it pop and definitely makes it cohesive!

Lastly, I added a greeting on the front of the card from the Pool Party stamp set, white heat embossed it, and die cut it out with a sentiment banner (which is also from Lawn Fawn). I continued the phrase with ‘Happy Birthday!’ on the inside, which is also from the same stamp set.

I adore how this card turned out. It’s so full of life, happiness, and color. It reminds me of how I felt when we visited Seattle Aquarium’s Underwater Dome (minus the mermaid lol) and how mesmerizing it was being surrounded by so much life that was all moving at the same time. I hope you loved this card as much as I did. Catch you next time!