Santa Hat Seahorses!

Hi there

I'm back with my final make of 2019!

This was the Christmas card I made for my other half.  Seahorses always wear Santa hats at Christmas, right?!

For my background I inked up a blend of four Distress Ink colours.  Before I intensified the ink, I laid a sun ray stencil over the upper part and continued ink blending to create the rays of light through the water.  I then splattered the panel with water and blotted with kitchen paper.  I also used a white pigment ink pen to add some speckles towards the top of the panel.  When completely dry the panel was die cut with a stitched rectangle die and I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment at the base using silver sparkle embossing powder.  On a separate piece of cardstock I stamped the santa hats then masked these before stamping the seahorses.  These were then coloured with ProMarkers before being fussy cut.  I attempted to go around the edges to hide the white of the cardstock but my black ProMarker began to bleed through so I abandoned this idea.  I must find a pen I can use for this!  Before popping the seahorses up on 3D foam I stamped the bubbles and 'painted' with water and blotted the colour away.  In hindsight I think these would have worked better in white.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Sweet Seahorses, Hang Around (sentiment); Create a Smile - Friends in the Woods (hat); Festive Friend - free with Papercraft Essentials magazine (hat)
• Ink: Distress Ink - Salty Ocean, Mermaid Lagoon, Chipped Sapphire, Black Soot; Memento - Tuxedo Black; VersaMark
• Stencil: Clearly Besotted - Sunny Day
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Silver Sparkle

Challenge entries:

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Challenge #470 - Anything Goes

Christmas with the Cuties - Challenge #34 - Christmas Cuties

Happy Little Stampers - December Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations - December Challenge - Anything Goes

Phew, I finally got through them all!

I just want to say thanks so much to all of you that visit my blog and for all the wonderful feedback you take the time to leave.  It really is so appreciated.

I'll be back on Thursday with details of the new CAS challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating and seeing in the New Year, whatever your plans are :)