Something Fishy. . . . . . . Swap Card

I was recently involved in a card swap with a small on line craft group I belong to. The theme was 'Something Fishy' and the brief was to make a card. Now, I don't much like making cards(and the theme wouldn't be my first choice either but I had to have a go didn't I?). Obviously I do make them but for some reason I feel constrained by them. As I was wondering what to do, I hit on the idea of making something like a card with an insert, but which could be used as a little book. The lady I'm sending to makes the most beautiful little hand stitched books and although I can't reach her standard, I thought if I used some handmade paper (not by me!) and stitched the layers together, it could have a dual purpose.

I only have a seahorse stamp and some shell stamps which fit the theme so I used the seahorse as he is rather attractive and he can be grunged up very easily - most important for me! I also decided to make a seahorse charm and tag to go in the package as a little surprise - I do hope she likes them as I really didn't want to give them away once I'd made them! I had a lot of fun making these pieces and from being somewhat of a chore, they became a pleasure and that's what it's all about isn't it? If you're expecting to see cute seahorses with other fish, seaweed and shells, look away now as here's what I made:

Envelope, card/booklet (complete with scrap of paper in top right corner - sorry!) little charm and tag.

The two matting layers were made with dylusion inks and a liberal amount of water spritzing and some rock salt technique thrown in for good measure. The 'bubble' layer was stamped on to watercolour paper using distress ink to get a softer look. Mummy seahorse was stamped onto card, embossed with distress powder, coloured with distress marker and cut out. Baby seahorse was made from shrink plastic coloured on the back with a gold pen - luckily this looks similar to the green of the large seahorse for some reason.

The envelope was stamped - second generation stamp - with distress ink. Large seahorse was stamped lightly with distress, coloured with watercolour pencils and water-brush used to blend the colours. Baby seahorse is again from shrink plastic but a hole was punched before shrinking then and linen thread was wrapped around and attached to a wire hanger. Dare I say 'so cute'??

Grungy close up.

Pages stitched together using the sewing machine.









Hope you enjoyed looking at this little effort - think I might use some more shrink plastic soon as it really is fun to play with.