Hi everyone!!  I am on the blog today featuring the most adorable stamp set by Ink Road Stamps called Purrmaids.  This set includes four cute lil kitten mermaids, bubbles and a few great sentiments to go with the set.  There is just something about underwater themed stamps that scream shaker card to me!

This was one of those projects that started out one way and halfway through took a turn and I had to do some slight alterations.  So, my original vision, unfortunately was not fully created.  But, isn't that the way sometimes?  With everything?  I try to remember with each curve ball that it's not the obstacle that matters but, instead, my reaction to it.  Sometimes, (ok probably half of the time) I fail miserably..but I am a work in progress!

As soon as I saw these little Purrmaids, I knew I wanted to use a background I had created months ago.  I do that a lot, I will create a ton of backgrounds and store them in a pocket folder until I am ready to use them.  Sometimes, the background will inspire my entire card, and sometimes the stamp set will call out to a background I have already made.  I created this particular background using pigment powder.  There are a lot of brands on the market and if you have never tried this medium I encourage you to try it!  It is so much fun!  I just tapped the tiniest amount of greens and blues onto my watercolor paper and then activated it with spraying water directly onto the powder.  A little bit goes a LONG way!!  You can see this background through the circular windows on my card.

My first step to create this card was to get some color on those adorable little kittens.  I chose to use watercolor, as this is my go to coloring medium.  Before I started painting I used a waterproof black ink to stamp my images.

Next I needed to do the first step of creating the shaker card element.  I used two different size circle dies and placed them on my card front, to keep them in place I used a low tack tape and ran it through my die cutting machine.  You can certainly accomplish this by tracing two different sized circles and poking your scissors through the center and cutting along your traced lines.  Then, I adhere acetate (reused acetate from stamp packaging works great for this) using liquid adhesive to the back of the card front.  I lined up my background so I could see through the window as to where I wanted to place the lower Purrmaid and then adhered the kitty on the background so it would be seen through the acetate window from the front.  Finally to complete the shaker element, I doubled up my double stick foam tape and wrapped it around each circle as close to the edge as possible without allowing it to hang over and show through the front.  I then used the same thickness of double stick foam tape and covered the entire back of the card front.  Then, I dusted the inside of my circles, all over the acetate and all along the edge of the foam tape with anti-static powder, in order to help the sequins and shaker bits not stick to the foam tape or the acetate because of static.  I chose to fill my shaker card with blue, purple, turquoise and shell shaped sequins.  Lastly, I lined up my background with the Purrmaid image and pressed to securely adhere the foam tape to the background.

On the front of the card, I decided to put a second Purrmaid on the front near the top smaller circle.  I found some designer paper with some white coral and shells and fussy cut some of them out to give the front of the card a little more detail.  I used my anti-static powder and dusted the entire front of the card.  Then, I used the bubble stamps that came with the Purrmaids stamp set and scattered them around the front using clear sticky ink.  And finally, I sprinkled clear embossing powder all over the bubbles and set them with my heat tool.

The sentiment I thought would go well with these gorgeous Purrmaids, was "In a sea of fish, be a purrmaid."  I stamped the sentiment on another previously made background using pigment powder.  Only this time the pigment powder was pink and purple.  Using double stick foam tape I adhered the sentiment to the front of the card.

I really love how this turned out.  It is exactly what I think of when I think of an underwater card.  Thank you so much for reading!  If you would like to play with this fun stamp set you can visit Ink Road Stamps website and use the discount code 'BriannaF10' to receive 10% off of your order.