Birthday Fishes | By Jessica Shier

 Hello Ai Fans!

It's Jessica today on the blog. As some of you may know I love the critter stamps from Art Impressions. The dogs and cats are some of my favorites and the Real Great Guy stamp set as the most adorable dog floating in the water! So I thought I would combine him with some of the other smaller stamp sets and create an alcohol ink background to go along with him. I also wanted to keep the color scheme to a minimal again. I love mixing teal and orange together, such a great color combination for fall and more masculine cards.

I don't really have anyone that loves to fish. My husband and I have talked about it, just to try something new but to real avid fishers. My mom did have a Dachshund that loved to go fishing. She would dive in to the water after them! 

The background is a mix of alcohol inks on vellum. I'll have the list of colors I used down below in the product list. To add some shine I did use the Silver and Snow Cap Mixatives and also the Alcohol Pearl in Tranquil. I like using the alcohol ink on vellum because it makes your piece a little more transparent then on regular Yupo paper. Something different and fun to try out. By adding a a teal card stock behind the vellum it intensifies the teal colors of the alcohol inks. Adding a gray card stock tones the colors down a bit and a white brightens them. 

I stamped the images on to Neenah 80lb cardstock and die cut them using different shaped dies. I used several of the squares from Art Impressions Square double stitch die set. For the fish jumping out of the bucket I used one of the smaller rectangle dies from the Rectangle double stitch die set. I also tend to die cut the my panels for cards a lot with the second to largest rectangle die. It's the perfect size to layer on a A2 card front. 

The sentiment I used two inks from Gina K. Designs and stamped it in sections. The lighter color at the top and a darker ink color towards the bottom. This gives a fun gradient design. I don't utilize this technique enough! I also die cut the sentiment with one of the tag dies.

Thank you so much for joining me today. Happy Stamping!