Pages

Friday 17 June 2016

Seaside Shore Gel Card

This card is entered into this week's Crazy Crafters' Project Highlights - do visit to look at the other great projects and vote for your favourites.
 
My husband sees (and admires, because he's a good husband!) all the cards I make, so I wanted to make his birthday card really special!

I started out by searching my array of stamp sets for something masculine, my eye was caught by the Seaside Shore set and my brain started playing little word games "Fischer", "Fish" - I can't help being a bit crazy!
Stampin up, #thecraftythinker, Seaside Shore, Underwater Gel Card, Masculine card, Stampin Up Australia Demonstrator
Just swimming by to say hello!

 I remembered seeing a few "gel" cards on Pinterest (France Martin has a good tutorial) and thought I'd try a variation.

I put the fish in the "water" and suspended it in a "porthole"

Stampin up, #thecraftythinker, Seaside Shore, Underwater Gel Card, Masculine card, Stampin Up Australia Demonstrator
Yes, the fish is inside the gel!

My husband loved his card!  I could see that the swimming fish really intrigued him - he kept playing with it!
Stampin up, #thecraftythinker, Seaside Shore, Underwater Gel Card, Masculine card, Stampin Up Australia Demonstrator
I used Stampin' Write markers to colour the seaweed

I kept the inside of the card quite simple to offset the drama of the swimming fish.

Cautions:
I don't think I'd send a card like this through the mail (unless it was very well padded and protected!).  
See my comments below about putting the fish in the gel - it's a work in progress.


Making the card:
I cut a 12" piece of Early Espresso in half to 6" x 12" and scored it at 4" and 8".

I then folded the left edge over and that formed the double thickness front of the card and cut the "porthole" with one of the Layering Circles framelits.

I then used the same circle framelit and one a couple of sizes larger to cut the metallic frames for the porthole.  Silver Foil card would work fine but I heat embossed a piece of cardstock with silver and used that.

I made two "wooden" panels by using Tip Top Taupe ink and the Hardwood stamp on Whisper White cardstock.  I then sponged with Crushed Curry and Crumb Cake inks.  One at a time, I positioned the panels and drew a pencil line around the hole.  I used the pencil line to line up the circle die and cut the hole.  I then adhered these panels - using dimensionals for the front of the card.  At that point, I added the frames I had made and finished them with some of the Metallic Enamel dots.

The banner on the front used the Thoughtful Banners bundle.  I stamped the "Ahoy There" banner from the Seaside Shore set and snipped around the centre piece which I stuck into the Thoughtful Banner.  I edged the banner with Bermuda Bay ink.

To make the anchor, I stamped it onto Whisper White cardstock and fussy cut it.  I then covered it with Versamark and heat embossed it with Silver embossing powder.  I added a couple of sprinkles of Copper embossing powder and finished the heating.  I tied some of the Whisper White Thick Bakers Twine through the top of the anchor and glued it all on the front of the card.

The banner on the inside of the card is from Banners For You Bundle.

I cut a piece of Bermuda Bay cardstock to 3.75" x 5.75"  and layered onto it a piece of Whisper White cardstock 3.5" x 5.5" which I had stamped and coloured.  I glued this panel to the inside of the card.

I stamped, coloured and cut out a fish and then clear heat embossed it very thoroughly all over, including all the edges.  I placed the fish in a small zip lock back with some aqua coloured gel (I didn't have any hair gel so I used shower gel).  I placed Foam Adhesive Strip around the porthole (on the back of the card front) and gently stretched the zip lock back over it.  I finished securing the bag with sticky tape and then used Fast Fuse adhesive to glue the two  sides of the card front together with the zip lock back in between.  I was concerned that it would look odd and bulgy - but it works OK for me.  To avoid the bulge, you could add a small gusset to the sides of the card front.

Things I learned along the way:
This is still a work in progress for me!

My first attempt at putting the fish in the gel was a total disaster! I knew I would have to seal the fish and tried a really heavy coat of glue using the Fine Tip Glue Pen and leaving it to dry overnight.   It looked great for about four hours and then the ink started to leach out of the fish and I was left with an amorphous blob in red gel!  

What you see in the photograph is Mark II.  At that point the fish had been in the gel for about 24 hours.  If you look carefully, you can see there is a little discolouration of the gel.  As I write, the fish has now been in the gel for three days and some more ink has leached out.  It's not too bad but definitely not perfect. 

More experimentation is required!  I'm going to see whether Hair Gel would be kinder to the fish than the Shower Gel.  If not, I plan to try stamping the fish onto coloured plastic with Stazon.

Thank you for visiting
'Til next time

Stephanie

Product List - click on a product image below to shop in my online store (Australian Residents only)

35 comments:

  1. OMG Stephanie I have to try this! This looks so amazing.....I have a few fishing type people that would also love this card!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amazing Stephanie it looks so life like - gorgeous card hun

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow Stephanie, your card is Amazing! Such an innovative idea - love it! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love this card the effect is work all the trouble you took to create it

    ReplyDelete
  5. This card is so fun. Would it work if you used 2 bags with less gel in each and put the fish between the bags?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! That's a good question - it's worth the experiment.

      Delete
  6. Great job! This is such a cute card using this very clever technique that is new to me. Thanks for all your tips and link to the tutorial. It's great your husband was pleasantly surprised for his birthday. It is an awesome card.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well done, Stephanie. I thought "Before"version was good enough but I'm glad you re-did it. This is really much much better. I think I'm going to get this set in my next order. Its so cute.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Satomi! Yes, it was worth the extra effort. I still have ideas for improvements though!

      Delete
  8. Love the card! Maybe laminate the fish?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Kathi - both for your lovely comment and the great idea! I think you may have cracked it!!! Guess what I'll be trying first chance I get!

      Delete
  9. This is such a cute card! What if you tried covering the fish in clear embossing powder and heat embossing it to create a hard outer shell..wonder if that would work. Definitely think that laminating would work, but just in case you didn't have easy access to a laminator! I want to attempt to make this card, so I might try the clear EP and see how that goes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your comment, Rachel. Yes, the fish in this card is clear heat embossed (with many layers!). It definitely delayed the damage but coming up to two weeks after creation it's not looking too healthy at this point!
      I do have access to a laminator and I do intend to give it a go!

      Delete
  10. I love what you did with this card! I would love to share this on my blog for 'My Crafty Friends Monday' (a round up of amazing cards from amazing stampers!)! Please let me know if you would prefer that I didn't share it (of course I give you credit and link back to your blog!).
    Inky Hugs!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Josee - oops I'm so sorry that I didn't spot your comment before now. I'm very honoured by your request and would be so proud for my card to be shared on your blog. Thank you so much!

      Delete
  11. I wonder if you could try liquid glycerin (used in making soap products) that you can buy at most hobby stores?? Love this idea, and I'll certainly try it!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Beth, thanks for the suggestion. It's certainly worth a try. However, I have now made a couple more cards using Kathi's suggestion of laminating the fish (posts will appear on 22 and 29 July)that are completely successful - the fish are perfect after a couple of weeks! So that would be recommendation to you. I hope I get to see your card(s)!

      Delete
  12. This card is great. What about Crystal effects on the fish put on both sides?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did try Crystal effects / Fine tipped Glue Pen as my first option and it was very unsuccessful, sadly. Thank you for the suggestion though. I'm finding that laminating the fish works really well.

      Delete
  13. I made a gel card using the gold fish in the "Jars of Love" set and put it in the hair gel. I had a yellow plastic file folder and stamped fish with black Stazon and then cut out. Worked perfect. Ink stays on! Now I'm going to try it with the Stamp set you used also. You might want to try a plastic file folder too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Mary. The plastic was one of the thoughts I had but I haven't perused it because I found the laminating worked so well and I can used a variety of colours if I like. Thank you so much for your comment and suggestion.

      Delete
  14. This is the best card I've seen using the Seaside Shore stamp set! Hope your hubby appreciates your talent. ♥️

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for that lovely comment! Yes, my hubby is very appreciative. :)

      Delete
  15. You keep coming up with more and better ideas with stamp set and whatever gel your using! I hope your using re-inkers to color your water? I'll know more when you email everything. You are truly an awesome artist! I bow to your talent. You should bow yourself, pat yourself on the back and everything else! Thank you for sharing your talent with us! I am humbled!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, Gloria - you are really good for my self-esteem! Thank you for your very kind comments.
      I didn't colour the gel - that's the way it is - not sure I'd want to wash myself with it!

      Delete
  16. Did you try laminating the fish?

    ReplyDelete