Manatee-rific under the sea

Hello crafting friends!

Just as I thought there'd be no card today, I suddenly had an idea! I'd been rummaging around in the stamp box and found the cutest set by Lawn Fawn called Manatee-rific. I was lucky enough to win it at Di's Snippet Playground last year but hadn't yet used it because I wasn't sure that any of my family knew what a manatee was! So I did a little research today and, would you believe, EVERYONE knows what a manatee is except me!!

I started off with a slightly coated card base and blended some purples and blues to create an underwater scene with a yellow strip at the bottom to represent sand. By drawing the ink into the centre from the top and sides I was able to leave a white area which I thought would look as if a shaft of light were shining into the scene.

I found that my Thistle stencil from Funky Fossil made effective seaweedy stuff! I used a nice bright green to ink into that. I had to leave everything to dry for a while because the semi-coated card stock keeps the ink wet for a little longer than an uncoated one would.

I added my sentiment next using Stazon black ink and a stamping platform to position everything. The 'happy birthday' bit comes from Birthday Greetings by Altenew while, unsurprisingly, the punning 'have a manatee-rific day' is from the Manatee-rific set.

Finally, I stamped the cute little manatees and coloured them with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers before cutting them out with the matching dies and popping them up on dimensionals. The card was finished with a sprinkling of sequins (I added these to my last SU order and I am in love with them - they come in a pot full of a variety of colours and sizes and are perfect!)

CHALLENGES
I was inspired by Stamping Sensations to use bright colours for this card and I'm also linking up with Allsorts, where this week's theme is Cute, and The Sisterhood of Crafters, where they want to see Stenciling. The Male Room's theme is Die Cuts so I'm joining in there too. I'm also going to share this card at the NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) Challenge (third time this month - and to think I truly believed I didn't actually HAVE much NBUS!!)

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Let's have a big round of applause for my floofy girl today!

Here she is, doing a very tense sit-stay because she's about to get a morsel of liver paté. Why? Because she returned from a long walk this morning CLEAN AND DRY!!! While she was licking her paté up, I explained at great length that humans LOVE a clean and wholesome dog and often give them delicious treats. She ignored me and sniffed about to see if there was any more of that nice liver stuff - this is the canine equivalent of saying "Yeah, yeah, whatevs!)

Hope your week has started off as well as ours.

Hugs,