Make a Splash Pt 1

Hey there blogland! Its been a while since I did a blog post but I've still been getting crafty in my spare time (which seems scarce since the deployment started). I've been super busy now that I'm the only parent and school is out. That means every little task falls on mommy for a change and I'm telling you, I never realized just how much help it was for him to occupy the girls when he got off work, or the handful of times he cooked dinner, took care of bath time or even did laundry but boy oh boy do I miss those brief moments of respite! Somewhere in the madness of registering the girls for school setting doctor and dentist appointments and back to school shopping (yup its that time of year) I managed to squeeze in time to play with those sensational sweeties from The Greeting Farm's newest collection available for pre order. Today I'm sharing another mini notepad, this time featuring little Mishell Merbean

Mishell Merbean (Splash Kit)

I love making these notepads almost as much as I love these little merbeans! The hardest part honestly is waiting for the rubber cement or whatever you use to bind the papers to dry. For an added something special, I stamp the corner of each page with a second generation stamped image with a matching stamp. This time I used a beautiful hibiscus flower stamped in orange but completely forgot to take a picture, sorry! I colored her up with my copic markers and fussy cut her out. I used two  concentric stitched rectangle dies from My Favorite Things and inked around the edges with a dusty pink pigment ink, fading lighter toward the center. The papers I used are from the Everyday Eclectic pad by echo park. I really love those fun bright and pretty papers! I used a sentiment from the SOG Under the Sea clear stamp set. To hold the notepad closed I always attach a bit of matching bakers twine and pop up the image on foam dots to wrap the twine around and secure the notepad closed. Since there's not much room left for lots of embellishments and I also had no desire to take away from the image itself, I finished of the card with my wink of stella glitter brush pen and a few pearls. After taking a few pictures I realized the shimmer from the wink of stella was too subtle. I wanted this girl to sparkle like diamonds so I went back over her tail fins and seashell crown with diamond stickles, and can you say FAB! I felt this cool beachy color palette is a perfect addition to the Sumertime challenge going on over at The Greeting Farm and I'd love to see your fun in the sun projects! This will be one of a set of 4 that I'm working on so keep an eye out for the rest! Till next time,

-Krys