AQUARIUM - SLIMLINE SHAKER CARD - Stamps from issue #86 of Creative Stamping

 

I had some left over fish which had been stamped up when making the previous "Dawn Catch" fishing card - - which you can see in the previous post.

Looking at them and thinking about what I might be able to do with them inspired this card. 

I'd been thinking about making a shaker card anyway!! These fish gave me the idea of turning the shaker element onto an aquarium. 

A slimline sized card made the perfect base, especially when landscape oriented. 

I just cut 2 pieces of white card the same size, to create the topper. They were cut at 0.25 inches smaller in the length and width of the base card. 

With one of the pieces of white card I cut out an aquarium shape rectangle, with half an inch clearance around the three sides to the left, top and bottom and leaving space to the right hand side for the greeting.

After aligning both pieces of card I lightly pencilled a line through the cut out rectangle onto the piece below. 

The pencilled area was where I created an aquarium scene. The colours for the water and the sandy floor were done with Distress Oxide inks. 

I stamped rocks onto the sandy base, using rock stamps from the set. 

A fussy cut piece from a section of dentritic printing, of old, provided a clump of aquarium grass, which was glued in place. 

Then the fish were glued into position in the fish tank. 

Once I was happy with the aquarium I adhered strips of dimensional foam around it (to create the boxed in space to keep the shaker beads and sequins from escaping. 

Further dimensional foam was added all around the sides of the card. 

The glass front of the aquarium was created by gluing a piece of acetate behind the cutout rectangle. 

I made a "double layer" of foam tape to all the taped areas to give enough depth (the tape I was using is quite thin). 

After putting some beads and sequins into the aquarium I stuck the top down. 

Finally the front of the card was matted and layered with black card and some patterned card and the sentiment stamped with Dovecraft wooden alphabet blocks. 

The words "Happy Birthday Fishes" (I like a good pun) were then glued to the card.