Good morning!! I’m thrilled to be a stop on the hop for the 2nd Anniversary Blog Hop for Studio Katia! Studio Katia is celebrating their Anniversary with a new release!! The May 2018 release includes 6 new clear stamp sets and 4 sets of coordinating dies, 4 new stand-alone creative dies, 2 new stencils and new embellishments!! Today I’m using the adorable Under the Sea set for my card!
So storytime…while in college I took a field ecology course over the summer of my sophomore year. I was a music major but always enjoyed science so I took a few extra science courses just for fun. And this class was a 12 day, 100 mile ocean kayaking trip in the Baja Peninsula. I had literally never been in a kayak prior to taking the class (as was the case for every student in the class) so it was definitely a crash course in learning how to kayak. We camped on deserted virgin beaches every night and basically saw no one the entire time we were kayaking. And it was amazing! It was stunningly beautiful and we saw tons and tons of wildlife everyday…rays, dolphins, scorpions, sea birds, tarantulas, and countless fish! The only bad part of the trip…on the 5th day of our trip I was pushing my kayak through the waves and I stepped on a stingray. And made him REALLY mad. I never knew how much control stingrays have over their stingers and that they can drive those suckers straight down through the top of your foot. And the pain was like nothing I’ve ever felt in my life. And the cure…is to put your foot in a bucket with ocean water and pour boiling water into the bucket to break down the poison sheath and stop the pain. Yeah…that was exciting. Needless to say now I look at the aquarium tanks with the “pet the stingray” displays very differently than most people. 😉
Anyway, as soon as I saw the stingrays in the Under the Sea set I wanted to use them on a card! I started by blending peacock feathers and mermaid lagoon distress oxide ink onto a piece of white cardstock. Then I splattered the panel with water and blotted off the excess. Next I laid the Brush Stroke Waves stencil over the panel and applied a thin layer of blue topaz glimmer paste! I let that dry and then trimmed the panel down to 4″ by 5.25″.
Next I stamped the stingrays onto watercolor paper with versamark and heat-embossed them with silver embossing powder. I watercolored them with my mijello mission gold watercolors and let them dry. Then I masked off the bottoms and added splatters of dark grey paint to give them the look of an eagle ray (like the teacher ray from Finding Nemo!). I used the coordinating dies to die-cut them and then added a layer of spectrum noir clear sparkle to their tops.
I stamped the sentiment on white cardstock and heat-embossed it with silver embossing powder before trimming it down to an angled label. I adhered the stenciled panel to a card base, and added the rays and sentiment with foam mounting tape. Finally I finished the card with a few iridescent bubbles! Maybe it was a form of catharsis…but I really had fun with this card! 🙂
To celebrate their anniversary Studio Katia is giving away TWO $100 CAD Gift Certificates every day of the Blog Hop! That’s FOUR chances to win big!!! The winners will be chosen randomly from comments left on ALL blogs of the Blog Hop.
To enter:
You should have arrived from Erum and Ilina is your next stop. If you get lost you can find the full hop list below or visit the Studio Katia Blog! This is the second day of a two day blog hop so make sure to hop along on day one for more chances to win!
- Studio Katia (Rowena)
- SimonSaysStamp
- Amy Kolling
- Crystal Thompson
- Dana Gong
- Erum Tasneem
- Jessica Frost Ballas –> You are here!
- Ilina Crouse
- Heather Hoffman
- Tracy Freeman
- Olga Moss
- Simon Hurley
- Carol Mayne
- Laurie Case
- Kristina Pokazanieva
- Kari VanNoy
- Natalia Zubkova
- Amanda Bodine
- Liliya Rytsar
Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day! Happy hopping!! 🙂
Interested in the products I used? To make them easy for you to find, I have listed them below. (Affiliate disclosure can be found here). Your purchases through my links help keep my blog running with no additional cost to you and I thank you so much for the support!!
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What an amazing story to go with an AMAZING CARD! That was an experience of a lifetime! These rays look so real like they are jumping off the card. Just beautiful. TFS
I love the wave stencil. The way you used it with the glimmer paste is beautiful! Your card is wonderful.
Lovely coloring, Jess.
Lovely card! Really like the background you created and how you colored the rays!
Love the bold background! Such a fun stamp set!
Oh man. Sounded like a fabulous trip until the injury! 🙂
Lovely card , love the background.
Awesome card. Love the Stingrays!
Beautiful details on this card! I like all the sparkle and shine.
Fantastic design, Jessica, I love all the blues!
Oh my!!! This is stinkin’ cute!!! Awesome background!!! <3
Jessica, I especially love the background on your card! So colorful and creative! I enjoyed reading your kayak story!
Sounds like a wonderful trip…except for the sting! I love your card and the way you used the glimmer paste on the background! The deep, dark blue really makes it look like your in the ocean. Love this stamp set!
Beautiful card, as always!!! Love the glitter striped background- really pops!
Wow! I just love the background you created with the stencil and the various blue tones, it sets off the beautifully coloured manatees so nicely. Gorgeous card!
I love the deep blues and greens you used for your background and using the glimmer paste just adds the perfect amount of sparkle and dimension. Your card is so beautiful and really just so reminiscent of the deep ocean I love it 🙂
Love your undersea background! The glitter adds so much to the look! Thanks for the inspiration!
I absolutely love that background Jess! That shimmer and shine is amazing!
Love your rays! So awesome!!!
Crushing over your stingrays, Jessica…and your story? Oh my stars! Ouch! I agree: whole new perspective on these sea creatures!
Hugs~carol
Sorry to hear about your foot being stung… I guess maybe he was startled as well as annoyed and just lashed out. Glad you’ve not held a grudge as I love your stingray card.
What you did with the rays is amazing! They have so much dimension I almost expect to see them flap their wings and soar through the water. The whole card is so wonderfully thought out – it’s beautiful. Thanks you for sharing your talent.
Wow, great card, made all the greater for the story behind it!
The stingrays on your card are cute. I don’t think they’d stab you.
Love your card with the stingrays. The sparkle background is perfect.