Fishy Father's Day - Stampin' Up! Seaside Shore

  Sometimes I sit down to stamp and the card just comes together right away and other times I have to really work on it to get the parts to look right or play around with just the right color combination.  And other days it just takes that "A-Ha!" moment and the right inspiration for it all to come together.

  For today's card I had a picture from a catalog of a shower curtain with different fish in shades of blue as my starting point.  The fish were a bit more whimsical than the fish in Seaside Shore but I figured that I could get something to work.  I started with a Whisper White panel and began sponging with my lightest color; Pool Party, then went onto Pacific Point and finally the darkest blue; Dapper Denim.

  Next, I moved on to stamping my fish.  I did one in each of the background colors and then fussy cut them out.  We get spoiled by so many sets having coordinating framelits but don't let the lack of a framelit set or punch keep you from getting a set that you like.  Fussy cutting isn't hard it just takes a bit of patience and the more you do it the better you become at it.

  Then I sat and I sat and I sat with these pieces, moving them around, trying to imagine what some seaweed at the bottom would look like....maybe some bubbles going to the surface.  Several different colors of ribbon were pulled out...  But nothing was looking right to me.  So I left all the pieces on my desk and moved on to something else.  Then along came the Freshly Made Sketches challenge (see below for the sketch) and the lightbulb went off and the card came together quickly after adding in the squares!  It just takes that one little bit of inspiration some times!

  I cut out 3 small squares with the Stitched Shapes framelits and adhered my fish to them with dimensionals and the arranged them like the sketch.  The sentiment is embossed in white using the Thoughtful Banners stamp set.  And I added a little Pool Party baker's twine bow as the final touch. 

   So I guess the moral of the blog post is to not give up on a card even if at first it doesn't seem to be coming together.  Save the pieces and take a break and I bet after some time you'll find the right inspiration to finish it off!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Seaside Shore, Thoughtful Banners

Ink: Pool Party, Pacific Point, Dapper Denim, Versamark

Paper: Dapper Denim, Whisper White

Accessories: Stitched Shapes framelits, dimensionals, white embossing powder, Pool Party Baker's twine (retired)