Big Birthday Fish - Stampin' Up! Best Catch

 With so many fishermen in my family I was very excited that the Best Catch stamp set and coordinating Catch of the Day dies carried over to the new annual catalog.  We haven't had that many fishing sets over the years and the short time period of the Occasions catalog didn't allow much time to do this set justice.

  In a constant struggle to not drop older products each time new ones are released I wanted to mix some "old" and new products and I did that by combining the Best Catch stamp set with one of the new In Colors; Pretty Peacock.

  So far just 2 months into the new annual catalog I think that Pool Party and Pretty Peacock make for a pretty good pairing.  Remember when Stampin' Up! had "Dynamic Duos"? Totally dating myself with that one right?  But if they still did those color pairings I think this would be one!  Add in a few neutrals and we've got a nice masculine birthday card. 

  The base is Pretty Peacock and then I created a little background rectangle with Very Vanilla, stamped with Sahara Sand then embossed with the Subtle embossing folder.  I backed this panel with a slightly larger piece of Pool Party. 

  Our big fish is stamped with Versamark onto Pool Party then embossed with copper embossing powder.  Once the big guy cooled down I cut him out with the coordinating die.  It's hard to see but the fins are cut so you can pop them out a bit.  That's a really fun detail that you can't always tell from the pictures in the catalogs.  The fish is popped with dimensionals over a length of Braided Linen Trim that I pulled apart for more a netting look.

 I used Itty Bitty Birthdays and my card colors to make the sentiment panels.  Don't be afraid to mix and match smaller sentiments to make for a larger element on your card.  Sometimes a tiny sentiment just disappears.  Also, on this design it created a bit of balance to the fish in the lower corner.  And it's a great way to use up some narrow scraps that I know you all have been saving! 

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Best Catch, Itty Bitty Birthdays

Ink: Sahara Sand, Pretty Peacock, Pool Party, Versamark

Paper: Pretty Peacock, Pool Party, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Catch of the Day dies, Subtle embossing folder, copper embossing powder, dimensionals, Braided Linen trim