Perfect Combos – Oceans of love

Hello Everyone,

It is Zsofi here, welcome to another edition of my Perfect Combos series. As we are heading into summer (even if the weather does not agree) I brought you a fun underwater scene today. I was plaving with the Oceans of love stamp set and paired it with the Bubble waves stencil and some fun dies. Let’s dive in the details!

First I stamped the critters with black ink which is alcohol marker friendly. Then I used my Copics to bring these cuties alive. I chose bright colours and coloured a lot of accessories from the set to fill my scene. It is always good to have some extras. I used the coordinating dies to cut them all out.

Then I worked on the background. On a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock I applied a thin layer of Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers and Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide inks in a random order. It looked splotchy and not perfectly blended but it was not important at all as I laid the stencil on top of it and went back with the same inks. After removing the stencil I added water splatters and diluted some Blueprint Sketch distress oxide with water to add some dark splatters too with a small brush. I love texture so I decided to add some white and clear shimmer sprinkles too.

For my scene I needed some sort of sand. There are many ways to achieve a sandy look, for today’s card I chose the easiest one: I die cut a slope with a Slopey Joes die from kraft cardstock and dabbed it with clear embossing ink directly from the ink pad. I poured Hero Arts Sand embossing powder on it. After heat setting it looks like sand thanks to the different granules in the powder. I love it for summer cards.

To make the focal point stand out more I die cut a thin white frame with the Skinny Imperial Rectangle frames die set 2 times, layered them on top of each other and gently applied some Distress Oxide ink over it. I just used the inks I had on the previously used brushes, I did not ink them up again.

When I assembled the scene I made sure to have a lot of dimension: some seeweeds and shells I adhered flat and some with 3D foam squares. The sea critters were adhered the same way too. The sentiment is partly heat embossed on black cardstock with white embossing powder and die cut with the coordinating die. The rest of the sentiment I stamped on teeny tiny cardstock strips.

I finished this cute underwater scene with a couple of Studio Katia Ice Sparkle crystals and used a black glaze pen on the eyes of the critters.

I hope you enjoyed today’s Perfect Combo and will check back later for more inspiration. If you like my cards, please make sure to follow me on Instagram where I share my happy creations! Thank you!

“Sea” you soon,

Zsofi