Living My Dream: "One Stamp, Five Ways" - SSS Fluttering By Release Under the Sea Friends

Today is the Simon Says Stamp Fluttering By release featuring lots of Mother's Day and Spring products. I have a set of watercolor cards in this release called Mother's Day with lots of flowers and animals that I will be showing you all colored tomorrow for the SSS blog hop. But today, I am sharing a "one stamp, five ways" post using the new Under the Sea Friends stamp set and matching die set. I'll also be showing a few more of the new products including the Happy Birthday die, Whoa You're Amazing die, and three new sets of sequin mixes. Here is an image of my new watercolor cards:

And here is an image of the Under the Sea stamp set I'll be using for my five cards:

I posted this photo on Instagram this week showing all of the images I had colored from the stamp set all together:

And now for my five cards! I always love hearing which is your favorite! I hope the tips below each one are helpful!

Card 1:

This card is MY favorite as I love the colors. I enjoyed showing off some of my sea glass collection in most of these card photos! See that beautiful lavender and turquoise? Yum! I used the new Whoa You're Amazing die on this one - it is meant to be an outline die, but I used the individual letters for the salutation. I also used the new Peony Bouquet sequin mix inside the shaker.

you're amazing close up

Tips:

Watercolor a background for your shaker cards - for this one I used pinks and blues and while still wet, I splattered more paint on it so it has splotches
Add cheeks to these cute images and freckles too with a white Uniball marker
Die-cut the letters from white cardstock and then color with Copic Markers to match your coloring on the card; I used a lighter blue first and then a darker blue for the top and bottom of the letters
Use both sequins AND Tonic Nuvo Drops around your images (I can't resist!); also attach some sequins OVER the shaker window
Use glitter pens to add dots/details to your images
When making a shaker card, attach some images to the inside of the shaker and some to the top of the shaker

Card 2:

Sea you later

This card starts with a very messy wash of watercolor on Ranger watercolor paper. To make this type of background, I start with a very wet paper and then I just drop in different colors so they can all blend together. Then while it is still wet I splatter more paint drops on it; I also splatter some water on it for bleached spots. This type of background is perfect for under the sea images! I used the new Clematis sequin mix on this card.

Sea you later close up

Tips:

Use a frame die to ground your images (used the PPP Scallop Hexagons here) - tuck some under the frame and layer some over the frame's edges
Cut salutations apart so they fit where you need them on your card; I used my Misti to stamp these three words (it helps you line them up correctly) with Hot Lips ink by SSS
MIX your coloring mediums - I can't stop with this one! I use Copics and colored pencils as well as some glitter pens on all of my images

Card 3:

The first thing I do when working on a "one stamp, five ways" post is stamp a bunch of the images in the stamp set with black ink and with a light colored ink for no-line coloring. Then I color them all before I even think about what cards I am going to make. I try really hard to use all the images on my five cards. In this case, I had so many as you can see from the first image on this post, that I wanted to use a bunch on a random stamping card. This one differs from any I have showed in the past as I used die-cut images on this. I put them together on the card like you would a puzzle - I cut off the pieces overhanging the edges and then used some of those pieces for the edges as well. After all the pieces were attached, I die-cut the entire piece with a large stitched rectangle so it looked finished.

let me know if you need a hand close up

Tips:

Use black cardstock for your salutation with white embossing powder to make the words really pop; tie in the black with some Tonic Nuvo Drops in black
Add lots of dots and details to images with a white Uniball marker
Mix both outlined (in black) and non-outlined images if needed (not my preference, but I did it here - so it became a tip haha)
When coloring non-outlined images, outline with a colored pencil that matches

Card 4:

keep on swimming

Another thing I do before making cards is make a bunch of background to use. That way these posts go MUCH faster! I found this one in my stash I made a few months ago. I'll do some striped ones one day and some polka dots another. Or I do a day of just messy wet on wet backgrounds like I used on the first card. For this one, I started with a piece of watercolor paper and I painted messy blue/green spots on it. I then outlined them with black fine tip marker once they were dry. It was so busy that i wasn't sure if I would ever find a use for it - but I think it works perfectly here!

keep on swimming close up

Tips:

Use a die-cut such as a Stitched Oval here to ground your images
Use the same image multiple times on one card to stretch your stamp set
Make patterned watercolor backgrounds for your cards (see details above)
Add Tonic Nuvo Drops in black for eyeballs and pink for cheeks on critters

Card 5:

happy birthday

Two shakers in one post! I have to point out these TOTALLY cool paints I'm using in my photos - they are the Gem Colors set by Gansai Tambi. They add a really pretty sheen to watercolored images. This card uses the new Butterfly Kisses sequin set. I made the inside piece with the Waves Stencil by SSS with distress inks in Salted Ocean, Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, and Cracked Pistachio.

happy birthday close up

Tips:

Die-cut your words (happy birthday die from new release on this card) from white cardstock and color with Copics to match your images using an ombre look by darkening the colors as you move down the words
Use a stencil and distress inks to make an "under the sea" background; spatter water on it to make bleached spots
Add patterns to the shells on the turtles as I did here

And there you have it! I really love this stamp set as I am a total beach person. Anything under the sea has to be mine - haha. I sea-glass hunt on the beach almost every day. And yes, I realize I am totally blessed to live near the ocean and I never take it for granted! Has anyone ever been to Dana Point or Laguna Beach or San Clemente? Those are the areas I hunt at. Ok, back to the point of this post - I hope you enjoy the new Fluttering By release and come back tomorrow to sea all my watercolor cards painted on the blog hop! Thanks for visiting! Suzy