Sea turtle birthday

Time to pull out the long-neglected stamps from My Heart Stamps For You. I'm proud to be a designer for their company - if you happen to see them at a stamp convention, I hear they are toting my cards around....! They have a great variety of stamps, from Victorian to nautical to cute to...ok, they have it all. :) I'm slowly compiling a new stack of cards for them that I can send home with my parents (the times I've sent cards from here, it's been like $28 for postage!).

Soooooo.....here is the turtle! I don't think I've use the turtle before (I received several sheets of stamps as a prize for winning their card contest a couple of years ago)! I stamped him on watercolor paper, and did a watercolor wash (lots of water applied to the paper before painting) all around him. After I got the color the way I wanted, I sprinkled rock salt on the paper and let it dry completely. Here's a photo tutorial of the technique - why reinvent the wheel? I watercolored the turtle after the rest of the piece was dry.

Then the fun began. :) I sketched a swirly swim trail behind him and pierced it with a pin. It just wasn't enough. More lines with the stardust pen. Ehhh. So I went back in with my white gel pen. Still. I watercolored a few turquoise lines. Hmm. Broke out the Sakura glue pen, swirled some more and added the glitter. Ahh, yes.

That patterned paper is from www.oscraps.com - the Mint Julep collection - gotta love freebies! And I love the little turquoise gems at the top - they are meant for nail art or something - I got them at my daughter's favorite store (remember, "Naughty" - Indo's answer to Claire's?). They're rounded, not beveled. So cute. And that ribbon I think is my new favorite color...! What color is that, anyway?