Midweek Make: Get Well Fishes

This card was made for a friend who had recently had a heart attack.  I wanted to make something to make him smile as well as to let him know that we are thinking of him.

This is Mama Elephant Fish Tank, a die-set that I’ve had for ages but this was its first outing. The set has 2 bowl dies, an inner and outer, but I only used the outer which has a nice stitching detail around the edge.  There is some foliage and then tiny star and fish shaped dies – it was the tiny fish that inspired a shaker card. 

I die-cut lots of the fish and 4 of the plants and then ink blended some colour onto them.

The My Favorite Things Gill Friends doesn’t have a “get well” sentiment but I have the Greetings Galore, which is also by Birdie Brown in the same font, so I was able to mix and match to make my sentiment.

Next, the assembly was done in layers starting with a sheet of acetate for the glass bowl.  Next, I added a layer of ‘sand’ at the bottom and adhered a few of the plants around the bottom.

I then realised that my mini-fish shaker bits would get stuck on the plants so added a layer of clear packaging (I keep all these – you never know when they’ll come in handy!) and glued a few fish directly onto the front of it.

The back needed to have a watery feel to it so I blended some Distress Oxide Salty Ocean and Chipped Sapphire onto a piece of card and spritzed with water to lift off some bits of colour.  For bubbles, I added a few dots of white Posca pen.

Since the fish are only made of card, a layer of foam tape was sufficient to give the necessary height to the shaker panel.   It was then mounted on yellow and navy panels before adding to a square card base.