Hello and welcome! After having just around 3 challenges for most of the last two years, my sister and I are challenging ourselves to keep it up with our Inspiration Station challenges this year. A challenge to keep a challenge… go figure!! 😀

Welcome to another installation of the Inspiration Station challenge between us sisters, where we pick any theme that pleases each of us alternatively, and we come up with projects on our own to meet it. Here are the past challenges we have had. This time it was my sister’s turn to give us the challenge and she gave us a Tic Tac Toe board –

I wanted to pick the Steampunk, since we rarely use that theme and I rarely get to play with something steampunk. However, I just wasn’t able to come up with an idea that I was happy with and could also actually make with my own hands. So, I decided to just drop it this time. After all, even though it is a challenge, the primary purpose is to enjoy and not put more pressure on myself to create something I can’t! So, then I switched to nature and decided to go with the topmost row – Nature-Teal-Diecut.

And here’s what I made –

I wanted to add layers. Lots of layers. But I didn’t want it too bulky and I didn’t want the look/feel of a shadow card. I also liked the look of this and this card on Pinterest. I decided to incorporate a look of layers and also a window, but keep it as flat as possible.

So, I first started with a long panel of watercolor paper, colored it on top with yellow for the penetrating sunshine followed by gradually darkening shades of teal. Setting this aside to dry, I stamped and watercolored the fishes from My Favorite Things Gill Friends stamp set. Once they dried, I added some additional shading using Faber Castell Pastel color pencils. I then fussy cut them all. I also stamped and fussy some underwater plants from Paper Trey Ink Salt Air Flora and Trinity Stamps Sea Life Silhouettes.

To assemble my card, I first die cut the long watercolored panel using My Favorite Things Ocean Waves to get different stripes of waves. I then trimmed them to have a width of about quarter of an inch shorter than the actual card base and while adhering them, I added a small piece of foam tape in the center while adering the sides to the card base directly. Since my watercolor panel was significantly longer than my card base, I also easily overlapped the pieces so that no white was showing from underneath the gaps.

To cover this, I die cut a panel of white cardstock using My Favore Things Watercolor Wash. This die does not have circles, which also I wanted to die cut. So I found a few other dies in my stash (I used a few from My Favorite Things Birds of a Feather and Winnie & Walter Ring in the Celebration). I then tucked in the plants and then the fishes, added a bit of foam tape underneath the fishes whever I thought I needed some dimension.

I then added quite a few sequins – they would act as bubbles and also provide shimmer to the card. I didn’t add a sentiment to this one. I thought I might add something once I decided who to send it to! 😉

Checkout the charming art journal page that my sister has created for this challenge. She has used what I wanted to use and I love what she has created!

Thank you so much for dropping by!