Creating Water + Shark Week

Well hello friends! Welcome to day one of Shark Week over at Newton’s Nook Designs! This week Newton’s Nook and my fellow Design Team members are going to be highlighting shark themed projects to get you inspired!

I have used the Shark Bites stamp and die set today for my card to create a fun ocean scene! This shark is so fun how he’s popping out of the water and I thought this would be a great way to use my distress inks and create some realistic ocean for him to peek out of!

I created the water by doing some ink smooshing onto watercolor paper using my distress inks. To do the ink smooshing technique, you need a piece of plastic, acetate, photo sleeve, etc; basically something slick. You’ll also need distress inks (or other water reactivated ink) and a spray bottle.

Take the ink pad and smoosh ink onto the surface of the plastic piece you are using. Then with the spray bottle, mist the ink with the water until the ink starts to bead up. Once it’s beading up, you can either stop for a more intense color, or add more water for a more watercolor-like appearance. I usually add multiple layers of ink smooshing on top of each other, playing with the effect until it’s looking the way I wanted it to look. For a final touch, I add water splatters onto the background to give a more watery texture.

After ink smooshing my water background, I die cut it into three pieces using a Mama Elephant wave die. I layered those up onto an oval background, along with a cloud die from Lawn Fawn. I added a sentiment from the Shark Bites stamp set and mounted my panel onto a white card base.

The shark is colored with Copics and I used C1, C3, C5, and C7 for him, I also used a bit of blues for the water splashes coming up with him.

For a final bit of embellishing, I used Nuvo Clear Crystal Drops to create bubbles for the water; don’t they look awesome sitting on the ocean waves???

MORE INSPIRATION & SHOPPING

This week only, make sure you take advantage of the special discount Newton’s Nook is offering on their Shark Bites stamp and die sets! Also, the Newton’s Nook design team is featuring some fantastic shark-inspiration, so be sure to keep checking back to the Newton’s Nook blog for more details!

PRODUCTS

If you are interested in any of the products used in this post, I have them all linked below to Simon Says Stamp. Affiliate links used when possible.

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SIMON SAYS STAMP

Newton’s Nook Designs SHARK BITES Clear Stamp Set 20150701	Copic Sketch Marker C00 COOL GRAY	Copic Sketch Marker C1 COOL GRAY Grey	Copic Sketch MARKER C3 COOL GRAY Grey	Copic Sketch MARKER C5 COOL GRAY Grey	Copic Sketch MARKER C7 COOL GRAY Grey
*Neenah SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE	*Martha Stewart MINI SCORING BOARD Score Craft Tool 42-05013 New 2012	Simon Says Stamp STITCHED OVALS Wafer Dies sssd111510 STAMPtember	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad MERMAID LAGOON Ranger TIM43256	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad TUMBLED GLASS Ranger TIM27188	Simon Says Stamp Premium Ink Pad INTENSE BLACK

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