Good morning!! I’m thrilled to be a stop on the hop for the 2nd Anniversary Blog Hop for Studio Katia! Studio Katia is celebrating their Anniversary with a new release!! The May 2018 release includes 6 new clear stamp sets and 4 sets of coordinating dies, 4 new stand-alone creative dies, 2 new stencils and new embellishments!! Today I’m using the adorable Under the Sea set for my card!
So storytime…while in college I took a field ecology course over the summer of my sophomore year. I was a music major but always enjoyed science so I took a few extra science courses just for fun. And this class was a 12 day, 100 mile ocean kayaking trip in the Baja Peninsula. I had literally never been in a kayak prior to taking the class (as was the case for every student in the class) so it was definitely a crash course in learning how to kayak. We camped on deserted virgin beaches every night and basically saw no one the entire time we were kayaking. And it was amazing! It was stunningly beautiful and we saw tons and tons of wildlife everyday…rays, dolphins, scorpions, sea birds, tarantulas, and countless fish! The only bad part of the trip…on the 5th day of our trip I was pushing my kayak through the waves and I stepped on a stingray. And made him REALLY mad. I never knew how much control stingrays have over their stingers and that they can drive those suckers straight down through the top of your foot. And the pain was like nothing I’ve ever felt in my life. And the cure…is to put your foot in a bucket with ocean water and pour boiling water into the bucket to break down the poison sheath and stop the pain. Yeah…that was exciting. Needless to say now I look at the aquarium tanks with the “pet the stingray” displays very differently than most people. 😉
Anyway, as soon as I saw the stingrays in the Under the Sea set I wanted to use them on a card! I started by blending peacock feathers and mermaid lagoon distress oxide ink onto a piece of white cardstock. Then I splattered the panel with water and blotted off the excess. Next I laid the Brush Stroke Waves stencil over the panel and applied a thin layer of blue topaz glimmer paste! I let that dry and then trimmed the panel down to 4″ by 5.25″.
Next I stamped the stingrays onto watercolor paper with versamark and heat-embossed them with silver embossing powder. I watercolored them with my mijello mission gold watercolors and let them dry. Then I masked off the bottoms and added splatters of dark grey paint to give them the look of an eagle ray (like the teacher ray from Finding Nemo!). I used the coordinating dies to die-cut them and then added a layer of spectrum noir clear sparkle to their tops.
I stamped the sentiment on white cardstock and heat-embossed it with silver embossing powder before trimming it down to an angled label. I adhered the stenciled panel to a card base, and added the rays and sentiment with foam mounting tape. Finally I finished the card with a few iridescent bubbles! Maybe it was a form of catharsis…but I really had fun with this card! 🙂
To celebrate their anniversary Studio Katia is giving away TWO $100 CAD Gift Certificates every day of the Blog Hop! That’s FOUR chances to win big!!! The winners will be chosen randomly from comments left on ALL blogs of the Blog Hop.
To enter:
You should have arrived from Erum and Ilina is your next stop. If you get lost you can find the full hop list below or visit the Studio Katia Blog! This is the second day of a two day blog hop so make sure to hop along on day one for more chances to win!
- Studio Katia (Rowena)
- SimonSaysStamp
- Amy Kolling
- Crystal Thompson
- Dana Gong
- Erum Tasneem
- Jessica Frost Ballas –> You are here!
- Ilina Crouse
- Heather Hoffman
- Tracy Freeman
- Olga Moss
- Simon Hurley
- Carol Mayne
- Laurie Case
- Kristina Pokazanieva
- Kari VanNoy
- Natalia Zubkova
- Amanda Bodine
- Liliya Rytsar
Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day! Happy hopping!! 🙂
Interested in the products I used? To make them easy for you to find, I have listed them below. (Affiliate disclosure can be found here). Your purchases through my links help keep my blog running with no additional cost to you and I thank you so much for the support!!
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Bless your foot honey, I understand the reluctance to be with the sting ray again, least it wasn’t a jellyfish, I got stung slightly once as a teenager and the cute for that was to put foot in bucket of human wee !! Thankfully the ambulance got there quickly x
Your card is super sweet and your story will stay with me x
I really love the added glimmer to the background. Great card.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the background and the sparkle! GREAT JOB!
Beautiful card!
The use of the stencil really makes the card stand out!
So pretty! I love the glittery waves background. This is a fun new ocean set!
Love that stencil and the glimmer paste is perfect. Thanks for sharing
Love your story – Love your card! My Mom and I were at a local aquarium at the pet the Ray tank. A boy next to us was poking at a sea cucumber and the sea cucumber was not happy and squirted at the boy, but got my Mom instead! I have a son named Ray and he has a few “ray” ornaments on our Christmas tree. Great card
Great card, yes Sting Rays can be dangerous but Manta Rays are not (no stinger). Always shuffle your feet to avoid stepping on either.
I love your waves, so pretty.
I loved your storg and your card is beautiful! What an amazing experience!
Personally not a big fan of stingrays, but I do think your card is beautiful. The background is amazing.
I don’t even want to think about that experience! I am pretty sure I would have freaked out over the tarantula! But … thanks for sharing. The trip sounds like a lifetime memory kind of thing. I love your background, and now I see why you colored your ray more naturally. Thank you.
Thanks for a pretty card. Love Oxides!
Quite the adventure. We got stung by jellyfish so I would be equally afraid of a stingray.
Super cute!
I love ur creations jessica! Great job. I love these products and this release. Happy 2nd birthday Studio Katia
Outstandingly cool card! What a perfect card for you to make. Good thing it wasn’t a shark!!!
Wow this is cool. I love the colors and the texture you got from the distress oxides. would be a great masculine card!
I LOVE your stingray story and your awesome card too! The colors look amazing! Thanks for being a prt of this awesome hop!
I love the background of your card. So pretty! Thx for sharing your kayak experience too. Ouchy!
your sparkling cards are always sheer delight!
Love your card, Jessica! But, your stingray story gives me goosebumps! The ocean creatures are a bit intimidating to me!!
Wow, Jess, you are sure an adventurous soul! I can’t imagine going that far in a kayak & then to step on a stingray! I wouldn’t want to ever see one again & you used the stamp to make a gorgeous card. Amazing!!
I love how you created the ocean look with distressed ink!