HD Twighlight Under the Sea - Mermaid Secrets

Mermaid Secrets!  That's the fanciful name of the set from which these cards were made - part of the Twilight Under the Sea kit from Hunkydory.  Here's what the set looked like before I started:

To this, I added things from my stash to make the three cards you see below.  I actually could have made a fourth card since I had a good piece of the purple AS (adorable scoreable card stock) left over, but wanted to save it for another project.

It's a bit hard to tell from the pictures, but all three of these have some real dimension to them.  Since I was making them to give to the recipients in person, I added fairly thick foam tape to adhere some of the elements.

Card #1:

This was really a very quick and easy card.  There was just one thing that made it a bit more challenging - I had to slice a piece out of the center of the background so that I had the borders I wanted top and bottom.  It worked well.  You have to look REALLY closely to see where I did that.  Rather than mat the background with black mirri, I used a Sharpie to draw around the edges.  The rest was pretty straight forward - attached the frame with thick foam tape, glued the focal die cut in place and added ribbon bow and sequins from my stash, added sentiment with foam tape and glue.

Inside:

I decided to leave room for my own message, rather than stamping one, so just added a few scraps and a tag to decorate the inside.

Card #2:

The printed background for this one looked a bit plain, so I embossed (Theresa Collins Decor Circles - A4 size embossing folder) it before matting it on black Mirri and adding a black die cut border (Spellbinders Celtic Accents die set).  When I went to add the focal and sentiments, I felt there wasn't enough purple, so added a bit of ink - both to the background, and the sentiments. The round sentiment was added with foam tape - the rest of the elements were glued in place.  As a final touch, I added a bunch of little pearls on the sea bed - both on the background and on the focal.  The inside just has another matted scrap of the AS used for the background on the card front - not worth a picture.

Card #3:

The printed AS form the basis of this card - serving as both background and focal.  Again I matted it on black Mirri.  I added a frame to highlight the focal - but again the frame needed a bit more purple in it to look right - inking to the rescue again.  The sentiment was added with foam tape.

Inside:

Inside I used scraps (drew around the edges with black Sharpie) for borders, and added another greeting to the top border.

A great set of cards for 3 grand nieces who like mermaids!  (and enough purple AS left to make another really pretty card when I decide how I want to use it)