Underwater Treasures

Hooray, it's June!  I don't know about you, but the last few months have been light on good luck in my corner of the world, and I am so ready for summer! This past weekend in the PNW gave us a taste of the season and I relished every sunshiny moment in, on and around the water.  You may know I live on the beach, steps away from the Puget Sound, and so much of my inspiration comes from the surrounding environment.

I gravitate to blues and greens in my decor for their calming and healing qualities, and lately quite a bit in my cardmaking.  I always love the combo of orange and turquoise, which features prominently in this month's card.

I layered multiple green and blue pigment inks with repeat stamping using the Hero Arts Wave stamp; Tonya has the Hero Arts Wave stencil, and you can create the same ombre effect even better with the stencil using the Hero Arts ombre mint-green ink!

I know the Memory Box Underwater Collage and Seaweed Collage are going to be a huge hit! I cut the Underwater Collage out of an embossed piece of cardstock, and then centered the Seaweed Collage and cut the window. 

It has been layered with acetate cut from the underwater collage and fun foam to create the shaker.

I used some Peacock Feathers Sequins  and glitter glass, as well as some beachy sequins, which are also on the sequin strand.  Mica also makes for an awesome shaker component, especially for underwater scenes.

Tonya has a great selection of new Waffle Flower word dies--their sentiment dies have such awesome fonts, and all of them would work perfectly in the window, but I have used the Good Luck one here, not yet available in the store.  It has been cut from customized alcohol-inked glossy paper.  

I just had to include two additional photos with my harbor seals (dies from Memory Box as well) cut from patterned paper.  Tonya currently has the equally adorable Neighborly Narwhal that would be perfect with this scene. Harbor seals are a common sight here in Seattle and around the Puget Sound, and I usually find one or two while kayaking, which is such a treat. Though they are at their carrying capacity in the Puget Sound, they certainly do need all the luck they can get in the first few months and years of their life as pups and weaners. They have a 50% survival rate in the first year and being that much of the area where they haul out are urban or busy human-populated beaches, they face many more challenges on land from human activity and interference. Pupping season varies with latitude, but typically occurs early spring through the summer in Atlantic and Pacific coastal areas. We are entering pupping season on the outer West Coast now, and soon along inland shores in the Puget Sound.  You can learn more here and here if  you are interested in helping protect these beautiful creatures, especially important if you live in a coastal area! 

I will be working with MaST as part of the stranding team and through educational outreach--and my first event is this weekend teaching students about our marine mammals, the upcoming pupping season, what to do if they see one stranded or hauled out, and how to be the best stewards of their environment!  So excited!  And paper-crafting will be involved!  They will get to make their own seal die cut necklaces and stamp or color them!  Since it's the first outreach event I've done, I guess I will need some good luck as well! 

May you find calm waters, sunny stretches, and lucky, crafty days ahead! Thanks for stopping by today! And make sure to play along with us next week in our anniversary challenge #13 which goes live on Wednesday 6/7!