Given to Whimsy

I could go on and on about what attracts me to RubberMoon's stamps. 

I could tell you how awed I am by the quality of the product, the variety, the artistry, etc. 

But if I had to sum it up in one word? 

That word would be whimsical.

I love RubberMoon's stamps because they are whimsical. 

Which means they play right into my flights of fancy 

and my inability to take art seriously.

So, when I saw the catfish and the "Holy catfish!" sentiment stamps,

I had to have them. Had to.

For this card, I began with one of my favorite background techniques.

This one is so easy and so much fun!


Begin by smooshing (that's a technical term, right?) various ink pads 

on a non-stick craft sheet.

Spritz the inked sheet with water and swirl the colors around.


You can use an old chopstick for this, 

but I like to get messy, so I just use my finger.

Then just gently place a piece of glossy paper on to it.

Lift it up, and ta-dah!

The bonus is that there's usually enough left over smooshy stuff

on the mat to do another background, 

and it'll be completely different from the first.

Next, I stamped the catfish in green on the background.

I wanted to make the head and tail different from the body, 

so I stamped that in brown on a separate piece of paper.

I cut the head and tail of the brown catfish and set it aside.

I added some glitter to the green catfish's fins and

 colored in the eyes and whiskers on the brown catfish head.

The background seemed a little bare to me, 

so I sponged on some blue ink to give it a little more oomph 

(another technical term).

I added some fishy friends for my catfish 

using a Stencil Girl stencil, a sponge and brown ink.

After that, I added some seaweed using RubberMoon's Large Fern stamp

as well as the "Holy Catfish!" sentiment.

The only thing left to do was to assemble the piece.

I used some double stick spacing tape for the brown catfish head and tail 

to make them stand out from the page a little bit.

I glued the piece to some matching green cardstock,

then glued that to my card base.

Now I can send it on its way and fill a friend's day with whimsy!


For more of a glimpse into my whimsical world, please stop by my blog at:
In the Studio With Barb


Happy New Year!