July Wacky Holiday
Shark Week
Diving with Whale Sharks in the GA Aquarium
Good day, fellow crafters. As an enthusiastic Master scuba diver – yes, that's me – I couldn't resist the opportunity to participate in the July Wacky Holiday challenge, especially because it aligns perfectly with Shark Week. This year, from July 11th to 18th, we'll be celebrating the 35th Anniversary of Shark Week. Originally launched in July 1988, Shark Week has become an annual week-long event on the Discovery channel, making it the longest-running cable television series in history. It aims to promote conservation, provide education, and foster a deep appreciation for these magnificent creatures we call sharks. It also, of course, inspires a lot of mindless entertainment, like the SyFy Channel’s Sharknado, that isn’t good for the cause but sometime the silliness can still be appreciated.
Speaking from my own firsthand encounters, I can attest to the fact that while sharks can be highly dangerous in certain situations, their gracefulness in the water is truly awe-inspiring. I've had the extraordinary opportunity to dive alongside Bull Sharks during feeding sessions guided by local experts, and the sheer efficiency of their movements and the raw power they exude cannot be adequately conveyed through words alone. It's an awe-inspiring display that leaves you in awe filling you with a deep sense of respect for these apex predators. I hope you enjoy my submission.
To create the background for this card, I first begin with light blue cardstock, the Shark Frenzy stencil from Colorful Life Designs, Decofoil transfer gel and some blue metallic deco foil. Using Decofoil transfer gel is different from using the heat transfer glimmer plates technique. To use this method you need to position your stencil over your cardstock, apply the white gel, remove and immediately wash your stencil to prevent hardening of any excess gel, wait for it to turn clear on the cardstock then apply the foil fancy side up. The next step has two options, either you can use your laminator to act as a heat source to make sure the foil adheres or you can run it through your die cutting machine and the pressure applied will have the same effect. PRO-TIP: If you use the die cutting machine option be sure to put some plain paper between your plates and your work as the foil will also have the chance to pick up any of the cuts, nick, groves or pressed in images of your past die cutting. The last step for the foil is peel the excess foil back. I next trimmed the background to size as well as a gray cardstock mat that I felt looked like the color of shark skin. These two pieces were adhered together and then mounted to a pre-cut A2 white card base.
With the foreground I had a lot of fun trying to decide on what kind of look to have. The My Favorite Things die set I choose to use is called Baby Shark (MFT-1762) and as you can tell it is a bit more of a cartoonish image. The idea of a cartoonish image of course made me think of cartoons, which made me think of Bruce from Finding Nemo and led to my choice of the sentiment as well. It tickled my funny bone so much that I decide to indulge myself by playing the movie in the background while I worked.
For the sharks I chose two separate colors of gray cardstock to cut out the main body parts. Then I swapped them around to give contrast to both sharks. The teeth I cut from white cardstock and if I were to do it again I would put a bit of red or pink behind the teeth for the illusion of a tongue or inner mouth part. The eyes were cut from a black card stock and then dotted with a white pen. Lastly the pieces were assembled for both sharks and adhered to the card base.
The sentiment for this card was chosen from the MFT stamp set called Sharky Sentiments (CS-484) because of all of them I felt it went with the image I had in my head of Bruce the shark. I first stamped the sentiment onto black cardstock with some clear embossing powder and then covered that with extra fine white embossing powder. I then tapped off the excess and heat set the power with my heat gun. Lastly, using a sentiment die from my collections I cut out the sentiment, added some pop dots to provide so extra visual dimension and then mounted it to my card base.
I hope you've gained some valuable insights and knowledge about this fascinating event. Whether you're a long-time fan or new to the concept, I encourage you to join in the excitement next time and immerse yourself in the wonders of Shark Week. If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments, please feel free to leave them below. Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I'm always eager to engage in further discussions. Let's continue to celebrate and learn about these magnificent creatures and contribute to their conservation efforts. See you next time!
