Color Hues: Aqua and Black

Here we are into the second half of June, and time for a new Color Hues challenge! Teammate Sheri has picked AQUA and BLACK for our new duo. Leading me once again into the dilemma of the many many shades of blue. :D I decided a sea-themed card with a watery-named ink would definitely qualify:

I am also continuing to have a lot of fun playing with my new Whittles dies! For my watery background, I smooshed some mermaid lagoon distress oxide ink plus a few drops of sparkle mist onto watercolour paper, crumpled some plastic wrap over top, and left it to dry. This gives me lots of tonal variations, even using just the one colour ink. While that dried, I cut out my shark and painted him with the same mermaid lagoon ink as well as some silver paint for his belly. Of course, then I added a bit of silver to his top half too - a shark this cute is happy to be sparkly! :D Once the smooshed panel was dry, I cut out the wavy backdrop, then for good measure, added some waves to the white panel with an embossing folder. To add a little more contrast between the shark and his ocean, I also cut him from black cardstock and used it as a shadow layer. That led me to shadow everything else, too! Not so much an innovative design choice as perhaps a little weird, but I went with it anyway. With a leftover of the smooshed watercolour paper, I stamped and embossed a punny sentiment. 

Lots of aqua and black inspiration from my Color Hues teammates! And I hope we will see your contribution in our gallery. 

Supplies: Neenah white & Stampin' Up basic black cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Poppystamps Whittle Sea Life Sentiments, Versafine onyx black & mermaid lagoon distress oxide ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Poppystamps Whittle Shark & Whittle Wave Background & MFT wonky stitched rectangle dies, Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirl embossing folder, Imagine Crafts sheer shimmer spritz, foam tape