Saturday Spotlight: Jenn Shurkus

Hello everyone! Welcome to May Saturday Spotlight guest artist feature, where each month our guest will bring you inspiration using our newest Clearly Whimsy Stamps!

 For this month's Saturday Spotlight, the talented Jenn Shurkus has created a gorgeous card using the Ocean Journeys and Ocean Journeys Sentiment stamp sets! You can find these in the Whimsy Stamps shop here.

Jenn has created a nautical beauty here... which is no surprise because she is uber-talented and a true beach girl at heart! I love her cluster of hanging buoys along the left side of the card; I live in a coastal community in Maine and I see buoys exactly like this all the time, so this really made me smile! And her watercolor details really add to the nautical feel, which is so important when creating  a themed card like this. 

Let's hear a bit more about this card from Jenn, shall we? 

Hello Everyone! You may not "know" me, but trust me when I tell you I am a lover of all things ocean and nautical. I actually recently moved back to Cape Cod. I was wicked excited to be able to create with Nina-Marie's Ocean Journeys and Ocean Journeys Sentiment set.

I wanted the buoy's to be the focal point of my card and I thought it would be so fun if they would look like they were really hanging off the card like you see in shipyards.

I started by stamping out a bunch of the different buoy's in Versafine Onyx Black and embossed with Clear Detail Embossing Powder. I watercolored them with Distress Inks (Candied Apple, Lucky Clover, Blueprint Sketch and Fossilized Amber). I then fussy cut them out and used a small hole punch to put a hole at the top of each one.

For the card background I did the "Ink Smooshing Technique" on Distress Watercolor Cardstock and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink. I just love creating backgrounds this way and I love how unique each of them end up being.

For the sentiment I wanted to be sure it really stood out, so I also embossed it. It's really amazing how much the clear embossing powder makes the sentiment truly pop! I wanted to give the card a weathered look. So I inked the edges of everything with Tea Dye Distress Ink and a Mini Ink Blending Tool.

I then strung up all of the different buoy's. I put a little piece of foam tape behind each one so I could swing it the way I wanted and have it stay where it looked best. I just love all the texture this card has and the unique layout. The sentiment is so sweet and I can't wait to brighten a friends mailbox with this card!

Thank you so much Whimsy Stamps for having me as a featured designer and I hope I have inspired you to create a fun nautical card! I can't wait to see what you link up below!

A HUGE thank you to Jenn for her amazing, detailed tutorial, sharing how she created this fun card! Be sure to stop by her blog to see more of her creative work... she rocks!

Now it's your turn to create!

We have are encouraging you to create something using Jenn's fantastic card as inspiration for your project! Whimsy stamps and/or dies must be used in your project and you can link them below to your blog using the inLinkz link-up tool. We even have a gift certificate up for grabs for a random entry! The link up will close at midnight (Eastern time) on June 30th!

We can't wait to see what you come up with!