Tropical Paradise

Hi Everyone, and Welcome to Day 5 of our "Round the World With Cri-Kits" Scrappy-Go-Lucky Blog Hop. I hope you are all checking in daily to pick up the clues.

I too, live in Brisbane in sunny Queensland, and my absolutely favourite place to be is on Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef. You can literally walk out your front door and snorkel to see beautiful fish and colourful coral all around you. It is like being in another world - and I wanted to recreate that amazing experience with a 3D Tropical Fish Tank.

The Gypsy was a must for this design - I used 15 layers. The first was to cut the front panel of the tank at 11 1/4", the 12x24 mat was needed for this. Unfortunately I couldn't find an acetate sheet large enough, so I have used an A3 Document Protector. The second step was to draw the star-fish and bubbles with the Cri-Kits gel pens. I then coloured these in with Glaze pens to give a stained-glass effect (you can still see the smiling faces on the star-fish).

The same steps were applied for the back panel, but I only went over the top part of the sea-grass with the glaze pens. The clear plastic is very hard to photograph, and unfortunately it hasn't shown the gel-pens on this piece.

The first layer of the tank is the "water". I used the Cri-Kits gel pens to draw the outline of the coral in "Glitter Orange", and the sea-grasses in "Metallic Dark Green".

The image was then cut.

The same process was used for the "sand" layer and I used Cri-Kits "Pastel Mauve" for the starfish, "Glitter Gold" for the shells, "Metallic Green" for the seaweed, and "Glitter Dark Silver" for the stones.

A close-up to show you the beautiful colouring of the Cri-Kits.

To save constantly reloading the mat, I lined up the images on the Gypsy, worked out the sizing, and cut everything at once.

The sea-grasses and coral were cut smaller than the Cri-Kits drawings to give more dimension. The sea-grasses were embossed using Cuttlebug "D'vine Swirl", and the coral with "Rellie Rave" - and of course, plenty of glitter was added to emulate sparkling sun through the water.

Thought you might like to see a shot of the creatures as they came to life. Different parts of these were embossed with Swiss Dots, Tiny Bubbles, Textile, Perfectly Paisley, and Candy Cane Stipe. The fish are layered on both sides so they can "swim" freely.

I chose random sections of each creature to highlight with glossy accents, then sprinkled each lightly with diamond glitter.

The back section is coming together ......  Each of the creatures have been attached using different sized foam dots to add a multitude of dimensions. I love the sea-horse with his tail around the coral.

To make this stand up, I cut a piece of acetate and folded it (like a fan) till the desired length was reached as shown below.

I then took the remainder and adhered it to the back.

Acetate was again used to keep the top separated. This piece is sized at 10" x 4 3/4", scored at 1 3/8" on each side. I attached the sides to the top of the tank with large silver brads, and cut around the lip of the tank making the piece invisible.

After working out placement, holes were pierced in the "base" of this top piece. Fishing line was affixed to the middle of the fish as I was glueing the layers, which is now threaded through the top piece allowing the fish to "swim".

A couple of close-ups of the cute little critters... (you may need these photos - you'll see why soon!!!)

I adhered some oyster shells over the base piece to hide the folds. You can also notice the Cri-Kits on the "sand" layer adding some extra colour and dimension.

A photo showing the side view...

And one from the top.

Here I have placed it beside a Cricut Cartridge to give an idea of the true size.

My "Tropical Paradise" in its new home.

Now for the fun part. To win these awesome Cri-Kits Gel Pens (a set of 10 - your choice - plus holder if needed), all you need to do is count how many "sea creatures" have been used in this project. As some of the photos haven't shown the ones drawn with the Cri-Kits very well (my bad photography) - it is only the creatures "cut" with the Cricut. To enter, leave your answer with a comment, and Random.org will choose the winner on Friday June 18.

Don't worry - right or wrong - all comments have a chance to win. (Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you if your comment is chosen.) If you're not already a follower, I'd love to have you join, but it is not required to enter.

And don't forget the major prize - Mandy is giving away the four new-release cartridges -

Cindy Lou / Freshly Picked / Mini Monster / Wall Decor & More

Here's how:-
You need to follow this international Blog Hop and collect the clues. Once you have solved the anagram you need to e-mail the answer to Mandy at:

 comp@scrappy-go-lucky.com.au

by Friday 18th June when the lucky winner will be drawn at random.....

Here is my clue.....

Don't forget to check in with Enfys tomorrow to check out her amazing design and to collect the next clue.

Good Luck!
Luv, Tereesa.