Before dipping into the quick and easy tutorial, let’s talk about 2 things. First, this ocean foam technique is one that I saw Ralph Tyndall use on a beach themed card he created earlier this summer. He used a paste with grit in it already, mixing it with another smooth paste, but I wanted to try my own spin on this with Sizzix Dimensional Paste, which is smooth and completely opaque, and glitter. 

The second thing I want to talk about is what I love about Catherine Pooler Inks. I’ve stamped with her inks before, but this was my first time swiping the ink on smooth white cardstock to create my own custom cardstock colors. And I have to say, I’m really impressed with how these inks work and behave when it comes to this. 

I swiped on the ink and was a little worried I hadn’t done it well. I was trying to cover a larger portion for the tag, and I was afraid it was going to be streaky and show where I overlapped my swipes. And it looked that way at first. But once the ink was fully dry, the cardstock had a smooth, bold color, no streaks! So not only are these pads extremely juicy, but you also get that no streak finish! I think that is pretty incredible, especially since I had quite the area of overlap in swipes on portions of my tag. 

Now let’s get into that tutorial. First, I used my Sizzix Scoring Board and Trimmer tool to cut out a tag from Sizzix Smooth White Cardstock. This board does it all—from cutting the straight edges, to cutting at angles easily and even punching the hole. If you’ve not been introduced to this all-in-one tool, I recommending heading over to the Sizzix website to learn more about it on their resource page. 

Once the tag was made, I swiped on 2 colors of Catherine Pooler Inks to create beach sand and ocean. The colors I used were Hot Tub and Buttercream. I did leave a small white area in between the two colors because I knew this would be covered by paste later and I didn’t want to contaminate my ink pads with the other color. 

Once the inks had sunk into the paper, I used my Stencil and Stamp tool to add the "just keep swimming" sentiment with the Sea Glass ink. I stamped it a couple of times to get as clean an image as possible and to put some contrast between the two blue-green inks I used. 

Now to covering that white hole on the tag! With a rounded palette knife, I take a dollop of the Sizzix Dimensional Paste on the bottom of the knife. With the tag rotated on my work surface so the top of the tag is pointing toward me, I place the dollop on the buttercream portion of the tag, applying light pressure, then dragging the palette knife back, toward me. I repeat this process until I have foamy ocean waves going all the way across the tag, allowing them to overlap a touch. 

Then immediately after, I apply Prima Finnabair glitter. I sprinkled on two colors, one iridescent one from the Ebony and Ivory set that is a fine glitter, then I added a chunkier glitter from the Winter set. 

Now let’s cut out some of these Beach and ‘Brellas dies designed by Catherine Pooler for Sizzix! I created my own custom cardstock colors by swiping on additional Catherine Pooler Inks onto more of the Sizzix Smooth White Cardstock. These dies are relatively small, so I was able to use up some of the scraps of white cardstock I’ve had stowed away. I used Rose Petals and Quartz for the inner tube and the towel, Verbena for the swimmer’s swim suit bottoms, Hot Tub and Verbena for the umbrella, Goldenrod for the shadow of the umbrella, and Buttercream for the swimmer’s legs.

I die cut all of these using my Sizzix Big Shot Switch and some Mint Tape from Scrapbook.com I glued all the layers together with Sizzix Express Glue. The towel was glued down first with some Express Glue. Then I popped the umbrella up with some 3mm 1/4 inch wide foam adhesive. I added the umbrella shadow with Express Glue. Then I placed the struggling swimmer in her inner tube in the ocean waves. Once everything was dry, and adhered, I topped the tag off with some dark purple ribbon. 

Just keep swimming is one of my favorite lines from the movie Finding Nemo. It’s a phrase I say often to my mom, who often feels like she’s barely able to tread water some days. So this struggling swimmer at the beach tag obviously was gifted to her. I love how the dimensional paste turned out and how my twist with adding glitter over the top turned out. That sparkle is out of this world and the pictures just don’t do it justice!