Sea Star Card

• Michaela Butterworth
Hero Image of the finished Sea Star card sitting on my worktable. The sea stars have texture and dimension created in them so that they stand out from the collage background of the card. Glass beads can be seen in the detailed image.
Sea Star Card 5″ x 7″ kraft cardstock

Following my previous post, I decided to do a series of ocean inspired cards for a women’s retreat that I taught at in June in Rhode Island. I’ve had a lifelong love of starfish, now known as sea stars because they are technically not fish at all. No matter what you call them, I adore them, and I wanted to create them in a myriad of warm colors (to contrast with the seahorse’s cool colors in my previous post).

The Crafter’s Workshop provided me with some product to create this project. The opinions I share are solely my own.

This project is a simple step-by-step process that teaches you how to create some sea stars using some more of my favorite textural techniques.

CHALLENGE: If you are an experienced mixed-media creator and really want to challenge yourself, then work on multiple backgrounds at once. It’s a great way to create multiple backgrounds for future use.

Follow along with these simple steps to create your own card:

Close up image of the kraft card sitting on my worktable surface. Pieces of red, black, white, yellow, blue, and pink washi tape with patterns has been added to the card.
Washi tape was used as collage to create the background of the ocean floor.

Step One: As shown in the image above, I started my project using a 5″ x 7″ kraft card stock. Using my trusty silicone spatula, I collaged random pieces of warm colored, decorative washi tape to the card. This is my favorite and fastest technique to build up a background using TCW9011 matte gel medium and to ensure I am getting all of the air bubbles out! I first apply the matte gel medium to the card, then I put the pieces of washi tape down and scrape more medium over the top to seal it. I also added some random paper scraps in similar colors to fill in the remainder of the card surface including some deli paper that had previous ocean creatures stenciling on it using stencil TCW2323 Shell Collection.

HOT TIP: I then either let it naturally dry or use my heat gun, heating from both sides to prevent the card from curling or warping as much.

Step Two: As shown in the image below, I then applied TCW9004 Light and Fluffy Modeling Paste through stencil TCW496 Sea Creatures with my TCW9025 plastic palette knife.

The now stenciled card lays on my worktable adjacent to a jar of Light and Fluffy Modeling Paste.
I used some stenciled deli paper from a previous project for some of the collage background.
Close up image showing multiple stenciled sea stars.
Close up image showing one of the stenciled sea starts. The raised puffy texture of the dried modeling paste is visible.
Close up images showing the Light and Fluffy Modeling paste dried with my heat gun.

Step Three: As shown in the image below, I painted the sea stars with a paintbrush using a combination of TCW9012 Shimmery Goodness mixed with warm shades of our ColorSparx powders in Marigold (orange), Burnt Orange, Merlot, Crimson, Fuschia, Scarlet, and Orchid. I then dried these with my heat gun.

Close up image of the sea stars on the card painted with the mixtures of Shimmery Goodness and ColorSparx powders. The jar of Shimmery Goodness and bottles of Colorsparx powders sit adjacent to the card on my worktable.
TCW9012 Shimmery Goodness was mixed with warm ColorSparx powders to paint the sea stars.

Step Four: As shown in the image below, I painted TCW9006 Gloss Gel Medium onto the sea stars, then sprinkled small glass seed and delica beads onto the center of each sea star in coordinating colors.

Close up flat lay image of a jar of gloss gel medium, paintbrush, and card laying on my very dirty worktable surface.
TCW9006 Gloss Gel Medium was used to adhere the glass beads to the sea star centers.
Close up image of the pink sea star with brown delica glass beads sprinkled in the center.
Close up image of the purple sea star with brown delica glass beads sprinked in the center.
Close up images showing the glass delica beads added to the sea star centers with gloss gel medium.

Step Five: Using my black StayzOn permanent ink pad, I rubbed it around the edges of the card for definition. I then used a black Stabilo All Aquarelle (water soluble) pencil to outline each of the sea stars and a sentiment that I added.

HOT TIP: Did you know that you can use gel medium to set water soluble products and seal them in place?

Close up image of the sea stars outlined in Stabilo All and the card edges rubbed with StayzOn ink.
Close up image of the lower left corner of the card.
Close up image of the center of the card.
Close up image of the top right corner of the card.
Close up images showing different parts of the finished card and sea stars with sentiment.
Close up image of the stencils on the left, and a partial image of the finished card on the right, all laying on my work table surface.
Finished card laying adjacent to the stencils that were used to create it.
The completed card in full, laying on my very grubby work table surface.
The completed 5″ x 7″ mixed media Sea Star card on kraft cardstock.

Want to see a brief step-by-step process video for this project? Hop on over to my YouTube Channel to view the video (38 sec). I really hope you found these step-by-step instructions and photos to be helpful and that you feel confident enough to try this on your own. If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to post them below.

I’d really love to hear which part of this process is your favorite and why, please leave me a comment, below! Have a great day and happy making, we *LOVE* to see your projects, so please be sure to tag us using our hash tag of #ilovestencils !

Michaela Butterworth
The Crafter’s Workshop Design Team Member

PS: I’m really trying to build my following. Will you please hop on over and follow me on my blog and social media accounts, and please ask your friends to follow me too? Thank you so much!
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