Mermaid Party Invitations

Being a lover of all things mermaid and selkie, I threw a mermaid themed party for my second child's first birthday. I was googling 'round for any kind of mermaid inspiration when I found these postcards on etsy:

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They were too cute not to have :) I contacted the seller (Kathy from The Dreamy Giraffe) to ask how long it would take to to get 25 from her to me to work out if I would have enough time after shipping to cut them up and work them into my own design for invitations. It all worked perfectly.

Once my assortment of blonde, brunette and auburn haired mermaids with pink, blue and orange tails arrived, it was time to find the rest of the scrapbooking supplies to make the invitations.

I headed to my favourite scrapbook supply shop where I spent a sublime child-free hour scaling the racks for mermaid, oceanic, watery goodness. I found "Pirates" by Absolutely Something 4 Everyone and was set:

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Not only is it adorable and watery, there are slightly raised, sparkly sections in the sky and water just to add that little something :D I spent the next few days obsessively cutting out the waves. Then I cut up the sky to use as background, making sure there were no birds in the cuttings I used, pretending it was water ;) A bonus of using the sky as water in my design is that the raised sparkly sections look like bubbles, like it was always meant to be water. I also got a chipboard number one and traced it many times over on pearl coloured pages. I was once again very pleased with how quickly a beautiful design sprung to mind and ended up doing no drafting whatsoever, I love that about card making :)

Aubrey, Cressida and Ysosbel - yes I named them
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And repeat twenty plus times...

I decided not to make a full card this time. Instead, these are postcards, with the details about the party stuck to the very dull back. I was motivated primarily by wanting to save paper. The only downside was that I didn't feel this design accommodated a magnetic strip like most of my others have, so they can't go straight on the fridge. If I had put the strip on it would have meant that the details of the party would be facing the fridge, instead I've left it to the invitees whether to have the mermaid or the details facing the fridge. The OCD in me wishes the details and the art were all together, but the artist in me refuses to get over how super cute they are as is  (and they sparkle in places!)