Tiddly Inks Challenge #60 - Gel Card featuring Snorkel Bunny!

Good Tiddly Tuesday Everyone!!  I'm SO excited to be here with you all today bringing you a little tutorial on how to make a card using hair gel!

Yes, you heard me right..straight up, old school, clear hair gel.  It will make whatever image you place behind it seem as though it's floating in water! So cool!!!  It is a fantabulous card style for a fun tag plus it can be used as a nifty gift card or cash holder if you wanted to give those as a gift!!

The first thing I did was print out the template. I then scored and trimmed my paper at the measured amounts:

 I then scored vertically at 5" then at 8" leaving you with 3 sections measuring 5", 3" and 2.75". 

 

You will then score in 1" on each side and trim the 1" pieces on both sides of the 5" section and the 2.5 " section. Leaving the 1" side tabs on either side of the 3" section. (these will be your tabs that will hold your pocket in place later.)  I then scored on all lines making sure that every line was nice and crisp.

 If you are going to decorate the front of your panel with papers, I would suggest adhering them BEFORE punching our your "window".  I wanted to use my sponge and distress ink so I simply folded my panels together and punched through both at the same time insuring that they would line up perfectly.  

The next part is adding the gel. My suggestion is to use a tiny zip top bag such as the kind the extra button comes in when you buy a sweater or the ones you can buy at beading stores, etc are the best for this project.  You only need a very small amount of gel - approximately a teaspoon or so otherwise it won't fold flat and will push your paper out too much.

You want to add liner tape or flat glue dots along the insides of the circular window, as well as on the small tabs to the left and right of your window. These will wrap around and hold everything in place.

 

(please pardon the different color cardstock, I had this great pic from a similar tutorial that I've done so I wanted to use this rather than recreate the wheel!)

Once your liner tape is in place you can adhere your gel pack to the inside of the card. You then want to fold up the front of the "pocket" and adhere. You will then flip your card over, fold the front piece (with the gel) up and wrap the tabs around the back of the card adhering them.  

I've used Tiddly Ink's oh so cute image Snorkel Bunny as my focal point.  Isn't he SO cute???  I colored him with my Copics trying to create a watercolor-esque scene.  I kept my color scheme mainly in the blues with pops of orange.  I went with a CAS look as I just love having the focus on the "underwater" scene!!

I used stitching, bakers twine and MFT flat bottomed cloud Die-namics as my embellis today.

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this tutorial!!  I'd be happy to help out!!