Hello crafty friends. You might be wondering where the real Donna is, with all these bright colours and geometric designs today! The fact of the matter is that I make cards both because I love to create ( in a certain style) and I also make cards because I love to give people cards that they’ll love, and it turns out ( surprise, surprise!) that not everyone in the world has the same taste as me!
Before I get on with the cards,I have an apology. I’ve been having an argument with my blog. If you just received a bunch of notifications, I’m sorry. I lost the argument! I won’t pick that fight again!

So, today we have some bright fun cards that I really enjoyed making, despite them not being ‘in my wheelhouse’.
The main hero of all of today’s cards is a sweet little die set from Paper Rose Studio called Fish Family. I rainbow coloured some watercolour paper with Zig Clean Colour Real Brush markers, then spritzed with water, and once it was dry, I cut out a BUNCH of fish!
I then used these to make four different cards, each with different techniques.

The first two cards both use the Waves Stencil from Paper Rose. For the first card, I ink blended Distress Oxide Inks in Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers across the Panel for one card, then removed the stencil and continued to blend onto the panel with the ink that was left on my blending tool so that the white background was coloured a light blue. I stamped some bubbles from the Fish and Bubbles Stamp set onto my card base with the same two inks, and then popped up the panel and fish. The sentiment, from the black and white sentiments pack, says “go confidently in the direction of your dreams”, so I made the fish swim in all directions!

I mixed Glossy Gel from Pink and Main with blue and green inks for the second card, and then spread that through the same Waves Stencil with a palette knife, just like butter. Moving the stencil over the wet gel worked just fine, but I was very gentle. The construction was the same as the last card, and the happy birthday is from Big Sentiments 1.0.

Next, I added some black to the mix. These bright colours really pop on black. Working from the back upwards, here’s what I’ve used.
- A Paper Rose Cardbase, Australian size,
- An Australian size card front, embossed with the Baby Blue embossing folder
- A black and white spotted paper from the Monochrome basics paper pack, cut with a Stitched rectangle die, again Australian sized
- White circles,
- The fish!
- A sentiment from the black and white sentiments pack

Finally, I went even brighter!!! Once again I went for a slimline card. I cut out two layers of the Slimline Card Creator 1 die, making the top layer a bright lime green from the Brights card pack. The sentiment comes from the Big Black and White sentiments pack. I cut a small hot pink mat to go behind the sentiment to help it stand out.
That’s it, folks! A set of four fun cards to dazzle one and all with their bright colours! Until next time, stay safe.
Blessings
Donna
These are the supplies I used. You can click on the link to shop. Where available, I have used affiliate links, which means that I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. I’ve tried to link to companies in different countries, so you can save on postage costs. Thank you so much for your support.
My Sweet Petunia MISTI Shop at: SBC | SSS |
![]() Paper Rose Black and White Sentiment strips Shop at: PRS | SBC |
![]() Paper Rose Stitched Rectangle Die Australian Shop at: PRS | SBC |
![]() Paper Rose Big Black and White sentiment sheets Shop at: PRS | SBC | SSS |
![]() Paper Rose Brights Coloured Cardstock Shop at: PRS |
![]() Paper Rose Slimline Card Creator 1 Rectangles die Shop at: PRS | SBC |
![]() Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers Shop at: SBC | SSS |
![]() Distress Oxide Peacock Feathers Shop at: SBC | SSS |
Distress Oxide Salty Ocean Shop at: SBC | SSS |
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![]() Paper Rose Fish and Bubbles Shop at: PRS | SBC |
![]() Paper Rose Waves Stencil Shop at: PRS | SBC |
![]() Paper Rose Fish Family Die set Shop at: PRS | SBC | SSS |
https://bit.ly/3htrnAH Shop at: PRS | SBC | SSS |
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![]() Pink and Main Glossy Gel Shop at: P&M | SSS |
Canson Watercolour paper Shop at: SSS |
Paper Rose Big Sentiments 1.0 Shop at: PRS | SBC |
![]() Paper Rose White Card bases AU size Shop at: PRS | SBC |
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![]() Paper Rose White Card fronts AU size Shop at: PRS | SBC |
![]() Paper Rose Slimline Cards and Envelopes Shop at: PRS | SBC |
Such cute fishies! And I love the brightness. How do you find the Zig Pens to work with?
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Hi Lorraine, Great question! Let me preface my answer by saying that I never met a stationary item I didn’t love. 😂 Zigs have great colours, and they flow really nicely, and evenly out of the tip. They don’t have much of a ‘well’ inside, which means that they don’t last as well as other water colour markers with barrels, like Altenew markers. I’ve not replaced any yet, but probably should have! However, they never vomit on your work, which barrel markers can do (and have done) If you’re working with lots of water, the zigs don’t lay down much extra colour, as the tips are already fairly dry, so they suck as much as they blow, if you know what I mean. Price is another huge consideration. For me here, zigs are Kuretake, which is Japanese, so they cost me just over 2 dollars each, and I can buy them individually at any local stationary shop. Hope this answers the question!
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