Your Light Birthday

This card was inspired by Bibi Cameron and she free-hand drew a whale tale and had the images behind it. She also used other dies to cut out openings for the nautical items to show through. I needed a 65th birthday card for my brother-in-law and thought this would be the perfect one. I did not think I had time to make the perfect whale shape so I used a Hero Arts die instead. This is the outside die of the Koi fish. I used Simon Says Stamp's Your Light stamp set. I am entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.
After cutting out two of the Koi fish from a piece of white cardstock, I lightly traced them onto another piece of white cardstock so I could see where the images would show through. Then I stamped images from the stamp set with Momento tuxedo black ink as I was coloring them with Copic markers. I masked all the images and started blending with Distress Oxide inks starting in the center with Tumbled Glass, then Mermaid Lagoon, and finally with Chipped Sapphire.
Since the piece with the fish cut out was open on one side and very thin on the opposite side, I think I got it on the card a little crooked! I raised it up with some craft foam to give it dimension and then adhered it to a piece of black cardstock and then onto the front of a top-folding card base.
Thanks for looking!