Mermaid cards are a lovely excuse to bring out those turquoise inks, purple markers and little sparkly embellishments you’ve been saving. There’s plenty of room to play with colour, whether you picture your mermaid swimming through a peaceful blue ocean or sitting among bright coral and colourful sea creatures. These 15+ handmade mermaid card ideas offer inspiration for creating something special for anyone who loves a little underwater magic.
I particularly like how changing the colours can give the same mermaid stamp a completely different personality. Try a soft pink tail and pale aqua background for a gentle design, or choose jewel tones and a touch of shimmer for something bolder. Hair colour, tiny accessories and the greeting can all help personalise your card for the person receiving it.
Mer-May provides a fun seasonal reason to explore mermaid-themed crafting during May, but these designs are useful throughout the year. Mermaid birthday cards are an obvious favourite, though the theme also suits thank-you notes, encouragement cards and cheerful greetings sent just because. A playful sea-themed sentiment can help tie the whole design together.
The background is part of the fun, too. Blended inks can suggest deeper water, while loose watercolour washes give an ocean scene a softer feel. Add stamped bubbles, paper seaweed or a few clear gems to build the setting around your mermaid. You can keep things simple with one image and a sentiment, or spend a little longer creating a detailed underwater scene.
If you enjoy adding dimension, try raising selected pieces with foam pads or layering your ocean elements at different heights. A small amount of glitter or metallic detail can catch the light beautifully without overwhelming the colouring you’ve worked on.
You don’t need every stamp set or specialist tool featured to take inspiration from these projects. Start with supplies you already own and borrow a layout, colour combination or decorative detail that catches your eye. Browse the cards below and follow the links beneath each photograph for the original creators’ project information, supplies and any tutorials they’ve shared.
For more ocean-themed inspiration, explore our 11 Under-the-Sea Handmade Card Ideas.
I adore a punny saying on a card and this one is perfect for this sweet mermaid card that uses stamps from The Greeting Farm. Visit their blog for a closer look.
I love anything fantasy like unicorns, fairies, wizards and mermaids. So I’m always excited every May for Mer-May! I believe this trend started on Instagram from an artist posting Mermaid art every day in May and encouraging others to share their art as well. But it’s not just on Instagram, now lots of companies, bloggers and artists create and share mermaid art all over the internet and I’m am so here for it!
I’ve gathered up some wonderful Mermaid cards using stamps to get you inspired to participate in Mer-May. I’ve included a link beneath each photo, click it for products used, tutorial, tips and more.
This amazing card has a mermaid on acetate attached to the fold that makes it float when opened, so cool! Learn all the details about this card over on the Scrapbook and Cards Today blog.
Small clear gems create wonderful underwater bubbles on this sweet Mermaid card created with stamps from My Favorite Things. You’ll find a video tutorial on their blog.
Simple painted strips of pink watercolor create a pretty background for these fun mermaids and there’s a touch of gold from heat embossing the title onto a die cut heart. Learn more about this card on the Avery Elle blog.
Ooooh, check out the wonderful mixed metallic foiling on the background of this card, so shiny! Swim on over to the C.C. Designs blog for a closer look.
A wave stencil with some blue ink blending and splatters creates a great ocean background on this sweet card that uses products from SugarPea Designs. Visit their blog for more details.
This mermaid card has a detailed underwater die cut frame over a painted blue watercolor background. The silver heat embossed images were also water colored for a cohesive card design. Visit the Hero Arts blog for more info.
This terrific interactive shaker card has great depth and movement from layered wavy dies and little clear gems that mimic bubbles and move inside the shaker. And aren’t these little mermaid stamps from Whimsy so, so cute? Splash over to their blog for more.
The tall slimline design on this beautiful card allows for lots of vertical room to create a great under the sea design. You’ll find 3 different cards all using the same mermaid stamp set by Waffle Flower over on their blog.
Since I’ve told you how much I love mermaids of course I needed to share one of my own cards. For this one I used digital stamps with foiling to create the outline and sentiments. Visit my personal blog, P is for Paper for a video tutorial.
This amazing card has so much color, detail and depth from coloring the stamped images and background using colored pencils. Elaine shared a detailed coloring video over on the Stampingbella blog.
Here’s another great slimline design, this time divided into sections with a frame die to create little scenes in each block. Leanne colored in the Hello Blue bird stamps with Copic Markers adhered over an ink blended ombre’ blue background. Visit their blog for more details.
These two stunning cards, like some of the others, used watercolor but this time with Karin Brush Markers. I think using any type of watercolor is a no brainer when it comes to mermaid and under water scenes, it just works perfectly. And check out that amazing rainbow tail on one of the mermaids! Visit Bibi Cameron’s blog for a closer look at both of these designs.
Mermaids work for many occasions but are perfect birthday cards for anyone who loves them like this festive card from Amy Young. I love the adorable narwhal, sea turtle and all the little ocean critter friends she added. Visit her blog for a closer look.
I hope you’ve enjoyed all these amazing Mermaid Cards and will be inspired to create some Mer-Mazing cards for Mer-May!
-Heather
Shop some of our affiliates mentioned in this post:
