Sunday 13 April 2014

Magical Mermaid

A few months ago a friend asked me if I would be prepared to use my card making skills on a slightly different project- some art work for her house. I am no artist, so the prospect was a bit daunting, but I agreed to the challenge and set to work. The first two pieces I created for her were pretty straightforward and I had a plan in mind, but the third had me pondering for far too long as I just wasn't sure what to do. The request was for a picture with a nice quote on, in turquoise for her bathroom. 

Anyway, after far too many weeks pondering, I finally was able to get started as my friend and crafty guru Sam offered to loan me some of her Chocolate Baroque stamps with an underwater theme. As I don't actually own any sea themed stamps I jumped at her offer and with this week off work found myself with time to play.

A little pootling around Google came up with this beautiful free mermaid digital image from  Shyni Moonlightings. It was perfect for what I had in mind so I downloaded it and printed off a couple of copies.



  I used one to create a mask over the main image, and then created a background for her using my gelli plate and a mixture of greens and blues for the sea and my clarity Ocean Swirls mask.



I carefully lay my cardstock onto the plate and prayed it would work as I pulled the print.


And it did!! It needed a little more though so I added bubbles from the stamp set Sam loaned me with some distress inks.


 I removed the mask and coloured her with distress markers and used Twinkling H2O paint on her tail to make it shimmer, just like a real mermaid (who said mermaids aren't real?!)


She was starting to take shape but I felt she needed company so using the seahorse stamp and some gilding flakes I gave her a couple of little buddies to swim about with.


Some mesh and fabric helped give the picture more dimension- but was a pain to stick down! I got there in the end though thankfully. 



It still needed more though and what better than some sea shells and glass gems to finish off the underwater look. Oh yes, and fish gravel! As a childminder in my day job there is no end to the odds and ends I keep lying about for the children to play with and I found both of these lurking in my resources shed. Result!

Some seaweed stamped around the edge framed her nicely and good old Pinterest help me come up with a suitable quote. I really hope my friend is pleased with her as I certainly am. It's been great fun stepping out of my comfort zone and having a go at something a little different. 

I would like to enter this picture in the following challenges:

8 comments:

  1. Brilliant! Love it...thank you for joining Quirky Crafts this challenge!
    Lyn Dt

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  2. thanks Suzy. I shall look forward to the next challenge x

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  3. What a great creation.
    Thanks for sharing at Quirky Crafts challenge.
    Linby GDT

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  4. Great card, love the water you did. Thanks for sharing with us at Crafty Hands Challenge.
    Cindy DT

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  5. Fantastic project. Thanks so much for playing along over at 613 Avenue Create. Monica, DT

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