Mermaid Triptych

Good Morning everyone

I have 2 posts going live today both very different so do pop back again later...or hop over here

Its the first Friday of the month so time for a new challenge over at Creative Artiste where the theme is always anything goes MIXED MEDIA, so using at least 3 different mediums, but the more the better.

Ive gone for something a little different this month and made a triptych home decor scene using these funky mermaids and fish from Funky Fossil and some fabulous printed acetate from stamperia for the backgrounds and then added lots of different mediums and textures.

Approx Size overall is 14x7" (35x17cm)

Approx size of each panel is 4x6" (15.5x10.5cm)

See below for how I did the backgrounds. 

 

I stamped the mermaids onto white card and used alcohol markers to colour the skin, hair & facial features.   I then stamped the mermaids and fish onto various scraps of patterned paper in a rainbow of colours and cut out, the pieces for the mermaids outfits I paper pieced onto the base images - thus limiting the colouring in I needed to do and the bonus of using up some very small offcuts of pretty papers....personally I find cutting out therapeutic and colouring in stressful...

I then started arranging the mermaids and fish onto the background panels with glue gel, adding a few shells, sea glass and pebbles collected over the years from Cornish & Breton beaches.

I stamped the sentiments onto white using black ink, cut out and adhering into place to finish

Being an accordion design you can alter the angle and viewing point of the scenes

'Mermaid Kisses & Starfish wishes'

I added white posca pen highlights to the mermaids and fish

'Swim your own way' & 'make some waves'

'Salty Air & Mermaid Hair'

All the mermaids and fish were covered in a coat of glossy mod podge to protect them and this also stiffens them so they stand up better to being handled more.

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and now onto the backgrounds

I could only get 2 tags out of one sheet of A4 so picked a 2nd sheet with similar under tones 

Panels in progress - you can see close ups below.  I die cut them from very thick acetate by stamperia - the dies don't cut all the way through as its so thick but do add a good groove for me to go around with the scissors.

1. add texture paste through stencils - blue for the scales/waves and glitter paste through a bubble/dot stencil

2.  add torn pieces of washi tape and text stickers

3. dry brush soft white acrylic to soften the edges of the texture paste and washi tape

4. over stencil with foliage for seaweed effect with matt green acrylic paint

For Christmas I was given a pack of PET (plastice) stickers with various prints on them, i used a few of the text ones here - see bottom right corner, the white text with circles and a orangey splodge - they work well on this acetate to add details without needing to stamp and they completely blend in.

I picked this washi tape with shades of green and purple to pick up on the colours in the mermaids

Dry brushing matt soft white over the top just softens the blue texture paste and some of the shine in places of the acetate - just adding more interest for the eyes.  I also added some lines with the edge of an old store card and the soft white paint. I used the stencil this way up to kind of give the feel of waves.

Just showing them mounted onto the petrol blue tags, this matches the blue of the metallic texture paste. Originally I planned to just have the acetate panels joined together but felt they needed framing to draw the eye in.

Items Used:

Funky Fossil stamp sets - 'making waves' by zinski art & 'weird fish'

Label dies

scales Stencil

Stencil Bubble/dots & foliage

Stamperia clear prints SBA419 'Alchemy' range

aall&create washi tape (old one)

Stamperia glitter paste 'Arctic Ice' K3P62

Rich relief paste multi Titanium 'antique turquoise' 1505524

Folk art acrylic paints

PET stickers

Im going to have to start writing the name of the stencils on the actual stencil with a sharpie i think as the more i get the more i can't remember the brands/names of them and im not that organised I keep them all in the packaging.  Funky Fossil brand is good as she has her brand embossed into the actual stencil which helps.

 

Hop over to  Creative Artiste to see what the rest of the DT have created and to join in.  Anything mixed media goes so it can be a small little project like an ATC or tag upto a large canvas and everything inbetween - we'd love to see your creations

Id love to enter the following:

https://pixiessnippetsplayground.blogspot.com/2026/04/challenge-531.html - all the papers used are snippets

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https://stencilfun.blogspot.com/2026/04/april-2026-stencil-fun-challenge.html - Ive used dots, foliage & scales stencils

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https://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com/2026/04/challenge-848.html

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https://tolanythingbutacard.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-outlawz-anything-but-card-may.html

 

Creative Artist March - Bee Awesome

Good Morning everyone

Its time for a new challenge over at Creative Artist Mixed media blog where its anything goes with mixed media

Ive decorated a little mdf hexagon and gone with a summery bee theme...I did see a couple of honey bees out this week in my garden so things are beginning to warm up for them.

Approx Size 6x6"

See below for how i did the background.  My bees were stamped onto white card and the wings onto white vellum.  I watercoloured the bees bodies and cut out, i cut out the wings from the vellum and adhered below the bodies to hide the glue.  I curved their bodies and adhered into place with pinflair glue gel to give them a 3d appearance - leaving the wings free

Stamped sentiment onto white card and matted onto black, after alot of arranging and trying out i decided it fitted best in this corner and trimmed the edge to fit the edge of the hexagon.

I first added texture paste through a hexagon stencil, once dried i added acrylic paints - yellow, green & fuchsia pink. 

Once dry I dried brushed on white gesso

and then a light layer of fuchsia pink cadence dora paint which has amazing shimmer to it.  Im trying to step away from always using my gold tone finish.  I went with pink as a good contrast to the yellow of my bee

I had some scraps of mirror card that i had coloured with green and pink alcohol inks which fitted the tone here perfectly - but a real nightmare to take a decent photo of mirror card - trust me in real life it is lovely and bright!  I stamped the little honeycomb stamp onto it with black stazon ink, cut out and adhered. They catch the light adding another texture & dimension to the finished project.

I used a grey inktense pencil and added shadow around the hexagons on the background to really make them stand out.

'Bee Awesome' stamped onto white, cut out, matted onto black and added after working out best placement with the bees - this took longer than it might have!  

When trying to work on layouts i will often adhered it all with a little repositionable tape on the back and stand it up on my desk so I can keep looking at it - this is especially good when something isn't quite working.....when the answer finally arrives and usually it is only a little thing that can take a project from not working to Yes thats it! 

Items Used:

Pink Ink stamps  - 'queen bee'

Chocolate Baroque stamps - 'honey bee'

funky fossil mdf hexagon

funky fossil hexagon stencil

texture paste

Cadence dora paint

pebeo acrylic paint

papermania white vellum

silver mirror card

alcohol inks - pink & green

Do hop over to Creative Artist Mixed Media to see what the rest of the DT has created and to join in

My brother took our mum & I to 'The lost gardens of Heligan' this week, it was a beautiful spring day and quite a few bees were out among the spring flowers and with all the birds chirping it was lovely.  If you are ever in Cornwall its definitely worth a visit.     

Thank you all for stopping by once again.  Emmax

Id love to enter the following:

https://stencilfun.blogspot.com/2025/03/march-2025-stencil-fun-challenge.html

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https://2craftycrittercrazies.blogspot.com/2025/03/challenge-96-anything-goes-featured.html

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https://mixitupchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/03/miucb-76-anything-goes-optional-layers.html

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https://theoutlawzchallenges-saturday.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-outlawz-anything-goes-in-card-free.html

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https://www.stampingsensations.uk/2025/03/march.html

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WLS Jan#2 - Trio of mermaids

Good Morning everyone

Time for more inspiration for We Love Stamping where the theme this month is 

ANYTHING BUT SQUARE -  so any other shaped card 

or you can always use the anything goes theme as long as stamping is involved.

After all the Christmas and many Dec & Jan birthdays i craft for, I take time out to give my craft stash an annual tidy up ready to start the next crafty year.  I have a drawer where i put things left over from projects and that is where i found these mermaids, fish and die cuts so i decided I would use them all together.

Card size approx 7x4.5"  I took 2 of the white die cut shapes, scored a spine on one and adhered it to the back of the other one, thus making my shaped card base.  I then covered the front with sea themed patterned paper.  I die cut a smaller frame from white card and added to the front with foam tape.  I then arranged the mermaid and fish, adhered some flat and some with glue gel for dimension.  Sentiments stamped onto white, cut out and added.

The Mermaids and fish had all been previously stamped onto white and watercoloured with inktense pencils, cut out and glossy accents added to the eyes.  I then added a touch of diamond stickles here and there for a little sparkle.

This shows the dimension better and you can see how it stands up.

Version 2 made the same way

and Version 3

These images are such fun, a great way to brighten up a grey winters day

Items Used:

Funky Fossil stamps

Spellbinders grand labels 4 dies (very old!)

12x12 paper pad from the works

Derwent inkense pencils

Rangers stickles 'diamond'

Glossy accents

Do hop over to We Love Stamping to join in with your anything but square projects or you can just go with the anything goes theme, as long as stamping is involved. 

You could win these lovely prizes from aall&create if you join in.

Thank you all for stopping by once again. Emma

Id love to enter card #1 in the following

https://fabnfunkychallenges.blogspot.com/2025/01/challenge-608-all-things-bright-and.html

https://addictedtostamps-challenge.blogspot.com/2025/01/challenge-484.html

https://2sistersontheblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/challenge-93.html

https://www.stampingsensations.uk/2025/01/january.html - handcoloured image - i coloured mine with inktense pencils

https://creativeknockouts.blogspot.com/2025/01/539-something-to-say-polkadoodles.html

https://cinspirations.blogspot.com/2025/01/january-challenge-something.html - something old - the stamps, dies, papers are all years old

 

Mystical cats

Good Morning everyone

I was given a fabulous magic cat stamp set by funky fossil for my birthday, so ive used them on a few halloweenish cards.

Approx size 7x5" card base made from white card using stitched nesting dies.  I die cut a smaller label shape from white card and  and inked with green and orange brusho powder and red pixie powder.  Once die i stamped the cat image in black and stamped it a 2nd time onto white, from the white version i cut out the cat head and skull and decoupaged over the base image with blue gell.  I just added a little touch of colour to the cats eyes, leaving the rest white so it stands out against the colourful background.

I stamped one of the sentiments and bottles from the set onto white, added a little colour, cut out and adhered to the card front. Glossy accents added to the cats eyes to finish.

The mica in the red pixie powder really comes to life when the light hits it

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Version 2 using another image in the set

Card size approx 5x5"   Made the same way as card 1, this time using mango pixie power.  I wanted the effect of the cats head sort out peeking out of a portal or such which is flooded with light so kept the orange and mango to the middle area.  I picked out the detail in the image using white and yellow posca pens

Gone with a blue background here and mango pixie powder

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and cat image 3

again made the same way.

These are very different images to anything i have in my stash and these funky fossil stamps are such good quality, always giving a perfect image first time. The floral and foliage detail in the cats on the last 2 is lovely and i think suitable for various occasions.  Not sure about the 1st image with the skull - a bit limiting I think, however the skull could be covered by a flower or something.  

Items Used:

Funky Fossil stamp set 'Feline Magic' by Olga Heldwein

Brusho powders

Cosmic shimmer pixie powders

Nesting dies

Thank you all for  stopping by once again. Emma

I love to enter the first card in the following:

https://inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com/2024/10/challenge-327-seasonal.html

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https://tgifchallenges.blogspot.com/2024/10/tgifc495-halloween-theme-challenge.html

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https://simplycreatetoo.blogspot.com/2024/10/205-halloweenhalloween-colors.html

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https://lilredwagon.blogspot.com/2024/10/challenge-778-halloween-is-coming.html

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https://craftygalscornerchallenges.blogspot.com/2024/10/challenge-260-anything-goes-woptional.html

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https://cupcakeinspirations.blogspot.com/2024/10/cupcake-inspiration-challenge-604.html