Hello from the depths of the salty sea.
Another mermaid card, with a salted watercolour background.
- You can use any white card for this technique, but the results will differ each time depending on the thickness of the card, the amount of liquid added (water & ink), and the size of the salt particles.
- Shown below are 2 examples of how to create salted watercolour backgrounds similar to the one used in this card. I used watercolour card for all, but a thicker gsm for the mermaid one.
Tape down your watercolour paper onto board to prevent it curling up when wet.
Lightly spritz it with water and then a selection of blue dye inks.
Lightly spritz it with water and then a selection of yellow, green and blue dye inks.
Sprinkle sea salt over. Leave to dry.
Sprinkle sea salt over. Leave to dry.
When dry, simply brush off the now coloured sea salt.
Finished blue sample. 
Finished yellow, green & blue sample.
- Stamp, cut out and colour in mermaid with watercolour paints. When dry, I added Buttercup Liquid Pearls to highlight hair, Waterfall Stickles to tail and Glossy Accents to fin.
- Stamp seahorse medley into corner of salted watercolour paper. Stamp seahorse only a 2nd time onto scrap of white card, colour in and cut out, Magic Mounting it over original. Paint with Glossy Accents and leave to dry.
- Assemble card layers. Glue mermaid onto card front.
- Cut out “hello” die in gold foilboard and glue to top of card.
One of my favourite techniques for underwater backgrounds is done using shaving cream and dye ink sprays. Unfortunately my blog is not enabling me to load videos but if you go to https://www.facebook.com/artatticstudio/, you can see a quick video version. Otherwise if you look to the right hand side of my site under “Catagories” scroll down to ‘techniques‘ and under that ‘shaving cream‘. Click on that and it will take you to my “Mermaid School” post and you will see step by step instructions with photos. Below are some more examples of backgrounds made using this technique which I will save for another day.
I love the way little bubbles form in the shaving cream as the liquid component starts to dissolve with the heat. It can leave behind quite an organic, cellular result. Of course it all depends on the way you squish!
As with my 3 surfer dudes from previous post, I decided to frame these little mermaid cards, just so I can look at them a while longer.
I have been sick all week so I’m not allowed out spreading my germs, I’m way too sick to do housework (hehe), so all that’s left is to amuse myself in my craft room. Of course a head full of cotton wool is not always conducive to creativity, but I am trying to soldier on.
stamps: Mermaid Stamp & Cut DC226 by Hero Arts; wording from Mermazing BB-45 by MFT; Fishing Net CS255 by KaiserCraft
dies: Swimming Seahorses 99115 by Memory Box; Seaweed/coral were from 3 different sets from my girlfriends stash cut out last camp
stencil: Mini Moving Vines 568s by The Crafters Workshop
inks: ‘Bells of Ireland Green’ Lindy’s Starburst Spray; Vintage Photo Distress Stain Sprays; various Distress Re-inkers; Jet Black & Sepia Archival Pads
accessories: Opaque Crackle Texture Paste; various Liquid Pearls and Stickles
INSTRUCTIONS:
Smear texture paste through stencil onto white card. Set aside to dry completely.
Cover white card with ink sprays. The Bells of Ireland is very shimmery with a touch of blue showing.
Cut large circle out of vines card and attach to folded backing card of dark moss colour. Cut out a smaller square of light moss card with smaller circle in center. Gold emboss fishing net over bottom left corner. Gold emboss inner circle. Sponge sepia ink around inside and outside edges of smaller card for shading. Attach Magic Mount onto back of smaller card and mount over main card.
Stamp and cut out mermaid and turtle, along with other dies. I usually use Distress re-inkers for colouring in as they have a lovely rich pigment which is easy to blend or dilute when applied with a water brush. Dry with a heatgun. Apply glitters or pearls where desired, then set aside to dry naturally. (I have to confess that I messed about with my green seaweed a few more times as I didn’t feel it stood out enough, but after my 3rd unsatisfactory attempt I had to leave it and move on with my life haha).
Attach all your pieces to main card. I used Magic Mount under parts of them that were sitting inside green circle.
For the wording, I masked off the bottom half and stamped top half directly onto card. This proved a little problematic due to the raised embossing. The bottom half I stamped onto white card, coloured to match, matted onto purple card and attached with double sided tape.
I just love the blue sparkly bits that catch the light in the green shimmer.
Sometimes I like colourful chaos and other times I need empty spaces, softness and calm.
stamp: Mermaid CRP151 by Stampendous; wording (custom)
inks: Spun Sugar and Antique Linen Distress Stain Sprays for background.
Still thinking of ideas for teenage girl cards but have deviated towards Mermaids, which I feel are perfectly suitable as long as they’re not too cutsey looking.
I picked up this little mermaid stamp in Hawaii last year from the Rubber Stamp Plantation. The shells are from Inkadinkado’s ‘Down by the Seaside’ set 60-30059; Fish from Heidi Grace’s “Beyond the Sea’ set and Numbers from Kaiser Craft CS838.
Trying to get different looks from the same die. I chose soft colours for this mermaid one in contrast to the below samples which are the traditional darker blue & white palette. Can’t decide which one I like best. Maybe the crab… Which do you prefer?
Die is “Under the Sea Collage” 99703 by Memory Box
I believe in mermaids, don’t you?
This background was created by spritzing white card with water, then Lemon Zest, Cut Grass and London Blue Dylusion Sprays. I started to stencil a pattern onto it too, but then changed my mind.
The mermaid is an old favourite of mine by Visual Image Printery. I stamped her onto a scrap of white card in black Archival ink, coloured her in with watercolours, then cut her out and glued her in position on card front. I smeared Star Dust Stickles over her fins with a paintbrush to make them shimmer.
I stamped the wording in black next to her and the little school of fish in shades of green underneath using 
a Kaleidocolor pad. Glossy Accents were added to the fish bubbles and continued up the 
card.
I am always drawn to things which belong to the sea – seashells, fish, boats and mermaids.
I started playing with this mermaid stamp from Judikins #28141, on a piece of white card which I had spritzed with Dylusion inks (Turquiose, Teal and London Blue) then added some fish from Poppy die (Aquarium Fish #1132), saw my Stamp-It “Poppy Patch” stamp (4944E) still sitting on the table from my last set of cards, and decided to add that to the mix – and here we have it. The “Dream” wording is a rub-on from Scrap-ease. Gold BeaDazzles, Chalks, Glossy Accents, Liquid Pearls, Perfect Pearl Mists and Stickles were used for colour and highlights.
So I drew this little mermaid onto a tag with the intention of making it into a card, but now that I’ve added extra bits, it’s really too large. May put it into my journal instead or if I can find a frame the right size, might give it away.
Shaving cream backgrounds have been around for a long time now, but I always found it a very messy technique and to be honest – it didn’t really inspire me. Then when I was playing with some ideas for watery background effects for my seahorse cards, I thought I’d give shaving cream another go, but do things a little differently. I had a fabulous time playing and am ecstatic with the results!! And hardly any mess. I’m sure you’ll love it too. I can hear you scrambling for the bathroom cupboard to steal away hubby’s shaving cream as we speak.
Material List: Stamp-It 2286F Mystical Mermaid; Jet Black Archival Pad; Fresh Lime, London Blue, Calypso Teal & Vibrant Turquoise Dylusion Sprays, Evergreen Bough & Peacock feathers Distress Sprays; Crushed Olive, Scattered Straw & Tumbled Glass Distress Stains, various Alcohol Inks; white Matt & Kromekote Cards, Marigold & Great Lakes Bazzill Cards, Orange Magenta Mesh; Shaving Cream, Liquid Pearls, Stardust Stickles, Black Zig Pen, Waterbrush, Seahorse Punch
Note: the steps shown below were photographed after completion of the above card, so the finished result will look slightly different.
1. Squirt some shaving cream onto matt white cardstock. You don’t need too much. Spread with palette knife to nearly cover card, then place another piece of white card over it. Squish slightly together, twist a little, then slowly peel apart. This will create mountains and valleys in your cream that would be hard to do with just the palette knife.
2. Spray your creamed card with inks. I have used Dylusions sprays Vibrant Turquoise, Calypso Teal, Fresh Lime, London Blue and After Midnight.
3. Now for the fun part – heat using a heat gun! This evaporates the shaving cream, leaving behind air bubbles and ridges of white. Very organic looking. I love it!! (Note: that’s why you don’t want too thick a layer of shaving cream on your card to start with as it will take too long to dry and may start to smoke.)
4. Layer your finished card onto desired backing. I used some orange and blue Bazzill cardstock with some Magenta mesh placed diagonally across it.
5. The mermaid stamp you will notice is actually only the top half, which is good because that’s the hard part done for you. Now all you need to do is extend the line of her body downwards to include her hips. Do this with a pencil first until you’re happy with how it looks (don’t forget to give her a belly button), then go over in permanent black felt tip pen. Colour her and her fish in. I used a combination of Distress Stains, Distress markers and Liquid Pearls. Cut her out, tearing across bottom below hips. Mount her onto shaving cream background card.
6. I punched out the little seahorses on white kromekote gloss card, then coloured them with alcohol inks. I positioned them randomly in front of the mermaid, then added a little Stardust Stickles to make them shimmer. See below for some more samples I did with this shaving cream technique.
