Mermaid Kisses

Greetings!  Joyce Shaulis here to share another mixed media project with you for our October theme.  I love to go to garage sales and find hidden treasures.  On one of my excursions, I found this cute wood boat oar.  It has been packed away until now when this inspiration struck!

Here is a photo of the original oar- it was a nice piece meant for decorative painting or crafting.  It is 24" long and 5 1/2" at the widest point.

First, I began by using Susan's new co-branded stamp, "Spirit of a Mermaid" and stamped the mermaid with Mystery mini POP ink onto white cardstock.

Then I painted both sides of the oar with gesso.  When it was dry, I used Decoart acrylic Bahama Blue to paint the sky and water.  I used the color Sand to paint a shore and extended it out to cover the whole handle of the oar. 

 

For the mermaid, I used markers to color her in.  Then I cut her out with scissors. 

Next, I painted the lower section of blue in Calypso Blue.  Using Bubblegum Pink and Cadmium Yellow, I blended in lines of color in the sky and also a little of the water area. I then adhered the mermaid to the oar with Decou-page.  Then I used a bubble rubber stamp with Snow mini POP ink to stamp onto the water and over the mermaids lower body.  Allow ink to dry. 

With a pencil, I wrote out lettering.  With a small brush and a small stylus I painted the letters in Electric Pink acrylic paint. 

To give a dimensional effect of a sandy beach, I took rice paper and glued it down with Decou-page over the sand painted area.  I rippled it in areas  to give the effects of  sand hills.  Then I stamped Cocoa mini POP ink onto a foam tray and took a small damp paintbrush to brush the ink over the rippled areas.  I also cut out some small fish and starfish from tissue paper to adhere with Decou-page in the water and on the shoreline. 

Next, I took a charcoal pencil and edged around the fish, starfish, mermaid, shore and water line.  I gently smudged the charcoal lines with a Q-tip.

With hot glue and glue gun, I glued small seashells and sea glass in several small groupings on the beachy sand area. 

To finish up, I edged the perimeter of the oar with Mystery mini POP ink, just swiping the edges with the ink pad.  I buffed the ink a bit with a paper towel. 

To finish up, I coated the whole piece with Decou-page and sprayed the piece with matte acrylic spray. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope you enjoyed finding another way to use this adorable mermaid stamp.  The possibilities are endless!!

Joyce Shaulis     Susan K. Weckesser Creative Design Team

Susan's Products used:
Spirit of a Mermaid  https://www.unitystampco.com/
Mini POP inks: Cocoa, Snow, Mystery  https://www.clearsnap.com/

Other Products used:
wood oar
Decoart paint, gesso, Decou-page, matte acrylic spray.  Paint colors:  bahama blue, bubblegum pink, cadmium yellow, electric pink, calypso blue, and sand.  https://decoart.com/
rice paper
seashells and sea glass
fish and starfish from tissue paper design
hot glue and glue gun
charcoal pencil
rubber stamp with bubbles
markers  https://kuretakezig.us