Crafty Cardmakers challenge 119 - Under the sea

Julie is hosting our challenge today and she has chosen 'Under the Sea', so she would like you to create something with Mermaids, Turtles, Fish or other dwellers beneath the waves. Whichever you chose it should be a prominent part of the design and not just a small piece of seaweed or a tiny fish in one corner!

I have to say, mermaids are not really my thing, and for a while I was a bit stumped as to what to do.  I was ok for backgrounds, because I have recently been playing with some docrafts Spritzing ink, and the practice sheets looked remarkably underwater like.  So I had a base, but the question was what next?

My first effort was a rubbish scene with fish - not successful and quickly discarded.  Then I remembered I had some Serif digi images and chose one of those mermaids to colour in.   

 








I used my promarkers to colour her,  and I used some green and gold gilding flakes for the tail highlights, after going over the lines and dots with a quickie glue pen (my favourite for small areas).  I used glossy accents to cover the hair, because I wanted it to stand out and look wet.

I stamped some "weed" using grasses and branches stamps in green ink to make a sea bed, and stuck the coral image in the centre for my mermaid to sit on.  I added the sentiment onto the top right of the page, using a Crafters Companion sentiment.  I'm not sure what I am going to use this card for at the moment, so I didn't want to make it too obviously one for a birthday.  There is still room in the top left corner to add a further greeting on an angle when I decide.

However, I felt there was still something missing, so I added a gold die cut anchor (from Couture Creations) to sit in front of the coral (also printed from a serif image) she was sitting on.  Happy now!

For interest, the spritzing inks I used were:

• Forest Green
• Mint
• Cardinal Red
• Ocean Blue
• Aubergine and 
• Gold Stone

 Also, some clear mica spray on the coral stone to make it sparkle.

For this challenge we are sponsored by

SIR STAMPALOT

 With this fabulous prize

Sir Stampalot is a retail shop and online website that specialises in stamps, die cutting and paper-crafting goodies.  We try to offer exceptional delivery times on your orders as well as keeping our stock fresh, new and exciting!  Our dedicated team of card makers means we have a wonderful, inspirational online card gallery with many more cards still to upload!  Sir Stampalot ships internationally as well as domestic so why not check us out if you haven’t already – www.sirstampalot.co.uk.   Happy Crafting!

and also by 

DI'S DIGISTAMPS

 with a $12 gift certificate

I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with like-minded people.
I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself.
This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. Long may it continue!