Happy (crazy) New Year

I had a bit of a whirlwind holiday this year, with tons of company,  and some unexpected travel. When designing this Arched Tent Card Frame, I felt compelled to make it a little nuts. The outside is normal enough. Nothing odd here.

Construction hint: to make the buttons work as a closure, I first put a dot of white glue where I wanted each button to be, and let it dry. Once that raised surface had hardened, I attached the buttons with hot glue. Now they're raised up enough to wrap the string around them comfortably.

Open it up, and you find the portrait of a young girl.

I loved the look on this young girls face: she seemed a bit daft. So I gifted her with some interesting eyeglasses and popped a giant flower on her head, which evidently attracted a large butterfly. She's holding a lovely bouquet of ....fish? Her sky is filled with floating pies. Mmmm. After all, being crazy is part of her charm.

The outside has one of my favorite collage sheet images of a man holding a couple of fish. So this is where she got that interesting bouquet! I set her gentleman caller in a bed of giant flowers. He's such a romantic.

I enjoyed making this goofy little project. For a list of supplies, click here.

Mermaid Garden

We're having some fun with mermaid paper dolls over at Alpha Stamps this month! There are all kinds of fishy things to play with: from articulated chipboard mermaids, to a collage sheet of heads that perfectly fit those dolls, to sparkly sequined seashells. I made a fancy little mermaid and decided to create an undersea garden in which she could live. Here's an extra large photo of her home. I'll break some of the details down in smaller photos below. Doesn't that blue scalloped at the bottom of the shrine look 3D? It's actually an image from the mermaid head collage sheet!

There's a lot going on in this garden: whispy fronds of seaweed, bright red corral, crashing waves, and a sassy mermaid who has crowned herself with sparkly seashells. The paper doll mermaid is supported in the middle of the shrine with a bamboo skewer, which is inserted into a bead glued to the floor of the box. The skewer is painted the same blue that was used to paint her tail fins, and partially hidden behind some coral. A fish placed in front of the skewer also helps to hide it. To stabilize the figure, the elbow of her raised hand is attached to the side of the box with a little dab of white glue.

The back of the box features a scene from the Sea Green Mermaids collage sheet. I couldn't resist adding a few more swimming fish, which are attached with dimensional foam glue dots to give the scene some depth. A rusty bottlecap and two fancy fish decorate the top portion of the shrine. To pull a little more red up to that area, a Copic marker was used to give those fish red eyes.

The Arched Shrine shadowbox is nice and deep; you can see in this photo how I curled and inserted the two sets of waves. They almost stayed in place by themselves, but just to be sure, I ran a small bead of white glue along the bottom edge of each of them. You can see how busy that right side is; the better to hide that stick! Isn't the mermaid's pearl necklace lovely? Those pearls serve to hide the edge of her paper neck where it meets her body.

Here's the back. I kept it simple.

And one more photo for the road. I hope you enjoyed the Mermaid's Garden. For a list of supplies, click here.

The Fish House

In continuing on with the summer themed craft projects, I took a folding house shrine from Alpha Stamps and created "The Fish House". When it's all folded up, it looks like a house made of waves. I couldn't resist adding a small window on the side.

The roof is made of corrugated cardboard with the top thin layer of paper removed. A different bathing beauty is featured on the back.

When the house is opened up, it's apparent why I named it The Fish House (or at least I hope it is!)

The King of Fish watches over his kingdom from the center panel, while his loyal subjects collect the perfect fish from the surrounding ocean. He has put those bathing beauties to work! Here's my favorite panel. She's so proud of the catch of the day.

 

The house is hinged together with washi tape, while the striped outline on the top and bottom of the panels is made from thin strips of the scrapbook paper used in the striped panels. 

Here's the outer view of the opened house, but I have to admit that I'm still partial to the king and his helpers of The Fish House. 

For a complete list of supplies, click here.