Mini Mermaids, with a Mini Tutorial

I'm not sure why, but I really like to work small. So when I had my choice of projects this month from Alpha Stamps, I chose to work on a Matchbox Sized Faux Book Box (only 2 1/4" tall!) It's the perfect size for a tiny shrine. The papers in this month's kit made me think "beach", and "beach" made me think mermaids.

The outside of the box was wrapped in a lovely shell and seaweed paper, and then covered with a tiny beach poster advertising Mermaid Oysters. I used a couple of charms, a tiny pinch of sheet moss, and some flat back pearls to give the lid a bit of dimension.

The sides of the box have a fun coordinating pattern, and some Dazzles thin line gold border stickers around the edges. I'm sad to report that those stickers have been discontinued, but if you want a little splash of gold, this thin line stripe tape should do the trick.

For the inside of the box, I found a great image of mermaids that coordinates nicely with the new papers. I used three copies of that image to create dimension. Moss, tiny seashells, and a few more pearls were added to the bottom of the box. A brief tutorial is below.

Tutorial:
1. Mix acrylic paint to match the colors of the paper you will be using to cover the box. In the photo below, the box is painted and ready to construct. Note that I didn't bother painting the entire cardboard on the sides of the box, because I knew I was going to cover that with paper. I did paint the entire underside of the lid, because I was worried that if that were covered with paper, it would not lay flat when the box is closed. (The middle panel is also not painted, but that's because I forgot about it. Oops. I did go back and paint it later.)

2. You can build up your mermaids using as many images as you wish. Two will work fine, but the box was deep enough to use three, so I decided to go for it. Cut one image out to fit the back of the box, one image of just the mermaids, and one of the two mermaids in the foreground.

3. Put foam tape on the backs of the mermaid images.

4. One at a time, adhere the images to the background. Make sure you do this before you put the background into the box, because you want to make sure your images are lined up perfectly.

5. (See, I did go back and paint that one piece!) I didn't have any cloth bookbinding tape on hand, so I used masking tape to attach the sides and top of the cover to the box. Tape first, making sure the box closes correctly, and then add the scrapbook paper to the top, sides and bottom of the box to hide the majority of the tape.

I wanted a little of the patterned paper on the inside cover, so in order to assure that the box would close correctly, I made sure that the paper was in an area that would fit inside the box part when the lid is closed. 

6. You can leave your box as shown above, but I prefer the box to open more like a book, so I used some white glue to glue the spine to the side of the inside box. Now my box looks like this when opened:

7. A little note on the starfish charm on the front, and the seashell charm on the inside: because they are charms, they each came with a loop. I clipped the loops off with small wire cutters and then used a metal file to smooth down the rough edge a bit.

Here's the final project: a little bit of mermaid magic that fits in your hand.

For a full list of supplies, click here!

Mermaid ATC Mailer

Alpha Stamps just came out with a fun new ATC mailer, and because we're still in the heat of summer, I decided a mermaid theme would be appropriate. I used some great beachy papers from the Authentique Sea-Maidens 6" x 6" paper pad. I love that these papers include one of my favorite color combinations: turquoise and red! In the collection, there's a great paper that looks like weathered painted boards. I used that on the outside of the mailer.

The collaged area is what shows when the mailer is folded up. This mermaid has found a treasure under the sea: a lovely starfish charm!

Here's the back of the mailer, folded up and ready to go.

When you open the mailer, here's what you find inside - whimsical colorful bubbles, and a mermaid ATC securely inserted into the mailer.

It's easy to pull the ATC out for further inspection.

Here are a few tips on working with the mailer. If you want to cover the mailer with decorative paper like I did, you're really not going to want to cover the folds as the extra paper there will make things too bulky. Therefore, before I added the papers, I painted the folds and cut the papers to fit just within the insides of the folds.

I did want to use the precut flaps to hold the ATC inside, but I didn't want any cuts on the mailer's front surface, so after the inside was covered with the bubble paper, I flipped the mailer over and used an x-acto knife to cut the flaps through the paper on the other side. In the photo below, notice that the folds are painted and the mermaid collage is not yet in place; it was glued on after these cuts to the inside were made.

Now to glue on the front. It's important to not glue the front collage to the flaps. If you do that, they won't flip open to hold your ATC! I inserted a playing card to keep the flaps covered and protected while gluing. I also opted to use some strong double stick taps around the edges, in the middle, and along each flap. This will help hold down that collage. I used a glue stick to fill in the spaces between the tape. Not on those flaps, though - keep them clean! Once the collage is in place, gently remove the playing card and make sure that the flaps are able to open. The ATC will now have a happy home within the mailer.

Now finish that front and give an ATC to a friend!

For a complete 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.

Ocean TV

What's on television tonight? Mermaids! I took this great metal tv frame from Alpha Stamps, and created a mermaid show. It includes everything a proper mermaid needs: friends, coral, pearls, sea glass, and some nice shell bikini tops. What fun they're having, playing in the waves.

I got the mermaid images from the Caribbean Blue Mermaids collage sheet. I used two of the images there to create this one full image. On the collage sheet, the girl on the left is actually from a separate image, so I cut her out and added her in. I also cut out a separate image of the girl in the foreground and adhered her on top of the corresponding image of her with foam glue dots to make her appear more dimensional.

When I got the tv, I thought the black "speaker box" was a little distracting, so I painted between the black lines with some turquoise paint, and then distressed it with ink. Here's a little picture of the speaker before. That big black square seemed just a bit too distracting to me. Painting it in helped it to fade more into the background. After all, tonight's show is all about the mermaids!

A little closer shot of those delightful frolicking sea nymphs:

Doesn't this make you long for the beach? Need supplies? Click here!

Mermaid Spoolie

I'm currently participating in an Altered Spool swap on Craftster.org.  My partner received yesterday, so I can share photos now of the ocean themed spool I sent her.

All of the materials for this spool were in my (massive) stash, including the shells, the green sequins (they were my grandmother's!) and the hideous earrings/charms that became the coral. I knew I'd use those some day!

 

Here's a closeup so you can see her sweet face.  She's so adorable. I hope she likes her new fins and seashell bra. She's carrying around a little pearl. Does she not see the giant pearl right behind her?