Sirens of Artistry
Combining Mermaid Inspiration and Crafted Greeting Cards
Good day, fellow crafters. As the title suggests, today I am delighted to share my interpretation of a Mermaid with you. This incredibly adorable card was crafted specifically for a couple of exciting crafting challenges, and you can find their respective links below their logos. I am truly captivated by this creation, as it beautifully blends together some of my favorite colors and textures. While mermaids in literature have held diverse symbolism, embodying themes like temptation, transformation, and the mysteries of the sea, I find myself drawn to the simplicity of a children's interpretation of a mermaid. I hope you enjoy it.
To begin the creation of this card, I first began with the background. Since this was to be a mermaid-inspired project I went through all of my supplies and decided to use the Mermaid Scales embossing folder from Love Nicole. I felt this would have the perfect look so I set that aside. I then chose to use Ranger’s Distress Oxide in the colors Seedless Preserve, Kitsch Flamingo, and Peacock Feathers to use for my background’s color theme. I love this color combination and use it often for cards meant for younger girls. Finally, I chose premium white cardstock for the background base to prevent any tear-out in the embossing or bleed of the inks.
With the materials selected, I ink-blended all of my colors into a hombre-like pattern, the idea being that it would appear to be the viewer in a way similar to the way light plays on the scales of a fish. I then misted the back of the card to help prevent any tear out and then placed it into the embossing folder, but with a twist. I put the paper on with the color side down turning my embossing folder into a debossing folder. I felt this really helped the scales to look more organic versus looking like human-made armor.
The next step was to create the focal point of the card, the cute mermaid and her little friend. To do this I used the Swimming By stamp set from Honey Bee, white cardstock, and black ink. I wanted to keep this image on the cutesy side so I opted to color with my Copic markers, colors are in the gallery image below, instead of trying to make the image look anything even more remotely realistic. Once completed I cut them out with their corresponding dies and mounted them to the card background. The Mermaid being the focal point, I raised it with pop dots to give it more dimension but the turtle and message in a bottle I surface mounted. I also tried to orient the bottle to appear as if the mermaid was holding it.
The sentiment was also from the same stamp set. I stamped them onto the center of the blue cardstock that I later used to mat the background so as to not waste material and then cut them out and mounted them to the card. I thought I was done at that point but I decided that some bubbles would help to give the impression the pair were under water so I quickly added a few and then added a few blue flat-back gems to add presence. To complete the card I mounted the assembled background to a white pre-cut A2 card base.
I feel this turned out very well and I hope that I have inspired you to create your own mermaid card. If I have be sure that you take the time to enter the challenges to show off your creations.
