You, me, and the sea...

Hello, hello!

I'm up on the Hello Bluebird blog today and as MerMay comes to a close I wanted to create a mermaid scene card using one of the lovely mermaids from the Sea Friends stamp set. This large set is jam packed with all sorts of fantastic under the sea accessory images, and while I used a few of them, I really wanted the majority of this scene to take place above the surface of the water. That's where I got a bit creative with some mixing and matching of stamp sets on this mini slimline card.To start, I used the largest die in the Nesting Deckle Mini Slimline Die set to cut out the Copic X-Press It card stock I would be stamping and coloring on. I then began stamping everything above the water's surface using Memento Rich Cocoa. This pretty seated mermaid was first, then the cute seagull from the Seaside Girls stamp set. I masked them both before stamping the piling posts for each to rest on and I also omitted adding any ink to the very bottom of the piling stamp in order to cut off the sand around the bottom of the original image. Once that was done I stamped the smaller flying seagulls, also from the Seaside Girls set, up into the sky. Now it was time for me to concentrate on the part of the scene that would be beneath the waves and all of that stamping was done using the Memento London Fog ink. I love how the lighter grey looks more diffused and pushed further back into the scene once you start to color over it. Both seaweed stamps are from the Sea Friends set while the larger fish are from the Sea Life set. 

It was finally time to color and I started with the background first. I wanted it to be fairly monochromatic, in all those pretty shades of sparkling blues. You may notice that I didn't add as much contrast on the fish and seaweed beneath the surface of the water, especially when compared to that sweet mermaid and everything else above the water. Just like using the lighter ink, sticking with lighter, less defined colors down below also adds to that look of everything at the bottom of the card being under water. I even used a light blue ink to stamp the fish silhouettes from the Sea Sentiments set down there too, adding another layer of interest. To complete the scene I chose pretty shades of violet for the mermaid which help her to stand out against all of that blue. A bit of white sharpie for some added sparkle to her tail and she definitely stands out as the star of this show. The sentiment is also from the Sea Sentiments set and I think it really captures this special moment between friends. :)

Stay crafty my friends!

Supply list:
cardstock- My Favorite Things and Copic X-Press It
stamps- Hello Bluebird (Sea Friends, Sea Sentiments, Sea Life and Seaside Girls)
ink- Memento rich cocoa, london fog and Studio Calico clear blue 
Hello Bluebird Nesting Deckle Mini Slimline die
Sharpie extra fine white pen
Wink of Stella clear glitter pen
Copic markers:
skin- E000, E00, E11, E04, R00, R20
hair- E50, E31, E34, E57, V01, V04, V09
top/tail- YG01, YG03, YG95/V000, V01, V04, V09, BV04, BV17, BV29
seagull- N0, N1, N2, N3, N4, N6, Y13, Y17, YR24
pilings- E41, E42, E43, E44
water- N000, B00, B01, B12, B14
seaweed- BG72, BG75, YG45
fish- BV00, BV11, BV04
sky- B0000, B000, B00, B12, C00, C0, 0
flying seagulls- C3
land- B45, B97