Cool Water

 The new challenge at Frilly and Funkie is hosted by Rebecca and she wants us to create vintage or shabby chic projects depicting Cool Water.  Use an image of water in your creation. It can be anything from droplets to the ocean! Keep yourself cool, just thinking of water...

I decided to make a canvas with this mermaid image from Vintage Moth as the focal point.  She was distressed with my scissors and then inked a bit with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink. 

I started by working on the background.  First I glued some torn pieces from an old book and some tissue wrap on a 7 x 9" canvas as well as a few pieces of drywall tape for texture.  Then I dry brushed it with a light coat of Gesso.

The whole canvas was then sprayed randomly with Vibrant Turquoise, Dirty Martini and Lemon Zest Dylusions spray ink.  I then dry brushed it with some acrylic craft paint, wiping it back with some baby wipes.  It was still a bit too bright so I gave it a spray with White Linen Dylusions spray ink.

Next I coloured some white embossing paste with acrylic paint and added some dots with a Wendy Vecchi stencil called Poka Dotty.   Then I rubbed some Rose Quartz Treasure Gold Wax Paste and some Blue Jaquard Lustre Paste randomly over the canvas.  Finally I inked the sides and edges with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

The next step was to colour the filigree corner, which was a bronze colour and the fish charm from Arton Bead Supply, which was silver.  I used a mixture of Lemonade, Terra Cotta, Pool, Meadow and Gold Mixative Alcohol inks to dab on them.   After I got them the colour I wanted, I rubbed them with a wee bit of the Wax Paste.

Then I coloured the flowers.  The small flower on the bottom was a bronze metal flower.  I painted it with some Gesso and once it was dry, I mixed some Perfect Pearl, Forever Green and Blue Patina  Perfect Pearl Powder with some Winsor & Newton Gum Arabic and painted it again.  The fabric flowers are both Prima flowers and the little one was bright royal blue while the large one was a bright turquoise so I painted both of them with the Perfect Pearls mixture. The tiny flower has a Prima paper flower for a centre and the other two have gems from Dress It Up for centres.

The Venise Lace was coloured with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink and I added some burlap to the top right corner and tied the fish on with some burlap string.  The starfish that I stole from a shell collection in the downstairs bathroom was bright orange so I rubbed some of the Rose Quartz paste on it to calm it down a bit.  I added some more little shells that came from Michaels, some gems and pearls from Dollarama and Recollections along with a few beads left over from my days of making head pieces and jazzing up bathing suits for my daughter's synchronized swimming competitions.  The button came from my stash and I found the earring in my Mother-in-Law's sewing room stash and just removed the back.

The text was made from Grunge Paper and cut with my Cameo.  I coloured it with Evergreen Bough Distress Ink and then edged it with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I started this canvas before I went away in June but finished it after I returned.  Just as I finished it I received a post in my reading list from Such A Pretty Mess and wouldn't you know she had done a mermaid canvas. She has always been such an inspiration so it wasn't any surprise that my canvas had some similar elements even though I had not seen hers when I made it.

I am going to enter this canvas in the following challenges:

Creative Card Crew - Sea/Beach
Craft My Life - Anything Goes but No Cards
Crafty Cardmakers - Under The Sea

The following items used in the creation of my canvas were obtained from The Funkie Junkie Boutique: