Jiggy Mermaid .... continued!

I think I may have made my last post too long as part of it didn't appear!  I can't remember exactly what I said now, but here's the additional pictures. 

She is wearing a matching necklace and belt!  Her hair is the same as her clothing - actually part of a scarf I bought in Primark in the sale (it was only a couple of pounds)

Here's a close up of the tail, you can see the netting under the Matte Accents.

There are some random droplets of Glossy Accents over the background and into some of which I dropped blue sequins.

I attached her arms to her body with brads, and they are still moveable - well, she'll need to stretch her arms and have a swim now and again!

Jiggy Mermaid!

'Alter a jigsaw piece' is the theme over on the Flickr group 'Art 'n' Soul' and the theme is 'monochrome ... interpret any way you wish'. 

I used an old jigsaw piece from a child's puzzle measuring approximately 5" square at it's largest points.  Rather than going with black and white I used different shades of blue.

I peeled off the shiny picture from the jigsaw piece and coated it with some gesso.  Once that dried, I sprayed it with some Colour Wash (Stream).  I rubber stamped around the edges and embossed that with two different colours of blue.

For the mermaid, I coloured her (air dried clay) face and (card) body with some alcohol ink (Pool) and dressed her with some nylon netting type fabric.  I cut her tail from card and stuck on some of the tissue I had used to protect my desk when spraying on the colour wash.  Over the top of that I stuck some more of the blue netting with Matte Accents and sprinkled in some Beadazzles.

As there wasn't much contrast between the background and the mermaid, I sprayed her with some Glimmer Mist (Marshmallow).  On reflection I probably should have used Glossy, rather than Matte accents on the tail, but it has given it a dry, grungy look - just like it's been underwater too long!

Getting Messy with February's Dress!

Here's the dress I've created for the Dress Up 2010 challenge - for February, and as I got messy in the process I've also linked it to this week's challenge on Tuesday's Taggers which is getting messy! 

I started off with a card dress shape and slapped on top of it some Rigid Wrap Plaster Cloth - which I needed to wet then mould into shape to create some folds in the skirt.  I coloured it with some Starburst Stains (the colour is called Sweet Violet Purple Teal) As the bottle had a sponge applicator I wasn't able to get into all the grooves so the dress became two toned.  The other colour being white. I also sprayed on Glimmer Mist (Pashmina and Marshmallow) I edged the neckline with some of Ranger's Liquid Pearls (Lavender Lace colour) and finished it off with a ribbon sash around the waist and two tiny heart shaped buttons (well it is February's dress for Valentines - albeit a little late!).

Just to prove I did get messy here's a couple of pictures. 

About the pictures, in reality my hands are beautifully slender and both the same size (well, they're the same size anyway!!).  I've no idea why the second photo has appeared that way up as it was saved to my computer the right way up!  Maybe that large hand was at work behind my back - LOL.

Ooops, I forgot to mention that this week's Tuesday's Taggers challenge is being sponsered by The Craft Barn and a £15 voucher is up for grabs for one lucky randomly picked winner who enters this weeks challenge and puts a link to The Craft Barn in their post.  There, I've said it now!

OWOH winnings!

This week I've received two more giveaways from the 'One World One Heart' global event organised by Lisa on her blog ...A Whimisical Bohemian..

The first was a set of three original photocard illustrations from Gabrielle in Canada.  They are so beautiful that I don't think I could actually use them, frame them perhaps.  I love the altered tag she made too.  What a talented lady and you can see lots more wonderful things on her blog 'Gabrielle Madsen, the result of my inspirations' 

I also received a pack of assorted papers from Tara here in the UK in West Yorkshire.  I love the black cat piece you can see sticking out.  You may not be able to see it, but to the right of the cat's head there is a label which was stuck on the back of Tara's packet - it has a picture of a hedgehog on and reads "I'm not scruffy.  I'm recycled"  What a brilliant idea.  I always try to re-use packets where possible and must admit to having quite a collection in my craft cupboard - along with several other 'collections' - but I guess if you are reading this you may have a few yourself!

Tara also has a lovely blog called 'Sew Gorgeous' with lots of interesting things on and is well worth a visit.

Thank you again, Gabrielle and Tara and not forgetting Lisa too.

Playing Dress Up

I couldn't resist joining in with the challenge set by Margaret on her blog Alice and Camilla in which you create a dress for each month of the year - anything goes really.  Margaret has created a beautiful wardrobe for her dresses by altering a wooden cigar box - you can see it on her post here.  Her own dress for January is fabulous and she's set up one of those Mr Linky things on her blog so you can easily view dresses made by other players - and the ones I've seen so far are all lovely.

So here's my dress for January - which I think must belong to Cinderella as it's in quite a distressed, tatty state.  The card base of the dress I coloured with distress inks (dried marigold, scattered straw and frayed burlap).  There is some rubber stamping around the hem and the sleeves.  The apron is made from an old page of music and coloured in the same way.  There is an under apron of muslin and a lace edging on the dress.  As it's poor old Cinder's dress, she only has a piece of string to tie her apron!

Maybe as the year progresses, I'll make her a beautiful ball gown.  In the meantime I'll need to think about a dress for this month, February and also look out for something to make into a wardrobe (unfortunately, I don't know anyone who smokes cigars!)