A Mermazing May!

Last week, I went to Boston with my friend Libby to help her out at the Collins Group Education & Trade Show. I got to teach a class there, and it was so much fun.

In the short amount of non-work time we had on Saturday - we went downtown and saw the JFK Presidential Library which was amazing. I happened to be listening to Killing Kennedy at the time, and seeing so many objects from the book, the clothing, etc., was really incredible - I felt immersed in that time period. The campaign dresses were tied for my favorite thing in the library with Jackie's art journal/scrapbook that she did on a trip to Europe with her sister, called One Special Summer.

The library is in a STUNNING spot - at the conclusion of the tour you walk into a beautiful glass atrium designed by I.M. Pei - the guy who designed the triangle in front of the Louvre AND my student center at the University of Rochester, strangely enough. Walking into the bright, airy space with a huge American flag hanging in it, actually gave me a flashback to the many hours I spent in that space. Even in a horribly grey climate like upstate New York - that was one place you could go for tons and tons of UV rays and bright, natural light. I love his airy design. Just outside the atrium is the harbor - you can look back across it to Boston. It was gorgeous. Jackie must have been thrilled with that perfect spot for the library. Highly recommend a trip there if you get a chance.

After that, Libby was nice enough to indulge me in a trip to Dick Blick - the first time I've ever been in one of those stores - heaven! I was blown away by how friendly they all were too - great service, and really friendly people - both there and at my hotel. I lived in Boston for one summer during college, and like New York in that time period, it was most decidedly not a friendly city. Maybe like New York, it became friendlier after 9/11. Whatever the cause - it's awesome. People were so nice. It's such a beautiful, fun place.

So today's My Monthly Hero kit is so perfect for my recent trip to the ocean! It's all about the sea, and the images are SOOOOO beautiful. I freaked out and did multiples with it again because I could not help myself.

I had actually used one of the add-ons for this kit at the class I taught in Boston. (You'll see the other cards soon!) This gorgeous paper-layering mermaid was so much fun, and I bonded hard with the die.

I used the blue inks listed below for the background - I smooshed them on my craft mat, sprayed them with water, and then dabbed my watercolor paper into them to get a watery background look. The mermaid was super easy and fun - it uses two Daniel Smith colors from the Hero Arts dot card - and that's it! If you want to try out watercolors, these dot cards are a great way to do it - they are only $2.99 and you get 18 colors - I love the palette they chose.

I painted the mermaid with only Quinacridone Pink and Quinacridone Gold - that's it! All variations are made from blending these two colors. In my class - they made me say "quinacridone" like twenty times to learn how to say it - it was hilarious - it's such a hard word!

After she was painted, I dried her, and then used my piercing tool to poke out her scales from the back, some strands of hair, her arms and her tail. Then I put glue just around the edge pieces that aren't dimensional, and glued that down to the background. I added some gems and a sentiment. Look how pretty she is! I think they all had fun making this one.

InLinkz.com

When I played with the kit - I really thought watercolor was the perfect backdrop for alllllll the images in the kit's stamp set - . So I used the oval die that is included with the Reef Border and Frame Fancy Dies - also an add-on, to cut two large ovals from watercolor paper. One of them, I painted with Phthalo Blue Green Shade Daniel Smith Watercolor. The other, I painted with Raw Sienna Light, and I used that and Burnt Sienna Light on the starfish and to spatter this piece. I watercolored the Mermaid with Opera Pink and Quinacridone Pink on a scrap of watercolor paper, and painted her shadow with Quinacridone Gold. There's a matching die in the kit, but I fussy cut her so she wouldn't have a border. I fussy cut the starfish too.

The sentiment is from Mermazing Messages (an add-on). It's hard to see here, but I glued down the bottom part of each image, and popped the top of each image up - so they are both sort of leaning out of the card towards you.

InLinkz.com

Finally, I wanted to play with another add-on - the Reef frame die. If you can resist this beautiful frame, I'll worry about you a little bit. So there's this GORGEOUS mulberry paper with the kit - on one side it's this deep blue/green watery look, and on the other side, it's more defined color with gold marbling - click on the kit image above to see a closeup - it's stunning. It was very hard to cut into it. Turns out it's a dead-on match to the DS Phthalo Blue Green Shade watercolor - so I used that for the outside of the frame, and then I painted the plants and animals.

I stamped the solid creature images in Indigo ink onto the mulberry paper before attaching the frame. Then I added the sentiment from the main kit in white ink, that I heat embossed. Just a tip - since mulberry paper has little fibers in it - I wasn't sure how it would do with embossing powder - I was afraid the powder would stick to the fibers, so before I embossed it, I painted on a little Liquitex Matte Medium just to make the surface more smooth. It embossed perfectly!

InLinkz.com

I love these magical, mythical images and played with this kit for days. Even my Google Fiber technician who installed our new high speed internet this week oohed and aahed over the kit and the cards - she was a crafty girl too.

Lucky for one of you - Hero Arts is giving away one of these kits to one lucky blog reader - selected from the comments across all of the blogs in the hop. (They will reimburse you if you have already bought the kit, since they are while supplies last. Nice, huh?) Giveaway closes Sunday, May 7 at 11:59pm, and the winner will be announced the following week on the Hero Arts blog. So please leave me a comment and visit these fine individuals who I'm lucky to hop with today! Next up is my sweet friend Libby!

The Hero Arts Blog
Jennifer McGuire
Wanda Guess
Jessica Frost-Ballas
May Park
Heather Ruwe
Yana Smakula
Amy Tsuruta
Lydia Fiedler
Libby Hickson
Michelle Short
Ilina Crouse
Clare Prezzia

Thanks for stopping by, and for being generally mermazing!

Loveyameanitbye.