Sunday, April 3, 2011

My Dancing Mermaid... and a Quick Best Friends Frame!

This is my entry for the April Monthly Challenge:  Reuse, Repurpose, Recyle. 
Mermaids have been swimming in my mind.  I have been doing a little surgery to combine fish and figures to find a mermaid I liked.  Not yet happy with the results, once I read the requirements for the April Monthly Circle Blog Challenge:  Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle, I knew it was time to figure out the mermaid.  I grabbed all my rejects and a little trash too!

I figured out combining the cuts to create a mermaid.




Using an old folder divider with an interesting print, I cut the fish body.  This was my first recycled/repurposed element.  The dancer is from Shall We Dance (page 29), cut at 4-1/2".  The fish is from Pagoda (page 42), cut at 5-1/2".  I cut additional fish at 5-1/2" and 4-1/2" to add to the tail.  I used a little vellum on the second 5-1/2" tail and embellished with adhesvide beads.  The mermaid's hair is all hand-cut. The charm on her necklace was cut from Life is a Beach, page 45, at 1/2" and detailed with a Sharpie and a Zig fine pen.

The shadowbox itself is my second recycled/repurposed element.  This was headed for the garbage can after getting wet and the original artwork was destroyed.  For the purpose of this challenge,  I was so glad I had held onto it after so many times wanting to toss it in the trash! 

I used a beautiful box lid for the frame of my shadow box (my third recycled/repurposed element), adding extra ink to get some darker areas so that it would relate to the darker paper inside the frame.  This covered up the damaged areas on the shadowbox!

The background paper was also a fun way to use a previous mess-up.  That paper was actually fabric I found on-line and printed out.  Having miss-cut it for another project, I had tossed it aside but was able to use it for this project.  I cut additional strips and popped them up to get a little more dimension in the background.
I used a loop of paper to pop up only the head and torso of the mermaid.

I was able to add layers of dimension by folding an element for the floor of the scene.  This allowed for the seaweed, which was cut from the Spongebob cartridge (page 76), at 2-1/4" and 1-3/4". 
The starfish were cut at 1" from Life is a Beach (page 65).
My daughter told me yesterday that she wanted this when I finished it.  This morning, I asked her if she liked it while I was photographing the finished project.  She told me the starfish needed smiles.  I think I know who ProvoCraft consulted with for carts like Simply Charmed!  I have a feeling she will be adding to this project once it gets to her room!


I also wanted to share a super quick little project that I did on the Imagine:
This is the 3D frame from Sesame Street Seasons, cut at 7".  I used a pattern on Cricut Imagine cartridge Hopscotch.  The 'Best Friends' topper is from Imagine More, cut at 1.6".  Super fast and the perfect size for a 2-1/2" x 3-1/4" wallet size (standard size in Windows Gallery).  I added some flowers I had laying around that I cut out from Mother's Day Bouquet -- just some that I had cut for fun when I first received that cartridge.  The colors just happened to match.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

26 comments:

Unknown said...

All i can say is WOW!!!! This is absolutely stunning!!!!! I am speachless - and that says alot!!!

shawnsfiresidecraftingroom.blogspot.com

Jan said...

LOVE THE MERMAID!! She is beautiful!

Karan said...

Stunning! Your creativity is just amazing! How do you think of these things! I envy your creative ability.

Sandi Clarkson said...

Wowzer! Love your mermaid. I can't wait to start playing with my I .. if the replacement ever gets here! I'll be stopping by here for inspiration!

papillon digital design said...

Gorgeous. I love how you used recycled stuff on this one.

Audrey Frelx said...

Wow!!! You did great!

Lisa said...

I could spend the whole day on your blog, you are so talented!

Cindy@ Scrap-obsessed.blogspot.com said...

Wow, lots of work on that one. It turned out so nice. Your persistance paid off.

Diane M. said...

Adorable as always!

Got2BCrafting said...

Your mind amazes me! I wish I could look at cuts/images and see different ways of combining them to come out with something so beautiful! You have inspired me as always1 :)
Lori

Scrapper69 said...

WOW! I LOVE both projects! TFS! :o)
Theresa

Mrs. Green said...

Fantastic frames! I am always impressed by the way you can see things and combine them to make something beautiful!

Anonymous said...

I love it!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow Wow Wow! Fantastic!

Sara Andrews said...

Very interesting project!

But what I liked even more are the sweet things you have to say about your family!

raynae said...

Holy moley, I am WAY BEYOND impressed with your mermaid. You're amazing. That's all there is to it. :)

jeannine said...

Beautiful project...so many wonderful details. Great use of all your repurposed items!!

Kristen Swain said...

what a fabulous project!! love it!!

Hoo's Crafty! said...

You are unreal. I love how you can alter all these bodies. It just blows my mind.

The frame is great too, quick and gorgeous!

cdm317 said...

Absolutely fintastic! What a great project! Good luck in the challenge!

Natalee said...

Wow! Your mermaid is gorgeous!

Sharon said...

Your mermaid is amazing!! Really beautiful!!

mb name: bugaloo

Debbie O'Neal said...

Wowzer ! Your mermaid is perfect and adorable ! Love your creativity on this. TFS

Crazy Cricut Lady said...

absolutely love the mermaid, you are so creative, just wow

MelodyR aka Ry&MysMom said...

Oh, very clever projects!

Anonymous said...

I think you have a great page here… today was my first time coming here.. I just happened to find it doing a google search. anyway, good post.. I’ll be bookmarking this page for sure.

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