Mermaid Dreams

Come craft, come take a class, come dream!  1000 Greentree Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15220 is the forever home of Brutus Monroe.  Being surrounded both in the rich history of Pittsburgh and the experience that is Brutus Monroe can not be beat.  Last Saturday Heather Collins went on 'Undersea Adventure' with this darling mermaid inspired canvas.

So one Saturday I got to enjoy what is some amazing products.  I started by grabbing some Alabaster cardstock and embossing a stamp that just screamed 'color me'! Using Brutus Monroe embossing ink and 'Raven embossing powder'.   I had seen a YouTube video on grayscale coloring and decided to try it.  Using the Stylefile markers I made my mermaid look like she had some algae based skin from being under water for a bit too long.  I used Nuvo drops and fussy cut her out.  One thing I did is leave some space on the bottom so that shells could be placed on the bottom of the piece.

Taking a 12"x12" canvas I had gessod, got to use the new Brutus Monroe media paste. First on a craft mat I mixed together ''Media Paste' and glitter and using a pallet knife I applied in several locations with the ''Folkwave" stencil.  Then took 'Phonebook',  'Oz' and 'Cornflower' Surface Sprays and sprayed the canvas.  A wate bottler helped blend the colors on the canvas perfectly.  I added some ultra fine glitter to my canvas while everything was still wet.  

Using some 'media gel' attached some fishing net I had in my craft room.  I took seashells and clear flat back bubbles and black gessod them, leaving on my ''Media Mat' to dry. Next using colored waxes, I colored the items to the color I thought worked with the piece. 

I had some surface board that were disk shaped and applied 'Decofoil Transfer Gel' and allowed also on my craft mat to dry.  When my disk were dry I put through my laminator with some 'Decofoil Transfer Sheets Lapis Watercolor '.  Next I put 'Nuvo Glitter' on them and allowed this to dry too on my media mat.  

After fussy cutting out my mermaid I attached her with foam squares from Decofoil I attached my mermaid girl.  I took a sheet of the 'iCraft Decofoil clear toner sheet Branching Out' and 'Lime Decofoil' and ran it through the laminator also.  Then I fussy cut out the branches, and attached to the canvas with Brutus Monroe Craft glue.  Then using 'Media Gel' I added the seashells, flat bubbles and large pieces of sea glass on my 12"x12" canvas.  I also applied more 'Nuvo Glitter', crushed glass glitter and ultrafine glitter. 

Lastly I paint scattered white arcylic paint in the canvas.  Then attached little gems to the canvas, little flat back bubbles, sequins and a little 'Seahorse' charm.  Hope this piece takes you on some under the sea adventure!