Emerald Creek & Stencil Girl Bloghop 2017

Hello Stencil & Embossing lovers! I am thrilled to be part of this blog hop! The designers participating are amazing! Made this a wee bit daunting. The best part is, I got to play with some of my favorite things.  Make sure you hop along & comment on our designers posts to be entered to win! With out further ado I give you my project. Grab a cup of coffee or eggnog & join in the fun!!

StencilGirl & Emerald Creek Blog Hop

I decided to create a canvas, it is 6"x12" & I call it Mermaid Dream. Of course I went slightly overboard but how appropriate! 
 

Details & information on winning some great prizes are at the end of this post. For now, how about a field trip to see how this canvas came about?

I started with an idea of how I wanted my canvas to look & while it did change somewhat my original idea had me drawing out where my images would go. Let's begin with the mermaid stencil & some modeling paste. The stamp was there for placement ideas.

I knew waves & the sea was something I wanted, so watercolor paints were the answer. First spritz some water, add color & swirl it around with a brush. 

While the paper was still wet, I added some Infusions powders. These are wonderful powders that burst forth when water is added & have a walnut stain element to them. 

Next up was some embossing. Using the Embossing Dabber to apply ink, followed with Emerald Creek emboss powder- Winter's Mistake. 

This is a wonderful way to add snow, it has a fabulous fluffy snow like look to it with tiny blue sparkles. I realized it would also look like the white caps of waves! Once the emboss was heated & set, the piece was cut. 

Working on placement. Adding these awesome, embossed salmon. I wanted this canvas to be a combination of reality & whimsy. The original plan was to add more waves at the top on the horizon but that idea changed. These elements were not adhered yet & photos were taken to remember placement. 

Time for some color! My favorite when working on modeling paste is Glimmer Mist. The bottom of the canvas was taped off with masking tape & then spritzed away. 

The canvas was built by gradually adding layers of Glimmer Mist. Sometimes a paint brush was used to help move the color. The great thing is, if a mistake is made, it is easily fixed by using water to wipe up. The bad thing is being careful not to over work the canvas or water/erase parts that are well liked! 

Let's make some embellishments! My Onyx Frost, embossed, Haida animals were painted with Prima Marketing Watercolor. Emerald Creek has a wonderful variety of stamps including many hard to find Haida or North West Pacific Native images. The water color paints really help these images stand out, they are quite bright & fun to use.

The Sun Mask was colored the same way. It has been embossed using Northern Lights. A bit of the detail of the stamp is lost when it is embossed with some of the heavier powders but it also helps them stand out & gives them weight. 

The title was painted with acrylic paint & embossed using Fractured Ice. This is one of my favorites. The original color shows through & the emboss has an inky look. 

The sun's rays were made using the watercolor's & die cut with Seth Apter's Sunburst die. The marks were made using a stencil of Seth's, acrylic paint & a foam sponge.

Here are some close ups!  Once all the pieces were adhered, some back ground stamping & mark making was added. The words were stenciled using acrylic paint & cosmetic foamie, but as the canvas is springy the words were kinda smooshed. Simple fix was to outline the letters in white & put back the definition.

The top of my canvas had some more stencil work & my quote. It was typed out on a paper using the same techniques as the painted waves. 1 of my favorite quotes, "always be yourself unless you can be a mermaid* then always be a mermaid". 

Very light stamping was added in the sunburst. My mermaid face was painted in copper, the mermaid was outlined with gold pen. Some wax was used to highlight some of the details in the mermaid. 

The final touch was to add this wonderful little seaweed piece with metallic paint & the gemstones. That is it!!! This canvas was ridiculously fun to make. Pulling out all the fun inky paints and being able to just let go & be technique crazy was great. Thanks so much to Kim Evans of Emerald Creeks for inviting me to participate in this hop & to Stencil Girl & Mary Beth Shaw for supplying me with such great stencils to play with! I hope you hop along with us and make sure you comment to win!!  

GIVEAWAY

One lucky winner will receive a $25 Gift Certificate to StencilGirl Products

AND a $25 Gift Certificate to Emerald Creek!

Enter to win by leaving a comment below.

Then be sure to visit the other blogs in the hop and comment to win.

The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN!

One winner will be chosen at random from all blog comments!
(One comment per blog please.)

You have until Tuesday, December 19th at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments.

Winner will be announced on
StencilGirl's Facebook page on Wednesday, December 20th.

Seth Apter Giveaway

  Seth will be giving Discovery, the artwork on his blog post, to one lucky person. Simply leave a comment on his post by Tuesday, 12/19 at 11:59PM Central Time to be eligible. Make sure he has a way to reach you if the random number table picks your name. Internationals are eligible too.

Blog Hop Order:

December 13

Seth Apter

Mary Beth Shaw

Kim Evans

Vicki Evans

December 14

Gwen Lafleur

Mary C. Nasser

Julia Chupik

Claudia Neubacher

December 15
Janet Joehlin

Tina Walker

Diana Hetherington

Karen Bearse (you are here)

 Thanks for playing along!! Good luck.    

Supplies: 


Emerald Creek: Fractured Ice, 
                        Onyx Frost
                        Northern Lights
                        Winter's Mistake
                        Gemstones
                        Sun Mask Stamp
                        Native Art Stamps
                         
StencilGirl: Mermaid Stencils & Masks by Jessica Sporn

                -Whimsical Waves by Terri Stegmiller
                 -Text & Texture by Seth Apter 
                 -Inside Out by Seth Apter 

Sunburst Die by Seth Apter
Eclectica Stamp set 4
Pattern Play Stamp Set