Mermaid House

Hello there! I'm here with a mid-month project for our Altered Embellishments Challenge over at the Mixed Media Monthly Blog. You still have time to play! You can see my first project, a gardening binder, HERE. I thought the UmWowStudio chippies I had left looked like undersea flora and coral so I got the idea to make a mermaid house complete with garden.

Hang on to your hats, this is going to be a long post with lots of pictures!

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I was able to remove the front glass panel so I could easily stamp a mermaid in the corner with archival black ink.

 After the tour, here come the tutorial tips:

1. When I'm thinking about filling a 3-dimensional space like a lantern, I usually make some mockups to rough out the spacing and proportions of what is going inside.

I used parts from Eileen Hull's Cookie Box die to form the base.

2. After hot gluing the cardboard base down I used crumpled aluminum foil to cover it and form the 'seafloor'. I also covered it with a layer of ultra thick gesso to smooth out the foil texture and build it up a bit. The house pedestal base I covered with DecoArt Media's Textured Sand Paste.

3. For the roof tiles I used the Village Gingerbread die. I wanted them to look like they were cut from mother of pearl. I had some wild adhesive backed prism film that I thought could work to give the roof tiles some interesting shimmer.

On its own it was way too "disco" so a covered it with several layers of a few different colors of Silks Acrylic Glazes. That toned it down and also added a nice shimmer.

4. The embellishments I altered with crackle paste and paint, paint with stamping and embossing powder.

The diecut seahorses I painted and then covered with Fractured Ice embossing
powder. That stuff is too cool!

5. Back to the base – I spread on a layer of modeling paste and sprinkled it all with fine white sand. As I started placing all the elements, I was sure to work from back to front because it would have been too hard to reach around and get to the back layer with the house etc. in place. I used hot glue to fasten the parts down.

6. I completely finished the house and pedestal so I could place it all as one unit into the lantern.

The mermaid resident has a little crab feeder in her yard.

7. Some of the chipboard embellishments I cut apart and reassembled so they would be
"3-D" and fit better in the space.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great weekend! Head on over to the MMM challenge post to see some inspiring projects and to join in the challenge yourself. You still have time!

Products used
Lavinia stamp: Alana Mermaid
DecoArt Media Modeling Paste
DecoArt Media Texture Sand Paste
various small shells, coral, sand
PaperArtsy Fresco paint: various colors
UmWowStudios laser cut chipboard pieces
Emerald Creek Embossing Powder: Fractured Ice

Dies
Sizzix Cookie Box
Sizzix Village Brownstone
Sizzix Village Manor
Sizzix Village Bungalow
Sizzix Village Gingerbread
AJVD Fringe Flower


Sizzix links in this post are affiliate links which do not affect the price you pay but allow me to earn a small percentage of a sale. Thanks!

I'm also entering this into the Frilly & Funkie 'In the Good Old Summertime' challenge. Summer makes me think of the beach and all things oceany. (My seasonal mantel decor is all beach themed right now.) The bright colors I used in the project also fit the season. Now I live far away from the beach but I can still visit it in my imagination. ;-)