Art Impressions Blog: Treasured Mermaid Armful w/ Watercolor Background by Lynn Dionne

Happy Wednesday Ai Fans!!!

Watch video tutorial here!!!

Today we will be using a brand-new "Armfuls" stamp set! This little set is the Ai Treasured Armful Set and comes with this adorable mermaid, a cute little dog, a seashell and treasure chest. These little critters are called "Armfuls" because when you die cut them, they will have a slit above and below their arms so that they can hold something in their arms. In this project we will have the mermaid hold a beautiful seashell, but she could certainly hold the treasure chest, a sentiment, a heart, some flowers, or just about anything your imagination can come up with!

We will start by creating a simple, yet pretty, watercolor background with several layers of interest. We will use the Tim Holtz Distress Inks in a variety of blues to create an ombre' affect. To do this we will apply the inks onto a craft mat and spritz them with water and lay some watercolor paper on top to pick up the colors. We will heat set and add more color as until we get the affect that works best. Next, we can spatter the panel with those same inks and then spatter with some white ink and also some clear glitter for a bit of sparkle!

Next, we use the Hero Arts Bold Prints Starry Night Background Stamp to add the look of waves or movement in the water. We will go back to those same inks again and apply them to the stamp in that same ombre' order and then spritz the stamp with water and finally we can stamp the image. This will give the background such a beautiful look and it is so simple to do!

We can cut a small piece of watercolor paper for the sand at the bottom of the card panel. We will use a couple of brown inks to create this piece and spatter it for some added texture.

Now we can stamp, color and die cut all of our images! All of the coloring was done using the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens in the following colors: Blender, Sugared Almond Pink, Peach Pink, Dk Pink, Yellow, Flesh Colour, Lt Blue, Turquoise Green, Lilac, Lt Gray, Gray, Beige, Mid Brown.

You will see that the mermaid will have a slit above and below her arms so that we can easily tuck a little seashell in her arms.

Let's create a standard A2 card base and add our background panel. Now we can add all of our images to the card.

Finally, let's go back to this same stamp set and add the sentiment. We will use the Ai Decorative Journal Page 2 Set which has a wonderful banner that we die cut from some black cardstock. We will stamp this using some Versamark Watermark Ink Pad and emboss it with some detail white embossing powder.

Let's do the final assembly of all of the images and sentiment. For some added interest we will add some sparkly gems around the treasure chest, a few iridescent flowers to her hair, and some sequins in the background for some more dimension and sparkle!

Thank you so much for joining me today! Have a fun and crafty day!!!