Maura's Musings: Memory Box

Monday, April 15

Under the Sea Magic

Hello Monday, my friends! And welcome to another week on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. Thank you for joining us for the SPRING F LOWERS Challenge and we hope you will all join us again this week too.

This week the challenge is: MAKE YOUR OWN BACKGROUND

I had fun this week creating a bit of undersea magic with jellyfish and mermaids.

It's all about the background this week, and here is the one I created. I began by brushing water on my watercolor paper, then dropping in a variety of colors in the blue, green and purple range. While the watercolors were still wet, I laid a sheet of bubble wrap over it and let it sit for awhile. Then, I blended in a bit more watercolor and added splatters of gold gouache. I was aiming for a mix of bubbles and larger painted areas.

Now the fun begins! I stamped and painted mermaid tails and fussy cut them out.

I die cut these beautiful jellyfish from watercolor paper, and painted them with watercolors. Once dry, I popped another layer on top of the jellyfish with foam squares.

Next, I figured out the placement for the mermaid tails and jellyfish. I was aiming for some undersea magic.

I worked on the large sheet of watercolor paper, and once I was done, I adhered it to a page in one of my art journals.

Lots of details....

Final step - I wrote "there is magic under the sea..."

As always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away a $25 voucher to shop at the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store
Supplies:

Memory Box Graceful Jellyfish dies

Daniel Smith watercolors - Sap Green, Green Apatite Genuine, Quinacridone Coral, Quinacridone Violet, Yellow Ochre, Phthalo Green Blue,, Permanent Orange, Quinacridone Purple, Indanthrone Blue

Simon Says Stamp Be A Mermaid stamps

Dylusions 8x8 Creative Journal

Canson watercolor paper

Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink

Simon Says Stamp Fine Detail Scissors

Gold Gouache

Simon Says Stamp Foam Squares

Bubblewrap

So now it's YOUR turn, Happy Crafting! Maura

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Do you use Instagram ? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too
You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in .

Monday, September 25

Heavy Metal!

Hello Monday! I hope you have had a great week with time to be creative. We have a new challenge for you this week - HEAVY METAL...just use some metal!

It's been great having Carol Harper with us this month, and I want to wish her the best!

I love Steampunk, so when I saw heavy metal, my brain immediately went there and I decided to reuse an old peanut butter jar and transform it. Now I have a container for brushes, or pens, or...

I die cut a number of pipes from Memory Box and painted them with Metallique paints.

I painted both the inside and outside with two coats of the Metallique Emerald Green. I figured if I did both, then I wouldn't miss any areas. Originally I wanted to do this with a can, but of course when I checked our recycling, I could not find a can.

Once those layers dried, I used the Ring Cluster stencil and the Sparks paints and sponged in the design a couple of times.

Time to glue the pipes on, and since the container is round, they did not want to stay in place until I wrapped them with a hair band until they dried completely.

I screwed in the faucet, and used 3D gel medium to add the gears and beads around the jar.

Next, I added a thick layer of the Rust Pastes, then squirted it with water to try to get it to run down the edges...not so successful.

WARNING: Do not get impatient with the drying time and use your heat gun for too long, like I did!! Of course the plastic started to melt, so no more nice flat bottom and edges, but oh well, I can still make it work!

Works great to hold brushes!

Several photos below to show the details...

So, what's in your recycling bin that you could make something with?

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope this has inspired you to make a heavy metal project and join our challenge this week. I'm looking forward to it!

Our generous friends at Simon Says Stamp offers a $50 voucher each week!