Tattered Angels Mermaid on Canvas

Hi, it’s Karen Crossen here today and I have a summery project to share with you – Mermaid on Canvas. It has been inspired by my latest voyages. Few weekends ago, we were driving home through Florida and decided to visit some of roadside America along the way. So we found ourselves in Weeki Wachee Florida – home of the live mermaids! It was so much fun to see and so I wanted to create a piece that reminded me of our road trip!

 I pulled out a canvas and some beautiful Tattered Angels colors to create this piece – I hope you will enjoy making one too! There is just something about mermaids that are so magical!

Materials used for the project:
Tattered Angel Glimmer Mist – Limeade, Dragonfly and Key Lime Pie
Tattered Angels Plain Jane Simply Sheer – Aqua
Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze – Java and Icicle
Tattered Angels Plain Jane Stained Glass – Lavender
Tattered Angel Glimmer Glam – Golden Goddess
Canvas Corp Stretched Canvas
Canvas Corp Canvas Scraps
7gypsies Rubbings – Journal Scroll (discontinued)
Gesso, Clear Gesso, Brown Archival Ink
word stencil and other random stencils
tissue paper, Ultimate Glue
Paint Brushes, scissors

Start with a wrapped canvas and prep it by coating the back of the canvas with gesso. This will stiffen the canvas. When it dries use a word stencil and other stencils on the canvas with brown archival ink. After the ink is dry, coat the entire canvas in clear gesso. While the gesso is wet, spray on the DragonFly and Key Lime Pie Glimmer Mist. Spray the blue on the top of the canvas and the green on the bottom. Spraying into the gesso will really set the color so you can work on top of the color! Before the clear gesso dries, splatter on Glimmer Glaze in Icicle. It will move the other colors and make the white dots. You might want to practice this on a seperate practice canvas to see how big you want the white dots to be.

Once it is dry, start adding other colors. The purple should be put on the canvas in an up and down pattern. Then take the Glimmer Glaze in Icicle and put small dots where the white ‘bubbles’ are to give them a little extra glimmer. Use the Glimmer Glam on the edges to give the golden color to the left bottom corner and a small amount on the right upper side. Then take the Glimmer Glaze in Java to darken the corners.

While the canvas dries, start making the mermaid tail. Take some scrap paper and sketch out the tail to find the size and shape that you want for you canvas. Once you are happy, use the sketch to trace the tail onto Canvas Corp Canvas. Then use the Glimmer Mists and Glaze to color the tail. Spray the darker color on the edges of the fin and the bottom of the tail. Then use a lighter color for the rest of the tail. When it is drying, coat the color with the Glimmer Glaze in Icicle. Fray the edges of the canvas with your fingers and a pair of scissors. Glue down the tail to the canvas with glue, but leave the tail curling up for dimension! Use rub-ons to add some accents to the tail and the canvas. I had some old ones in my stash, but you could also use a black pen to make the markings on your project. Finally, print out the text onto tissue paper using a printer. Try different fonts and sizes to find one that you like! Carefully use matte gel to put the text down. I use the matte gel on the canvas and lay the tissue paper on top of it! (I usually mess up at least one set of text, so print out a couple of the ones you like! Gently, coat the top of the text with the matte gel. When it is dry, use a brush to randomly watercolor it with the Glimmer Mists!

Paint around the edges of the canvas randomly with glimmer mists and glimmer glam to match the inside of the canvas. Once it is dry, enjoy your creation!

With layers of various colors and types of finish, I managed to achieve the beautiful blues of the sea – a home for my mermaid friend.

Happy crafting!

Karen Crossen
blog and Instagram

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