Hello bellas!

Amy here, and I’m back with one more MerMay card for Scenic Saturday. This time around I inked up the ever lovely, Tiny Townie Mermaid set. It’s hard to believe this curly haired cutie was released six years ago and I still go back to her time and again. It’s not just because she herself is so adorable, I also really like that she comes with unique background builder elements as well. Between you and me, after all this time, I’m still not-so-secretly hoping for a few new Tiny Townie mermaid sets to be introduced, as I would love to mix and match them all together into one big under the sea party… fingers crossed!  😉

But I digress, as for my card today the scene I imagined for this little mermaid was an under-the-sea cave where she keeps her most precious treasures. I began making that a reality by stamping and masking TT Mermaid, then stamping the treasure chest right next to her tail before masking it off as well. I then used the small kelp stamp to add greenery behind her, both growing up from the ground and down from the cave ceiling that I knew I would color in. The last thing I stamped was the small sentiment from the Under the Sea sentiment set. I purposefully stamped it at a wonky angle so that I could make it look like a piece of driftwood signage stuck in the sand. Once everything was stamped into place I knew where the cave opening would be so I began coloring in the algae covered rock walls and the sandy floor below. I made sure to add that algae green to the chest and sign as well, to make everything look like it had been beneath the waves for a long while. Because the majority of the background was covered in cool blues and greens I decided to take advantage of the way contrasting colors naturally ‘pop’ against each other and make her a sunny little goldfish mermaid. This simple trick is a great way to pull the viewers eye right to the star of the show. Finally, I felt like I had a lot of empty space in that cave and I kicked myself for not stamping in any sea friends before coloring in the scene. I ended up adding drops of Copic colorless blender and letting it bloom on that blue background. This effect reminded me of soft jellyfish bodies so I grabbed a white gel pen to add the tentacles and sparkle on each before finishing them off with some Ranger glossy accents. Now TT Mermaid is joined by a school of jellies in that cave of hers and I’m much happier with the finished card.

Stay crafty my friends!