Irish Mermaids? ;)

I think it's fair to say that I've become a wee bit addicted to making screens. I loved loved loved Linda E's screen project in Craft Stamper and I made my first screen for the UKS screen swap and was so pleased with it that I could barely bring myself to give it away to my swappee! :lol:

So for the latest challenge at Sweet Pea Stampers, I decided that, instead of making a card, I'd make another screen - one I could keep this time! :) Of course, the other advantage to making a screen was that I could get to play with more than one scrummy Sweet Pea image at a time. ;)

The challenge theme is "Luck of the Irish" and I decided to take my inspiration from that and use the colour green prominently in my project. With that in mind, I started thinking about greens and blues and the sea and mermaids... can you see where this is heading? ;) I seem to have a bit of a thing for mermaids and watery colours in my crafting lately. :lol:

So I had a rummage through my ever-growing collection of Sweet Pea stamps and chose four Ching Chou Kuik mermaids (I'm not sure if it's a good or a bad thing that I have enough Sweet Pea stamps that I have a range of mermaids from which to select four! :lol:) and this is what I made:

Not the best lighting in this photo - will try and take a daylight photo tomorrow... *looks at clock*... ooops, erm... later today! :lol: Here's what the individual panels look like:

I used Dylusions sprays inks to make the backgrounds, along with some stencils and some spritzed water, and also used the Dylusions sprays with a wet paintbrush to colour in my stamped images, all in shades of green and blue. I matted the painted images onto shimmery blue paper and attached to the screen panels which I bound together using blue chiffon ribbon. To finish I added some blue and green paper flowers and some blue and green gems. Oh and the reverse side of the screen is covered in this gorgeous, shimmery/foiledy K&Co paper:

This screen has now taken pride of place in my windowsill gallery of completed work. Ching Chou Kuik's images are just so gorgeous and having four of them displayed together like this in a screen is just fabulous. I'm definitely going to be making more screens. Quite possibly more Sweet Pea ones. :)

I am of course entering this for the Sweet Pea Stampers challenge and am also putting myself forward for their DT call. :)

Awww, do I have to?!!

So you may have seen Linda's gorgeous decorated screen on the cover of the March issue of Craft Stamper... it's an awesome project and inspired a few select nutcases *ahem* crafters over on UKS to organise a screen swap, whereby we would each make a decorated screen (we would be allocated a partner to swap with and what theme they wanted for their screen) to swap.

I got allocated Karen who wanted "Stampotique/Octopode Factory-style" for her screen. And so, after one false start (I didn't like the background I made so I cut new panels and started over), this is what I made:

The only problem is... I like it so much I don't wanna give it away! :lol:

But I will. *sob* I will send it on its merry way.

I'll just have to make another one for myself! :lol:

I think what I like most about this screen is how the background turned out (ironic, given that I'd abandoned my first attempt cos I wasn't happy with the background). I used Dylusions spray inks, stencils and spritzed water to make a vibrant, subtly patterned background - I think what I like most about this is how I managed to work the four separate panels as one unit, with the colours flowing and mixing across from one panel to the next. :)

I added some Alice in Wonderland quotes (from an Indigo Blu stamp set) in toning colours and in black and then drew a wavy striped line (to echo the wavy curve of the top of the panels) across the lower part of the panels and coloured it with black and white pens. I printed Alice in Wonderland Octopode Factory digi stamps onto white paper and painted them in using the Dylusions ink sprays and then cut them out and attached them to the panels so they were "standing" on the striped line (a fab Kat Crane tip to "ground" your figures, rather than leave them floating on the page).

I covered the backs of the panels in a vibrant, sparkly K&Co paper that seemed to fit with with the intense Dylusions colours and, to finish, bound the panels together using medium-thickness black waxed cord (it seemed to "fit" better than using ribbon).

Et voila. I really do love this and I've really enjoyed making it. I shall *definitely* be making more of these screens. But for now, this one must needs tomorrow be trusted to the tender mercies of Royal Mail. Adieu. Adieu. :)