Welcome 2010

CAUTION: LONG POST AHEAD :)

Welcome to a brand new decade, I know I`m a little late updating my blog, but as the old sayng goes, "better late than never".

It`s school holidays here ATM, so not much crafting happening, plus the heat over the last few days has been quite annoying! But enough about the weather :)

DD has been invited to a couple of sleep-over b`day parties, so while she was busy getting her things ready last night, I had the chance to join in this month`s brand new theme over at INKURABLE STAMPERS (where I was lucky enough to win one of the fabulous prizes, for the colour challenge with my party cones , thank you Sarah)

A few months back the theme was "By the Sea" & I made THIS mermaid using a template from THE ENCHANTED GALLERY (a great resource for paperdoll templates!) so I went back & downloaded a different mermaid to make her into a bookmark.

So, here she is, complete with navel jewellery (hard to see, but it`s there LOL)

After tracing all the pieces onto cream coloured cs, I used various images on her arms & torso (by Technique Tuesday & Oxford Impressions), & attached them using tiny brads. I added some beads by sewing them onto her neck as well as onto her wrist. Her "hair" was cut out from a printed book page, & painted with acrylic paint & KG. I like my mermaids to be a bit on the conservative side LOL, so I added a couple of butterflies (Non Sequitor,from my scraps box) to cover her bossom.

Her tail was painted with silver paint, stamped using THIS set of DARKROOM DOOR stamps (part of my prize pack for taking part in DRD Flickr challenge, thank you Rachel) as well as some Victoria`s Secret stamps, using royal purple StaZon ink, & highlighted with a white Souffle pen. I added a little chalk to her arms & her cheeks, & she kind of reminds me of Cher (must be the purple hair LOL) If you look very closely, you`ll see there`s a tiny purple rhinestone where her belly button should be (DD`s idea, thanks darling) She`s approx. 11" long (or should that be 11" tall?) & she will reside happily-ever-after in my currently-being-read book from now on :)

There`s heaps happening over at INKURABLE STAMPERS, including a new prize structure (if you haven`t had a go at the challenges before, this is a great time to take part, as there`s a prize for newbies as well as for domestic AND international entries, so go & check it out HERE And if you`re looking for something a little different there`s also THIS starting this coming Sunday, & I can`t wait to see what the theme will be.

On another note, I also managed to finish my ATCs for THIS swap, but I`ll share when I get my returns back...

& I just got an email from LEESA about THIS competition, so if you have a little time to play, why not join in?

And just what I need to get me scrapping again, this is the prize pack I received on the 24th of December from DARKROOM DOOR, thank you so much Rachel. You`ve heard it from me before, & here it is again: You`ve got to be in it to win it, so go & create something, have fun & play along, & USE that stash, you know you want to!!!!!!

So in conclusion,thank you for reading this far, & Happy New Year/Decade, & as always, thank you for visiting my humble "palace"