Under the Sea

Finally I have managed to get this project out of my head and into the world...YAY!  This "advent calendar" was a new release from Kaiser for Christmas last year. As soon as I saw it I wanted to make one, but not as an advent calendar....I immediately saw it as a fantastic craft storage unit for all the little embellie bits we collect! I wanted to make it look like an aquarium, with one of Michelle Perkett's mermaids as the feature. I wasn't sure how I was going to do the background but thanks to one of my lovely, talented, online friends, Ileana (who used a digi kit to do the background in her "Fish Box"), I went looking for a digi kit...found the perfect one HERE...called Mysterious Deep :)

To start, I painted the wood pieces...and there were LOTS of them!...with turquoise craft paint. Printed out one of the elements from the digi kit as my background, with a couple of fish, seahorse and an octopus added. The DP used for the drawers is Kaiser from the Airy Fairy collection. I've used this paper a few times now and it's become one of my favourites.

The mermaid is Tutti Frutti Mermaid from Michelle Perkett...available in Michelle's Etsy shop HERE. She was printed onto Splendorgel 190, coloured with Copics then highlighted with glitter, glitter pens, Kindy Glitz and Kaiser pearls. The finished image was cut out and mounted on dimensional dots.

To finish the "aquarium" I added a couple of plastic plants from the local pet shop (when I was explaining to the lady what I wanted them for, she just looked at me like I'd lost my marbles LOL!!) and a collection of shells.

I am soooo happy to have this completed! It was a lot of work but I'm really happy with the result. I'd love to make one each for my little granddaughters for their bedrooms....I think these would be perfect decorated to match their rooms, to keep all the little girly things in that they seem to love collecting :) I will have to think about it for a while and do one at a time...I was a bit over doing the drawers by the time I finished this one!!!

A close up of the "aquarium".............

 

and the mermaid..................