Leafy Seadragons

This is my page in Sharon's journal, Seahorses and Mermaids...

I love creating with the gorgeous colours of the ocean :) My clever Dad used to cut out amazing shapes by hand on his scrollsaw... his leafy seadragon is perfect for this page. Will take a pic of it "raw" and add it here :)

Searching for a quote, I remembered Mum had published her book in black and white as well as colour... and given that we'd coloured in part of this book, I didn't feel bad using one of its pages. I don't like cutting up books!

The Leafy Sea Dancer was written, illustrated and published by my Mum. I have clever parents :D

The page in Sharon's journal has a flap. At this point, I didn't know what I was going to do, apart from use my fave colours and leafy seadragons!

I sprayed the page in the 3 Distress inks and splattered it with water. I thought I took a pic of that but its not there... It was such a gorgeous mermaid blue green mix of splatters!

I smeared the whole page with Ranger's Gloss Translucent Texture Paste, thinking of making it swirly textures. But it ended up smooshed like this instead.

I'm learning to let the art do what it wants, usually its right. The times I "argue" and keep trying to do what I want, it turns into a disaster! lol :)

While the texture paste was wet, I pressed bubblewrap over it all... then used the bottom of a reinker bottle and pressed out those bigger bubbles.

Then I dropped on Distress Dry Glitter in tiny mounds and light sprinkles... can't really see it in the photos, but its super sparkly and shiny!

The splatters of limey yellow and dark blue are from dripping Distress Oxide Ink from the Reinkers. I started this one drip at a time, then shook the bottle like a salt shaker :) Amazing effects took place, depending whether it touched wet texture paste or dry glitter.

Waiting for art to dry isn't easy sometimes... but thankfully the seadragons needed some attention!

Here they are after being splattered with Distress Oxide Inks then misted with water to encourage the ink to blend.

Dried seadragons were edged with Ground Espresso Distress Ink (ink pad and blending tool) then had highlights added using a yellow watercolour marker,  and white and black Sharpies.

Closeup photo of the groovy texture paste after it dried. 

This pic reminds me of algae and seaweed :) Loving these colours!

The seadragons were glued to the page using Glossy Accents... the seadragons themselves are only a little bit sparkly, thanks to my un-precise glueing and a clear Wink of Stella pen. 

Seadragons are such gorgeous creatures! They're found in a few places around the world, one being along the coastline of South Australia.

The wording I used is from the actual page from the book. Mum made the text in her book appear to be waving and bending over the pages :)

"Gracefully swaying without need for speed, are creatures of beauty disguised as seaweed." JE James

The illuminated letter of the G was drawn by Mum too. This is the original design for Dad's cutout creations.

Thanks so much for reading my post :) I'm very pleased with this page and am sure Sharon will like it too. In real life, the page is so pretty and sparkly with gorgeous mermaid colours, without being over the top! And who says miracles are impossible?

Loved working in your book Sharon, Thank You!