A Birthday Octopus by Alison

Hello all!

Alison here from Words and Pictures.  I'm happy to be back from my little sabbatical to share a slightly unusual (for me) project today.  My nephew is fascinated by - and very knowledgeable about - marine life.  His favourite creatures are squid.  There isn't (yet) a Calico squid, but when a fabulous octopus turned up as a new design a while ago I knew it was the perfect choice for his birthday card.

I'm afraid I haven't any making-of photos... but here's the Octopus Wood Shape Style 2 in its naked state.

I'm no octopus expert so I did an octopus image search on Google and, as I scrolled down, this was the look which appeared most often.  I used DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics, built up in layers, to recreate it as best I could.

There's Pyrrole Orange, Quinacridone Gold and Transparent Red Iron Oxide involved, with Paynes Grey and some Burnt Umber for the shading; and then Titanium White with some Titan Buff for the pale areas.

The background panel was created with spritzes of DecoArt Media Misters in Yellow Green and Turquoise.  The Turquoise is a shimmer spray, so there's a glistening look of sunlight on water in places.

I added some translucent texture paste through a stencil, hoping to capture a watery translucence for my seaweed.  And I stamped some trailing tendrils of weed too.

I used embossing powder for my sentiment to make sure it would pop nicely against the background, and used a paintbrush cap to create my bubbles, both on the ocean panel and on the kraft card I mounted it onto.

So, a slight hop-out-of-kin for me but my nephew loved it, and that's what counts!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I'll see you again soon.

Alison x
Words and Pictures