3D Sea Art - How to Really Get Your Money's Worth of $1.25 Thrift Gift Wrap

During my summer pilgrimage to my New England origins, I picked up a beautiful piece of art paper at a thrift store in downtown Foxboro, MA. Do I remember the name of the store, no. Artist, no. After a time-consuming internet search, I found that the paper is called Whale Song. This explosion of whales reminded me of my wonderful trip to Alaska, and all the wildlife I experienced there. When we went whale watching in Juneau, I expected to see a fluke or maybe, if lucky, a breach. What we got was a pod of 17 whales working together in what is called bubble netting, and it is the most amazing sight! Over and over they signaled to each other to dive, make bubbles, and then all at once, WHOOSH! Up came an inescapable mass of giant mouths, scooping up the frantic and confused fish.

Whale song is a dreamy underwater seascape with occasional little girls riding the mammals. I couldn't choose just one side. So, how to display its beauty?

So, on reverse, we have pairs of whale
 sharks and humpback whales.
Background dolphin didn't make cut.

I didn't have a plan for this beauty,
but I knew I needed it.

My scary freehand sperm whale with eyeball

First, let me free-hand a sperm whale and cut it out. Add a googly eye, and attach it to wall. This paper was two-sided (back side was monochromatic green and white background mammals). But there was much remaining of the once rectangular paper masterpiece after I cut this wonderous monster out. So, now what?

Finwhale face is in single shade

of green, tail end of humpback

is in full-color.

I set out to cutting out one each of the SMALLER mammals on the monochrome side. The blue whale and an even larger version of a finwhale that I couldn't get whole were lost to eternity. Okay, technically there were two "background" whale sharks, but who's looking that closely? Then, one of every multi-colored mammal and shark and octopus. OKAY! Two full-color humpbacks. I am looking that closely. Many, many individual fish. Many. And corals and seaweed. All these things were layered: monochromatic marine life on scrapbook paper backing, then multicolored large creatures on transparency, then random fish and octopus. Even within these layers, I used foam two-sided glue doodads and tiny floor protectors (originally to go under cache-pots, natch) to create levels on levels.

Not where I planned it to go, but how

can I deny that custom fit?

The green die-cut seaweed was purchased and was attached only at the bottoms, the better to pop out on the Z-axis.You can see their shadows which is cool. I am still debating taking one of the green ones on the left and painting it coral. We shall see. Maybe add some red fish over the top? I found one final scrap with 5 whole red-orange fish and 3 nice blue tang fish. Not sure. I so think the left side needs more orange. Also, lights. We do have left-over LEDs from Tootie Pie's room. This will be the 3D Sea Art Improvement - Adding Lights post to be added soon!