Fish Scale Artwork Fail or Not Fail?

Hi everyone! I am back from my trip to Washington, DC and so glad to be home.  

I was so busy while there, I had very little time to update you on what I was doing, so I wanted to share a few pics that I snapped.

Travel ready

First Plane of the Day

Beautiful Day to fly

Inside the Gaylord National Resort

We had such a great time and learned so much.

I was able to get a little work done on a project this weekend.

And, I want to share a few tips with you!

I know that we all have seen awesome fish scale artwork all over Pinterest.

I really love this one with the ombre effect:

Ombre Fish Scale Art

Watercolor Fish Scale Art

Well, I have attempted my own version and learned a few things.

I collected my paint chips from WalMart mostly. They are large and you can get multiple circles out of one chip.

Glidden Paint Chips

I chose various shades of yellow.

This is going to be in my living room, (hopefully!), so I chose yellow to complement the other colors in that room.

I used my circle cutter to cut out tons of circles. Then, I cut out more circles.  

And, when I thought I had plenty, I cut out some more...seriously. This takes a lot of circles. 

I used a sheet of foam board to glue them on, that I will put in the frame when I am done. 

I marked out the spacing of my rows with a ruler and started gluing down my first few rows.

Spacing my rows with a ruler

I alternated the direction that my rows were overlapping.

Alternated direction of paint chips

I did quite a few row that first night then put it away.

When I started on it the next day.  I noticed that the chips weren't laying flat.

Notice in the above photo how it looks like they are kind of sticking up? It was way worse. 

I didn't like it at all!

paint chips not laying flat

paint chips not laying flat

But, I kept going. Only now, as I finished a row, I laid my cutting mat down on the rows that I had just glued down to flatten them out.

If you notice in the above photos the lower rows are lying flatter.  

That was much more to my liking.  The hubs was looking at it and wasn't quite sure that he could see the "vision" that I had. **sigh**

We will see.  I carried on...

I finally got all my rows done and when I came back to it, after letting all the glue dry; it was like this:

Bowed foam board

Bowed foam board

What have I done wrong? Does this happen to other people who make the beautiful fish scale art?

Is this a complete crafting fail?

All "scales" adhered

This is not the finished product, but I wanted to share my doubts with you.  I thought this was a fairly straightforward project.  

My plans were to replace a mirror in the living room with this artwork.  I'm repainting the frame that the mirror is in to brighten it up.  I hope it's not a complete disaster.  

I have additional plans for the actual artwork, as well.  It includes a little glitter and mod podge.

Let me know your experiences with this kind of project. Have you had any major craft fails or near misses? Share with me, please! Let me know I'm not alone!



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