Still wishing for the seaside!

Yes, I am back in my seaside themed comfort zone again - get used to it - I might be there until the end of summer!!! The background is basically a gesso resist with Distress Spray Stains - described in detail below if you want to know more.

Today's creation is going into a few challenges that inspired it (gotta love a challenge when you need some ideas to get you started).

- Art with Heart June Challenge - Summer with Sizzix

(I used three Sizzix dies - Cobblestones, Tattered Pinecone (foliage) and Sand & Sea)

- That Craft Place - Layers 

(Many MANY layers - check out my info below)

And last but not least...

- Simon Say Stamp Monday Challenge - Mist and Stamp

(I used Distress Spray Stains and Cosmic Shimmer Mists, plus a Prima texture stamp (Finnabair), and shell and quote stamps (Rubber Dance New Retro Beach set).

Here's a little more info about how I made it.

The background is layered up as follows:

1 Torn pieces of book page, Sizzix Cobblestones die cuts (torn into pieces) and net ribbon.

2 A loose coat of white gesso - the coverage is incomplete.

3 Distress Spray Stains in Squeezed Lemonade, Wild Honey, Salty Ocean and Evergreen Bough. I added a few layers, drying between. The gesso resists the ink and the book page is more absorbent than the background, so you get paler and darker areas of each colour.

4 Circles created with texture paste through a stencil (Tim Holtz), then painted over with a wash of Distress Paints in Salty Ocean and Evergreen Bough once dry.

5 At this stage I added a touch more spray here and there and stamped speckles around the edge in Potting Shed Archival.

The background is mounted onto torn corrugated card which has been lightly gessoed.

The decor was created as follows:

1 Seahorse: Die cut and sprayed with two colours of Cosmic Shimmer Mist - dried and then inked with Wild Honey and Walnut Stain Distress Inks. Then spritzed with a Distress Marker Spritzer and a Frayed Burlap Distress Marker to create the speckles.

2 Foliage: Cut from the Tattered Pinecone die, inked with Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint Distress Inks and stamped with the same Prima texture stamp for detail. Glued only on the central stem to allow it to to be bent upwards to simulate movement. The chipboard foliage is Tando.

3 Sea Bed: Pieces of torn sandpaper, driftwood, a real shell and stamped shells inked to match the real one.

Many of the elements are glued with Pinflair for dimension.

Took a fair old while to make this but I think it was worth the effort :).

Thanks for popping in!

Katy xxx

I sense a blue and green theme....

Not remotely deliberate but it would appear today's offering is also blue and green.......... It's a canvas I did 100 years ago with the wonderful Hels Sheridan, using Distress Paint onto burlap panels. That's me sneaking a little kiss on my wedding day :).

It was my good friend Lou Wither's idea to add the tiara twists with the pearls (because I wore pearls on my wedding day) which I thought was genius!

I was the only one who used a photo on their canvas but anyone who has ever met me won't be remotely surprised at that! Here's Hels' original (the observant amongst you will now see just how long it has taken me to get it completed!). And that I didn't follow the instructions.......................

This is a rare beast as it's a workshop creation that's actually going up on the craft room wall. My lovely creative space is very nearly finished in there now - hopefully be completely done this weekend. Yay!

Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge 1

I decided it was high time I got back in  the craft room and what better to get my mojo started than a challenge? Linda Ledbetter, equipped with a great new team of inspirational helpers, is back for another helping of the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge, based on Sir Tim's new book. This first challenge from Vol 3 is paint marbling with Distress Paints. Here's my entry.

Now I must confess I only have two colours of Distress Paint (sorry Tim! I just have sooooooooooo much paint!!!), so I restricted myself to those two colours - Stormy Sky and Bundled Sage - for my marbled background. I result made me think of the sea so I searched out all my sea-themed stamps and went from there.

I stamped and masked the anemones image in Watering Can Archival (my new fave ink!) and added the netting and leafy fronds in Distress Ink. I quickly dabbed the ink on the fronds with a baby wipe while still wet to blur the image so it looks like the leaves are in water. I stamped the fish and shells separately and coloured with Distress Inks. I added a bit of Perfect Pearls to the fish to make them shimmery like the real thing! I finished with a bit of net ribbon secured using a piece of die cut rather than gluing behind the fine mesh.

LOVE this background technique - so simple even I can master it and it looks cool! And if the joy of crafty inspiration were not enough, INSPIRATION EMPORIUM are sponsoring Challenge #1, offering an amazing $50 gift certificate to one lucky participant!

Am hoping to keep up with at least some of the challenges (yeh, right I hear you cry!) and make the tags up into a little book when I'm done.

Stamps are by Art Journey (fish and coral), Crafty Individuals (seashells), Stampington (leafy frond) and PaperArtsy (netting stamp).