Wednesday 5 August 2015

Summertime 2 for CVCC

Sea and Sand

With thoughts turning to summertime at CVCC it has to be the beach for me, I love nothing better than a stroll across the sands looking for shells, taking in the sea air and watching the waves come in and out and this prompted my card today.


I began with two A4 sheets of card and the wet in wet technique - Vivian Keh has a great video tutorial here for you to try out if you like the look of the effects.


I used broken china, salty ocean, faded jeans and weathered wood distress sprays for the sea sheet and then antique linen, tattered rose and tea dye for the sand sheet.


As I was gathering the blueprint stamps and some dies together that would fit the theme I thought about having a weathered frame as part of the design so I made another sheet using coffee shop glimmer mist with vintage photo, gathered twigs and rusty hinge distress sprays.


The frame was diecut from the above sheet, inked with walnut stain and tea dye inks, splattered with water and then dipped in hickory smoke stain and and finished with a dip in tarnished bronze stain. This sounds like a fast process but I did heat dry in between each layer of inks.


The background was cut from the blue sheet and run through the dot matrix texture fade with the oval diffuser on it so it only textured the outside edge. I then painted some of the dots with various blues and white distress paint before stamping some small script in the centre. I roughened the edges and inked with walnut stain.


The large conch shell is from Tim's nautical blueprint set, stamped and cut from the sand sheet and watercoloured using various distress markers and a waterbrush. The smaller shells were cut from some offcuts of distressed card and glossy accents added over the top and the small starfish cut from hessian using the small sand dollar movers and shapers die.


Here we have some cheesecloth sprayed with antique linen and frayed burlap and scrunched up, the movers and shapers seahorse and some greenery cut from the festive greens strip die.


Having cut the seahorse from the sea sheet I painted on rock candy crackle paint and when it was dry blended over and around some walnut stain DI. I think he's one of the nicest seahorses I have ever made.


Finally the work block cut from the adventure thinlits set in coredinations paper, adhered to a piece of the sand card, sanded and inked.


I layered and overlapped the pieces as this fits onto a 10 1/2 x 14 1/2 cm card.


I hope you have time to explore a beach or somewhere out in the open whilst the warmer days are with us - enjoy........


..... I will soon when we will start our family holiday travelling to Lanzarote, it's fabulous taking the girls down to the beach late afternoon as the day begins to cool and the sand doesn't burn your feet. We'll take some bread and feed the fish too.

I hope you can join us at CVC Summertime challenge.

hugs Brenda xxx

A simple life is good with me. I don't need a whole lot. For me, a T-shirt, a pair of shorts, barefoot on a beach and I'm happy.
Yanni




15 comments:

Jennie Atkinson said...

Gorgeous watercolour backgrounds Brenda and a inspired use of all those wonderful dies. It really does shout SEASIDE!! Jennie x

rachel said...

this is so indpirational brenda ... i love it to pieces. great techniques. thanks for sharing. hugs rachel x

Gina said...

I have a tin full of shells that I and my kids have collected over the years...just one each visit, gifts from the ocean. I need to make something with them soon :D XXX

Scrapintheattic.com said...

Wow love that seahorse, he would be perfect in my folio! X

sarascloset said...

Wonderful inspiring artwork, Brenda! I really enjoyed seeing how you put this all together, and I especially love that blue background and that magical seahorse! Hugs!

Meggymay said...

A lovely project, fabulous backgrounds and shells.
Yvonne

Patty O'Malley said...

Wonderful page, Brenda! Love the seahorse!

experiments in paper said...

Beautiful card, Brenda - your shells are fantastic! And that seahorse is beautiful, as is your Vivian-inspired background! I've learned a lot from both of you! xx Lynn

mamablitger said...

Brenda you truly created an amazing card. Love the bacgrounds.. They are fabulous. And your embellishmen is also gorgeous. Such a lovely way to use that lovely frame.. Waw...impressing
Thank you for sharing your fantatic card. Also I agree on that the Seahorse is something very special and extremely pretty.
Thank you for sharing and also thank you for explaining each step.
Hugs from Monica... Spain

Deb said...

Beautiful Brenda, love your background,the dot texture fades look great coloured with the various shades and your seahorse is so adorable, wonderful colour and texture! Love all the layered sea life,I can almost smell the ocean! Have a wonderful time on your vacation!

Unknown said...

This reminds me of a scene from the ocean bottom of buried treasure - the rusty frame embedded behind a pile of shells and sea creatures with on old fisherman's net tangled around them. Perfect habitat for little sea urchins! Really LOVELY creation Brenda. j.

Mary Elizabeth said...

So many gorgeous layers. Love the frame!! And that seahorse is spectacular. Beautiful coloring on the shells too -- Just so much to love. Thanks for the inspiration :) -- Mary Elizabeth

Anonymous said...

Rich in texture and the colours are perfection for your theme.
Wishes
Lynne

A Pink said...

ooo love the wet on wet technique and how you have used the diffuser with the dot matrix texture fade . Fabulous choice of elements that really do capture the essence of summertime for me . The seahorse is a real stunner .
Happy hols Brenda x

Anita Houston The Artful Maven said...

Gorgeous scene! LOVE the watercolor look! Gorgeous colors too!