On the Sea for the Funkie Junkie Boutique!

Cec is hosting the current Funkie Junkie Boutique blog (formerly Frilly and Funkie), and has asked us to think "Water, Water, Everywhere!"  She describes it thus:

Often when people go on vacation there is water involved – fishing, cruising, checking out the aquarium, enjoying water sports or playing in the sand at the beach. For this challenge I want you to create a vintage or shabby chic project that reminds you of one or more of these past times.

For some reason, this brought to mind vintage Japanese woodblock prints, including those by the master Hokusai:

And then, naturally, the Japanese reference took me to origami paper, of which I have a lovely collection thanks to one of my former nursing students.... and while looking through my stash I discovered quite a bit of leftovers from this make. The bright and tangled bits of the sash for that journal were what I had, and as an art quilter, that explosion of pattern and color quite appeals.



I had enough to cut out a little boat, and added a mast of gold card stock, to accentuate the little gold highlights in the origami papers.

I placed it in a night sky, created by painting card with Chipped Sapphire Distress Paint, and splattering with a bit of Brushed Pewter Distress Paint.  I then added some stars cut from gold card stock with the Swirling Stars die from Tim Holtz.  I added some Nuvo Worn Linen Expanding Mousse as waves - this stuff distresses quite nicely under heat.  I don't have any closeups, but I quite liked the effect.

I should have just left it there..... but we went camping the next few days and whilst in the mountains, I got in my noggin that I should make this a shaker card, and a double one at that!  Blame it on the thin air.... but many hours later I conceded to a single shaker, as you'll see.

First, though, I decided on a vertical 5 x 7 size, due to the format of my little boat, and the desire to show both the stars and wave sequins (both shakers in my mind).  I taped together a largish rectangle die from the (nested) Must Have Rectangles Set One from Scrapbooking Made Simple and a smaller Rounded Rectangle die from the nested set made by Hero Arts.  I got the taping idea from Jennifer McGuire, who used packing tape; I had no luck with that but the washi tape held up through 12 cuts of rather hefty card stock.

I cut 10 frames from this taped model, in blue card, as well as some "waves" from the older "Scrolls" On the Edge die from Tim Holtz; these were cut from white card and painted with Chipped Sapphire Distress Paint, with a bit of Nuvo Worn Linen expanding mousse to emulate whitecaps.
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I stacked 4 frames, glued them together with liquid adhesive, placed them on my background, and added the star cutouts.  The wave was then placed with lots of foam tape, to keep the stars in the sky as it were, and not the ocean.  Then I place a layer of acetate before continuing with more frames.

And here is where I could not figure out how to keep the sequins in the ocean contained fully.  I tried several configurations of placing a second set of waves with foam, and the boat, but despite best efforts, sequins kept leaping into the sky.  I ended up ruining the first background trying to peel off the frame , and had to start over.... I am sure there is a way to make this work, but it eluded me this time, and thus I decided to simply glue down a generous amount of sequins on the front of the second wave, and place the boat.  Ah well, live and learn....

I place another layer of acetate before putting down the finish frame, to which I had added a Tim Holtz Word band secured with brads from my stash.  The piece was mounted to a white card, and I will make an envelope later.  Forgive the glare - acetate is notoriously difficult to photograph!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and please do leave a comment if you'd like - I love hearing from you!  I am entering this into the current Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge "Water, Water Everywhere".