Seashells on the Seashore for Funkie Junkie Boutique!

I am playing along with a second card for the Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge "Water, Water Everywhere", hosted by the talented Cec.  Here's what she says about it:

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.

This is a lengthy post, as it is the way I record my process.  You can see the final card at the end if you choose - otherwise, grab a cuppa and read on!

I had recently seen a wonderful tag by Sara Emily, in which she linked to a shell painting tutorial.  The shell in her recent tag is fantastic, so off I went to see how to create this look.

I started with the Tim Holtz Bigz die "Seashells", which cuts a lovely scallop and what looks like a turret shell.  This die also comes with an embossing folder to give the shells beautiful, realistic dimension.

I also used the "Sand and Sea" Bigz die from Tim, which cuts a starfish, a sand dollar, and a seahorse.

I die cut quite a few sets of shells and sand dollars from mixed media paper, embossed them, and per Sara Emily's instructions, gessoed them.  I applied a heavy, rough coating of gesso, as I wanted that wonderful textural detail that actual shells generally have.

While the shells and sand dollars were drying, I started on my card base by taking a full sheet of large Distress watercolor paper, and folding in half lengthwise - I wanted a large piece of real estate to display my shells.  I envisioned them lying in the sand, with the slightest bit of ocean foam from a receding wave which deposited them on the sand.  To lend the notion of sand, after masking off the back of the card, I wet the paper from the bottom about two-thirds up the front with clean water, and then applied a light wash of yellow ochre watercolor.  I let this dry, and then applied directly to the top a light wash of cobalt teal, taking it down over the sand color a bit to blend.  Pardon the shadows; I am still getting used to the lighting in my new craft area!

I put this aside to dry, and returned to my shells.... they were ready to color.  Sara Emily used Distress Oxides, using the "dip and dry" method, by putting an oxide color to your mat, spritzing with water, swiping your piece through, and drying the piece before going to the next color.  I did some of this, but mostly I fund it best to directly swipe the oxide pad onto my gessoed shell or sand dollar, and immediately applying a very light spritz.  Dry and repeat with the same color, or others.... and of course, use your fingers!  I had a blast doing this....

For the sand dollars, I took an additional step of spritzing lightly with Distress Resist Glue, and immediately with Pumice Stone Distress Stain and a bit of water.  Once dry, I applied a bit of  diluted Brushed Corduroy Distress Paint.  I repeated until I got something of a texture, without making them too dark.

I let these all dry, and returned to my card base.  I decided to use glass bead gel for the sea foam, because I knew it would give a lacier effect than texture paste.  I had loosely arranged my shells on the "sand" of the card, and had an idea where the water would show at their top.  I applied generous amounts of the bead gel to these areas - it looks white when it goes on but then dries clear - the beads add the foamy, bubbly look I was going for.  I added more gel to the sand area, as I wasn't sure what might peek through once the shells were arranged and secured.

I left this to dry overnight, and in the morning, added a bit of white back in by gently dapping Picket Fence Distress Paint over the dry gel.  You can see on the right what a difference it makes....

Once the Picket Fence had dried in a few minutes, I took to arranging my shells, and once to my liking, I covered them with Press'N Seal, which would allow me to pick them up in one piece, as they were not yet adhered to each other or to the card.

I transferred the Press'N Seal to a board, then flipped the board over so my shells were face down, with the Press'N Seal on the bottom.

I used liquid adhesive to glue various overlapping areas of the shells together, and then applied a strip of double-sided tape to the entire line of shells.

I then removed the tape backing, and taking the whole sheet of Press'N Seal, I placed it right side up on my card base, and removed the Press'N Seal. 

I glued a few more areas like the star fish bodies that I was not able to get to formerly, and decided to apply another round of glass bead gel with along the bottom, to finish off that edge.  As before, once the gel dried, I painted it with Picket Fence.

 As a final touch, I added an Ideology token with the words "Live Your Dream", after adhering it to a base, and altering with Treasure Gold Green Amber gilding wax.

And here is the final product!  To me, this has a shabby chic feel to it.... and reminds me of shelling along the US Gulf coast when I was much younger.

Thanks for hanging in with me in the very long post!  And as always, I appreciate your visit - please do leave a comment - I love hearing from you!

xxx Lynn