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

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".

Tiled Patterns, Infusions and Foil!

I appear to be on a roll in the craft room, making up for lost time, lol!  But truth be told, I am so happy to be back at my craft table after such a long absence - and I have so many ideas, which of course multiply as soon as I start looking online at others' work and challenges.  Today I am aiming for three challenges:  Paper Artsy re "Tiled Patterns", Simon Says Stamp re "Make a Background with Infusions", and Mix it Up re Anything Goes Plus Foil", when their challenge opens Friday.  

I have some other ideas for the Paper Artsy Tiled Pattern challenge, which will be coming soon!

Unlike the past, when I made tags and art journal pages with abandon, this year I am focused on building a portfolio in hopes that I can be juried into the local Winter Market, as a stepping stone for selling my work in several local tourist venues.  So cards and mini albums it is!  And who knows, maybe some wine bottle tags, and other types of gift tags as I get my stride.  We have some fantastic wineries here in Idaho!

I started with some 300 gsm watercolor paper, and applied Paper Artsy Grunge Paste through a brick stencil in my stash - this will be my tiled pattern.  I put it on generously and unevenly, and tapped the paste with my finger to further roughen the surface.  I wanted plenty of places for the Infusions to penetrate with all their luscious richness.

The colors I chose were on the moody side - blue and purple, with a bit of aged green tossed in.  That combo was one of my favorites in a guest post I did on infusions for Paper Artsy some years past.

Once the texture paste dried, I sprayed quite a bit of water onto the bricked pattern, and sprinkled the infusions in various areas.  As the water did its work, I spritzed a bit more onto the piece, so the pigments could roll around and drip into crevasses, as well as penetrate the texture paste.

It started to get a bit too brown in areas, so I dabbed with the edge of a paper towel to lighten it up a bit, and let it dry, impatiently, I might add!  When I couldn't stand it anymore, I applied a heat gun, and got a bit more texture through the subsequent bubbling, which you can just discern in the middle here.

Although Mix It Up does not require one to use the extra technique, in this case foiling, I am a raven and love all things shiny - so of course I was going to add foil!  

Thus, once the piece was truly dry, I took a large nib two-way glue pen, thinking to somehow swipe it over the rough areas.  However, I had stored it with the nib down, and some significant amount of glue had seeped into the cover, which when I removed it, splashed some onto my floor.  Perfect!  Now I knew how to apply this glue.... by dipping my finger into the cap, and swiping that round the piece.  Once the glue was tacky, I took some Ranger foil, and pressed it onto the piece, rubbing hard with the side of my hand to transfer the foil.

I was happy with the result....

and decided to look for a quote as a "sentiment".  Perusing my books, I chanced upon a stanza from one of my favorite poets, Stanley Kunitz.  He was a remarkable gardener, as well as an outstanding poet, and I usually can find something that suits from his work.  This stanza with this image brings to mind the dawn's light on old bricks somewhere, let's say Paris or somewhere else equally wonderful!

Then came the decision of how to place the quote onto the card front.... I tried my beautiful vintage Underwood typewriter, but as it really doesn't like to play with thicker paper, like cardstock, this did not work.

I have applied digital fonts to tissue paper in the past, including a piece with another snippet of Kunitz' work, and thought to do that....even managed to locate my temporary adhesive spray which would make my carrier for the printer.... but then I thought the words would be lost, which is ok for a journal page, but not at all wonderful for a card which is to convey a sentiment!

So I tried printing my stanza in a digital font on my inkjet printer, having changed the font color to a dusky purple.... and breathed a sigh of relief that it worked.  I used one of the smaller dies from Tonic Studios' Layered Rivoli die to cut out the sentiment, trimming the lovely rounded brackets off to match the mood of this piece.  I distressed the edges physically, and with Ground Expresso Distress Ink, and then aged the little thing with Antique Linen Distress Ink.    I then trimmed and rounded the piece, and selected a pale purple cardstock for the card.... not sure how many people would buy this, but I like it, so I guess we will find out, lol!

Thank you so much for visiting, and if you did read this rather lengthy post!  Please do leave a comment if you can - I love hearing from you!

Home Sweet Home Indeed!

Sara Emily hosts the current "Home Sweet Home" challenge at the Frilly and Funkie blog.  After seeing her incredible make and reading the story behind it, I was stumped - home means so many different things to me, after having lived in 23 distinct homes across the US and in Holland throughout my life.  

But on reflection, I realized that at last, I really am home, hopefully my last (and that I will be here many years, might I add!)  As they say in the pet rescue world, I've found my forever home, lol!  

I retired from nursing and teaching last year, moved to my new house in Northern Idaho in summer, and finished the nascent landscaping by the skin of my teeth ... with my new puppy Boo on the case...

before the snows of winter descended.  

In the spring, we sowed a bunch of wildflower seeds, and eventually, they produced a glorious meadow, a joy to behold.  

And this became my "home sweet home" motif!

I have been into pop-ups lately; something about the interactive nature of them has always fascinated me, and having been somewhat successful in my last make with this little gear pop-up, I decided to try something "pop-up" again.

After traveling down the Pinterest rabbit hole way too many times, I found this tutorial, which seemed to lend itself to my idea of re-creating a meadow in my card.  She uses a small hinge mechanism in her card to provide some depth to the pop-ups.

I die cut a full set of each of the smaller Tim Holtz Wildflower sets in Distress Watercolor Paper, and colored with a variety of Distress Ink Markers, by dabbing and swiping loosely on the die cut, then using a water brush to meld the colors.  

I inserted my colored wildflowers into the hinge mechanism within the card, and added a sentiment from an Alexandra Renke die.

For the outside of my card, I cut from Distress Watercolor paper the recent Sizzix/Tim Holtz Organics cover die, and again colored with the Distress markers.  On some areas, I misted the die cut first, and on others, I colored as before.  Note To Self:  Use distress ink pads on your mat, with a water brush, rather than dipping the markers into small pools of water!  Much more effective, and less wasteful of your markers.  Like I haven't seen hundreds of people do the right thing before, lol!

And here is the card in its natural setting:

Thank you so much for visiting, and please do leave a comment if you can - I appreciate them all!  I am entering this into the Frilly and Funkie "Home Sweet Home" challenge.

Thanks,

Lynn