Anything But Cute Mixed Media challenge-#3-Summer Romance

Hello Friends!

It's time for our third challenge at  Anything But Cute. We had so many wonderful masculine entries last month; it's going to be very difficult to choose a winner! This month, the super talented Samra is our hostess, and she chose the theme "Summer Romance".   I'll give you the details on that, but first here is my take on "Summer Romance".   

                                                  

For this challenge, Samra would love to see projects with a romantic theme a beach/sea theme or both, BUT they must be strongly inspired by the colors of the mood board. For this challenge you MUST display our graphics badge in your post along with our blog name and challenge link.

 I don't think there could be anything more romantic than taking a walk on the beach with your sweetie!  So  I've made a canvas depicting a walk on a warm sunny beach.  I've used several objects found on our beautiful local beaches, including driftwood, a sand dollar (a little out of scale, but the smallest I could find!), shells, beach sand, and some bits of beach glass.  No, the crab is not real, but he looks like the tiny sand fiddlers that pop out of their holes on our beach! I've also used many mixed media products to make my scene. Please click on any photo to zoom in.

To my gessoed canvas, I added some die cut leftovers from the recycle bin to resemble seaweed (I believe these are ends from Tim Holtz Bird Branch and the foliage from Tattered Pinecone dies) using gel medium, and let that dry. Next up, I applied texture paste with my palette knife in a swirl fashion to mimic waves, and pressed in a few pieces of beach glass and sprinkled with micro beads.  I dried this with a heat tool until it puffed.  I also used texture paste at the bottom, sprinkled in some beach sand, and heat dried until puffed. The die cuts were given a coat of gesso.

I watered down some Distress paints and acrylic paints, brushed them on here and there along with some undiluted paints, and gave them a spritz with water to get them to run into the crevices and down the canvas. I sprinkled on some micro beads while the paint was wet, and wiped them off when dried to give the bubble effect.  I think you can also use salt for this, but I haven't tried that yet. You can see from my in-progress photos that I was trying to place my paints where they would be effective with my elements in the end. You can also see I ended up editing out some elements.

I gave all my shells and found objects a nice bleach bath, and dried them out in the sun to be sure there were no critters left. Yuck!  I ended up not using the fishing net, even though I bleached and painted it, because it still had that eau de garage aroma to it. It was also a little too stiff after being painted to form into a wave as planned. (This is why I don't usually plan my work!) I did use it in it's original form for my photography, though! Thanks, hun!

I chose cheese cloth colored with Distress stain and Perfect Pearls mist to make my "waves", which turned out looking like huge tidal waves!  My apologies to anyone who has had survived one of those! I have regular nightmares about tidal waves, so maybe there's a hidden message here somewhere!  I also added some gold netting colored with Distress and acrylic paints to give a little extra sparkle and depth to the  wave curl.  Then some texture paste to the crests with clear micro beads sprinkled for foam. Hopefully, you can see some of those beads in the photo below. After all this was done I added some Distress ink and sprays to deepen the colors under the waves.

I added swirly shells to the ends of my wave curls, one of which I painted with Picket Fence Distress paint to make it more cohesive. The playful dolphin image (My Sentiments Exactly)  is stamped in Watering Can Archival ink on tissue paper, and applied with Multi Matte Medium which just arrived in my Funkie Junkie package-just in the nick of time to finish my canvas! You can see a shadow under the dolphin, as well on other areas; this was done with Frayed Burlap ink and my water pen. The little deep blue gems are part of the  goodie bag from Linda at the Funkie Junkie Boutique. She always includes a sweet gift in your order. There were lots of other sea/beach type things in my bag as well, but I used them on my previous project. Thank you, Linda, you're a sweetie, and I love these little gifts!

I just included this shot because I loved the way it reminded me of early morning walks on the beach with the dawn's light.

The sentiment "By the Sea" is a My Sentiments Exactly stamp, directly stamped on the canvas with Archival ink, and patted with a little Picket Fence Distress paint to take it down a notch.  "Summer" is a rub on I've had in my stash FOREVER!  I'm surprised it still worked! I added more subtle shadows around the sentiment, also.

The "water" is mesh fiber direct from the package--no altering necessary.  I painted the driftwood with Dylusions White Linen spray and dry brushed on some Distress paints.  The little sand fiddler crab is off one of my wine charms, and I just broke off the loop and painted him with Picket Fence. The sand dollar and scallop shell were given the Picket Fence treatment, too.

I broke off some pieces of picket fence, painted them with, uh, Picket Fence, roughed them up a bit, and viola'! -  erosion prevention! A few more bits of beach glass and some beads and micro beads finish off the beach sand. I gave the entire canvas a splatter of Picket Fence Distress paint for sea spray, and random spritzes of Dylusions White Linen. I was able to add all these bulky elements with Ranger's Multi Matte Medium, which in my opinion, is the BEST glue ever! No worries about any of this stuff popping off, and no glossy residue left peeking out.

I have to say this has been my fastest make ever; once I gathered my thoughts as to the design and gathered my beachy elements, it took me just a few hours to finish from a blank canvas.

Taken in true daylight.

Taken indoors in my photo studio light.

I would like to enter this into the following inspiring challenges:

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #14 "Summer Days"

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Summer"

Country View Challenges "On Your Travels" I'll be travelling to the beach this summer; will you?

Rubber Dance Art Stamps July Challenge Optional Theme "Travel/Vacation" Many people travel long distances to visit our beaches; I only have to travel a few minutes!

                                           

Eclectic Ellapu Purple Team "Favorite Holidays" I interpreted the theme to mean a holiday destination--the beach!

That's it for today!  I hope you enjoyed your walk on the beach with me and that you will be inspired to join in our Summer Romance challenge at Anything But Cute this time.  I appreciate your visit and your lovely comments if  you choose to leave one!  I do try to reply, and return the visit to your blogs! Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily