Anything But Cute Challenge #15--Summertime Fun

 Hello crafty friends and visitors! It's time for our next new challenge at  Anything But Cute,  and our lovely hostess this month is the mega talented Anne. She chose the theme "Summertime Fun", and I'll tell you a little more about that in a minute. When I think of summertime fun, my mind immediately turns to the tucked away place in West Virginia  where our family stays every summer.  So here is my second art journal page I've ever made depicting a warm summer day at Capon Springs.

Anne says  "What does Summertime fun mean to you? Spending time by the seaside, foreign travel, camping in the great outdoors or simply enjoying time in the garden? Create a MIXED MEDIA project focusing on how you like to spend your Summertime. Don't forget to tell us how your project relates to our theme."

 Arriving at Capon Springs, you feel life become simpler; there's limited Internet and TV, no locks on the doors, and three meals a day are served family style in the huge dining room. No alarm clocks or even watches are needed, because every meal is announced with beautiful music coming from the trees!  Kids are free (and safe) to roam the pastoral grounds, and you never have to get in your car if you don't want to. Nature is all around you, and on any evening you can sit on your porch and watch the deer out for their evening meal. There are meadows filled with wildflowers and even a forest of Christmas trees with a trail winding through.  Did I mention--no air conditioning except in the dining room and public areas of the main house? Ugg-nothing is perfect! Lucky we're nestled in the mountains in this idyllic setting!

Onto my journal page:  I started by applying gesso to the upper portion of my journal pages and let that dry. Next, I sprayed Dylusions sprays in blues and greens all over the pages.  I used Fresh Lime, Cut Grass, Vibrant Turquoise and London Blue.  I allowed the sprays to dry, and then spritzed, dribbled and flicked water over the pages, taking care not to get the water drops too close together. In some areas I dragged an art comb through the inky puddles made by the water to create texture. You can see where I did this on the right hand side to create the illusion of trees on the horizon (or at least that's what I was trying to do). I also stamped a few Tim Holtz trees in Archival Library Green.

I flicked on Dylusions White Linen spray with a paint brush straight from the bottle to get the tiniest droplets, and added DecoArt Titanium White with a crumpled up piece of Saran Wrap randomly over the page.  I stamped and fussy cut the dragonfly (Stampin' Up) on Tim's plain tissue wrap in Archival and colored the wings with Perfect Pearls powder. I curled the wings and adhered just the body.

In the "meadow" I did some stamping and heat embossing (Tim Holtz and Stampin' Up) for weeds and wildflowers. I also stenciled some wildflowers using a TCW stencil and texture paste.  While the paste was wet, I added white embossing powder, and when dry, heat embossed. I added some shadows using a black watercolor pencil and my water pen.

In the photo below, you see the "mountains" in the background, made simply by spraying  turquoise spray in the green area and tipping the page to form the peaks. The gesso gives it an entirely different look.

I tried to get a shot of the iridescent embossing powder I used on the texture pasted dragonfly (same TCW stencil), but  the photo is rather blurry, and as usual, the sparkle is being camera shy. You might be able to pick up a tiny bit of shimmer in the background here, too. I picked up the Perfect Pearls instead of the intended Dylusions spray at first. I wiped away as much as I could, but just a tiny bit of shimmer tells on my mistake. Since I only sprayed the gessoed portion with the Perfect Pearls, it gives the sky that summertime shimmer you often see when it's hot.

My lone butterfly is from Happy Little Stampers, and I colored her with Distress inks and markers in Tumbled Glass and Wilted Violet. I stamped two and fussy cut them; the top one I eliminated the back wing and popped up the front wing with a foam square. The dimension is seen better in the photo above. The "weeds" remind me a little of fireworks, and so I will say that is part of the summer fun, as well. It would not be the 4th of July (my favorite summer holiday) without fireworks!

I heat embossed one of Tim's coneflowers on the paper I lined my spray box with, so after fussy cutting it, it blends in real nice. I decided to use it instead of stamping directly on the page (chicken!). I decided to stamp my Tim Holtz quote on a "board" that balances out the frame. I made this and the frame by painting my card with baby blue acrylic paint, coating with DecoArt Weathered Wood. Once fully dry, I gave it a coat of Titanium White (DecoArt) and then DecoArt Crackle Glaze. I defined the cracks with DecoArt Raw Umber Antiquing Cream, distressed and inked the edges with Ground Expresso. I stamped the quote in Timber Brown Staz On.

And here's what it's all about at Capon--the porch of the West Virginia (buildings are named)--where we meet friends from various states for our annual "Capon Family" reunion.  There are four families-- all unrelated, including ours that have stayed the same week of the year since our kids were babies, so they are like real family. We stay in the same rooms of "our house" year after year, and in the evenings after all the fun of the day we sit in our chairs on the porch and play games and catch up.  On rainy days, you can find us on the porch playing a variety of games. We have 8 teenagers/young adults between us, and they bring their Capon friends to "our house" to play along.  "Team West Virginia" gets together over the week to hike, run, play golf, swim, go horseback riding, and my favorite -- go on a week long scavenger hunt called Caponchase.  We usually win; we are a competitive and pretty bright bunch! Among us we have a history professor, a retired history teacher, a middle school teacher, a nephrology nurse, an attorney, an architect, a medical doctor (poor Cathy always gets called on for the inevitable Capon injuries) and a retired physical therapist assistant, so we can usually solve any puzzle you give us.

I used my new Tim Holtz Ornate Frame--I admired all the great things my blog buddie and teammate, Autumn of Sew Paper Paint has done with her's, and it moved to the top of my wish list.  If you have not already visited her at her blog, you must! You will be so inspired! I crackled  and painted it as I did with the sign holding the quote, but reversed the blue and white paint sequence. I'm not sure where that bright blue came from in the photo of the porch, but I thought it looked pretty cool.

Here are a couple of photos of the two pages in full.  I apologize for the long photo heavy post, and my long description of our annual summer trip, but I do get excited about seeing my friends and all the fun we have together for this one special week out of the year. Capon is a very special place, and we have been going at least once a year for 24 years! I have met some of my best friends there!

  Here's a view of the 9th fairway on a steamy summer afternoon. Most days there's not a cloud in the sky!

I hope you will visit my teammates blogs to see their amazing summer creations, and when you are done, that you will be inspired to play along with our "Summertime Fun" challenge .

I am sharing this summer art journal page with:

Frilly and Funkie All in the Family this is about my annual family vacation where we meet up with our Capon family.

The Artistic Stamper July's Creative Challenge-All Things Bright and Beautiful

Dies R Us Challenge #52 Outdoor Fun

Happy Little Stampers- Anything Goes with HLS Stamps

Live and Love Crafts Challenge #49 Sprinkles of Summer

Nordsalten Hobbyklub #142 Flowery

Southern Ridge Trading Company Anything Summer

WOW Embossing Powder July Challenge Anything Goes

Stamps and Stencils Floral Frenzy
Creative Artiste Challenge #16 Anything Goes

Thank you for your visit today and for all your lovely comments! I read and appreciate each and every one of them! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily