Hey, look!

Today I thought I’d use some of the beautiful new seaside stamps that Susan has in stock although I doubt they’ll stay on the shelf for long! You can use these stamps to build your own scenes (newsletter example HERE) which make them ideal for making cards for both genders, all ages and they lend themselves to be adapted for any crafting genre….

If I’m card making, then 8” x 8” cards are my preference, so I started with black card for the base mat and kraft card for the background. The kraft has been edged with Walnut stain DI then out came Tim’s Dot fade layering stencil and some grunge paste to create some texture around the sides:

The paste has been added randomly and then, when dry, more DI has been rubbed over very patchily:

Using a pipette, drops of water have been blotted around the sides and left to dry naturally so that it has the maximum time to lift the ink to the edges of the water blots:

Of all the stamps I could have chosen, I settled on ‘I spy’ and ‘Little fisherman’ which were stamped separately and on different levels on stamping card. The ‘Beach flora’ is an absolute necessity to add realism to the scene. I stamped the figures out again on paper and fussy cut to make masks for stamping over:

I added a seagull from ‘Marina bay’ (the bird poses are so different, worthwhile having as a basic in your stamp box!) but I didn’t want to use the shoreline and lighthouse stamp. I decided to draw my own sea line with a Distress marker:

Once drawn, more DI was blended in patches across the picture to give the impression of an aged look:

How to decorate the scene, that was my quandary. Seeing the ‘Bubbles’stamp, as yet unused, I stamped a kraft offcut with the same DI and then over-stamped it:

This Cheery Lynn Stacker flower #6 die (SF-6R) and a Martha Stewart punch have been used to create the flowers:

I wanted something really different for the centres. I knotted some ordinary parcel (soft) string and coloured it with DI. Using a hot glue gun to stick the knot down onto my heat resistant sheet, I continued winding the string around, gluing as I went:

Once set and cool, the string rounds were glued to the flowers:

Back to the card base: You can see the lovely dark edges of the blots which always seem better to me if they’re left to dry naturally:

Mounting the picture and then the base onto the card blank:

Another length of string has been cut and pulled apart, strand by strand, and glued to the corner before mounting the flowers:

A couple of strips of card and some gold Card candy have been added to the opposite corner. Top left and top right:

Bottom left and right:

Side view:

Completed:

I can seriously recommend these stamps, they’re so versatile.

Have a fabulous week and thanks for stopping by,

Chris xxx

My corner of Heaven

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