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| Front View |
I just loved these colors and they made me think of a tropical coral reef and the flowers looked like sea anemones to me. That sparked the idea for my theme! I also thought the alcohol ink/glossy cardstock techniques Tim shared on his blog for the September tag would work well with it too. Looking at the other sides…
The base is a circle of foam core board and the base of the Sizzix Cupcake Stand. I used the Dot Fade stencil and Texture Paste on it, then painted over the top of it all. The Distress Paint blends well and catches in all the nooks and crannies. I wanted it to have the feel of rock. The sand is Tim's special "recipe" – you can find it and the directions for creating the seahorses and starfish in his July tag post. Make sure you have everything ready to go when you mix it up because it hardens fairly quickly! Each of the four quarters of the base has a little vignette in it:
The letterpress blocks I swiped with Weathered Wood paint and then sprinkled with a bit of embossing powder. It look a bit weathered and like it's covered with barnacles.
The sea anemone is actually made from the Rosette die. I cut the strip out of rice paper and used Distress stains to make a gradation of color from hot pink to light pink. When it was dry I snipped two thirds of the way down the perforated fold lines. I rolled it around a little section of a drinking straw and glued it into place – then fluffed out the "arms".
More sea horses! I just love these dies and the Rock Candy Crackle Paint looks so neat.
My husband laments that I did not actually write a secret message on my "message in the bottle". Next time! I did make it look cool with Crackle Paint and alcohol ink though. Be sure to coat a slick surface like glass with Multi Medium first (and let it dry) or the crackle paint will flake off.
Finally a close peek at the top:
I started the top out with the largest teardrop facet glued into a hole I punched in the middle of my stamped and embossed compass medallion. Once that was dry I could glue the seahorses and coral pieces into place. I also glued in a few pieces of sea glass to help prop everything up. Strong, quick drying glue is important!
Thanks for sticking with me on this long post! I'm really happy with the way this turned out. I hope you find it inspiring. Most of the supplies I used for this can be found at Inspiration Emporium. Follow the links below and use my code JUICE to save 10% if you go shopping. I will also point out that US shipping
is always $5 and international shipping is just $10. ;-)
