Beachtime at Emerald Creek Dares!

Hi, servus and thanks for stopping by! When have you last been at a beach? Do you love to be at the seaside as much as I do? If so the actual challenge theme at Emerald Creek Dares is for you - it is all about

The Beach! 

The perfect theme to use long hoarded seaside treasures from strolls along the beach (or use bought ones - from the Emerald Creek online store for example ;) on a little keepsake canvas...

My canvas measures 6'' x 6'' and I have used the following products on it:

Baked Texture Dirty Sand embossing powder

Baked Texture Vintage Beeswax embossing powder

Concha Seashell Stamp

Cerith Seashell Stamp

The Shoreline Shells

Amazonite Gemstones

Anchor Charms

Seahorse Key Charm and Fish Brads

I started with gluing a designer paper sheet onto my canvas using matte DecoArt Decou-Page. I also sealed the paper with thinned Decou-Page, so the crackle medium would work properly.
On some white cardstock I created a Distress Oxide ink background to stamp my shells on.

(as always click on the images for a larger view)

I stamped the shells in black archival stamping ink and then went in with some Distress Stains and a detail brush. 

Using a white gel pen I added highlights to make my shells look more dimensional. 

I scraped white DecoArt media Crackle Paste onto and around the edges of the canvas and let it air dry. 

Next I added Dirty Sand Baked Texture embossing powder in some spots. To do so I smudged some embossing ink across the canvas with my fingertip.

I repeated the step with Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture embossing powder.

Then it was time to play with the lovely  Shoreline Shells, the Amazonite gemstones, the fussy cut sea shell images and the brads and charms.

The seahorse key charm got a make over with DecoArt media Texture Sand Paste and Raw Umber Antiquing Cream (once the Texture Sand Paste had dried).

(before)

(after)

I like to prime metal charms with a thin stippled on coat of matte Decou-Page before I use acrylic paints or paint washes on them. The little anchor was given a rusty look with Quinacridone Gold media fluid acrylic paint, while I went for a wash of Cobalt Turquoise Hue with the seahorse key charm.

Once all the pieces were "aged" the way I wanted them, I glued them in place with more matte Decou-Page glue. The idea-ology word panels were inked with dark brown archival stamping ink and a piece of blending foam around the edges before I glued these in place.

To finish off my canvas I loosely painted a dark edge with Raw Umber fluid acrylic paint around the canvas' edges and also around the word tiles and the shell and charm clusters to fuse them with the background and add some contrast and definition.

I hope to see you enter our challenge at Emerald Creek Dares soon! You can win a

voucher to spend at the Emerald Creek online store and just for entering our dare you get 10% off your next purchase there by using the code given in the challenge post over at the Emerald Creek Dares Blog. How cool is that?! And you will find more amazing inspiration if you check out the previous blog posts over there - my lovely teamies' have created some awesome "Beach" projects for you!

I leave you with some detail shots (if you click on the images you will get a larger view) and with wishing you good luck for the challenge and happy summer holidays!

Hugs and happy summer crafting!

Claudia

xxx