The Tide Came In

This is one of those projects that started out as one thing in my head but for some reason did not translate well to the finished creation.  I had envisioned this lady relaxing on a beach on her summer holiday but it looks like she wasn't paying attention or her hat was obstructing her view and the tide came in leaving her sitting among the flotsam and jetsam.

I started with a flat 8" x 10" canvas that I picked up at the dollar store and gave it a coat of Gesso (Liquitex).  Then I painted it from the top down with acrylic paint - French Blue  (Folk Art), Clear Blue (Accent) and Aqua (Craft smart).

Next I took a sea sponge and some Titanium (Snow) White acrylic paint (Deco Art) to create surf. and then I made a stencil of clouds on some mylar that I expropriated from my husband's workshop (he won't miss it because there is a roll of 50' left from his electronics business).  I used some Titanium (Snow) White acrylic paint with the sea sponge to dab the clouds on layering them over one another.

To make the sand I mixed Course Pumice Gel (Golden) with Country Twill acrylic paint (Folk Art) and spread it on with a palette knife.

The sun stencil was cut on my Cameo but it is just rays so after I dabbed some Metallic Gold Embossing Paste (Wendy Vecchi) on, I removed the stencil added a circle of paste so it would look like the sun.  The sea gulls are just clip art that I fussy cut.

The lady on the beach is an image from Isabella's Sketchbook and I printed her twice and fussy cut her out of one print and just her sun suit out of the second print.  She was coloured with Prismacolors that were blended with OMS (Gottrick).  After I coloured her sun suit I took some Fern Green Archival Ink (Wendy Vecchi) and a section from the Large Collage Stamp (Wendy Vecchi) and gave her suit some polka dots.  The stamp is a patchwork and I have cut it apart so I can use the sections for different applications - Wendy made me do it :)

The shells are made from crafter's clay (Martha Stewart) and a silicon mold (Wilton).  They were coloured with a variety of distress inks - Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo, Tea Dye, Pumice Stone and Antique Linen.  The net is some burlap that I removed some of the threads from.

The life ring was made from crafter's clay and painted with a red Copic marker and scuffed up a bit with some Frayed Burlap DI.  It is hanging from a pole made from a popsicle stick that was inked with Frayed Burlap DI.

The flowers were cut from tulle and buckram using the Tattered Florals die (Tim Holtz) and then painted with acrylic paint - Peacock Pearl (Deco Art) and Clear Bue (Accent).  Some beads from the dollar store were added for centres.  Finally I added some driftwood (OK so they really are wood chips I grabbed from the playground), glass bits and some feathers from those darn sea gulls.

I realize this vignette is a little odd but I certainly had fun creating it so I hope you like it.

I am going to enter this in the following challenges:

The Mirror Crack'd - Canvas
Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes (must be mixed media)
Mixed Media World - Stencils
Stamps and Stencils - Happy Holidays
Mixed Media Monthly - Summer Days