Under the sea mini canvas



Hi and welcome to my blog. While most of the country is enjoying hot summer days , it's been quite the opposite here in Newfoundland ( rain and more rain .... **sigh**)  but at least it gives me a good excuse to play along with Anything But Cute 's current challenge again!  I had so much fun creating a summery layout ( click here to see my layout) that I had to play along again.

Here is the mood board ...

 

 

 

I followed the beach theme a little more with my mini canvas.....

 

 

 

I started off with a 6x6 canvas and I created my own textured background by applying a thick coat of Prima Artbasics modeling paste....I was going for a wave effect. It looks better in RL, I promise !!

 

Then I used various shades of blue and green Deco paints and started painting and painting. I let it each layer dry before  lightly applying gesso to soften the blue tones. I then spritzed the entire surface with Ranger's Perfect Pearls mist in Biscotti. It adds a nice subtle glimmer effect which doesn't really show well in the photo, but trust me, it looks great!

 

Here's a close up....

 

The metal starfish and sanddollar were purchased on eBay and I just painted them and did a little distressing. I cut the seahorse out on my Cricut Explore using the Life is a Beach cartridge. I followed a tutorial on Tim Holtz's blog ( July 2014 tag) to create the crackled grunge look for my seahorse. The sand was a mixture of TH distress glitter in Pumice Stone with a bit of Stormy Sky for contrast. I used some Art basics 3D Gloss gel to adhere it to the canvas.  I hand cut my tag and stamped the base with a ledger stamp from Stampin' Up! Open Sea set ( the anchor on the tag is from this too) and the sentiment is from CTMH , oldie but still a goodie set called Treasure of the Heart. Finally, I added some flat back pearls , a bit of netting and sequins .

 

That's my mini canvas ... hope you enjoyed! Thanks for visiting my blog today!