Anything But Cute challenge #3 - Summer Romance

Hello, my crafty friends! It's 5th of July already and our challenge #3 has just started at Anything But Cute Mixed Media Challenge Blog, today! This month our hostess is amazing Samra who has chosen the perfect theme for this time of year - 'Summer Romance'!

For this challenge, Samra would love to see projects with a romantic theme a beach/sea theme or both, BUT they must be strongly inspired by the colors of the mood board. For this challenge you MUST display our graphics badge in your post along with our blog name and challenge link.

More details about this challenge you can find at Anything But Cute Challenge Blog. Just click on the image bellow and you'll be redirected there where you can check out fabulous makes of my super talented teamies and I sure hope you'll join us in our 'Summer Romance' July challenge! 

 

I love everything related to summertime and sea so as soon as I saw the theme for this month challenge I knew what I was going to make - a mixed media canvas with lots of seashells (natural ones) and blue/green tones. 

I started with gesso applied with my pallete knife to get some texture. 

Then I used my sand texture paste to glue down a piece of cheese cloth along with a piece of net bag which was actually some kiwi packaging haha :) 

Since I didn't have any starfish and sea horse die, I printed out some images, cut them out and embossed them using Tim Holtz embossing folders. I applied one coat of Payne's grey acrylic paint on top of my embossed starfish.

I used my Decoart media Patina green antiquing cream on top of the dried paint.

I rubbed the antiquing cream with a piece of cloth and achieved a patina effect on my starfish.

After a lot of spraying with my blue and green distress stain sprays and my glimmer mists and after creating some texture with my crackle paste through my crackle stencil (Tim Holtz one) plus embellishing...here is what I came up with:

Here is a closer look of my crackled texture and a quote (Tim Holtz Small talk chit chat stickers). To imitate a coral reef I used my Tim Holtz's Tattered pinecone die. I also put a small metal fish charm previously treated in the same way as my starfish. I was so disappointed I couldn't find any fishing net decorations in my country, so I used some home decoration that looked like a fishing net and I attached it on top of the left side on my canvas :) 

To achieve some rust effect on my anchor charm I used black gesso, Payne's grey acrylic paint and my Quinacridone gold acrylic paint. Tim Holtz's faux cracked glass technique was used on my cork vial bottle and I put a piece of thorn paper with a message into the bottle.

I attached an old photo of a happy couple on the beach (Idealogy Found relatives) and used my Idealogy rub ons to add more details to that previously distressed photo. I coloured my handmade sea horse with several distress paints and used my Vintage photo DI on top of the raised embossed areas. Then I put a medium coat of my distress crackle paint in Clear Rock Candy. 

I created an arrangement using my real seashells and some metal embellishments coated with gesso and distress stain paints, sprays, glimmer mists and my distress stain spray in Tarnished Brass. I added some flat back pearls here and there and framed the photo with a piece of burlap string with knots. 

I hope this will inspire you to join us for Samra's current challenge 'Summer Romance'.

At Anything But Cute we just love to see all the seasoned and expert mixed media artists, but we also want to encourage those who are just getting their feet wet. Our design team will always be on the lookout for these exceptional projects and artists. You just never know when we might be giving out something special to a talented mixed media newcomer. We all have to start somewhere, right?

Challenge runs until August 4th - we can't wait to see what you come up with! 

Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving a sweet comment! It means much to me!

Happy crafting!

Challenges:
Sparkling Black Rose - Craft My Life - All Crafts Challenge June/July
Altered Eclectics - July challenge - Is It Really - Where Is The Time Going To
Eclectic Ellapu - July - OMG - Time Is Flying Past - Purplies - Favorite Holidays
Rhedd's Creative Spirit Blog - July's Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Blog - Monday Challenge - Summer
Stamps And Stencils Challenge - Happy Holidays