Hello!

I hope you caught the shows for That's Crafty!'s 5th Anniversary of shows on The Craft Store (formerly known as Hochanda) as you were in for a real treat. The One Day Special on Tuesday and Wednesday featured the most amazing new stamp designs from the very talented illustrator Kelly O'Gorman and I'm so pleased to be able to share one of my samples here today.

I'm lucky enough to live 5 minutes walk from the seafront so my mixed media collage was inspired by the waves that often crash on the shore and I really love to use Crackle Glaze topped with 2 or 3 shades of paint so this seemed like a match made in heaven for my planned waves background.

It's actually easier to create than you might think too. My chosen substrate for this is the new large square reverse canvas in MDF and I assembled the base part before applying my paints and glaze. I started the process with a coat of Midnight Multi Surface Paint on the back inner panel and the inside edges. I then painted a coat of Crackle Glaze on the back panel.

Once the glaze was tacky, I added my paint top coat choosing Bright Blue, Teal and Light Blue. I applied the paints in rough stripes but wiggling the brush as I went, painting vertically (being square this is fine as you can turn the box round when you've finished!). I used the brush with the light blue to add a few flicks that would look like foam on my waves.

Once the paints were dry, lovely cracks appeared and gave a rather realistic look. In fact you may have heard Jo quip that it made her feel a bit seasick to look at it so it obviously does look like choppy waves!

I painted the rest of the inner edges with swirls of the 3 shades of blue to tone in with my back panel and then set to work on the frame. I added some pattern in several areas with Texture Sand Paste and when it was dry I painted the whole frame with Midnight Multi Surface Paint.

I then added some Crackle Glaze in the places without stencilling and when dry brushed some Bright Blue Multi Surface Paint over the top. I replaced the stencil on the Texture Sand Paste pattern and spread on a little 3D Holographic Gel for some shimmer. To add to the effect I added a few gems in shades of blue and green for some eye catching sparkle. I glued the frame in place and left the piece to dry thoroughly.

My next task was to prepare the image and I stamped the collage on smooth stamping paper with black ink and heat embossed it with clear powder. I used a stamp platform because the image is very large - almost A5 in size - and using the platform means you can ensure you get all the detail in the amazing image. In fact if you can't press that hard like me you can put it on the floor and stand on it!

I coloured the image with Flat Matte Sprays as I wanted a vibrant colourful contrast to my background. The only place I didn't use those was on her face where I used watercolour brush markers. I then cut the image out and added a little layering in places having decoupaged a few pieces to give more dimension. It probably doesn't show that well in the photo but the ice cream, chips and shell are treated like this.

I glued the image in place on the background, raising it up with a couple of bars of MDF waste cut from the bits left when the surfaces have been pressed out of their background. I always keep these are they're so useful to add dimension. Can't you just smell that salty air!

The final touch was to add the beside the sea text which was stamped on ink spray overflow paper, cut into individual tiles and inked around the edges in a grungy fashion to go with the rest of the collage.

Gems

I have to say that whilst working on this sample a certain song popped into my head and re-appears every time I look at this stamp set. It perfectly brings a salty, seaside scene to life.

Have a great weekend and see you next week.