“Explore and Discover”

A big warm welcome back to my blog here today. I am back here to share with you a very pretty
and somewhat different kind of beach layout for 49andMarket.

I think I am well known for my use
of everything blue. But just to change things up a little and also to challenge
myself I decided that pinks and reds would be my colour of choice this time around.

 This is “Explore & Discover”.

The title for this project comes
from the stamp set for the collection of Vintage Artistry’s Shoreline. I
totally fell in love with the first of the stamp sets from Katie on her first designs for
Vintage Artistry. And this is a sure favourite too! I used this stamp with some
white embossing powder to start my background on the “In the shallows”
patterned paper. I used it running up and down on the left side of the paper.
While I still had my embossing powders out I decided to do a little more
background work using the older collection of stamps from Gabi, called
“Herbacious”. I have always loved the foliage pieces in this stamp
set so I have finally been able to use it to replicate the sea grasses of the
ocean floor. What at least that is what it looks like to me!! Also I added in
the gorgeous Rub-ons from this same collection. Omg I absolutely love these
rub-ons. And the colours from the first sheet matched in perfectly with my
paper. I really can’t express how great these are to use. It really took
no time at all to add more interest to my background work with little or no
mess. They are just perfect. So these were layered amongst all the embossing
foliage. You will see when you look very closely at the layout picture. I
really had so much fun doing this. !!!

Once all the stamp embossing was
completed I pulled some of the ephemera pieces from the Vintage Artistry Shore
pack and cut some in half and layered them behind my photo. Next I moved on to
embellishing my project more. I couldn’t go past adding in some of these
gorgeous flourishes I made just recently. They were primed with white gesso and
then I coloured them using the shimmer pearl white from my pigment powders. It
really is only subtle but I quite liked the

outcome. I worked on using the
sugar petal florals from the Sugar Series collection in the shade of Tutti
Fruitti. These are the perfect match. I couldn’t believe how good a match
they were. I arranged the flowers and did a little dry brushing of white
gesso over the top as well as the addition of some pigment powder to help it
shine a little more. Also amongst all the gorgeous florals I added in some art
stones along with shells from my beach finds and a Dusty Attic chipboard anchor
, some jute and hand dyed muslin. And that was it. All finished.