Ocean Flowers

If you've visited my blog, you've no doubt noticed that I like to create underwater scenes. I love the ocean and the beach, though I don't visit either very often. Maybe that's why the underwater world holds my fascination and captures my imagination.

Here's my latest scene with SCACD's Coral Sunflowers rubber stamp set, from their new Eclectic Sea collection.

I started this wall hanging by creating a sea background by brushing Blue Green Light, Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Turquoise Hue, and Cobalt Teal Hue Media Fluid Acrylic (MFA) paints (DecoArt) onto 140 lb. Mixed Media cardstock (Strathmore). When the paint was dry, Fern Green Archival ink (Ranger) was sponged over the Kelp Forest stencil (The Crafter's Workshop) on the bottom of the piece. Rays Layering Stencil (Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz) was placed over the painted cardstock and Translucent White MFA paint) was sponged over the stencil, then wiped back with a baby wipe.

Both flowers from SCACD's Coral Sunflowers rubber stamp set were stamped onto white tissue paper with Jet Black StazOn ink (Tsukineko/Imagine Crafts). I marked the stamped side with a pencil before flipping the tissue paper over. I painted the reverse of the flowers using Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Diarylide Yellow, Hansa Yellow Light, Hansa Yellow Medium, and Cadmium Orange Hue MFA paints. When the paint was dry, I carefully cut around the Coral Sunflowers.

White cardstock was die-cut with Weeping Willow Branches die (Poppy Stamps),  Swimming Seahorses die (Memory Box), Build a Scene Underwater (Taylored Expressions), and the Mini Shell die set (Impression Obsession). I also used a very old unlabeled fish punch and a crab punch to punch white cardstock. The punchies and die-cuts were all colored with Copic markers.

The painted ocean and the painted side of the Coral Sunflowers were brushed with Media Matte Medium (DecoArts) and all three painted tissue-paper Coral Sunflowers were adhered to the sea background. Another layer of Media Matte Medium was brushed over top of the tissue paper images.

The coral, ocean plant, Seahorses die-cuts and the fish punchies were adhered to the ocean scene using Media Matte Medium and another layer of Media Matte Medium was applied over top of the die-cuts and punchies.

The entire piece was then adhered to chipboard, so that the piece would not buckle during the next step. Texture Sand Paste (DecoArt) was applied to the base of the piece with a palette knife. This was allowed to dry overnight.

The next day the Texture Sand Paste was dry-brushed with Titan Buff, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, and Raw Sienna MFA paints. When the paint was dry, the various shell and starfish die-cuts and the crab punchies were adhered to the piece using Diamond Glaze (Judikins). The piece was finished with some clear pearls.

Thanks for visiting today!

I shall enter this piece into the following challenges:
• Not Just Cards Challenges: Anything Goes
• 2 Creative Chicks Challenges: Anything Goes
• Altered Eclectics Challenges: Anything Goes
• Papertake Weekly Challenges: Take Your Pick (pearls and covering chipboard).
• Scrapy Land Challenges: Anything Goes