C4C 401 By the Sea

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This weeks challenge over at Crazy4Challenges was to use the ocean or the beach as our inspiration.  A while back I found a card that I loved and wanted to make one like it.  Here is Beverly Polen’s card:

So this was the perfect time to give this a try.  I already had very similar dies and products so I had no more excuses.

The Steps:

Step 1:  I began with the background.  I used my favorite stencil for skies and clouds by Susan Tierney Cockburn named “Cloud and Grass”.  Susan has a YouTube video demonstrating how to effectively use this stencil.  I used this stencil and PanPastel UltraMarine Pastel to fill a little less than 1/3 of the top half of the cardstock rectangle that measures 5.5 x 7″

Using the same color PanPastel I started coloring an ocean.  Before I got to far down I colored the beach with PanPastel’s Raw Umber and Diarylide Yellow.  Next I brought down the sky to meet up with the beach.  At the point that the sky and beach meet I used a product called Snow Writer by DecoArt to create what I thought looked like sea foam and also made some incoming waves.

Step 2:  Make all the elements that will make up the ocean scene:

I didn’t use everything but I wanted to have some options.  I used elements from these die sets from Elizabeth Craft Designs:

I cut everything out of white cardstock.  I do this so I can cut a lot of dies in one run  through the die cutting machine and the assembled elements need to look realistic.

Step 3:  Start to create the scene by adhering the assembled elements to the background piece.  Here’s where I ran into trouble.  I wanted some of my elements to be on the frame like Beverly’s inspiration card but after I had glued things in place I realized I didn’t have nested dies large enough to make a rectangle frame.  I do own a Silhouette Cameo and could have made a frame but I went the old school way:

I cut half inch strips of 100lb white cardstock and cut the ends at a 45 degree angle.  I dug into my paper only trash and found the negative from the mat and used just the four corners to back the corners for my frame.  Also, I realized where I planned to put the “Light House” I didn’t have enough “beach” on the lower left side of my background piece.  I didn’t want the light house to look like it was in the middle of the ocean so I got out another die set:

The die pc. in this set above, in the lowest left hand corner creates the stones for this wall.  I used these pieces to make a stone sea wall for the light house.  Some of the stones I glued to the background and some to the frame around the Light house as shown.  The Sea Gull and the banded drift wood is glued to the background piece as well as the flying gulls.  I then added the “pussy willow” in the lower left corner on the frame.  The “chain is glued across the bottom of the frame and behind the “light house.  The “Anchor” is from the light house die set.  The “Corner” dies on the two upper corners are from this set:

Step 4:  Once the frame was completed I attached it to the background on foam dimension dots and that completes this card.

Thank you so much for Beverly’s card I had pinned on Pinterest for inspiring my card.

Thanks to all that took the time to take a look and maybe try one of your own.

 Other products used:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:  White Soft Finish Cardstock, Clear double sided Adhesive

Beacons Kids Choice glue

Sizzix Big Shot Plus