Hello all you frillie and funkie folks! Maggi here today and I am excited to share a much loved older Graphic 45 collection, By the Sea, that has just be released again as a Deluxe Collector's Edition. I know a lot of crafters are jumping for joy at this news, including me! The Funkie Junkie Boutique carries this collection as well as all the new Graphic 45 releases so be sure to take a look at all the new Graphic 45 collections and Staples.
By the Sea is a fun collection for making beach house decor and gifts. So I thought I'd make a canvas posting the beach rules. The canvas is a perfect size at 12" x 9". The Beach Rules is one of the cut-aparts included in the collection. Wouldn't this be cute to hang at a beach cottage?
Here you can see the detail where I mixed small real seashells in with fussy cut seashells from the design paper.
Tutorial:
So let's see how this canvas came together.
Step 1 - Fussy cut the elements below from the signature page. Trim out the Beach Rules from the cut-aparts page. Ink all the edges with Black Distress Ink.
Step 2 - Locate the design paper shown below and adhere to the canvas. Use some type of gel medium or decoupage glue to adhere the paper so that you get a good seal as a good seal will keep the paper from bucking up. You will get a better seal if you coat both the canvas and the paper.
Mix clear gesso with white gesso, about half and half is probably a good ratio, and paint the entire canvas. I made my mix a long time ago so I'm not positive that's the ratio I used. Best to test a little bit before painting the entire canvas. Start with more clear than white gesso and add white until you get to the effect you desire. This will dull the background a bit but still allow it to show through. In the photo below you can see the difference, as the left side has been painted and the right side has not.
Note that cutting out the rectangle in the bottom right corner is not necessary. I used a piece of paper that I had already cut and I knew I would be covering that lower corner with sand.
Step 3 - Glue the light house onto the canvas using gel medium after the gesso has dried. While the gel medium dries, put dimensional foam on the back of the Beach Rules cut-apart. Fussy cut another set of the two children and pop up with dimensional foam. Adhere the Beach Rules to the canvas as shown.
Step 4 - Attach the two fussy cut children over the decoupaged children to give the canvas more dimension.
Step 5 - Next you want to "extend" the lighthouse onto the background by painting waves breaking against the rocks and lighthouse. This really is not hard to do. Put a few dabs of white, beige, blue and gray paint onto your craft mat and using a small paintbrush, dab the various colors onto the lighthouse and background, blending the colors somewhat. If you look at the photo above this step, you can see what the lighthouse base looks like before I added paint.
Step 6 - Now let's make some sand. Scoop out some white sand texture paste and mix with a little bit of paint. I used Dylusions Vanilla Custard which was a great match. Caution, a little color goes a long way so be careful adding the paint. Then sprinkle on some glitter and mix it all up.
Step 7 - Trowel on sand as shown below. You can dip the trowel or your finger in water if you need to smooth the sand out. Sparingly sprinkle a little gold and crystal glitter on the sand while it is still wet.
Step 8 - Embed the shell fussy cuts and the seashells into the wet "sand".
Step 9 - Add the title as shown in the photo below and the cattails if you have something like that. I made the heads on the cattails with microbeads. You could also use chipboard sea grass or something like that.
Glue a piece of thick 3 ply twine all around the border to frame the canvas.
That's it, all ready to hang in your seaside cottage or gift to a friend.
Graphic 45 By the Sea Deluxe Collector's Edition
