Fun in the sun - I wish

Well the good old English weather has thrown a curve ball following a few days of basking in gloriour sunshine it is now cold wet and windy in Liverpool.

I decided to shut out the bad weather and make a card reflecting long hot summer days.

I found this pretty image on a royalty free vintage images site via a google search and just loved it. I printed it 3 times and then decoupaged the girls adding glitter to the hair bows on the final layer. 

Whilst that was drying I set about creating my backing paper I used a piece of pale blue parchment that I usually use for inserts and went through my stash of rubber stamps to find seashells and similar stamps. I ended up with starfish a seahorse and several different shapes and sizes of seashell. I then stamped the images randomly over the parchment using Ranger distress ink  in Broken China and Stormy sky.

I allowed the paper to dry for about half an hour before working with it. I selected an area I was happy with and cut a piece to fit a 6x6 card blank the edges were then distressed before it was stuck to pale pink card and trimmed to leave a very narrow border.

I wrapped a piece of cream lace and blue seam binding around the left hand panel and stuck it to the card blank.

I then placed a piece of plastic netting over the whole card blank. I picked this up on a local beach it was the packaging off some beach toys that had been carelessly discarded by the owners of said toys, who were long gone by the time I was walking along the shoreline. I initially picked it up to prevent it becoming a hazard to the local sea-bird population, but as soon as I had hold of it I knew I could use it in my stash as I do with the fruit nets from the local supermarket so it was put in the beach combing bag and taken home and washed in warm soapy water to be reused.

Having placed the net I added a doily over the bottom right and a beach hut image that I had paper pieced from scraps of the blue parchment paper and some peach parchment that I also use for inserts. i then added the image and the sentiment which was stamped using brown dye based ink on to a piece of the parchment which I tore to give a shabby chic effect to go with the image.

I added the image and then added some coils of hemp 'rope' which I made by coiling a piece of string from my stash onto card circles that I had coated in wet glue. I had a small piece of string left over so tied a reef knot or my approximation of it and stuck this just under the sentiment.

To finish off I arranged some sea shells collected from a local beach, popping a little pearl into one of the shells. I added a seam biding bow and three little pearls to the top right hand corner. So this is my take on summer days and I will be entering it into the following challenges.

http://2sisterschallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/ - Summer Fun 

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Outside the box use something that would not normally be used for crafting - white plastic net 

http://audsentimentschallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/ - Summer

http://trimmiescraftchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - recipe - Image, Rhinestones or pearls, ribbon, sentiment 

http://challenges4everybody.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Goes 

http://littlescrappieces.blogspot.co.uk/ - Summer

http://onestopcraftchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - For a Friend

http://perfectsentimentschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Sun and sand 

http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Vintage or shabby chic

http://craft-roomchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Here Comes Summer 

http://sparklesforumchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - Steam Punk or vintage 

http://sisteractcardchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Goes 

http://lejdesignschallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/ - Add texture 

http://hobbyhousechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - Anything Goes 

http://www.craftdoormagazine.com/ - Anything Goes