The launch of the new Stamping' Up! annual catalogue is just a couple of weeks away. As a demonstrator I am lucky enough to see the catalogue early and order selected items from it. One of the new bundles, and definitely one of my favourites is Come Sail Away.
I decided to create a shadow box to show how amazing the products in this suite are, I intended to use some of the wonderful dsp but in the end didn't feel any was needed. I'm really happy with how it turned out and it's not nearly as complicated as it perhaps looks.
The box frame itself is from Ikea and is 9" square. It comes with a mount which creates a 5" square window in the centre.
I started by drawing out the 9" and 5" squares on grid paper to plan my design, I stamped the images where I wanted them and worked out where I wanted the die cut pieces. Once I knew roughly how I wanted it to look I started on the central picture.
The image is created using daubers and the masking technique. Firstly I placed a piece of straight edged card across the middle but a little lower than half way. The colours in the sea are pool party, balmy blue, coastal cabana and bermuda bay. I then flipped the straight edged card over to colour the sky, a little light so saffron was applied before adding a semicircle to mask the sun. The next colour around the sun shape is crushed curry, followed by grapefruit grove, petal pink, blushing bride, highland heather, balmy blue and finally pacific point.
I stamped the boats next, firstly the one on the horizon and the one at the front. I stamped the front boat on a post it note and die cut the shape to create a mask and then stamped the boat behind it. I used a fineliner to draw the missing corner of the sail etc.
The boats were coloured using water colour pencils - early espresso for the hulls and pacific point, cherry cobbler and crushed curry for the sails. The birds are stamped in the lovely new in colour Pretty Peacock.
With the picture completed I moved on to the elements that decorate the frame. The lighthouse is stamped onto smoky slate cardstock and coloured with cherry cobbler and crushed curry watercolour pencils with the white pencil used to lighten the middle section. The compass is stamped onto sahara sand cardstock, with the pointer cut from soft suede and early espresso. The rope and knot are cut from soft suede, the sentiment is stamped in pacific point onto balmy blue and the same shape is cut from cherry cobbler and cut across the middle so that it shows at the top and bottom. Lastly the anchor is stamped onto smoky slate, I used champagne mist shimmer paint applied with a dauber to give it a little metallic sparkle.
The seaweed is cut multiple times from a selection of green shades - soft sea foam, pool party, granny apple green, pear pizzazz, old olive, mossy meadow and pretty peacock. I also used the leaf die from frosted bouquet and the branch die from seasonal layers to add some variety at the bottom.
With all the elements completed it was time to put the project together. The picture was stuck to the back of the mount taking care to keep the horizon straight. The rope and knot are stuck directly to the mount with a ships wheel trinket adhered using a glue dot, the sentiment and lighthouse are stuck on using mini dimensionals.
It took a little while to add the seaweed, some pieces are stuck directly to the mount, some are stuck on with mini dimensionals and some have mini dimensionals doubled up to bring them further forward. When sticking the seaweed pieces on I needed to leave a gap at the bottom (approx 1/4 inch) so that they sit on rather than behind the box insert.
I used the new baker's twine to attach to the anchor and used a glue dot to stick it to the mount behind the compass which is stuck on with dimensionals.
The last thing was to stamp the birds randomly around the mount, the birds link nicely with the central image.
I think my next shadow box will feature the beautiful new suite 'Bird Ballad', watch this space....
Back soon,
Katie x
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