She sells seashells

 It may only be April, but beach season will soon be upon us.

I love the details of this piece, from the lake glass inspired translucent paper to the tiny message a bottle that the little girls found adrift in the water. By the way, the message says, "Make art!"

To make "She Sells Seashells" I began by covering the Layered Frame Erin with gesso

I then drybrushed layers of acrylic paint onto the top portion of the frame.

I added Versamark embossing ink to the lower portion of the frame, covered it with Seth Apter's Dirty Sand Baked Texture Embossing Powder and heat set it.

Next I trashed my studio searching through about a 100 old books until I found a passage about the ocean. It is ridiculous that I am such a perfectionist.  I doubt if anyone would notice if I had used text from an old algebra textbook instead.

After finding the "perfect text" I apologized to the book, tore out the page and 'dirtied' it up with brown ink, paint and stamps.

 I then painted a piece of deli paper with blue paint and stamped script imaging onto it.

I adhered to to the page with matte medium.

Next I tore out shell graphics from  another part of the old book, applied Versamark embossing ink and covered them with Seth Apter's new translucent embossing powders.

I adhered these to the page, added ribbon and drips of white gesso.

After adding the frame, I adhered the girls from Going to the Beach with foam adhesive.

I used my best handwriting skills (which in my case means trying to at least be legible ) to write  the tiny "she sells seashells by the seashore" message on white cardstock, and then cut it out and adhere it to the picture.

To the corner of the frame I adhered tiny seashells and of course the message in a bottle filled with teal microbeads and a micro message.

I mounted the finished project on a mixed media foam core board that I had earlier painted. 

Great Stuff

Layered Frame Erin
Paper Calliope Going to the Beach
Gesso
Versamark embossing ink
Seth Apter's Dirty Sand Baked Texture Embossing Powder
Seth Apter's Aegean Sea Baked Texture Embossing Powder
Seth Apter's Dusk Baked Texture Embossing Powder
Vintage Photo Distress Ink
Acrylic paints
Deli paper
Script stamp
Page from vintage book
White cardstock
Shells
Miniature bottle
Micro beads
Ribbon
Beacon Adhesive
Previous made mixed media foamcore board.