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. 

I hope you stop by the Gypsy Soul blog and drop a note! Thanks! -Betsy

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