Ocean Waves

June is flying by and it's already time to remind you that you only have until June 24th to enter this month's CAS Watercolour challenge.

I was struggling with coming up with an idea but wanted to do something a bit different.  What I ended up with is a simple representation of ocean waves, with a bit of underwater plant life, and a great quote.

I used a totally different process for making this card - because I was stumped for an idea, I started searching through my UFO box (in which I have all sorts of backgrounds, pieces where I experimented with various techniques, etc.) for a background suitable for the "ocean" theme.  I pulled out a few pieces and started thinking.

At the end of the process, this card came together and is composed almost totally of pieces from my UFO box!   It's always great to find uses for them, but rarely do I find three pieces to put together into one card!

The background is a piece of smooshed watercolour paper from my UFO box - not sure what ink I used for it. 

I also found a piece that said "waves" to me.  It's a piece of coated cs on which I'd sprinkled blue and turquoise brushos, spritzed with water, and let the brushos spread as they liked.  It was wonderful serendipity that I got an area that looked like the froth on the crest of a wave and that perfectly fit one of my sloped hills dies.

Likewise the water weeds are from a piece of watercolour paper that was smooshed with green inks and had been languishing in the UFO box.  I used one of the Christmas greenery dies from a Tim Holtz set.

I put all that together and then thought "now I need a sentiment".  I have a nephew in his 20s who is a very thoughtful, philosophically-minded fellow and I decided to do something for his birthday with the card.  I die cut "moments" from a scrap of dark green cs since it would fit the space.  Then I went searching on the internet for a quote that used the word "moments" and either "ocean" or "wave" or "tide" and more serendipity - I found a great quote that fit the bill and that will really appeal to my nephew.

Here's a close-up that shows the focal panel and the quote really clearly:

In case anyone (other than me who, as a retired librarian, needs to look up information) wants to know who John Tyndall was who wrote the quote - he was a 19th century Irish physicist.   He is not to be confused with the 20th century John Tyndall who was a nasty British fascist / neo-nazi politician.

So this was the most ass-backward way of making a card!!  But at the end of the day, I really like it!

You have until June 24th to link up an ocean-themed CAS card at CAS Watercolour.  Head on over and check out the inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Robyn (Waterlily Cards by Robyn). 

Supplies:

Stamps - none - sentiment was typed on my computer and printed out

Ink - not sure what aqua ink I used for the smooshed background

Paper - coated cs, watercolour paper, white and dark green cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Tim Holtz greenery die, blue and turquoise brushos, Tim Holtz "moments" die, Ali Express slopes die

Watercoloured Ocean

It's the beginning of June so thoughts turn to summer activities and what better than something that involves the ocean?

A perfect month for the new CAS Watercolour challenge "Ocean":

June is also the month for Father's Day and while I was thinking about "ocean" ideas, I remembered my father building a small sailboat when I was a teenager.  So decided to combine ocean and Father's Day and a sailboat.  Here's close-up photo:

The background was created by sprinkling blue Brushos on cold-press watercolour paper and then spritzing with water.  I let it air dry and then stamped my image and sentiment with Versafine and heat embossed.  I wanted the boat, birds, and sentiment to be black (so used clear embossing powder over my black ink), but wanted the little wave lines to be white so carefully sprinkled tiny bits of white embossing powder over them.

I didn't want the blue Brushos showing through the sails, so painted over the sails with white Gesso, let it dry, and then used my Gansai Tambi paints to watercolour my sails in white with a couple of green stripes.

I framed the image and added a die cut seagull silhouette to the top right corner of the frame.

Please come and join us at CAS Watercolour.  We have great inspiration from our Design Team and our Guest Designer, Robyn (Waterlily Cards by Robyn).  Be sure to keep your cards clean and simple, and use the theme of "ocean".  You have until June 24th to enter.

I'm also entering the card in the Addicted to CAS challenge - code word "sea":

 

Supplies:

Stamps - SU sailboat, PTI sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - white and black cs, cold-press watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - blue Brushos, clear and white embossing powder, Gesso, Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Impression Obsession sea bird die, Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics dies (to create the frame), fun foam