Sun, Sea & Sand - by Claudia

Servus, hi and welcome, dear Calico Craft Parts friends! I hope you are enjoying your summer holidays as much as I do!

I love the vintage "bathing beauties" in their gorgeous dresses and when I found this lovely image in the internet, I knew it had to go with one of Calico Craft Parts' lovely "House Kits" and at least one of Helen's awesome and brand new "Word Elements"!

Calico Craft Parts used: 

- Plain MDF House/Shrine Kit - Tall (the "small" size)
- Word Elements - Summer & Seaside
- To the Beach Signpost Wood Shape
- Sheet of Mini MDF Nautical Motifs - Style 1
- Sheet of Mini MDF Nautical Motifs - Style 6

I sealed the completely dried printed out image of my bathing beauty with a thin coat of DecoArt media Ultra Matte Varnish to prevent the printer's ink from bleeding and smudging when tinting the black and white image with a thin wash of DecoArt media Transparent Red Iron Oxide fluid acrylic.
Once that was done and dry I carefully cut out my beauty (using a precision knife).

I used white DecoArt heavy body Acrylic Gesso and dry brushed that onto all the parts I wanted to use. As I have only a little Gesso left in the jar, it is already quite dry and creamy...so it created a wonderfully textured and smudged effect - simply by painting it on with an old and worn bristle brush. I also used the effect of the MDF bleeding through a little when being painted with only one layer of white Gesso - that added a lot to the worn vintage look I was aiming for! 

I painted the stripes (freehand) using diluted DecoArt media Burnt Umber fluid acrylic and a flat soft brush.

Once all was dry, I stacked several sticky foam pads to glue my beauty in place. 

Then I went in with a soft brush and a wash of Transparent Red Iron Oxide here and there for more interest.

Once everything had dried all the pieces were glued together and in place using matte Decou-Page. 

I even used the left over from the house kit's front opening as the base for my little beauty in her beach hut:

Done!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Enjoy a happy time with loads of "Sun, Sea & Sand" (or whatever else makes you happy)!!!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx