Anything But A Card - April Showers - Very Late. . . . . .

Please note that this should have been posted yesterday but our internet went on strike which resulted in some unladylike behaviour from me whilst trying to fix it! An engineer is booked for tomorrow but my daughter rang earlier and said 'why don't you use your phone as a hotspot Mum?'. Er. . . .  Didn't know about such things but I followed her instructions and here I am, back online and feeling human again! What did we do before computers??

The new challenge goes live today (yesterday!) at Anything But A Card! Our theme, very aptly for the weather in the UK, is April Showers. This means you can choose to do anything with a water theme be it colours, images, materials or a host of other watery delights. You can make anything you like, using anything that pleases you as long as it isn't a card and it fits the theme for this fortnight. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

We have one or two surprises up our sleeves over the coming months so look out for some new inspiration at Anything But A Card. Today, we are introducing you to our newest recruit: DeeDee Catron of UmWowStudio and I'm sure you'll all make her feel very welcome. Good to have you on board DeeDee.

For my piece today, I had to drag out my little seahorse stamp because I just love him! I wanted to use the colours of the sea and decided to include this lovely image as part of the hanging I've made. I used a Tando Arch thingy (I can never remember the names of these things!), acrylic paint, inks, watercolour pencils, water soluble crayons, stamping, stitching and of course some crackle - at least you don't have rust this week!

Here's the little hanging I've made:

The completed underwater scene (not to scale!). The seam binding hanger was coloured with various distress stains to match the colour scheme.

The frame was given two layers of gesso, followed by a mix of soft blue acrylics. When dry, a medium was used to add larger than normal crackle (learnt in my Andy Skinner club!). A further layer of acrylic crackle paint was added and hey presto! Bigger crackle - thanks AS! To complete the shabby look, some treasure gold was added randomly.

The background was achieved by sponging card with distress inks in various blues. Water soluble crayons/pastels were applied straight onto the rubber stamp, spritzed with water then applied to the background. A white gel pen added some detail here and there.

The seahorse was stamped on scrap card and aged marine EP added. the spaces between the embossed areas were coloured with watercolour pencils and a waterbrush.

The shells were stamped onto an acrylic paint base and embossed with aged taupe EP. The shell to the right was stamped onto plain card and coloured with watercolour pencils and a waterbrush. Shading was added around the images to added depth (watercolour pencil again).

Some machine stitching was added to create interest on the background. You can clearly see the white gel pen here too and shading around the seahorse.

Mmmm. . . . . tension on that machine stitch is a little dodgy but it all adds to the fun doesn't it!

Hope you like my little hanging. It was great fun to make and when I get to use paint, ink and stamping it's even more fun! Now it's your turn. . . . . . . . . . .