Summer Lovin' At Anything But A Card. . . . . . .

Hello everyone. What a busy few days I've had! seven hours travelling to see my daughter's degree show in Plymouth, Devon and of course, another seven hours back again - totally worn out but I was so proud of her! Here's one of her pencil drawings before it was mounted and framed:

Hard to believe it's done in pencil isn't it? 

Just had to share that but let's get back on track now. I am showing my DT work for Anything But A Card today in the third week of their challenge entitled Summer Lovin'. If you haven't already joined in there, click here and see the inspiration provided by the rest of the ladies for you. You won't be disappointed I promise you!

This is how Susan, our lovely leader, describes the challenge for you:

A celebration of all things summer! Think summer weather, vacations, sunflowers, beach parties, cold drinks and Barbeques... bright colors and wide open sky. Pool parties all day, then sitting in lawn chairs sipping drinks and watching the night sky. 

I've made the image large because the details are very subtle on this tag and could be missed in a smaller image.

The base of the tag is watercolour paper which was coloured with Dylusion ink sprays and Perfect Pearls spray. Images were then stamped using a variety of distress ink colours. Each fish was then enhanced using a watercolour pencil but no water. I love these pencils because they give such rich tones to the work - wet or dry.

The fine textured yarn was coloured with the remains of the Dylusions spray from the craft mat. I included the yarn to convey the idea of waves and motion.

You can see quite clearly here how the watercolour pencil was used to enhance the fish outline - I love adding these pencils to distress inks.

The bathing beauty was stamped onto smooth card in archival ink and then coloured with distress inks hopefully achieving an ombre effect in the background.

The edges of the tag were finished with some prussian blue ink which is a gorgeous colour.

The crinkle ribbon was coloured using a mixture of Dylusion ink and Distress ink. It was then scrunched into a ball and dried with a heat gun.

The end of a paintbrush protector was used to stamp 'air bubbles' on the background using Distress ink.

The fish at the bottom was stamped onto some scraps of the watercolour paper coloured with the Dylusion inks. The paper was stuck onto some Tando inchies and then they were laid close together on the craft mat. Once in position, the fish was stamped onto the inchies.

The inchies were joined to the main tag using some cotton seam binding which was also coloured with Dylusions inks, Distress inks and some Perfect Pearls spray.
Quote was made using a label maker and clear tape. This was glued to a coloured paper scrap, applied to card and attached to the cotton tape above the inchies.

I have added some images with no caption. I hope they give you some idea of the amount of shimmer and depth that has been achieved in the background.

Hopefully we'll see you at Anything But A Card with your interpretation of our June theme: Summer Lovin'.

Can't wait to see what you come up with for this great challenge. Please remember to read the small number of rules which you'll find on the blog.

Thank you for joining me and pease do have a look at Anything But A CArd such inspiration awaits you!