On the beach: scenic layout

Hi everyone! This is my first DT project for Craft a Scene. The theme for June is Beach – a bit of sand and water. I hope you will play along with us, and remember to check the site for the projects from the rest of the DT.

I did a full sheet (11.5x8 in) of scenic stamping which is part of a new series of scenes that I am making for my son. I place photos of him into the scenes so that it looks like he is running around in the scenes, and add a nice quote or piece of advice. This is the third such full sheet scene that I made, he loves looking at them, although he was a bit concerned about being alone in this one, he wanted me to come along in the boat. I really like the sentiment I used here – ‘May you always have a shell in your pocket’.

The scene is inspired by a beach we often go to, and I wanted to include a little tidal puddle of water, as well as some grass and lots of rocks and cliffs. I first planned the scene out on scrap paper. The two rocks in the water and the boat were stamped first and masked. I try to avoid masking if I can, but especially the boat needed to be masked. Seaside Cove is a massive stamp, and my version is unmounted, so I place it on my table and press paper on top. Bit tricky to get the horizon line straight, I measure and make a little mark on each side at the back of the cardstock and line the stamp up on my cutting board. The cliffs were stamped next as well as the rocks at the front. All the black stamping is done with Archival ink Jet Black.

The pond was stamped with Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo Distress Ink and the Sand Pattern was stamped with the same inks, the lighter shades in the middle of the beach and darker in the edges. The pebbles and rocks on the beach were stamped next. The grass was stamped with two shades of green ink (Memento Cottage Ivy and Bamboo Leaves), inking the stamp up with the lighter shade and then adding grassy lines with the darker ink in marker form.

The scene is done on glossy cardstock and coloured with dye inks applied with a Colorbox Stylus tool, and a pen nib for the small spaces, starting with the lightest shades of ink and gradually building up colour. I usually start with a layer of Adirondack ink, which gives a good base for further inking. Here I used as my first colours: Adirondack Sandal for the sand, Aqua for the sea and sky, Pebble for the stones and Willow for the green areas. I want to do a step-by-step tutorial on the colouring process, but I keep forgetting to take some of the photos because I am so into the process. There are a lot of good tutorials on the Stampscapes site, if you are interested. I will do a tutorial soon.

When the inking was done, I added some more stamping (the green leaves, more texture to the sand and the foreground grasses). Highlights were added with a white gel pen and a bit of mist was added to the sea by dry-brushing white pigment ink.

I only had a black and white copy of this photo at home, but when the scene was finished, I thought that the coloured version would look better, so I had it developed. The blue of his clothing (with sharks printed on it) worked well with the blue of the sea.

Thank you so much for looking! Happy stamping!

Anna-Karin

Supplies: Crafty Individuals sentiment and shell stamps; Sutter seagull and grass stamps; Beeswax boat stamp; Stampscapes: Reeds Lg. 068D, Leaf Sprig 127A, Rock (1) 129B, Rock Duo Sm. 131A, Rocky Cliff Left 133G, Seaside Cove 139H, Migrating Birds 152D, Boulders with Lichen 205F, Sedge Filler 215C, Tall Grass 253D, Tall Grass Sm. 254B, Pebbles 256A, Sand Pattern 168E, Prickly Brances 272G, Pond 279F, Cloud Strips Sm. 296C, 3 Rocks and Grass 299B, Rocks and Grass 301A, Gulls 302A.

Inks: Adirondack: Sandal, Hazelnut, Aqua, Stonewashed, Denim, Willow, Lettuce, Pesto, Pebble, Slate, Espresso, Pitch Black; Distress Ink: Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo, Scattered Straw, Pumice Stone; Jenni Bowlin: Weather Wane; Memento: Archival ink: Jet Black, Olive; Colorbox Frost White; white gel pen; Kromekote glossy cardstock.