Under the boardwalk...

Hello all, and welcome to Words and Pictures on a busy and exciting day - there's so much going on over at Artistic Outpost!  Today sees the release of a brand new stamp set - and it's fabulous... like summer on a stamp plate!  

Here's a little taster of just some of what I've been up to with it... I've got several pieces to share with you and I'll spread them out over the next few days and weeks, but I thought I'd give you a quick glimpse of them all to whet your appetites.

So, without more ado, I give you: Boardwalk...

And if you hop round the rest of the team, you'll find so many amazingly inspirational makes.  Here's the list:

Gerrie Johnnic, Lisa Somerville, Suzanne Czosek, Tracy Evans,

Linda Coughlin, Alison Bomber, Terry Horrall, Kate Yetter

Here's what designer Robyn Phelan Sharp has to say about the new stamps:
For the love of the Jersey Shore and Atlantic City's historic boardwalk, this stamp collection features a lovely ATC sized collage featuring Steel Pier, bathing beauties, a handsome gentleman, and other summertime elements. 

Collection available in both unmounted sheets of red rubber or precut and mounted on EZMount clingfoam.



And to celebrate the (hoped-for) approach of summer, there's an amazing special offer on AO stamps at the moment: a Memorial Day sale with 15% off all Artistic Outpost stamp sets until June 8th - temptation, or what?!






So, I had to decide which project to share with you to start with, and I decided to go with one of my recent obsessions...



With the number of tiny floors I've been making recently, it was obvious to me from the get-go that I would have to make a "boardwalk"!



So I grabbed a fistful of coffee stirrers from the Costa Coffee on the boat on the way home, and here they are transformed into a weatherbeaten boardwalk in Atlantic City!











The Alterations cabinet card dies sliced through my cream mountboard with no problem at all, and I dabbed the resulting frame and background into some Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass and Broken China inks daubed onto my craft mat.

There's Frayed Burlap around the edges to add a touch of vintage ageing to the overall look.

The gorgeous background image of the Steel Pier building has also had a little shading with Frayed Burlap Distress Stain, just to deepen the brickwork.  

And I surrounded it with random stampings of some of the seashells.

The coffee stirrers were painted with Broken China and Picket Fence Distress Paints mixed in varying proportions to get variegated "wear and tear" across my boards.

I didn't want too neat a finish along the edge, so I cut them to varying lengths, but always with the same angle to the cut, so that they would line up nicely against the back board.

I stamped the word Boardwalk beneath my boardwalk - just in case it wasn't obvious! 

And the line from the song got pride of place at the top of the frame.  

By the way, it's pretty inevitable that you will be singing the song the entire time you're working with these stamps... just as well it's brilliant!

I coloured the two New Jersey badges with Distress Markers before UTEEing them.  

While the UTEE was still slightly warm I brushed some Pewter Distress Stain over them to try to get a bit of a look of a vintage tintype button.

I stamped a couple of Pier tickets and attached them with one of the adorable Idea-ology paper clips.




The 3D seashell embellishments were a fantastically lucky addition to my stash recently... 












I won a giveaway of "doodads" from the amazing mixed-media artist Cat Kerr (she has another Giveaway right now, but only until 24th May, so hurry!), and these seashells were amongst the doodads that arrived - how fortuitous is that?!  

They couldn't have been more perfect for this new release - and they match the seashell stamps brilliantly!

I pressed the seashell stamps into service again to decorate my padded supports between the frames.  

As I've done before, I used the sponges which come in the packet when you buy Texture Fade embossing folders.

I sliced them to size and then stamped the shells in Cobalt Archival, so that even if you do catch sight of them within the three-dimensional frame, you've still got something nice to look at!

So that's my first encounter with the Boardwalk stamps.  You'll find lots of amazing work from my amazing team-mates on your way round.  

If you get lost, you can find all the details here at Artistic Outpost.  And don't forget that fantastic 15% off offer... until June 8th!  

For now, thank you so much for stopping by today... I hope the summer is finally starting for you (if you're in the correct hemisphere for that of course!), and happy crafting whether it has or hasn't turned up!



Oh, when the sun beats down and burns the tar up on the roof
And your shoes get so hot, you wish your tired feet were fireproof
Under the boardwalk, down by the sea
On a blanket with my baby is where I'll be
Under the Boardwalk by Kenny Young and Arthur Resnick