It's always ourselves we find in the sea

Hello all!  I'm back with my second Summertime creation of the month for Country View Challenges.  As the host, you always leap back into action almost immediately, so if you missed my first offering, you could go and have a wander In a Summer Meadow.

And this is actually the second post of the day here at Words and Pictures... in between, I squeezed in a Calico Car Rally - I'd love it if you had time to check that out!

For this second Summertime piece, I've moved from the meadows to the beach...

My team-mate the fabulous Brenda of Bumblebees and Butterflies has quite often shared altered clipboards, and a while back I ordered a cheap set and they've been sitting around waiting to be pressed into action.






Here's what they look like before... and I confess I hadn't actually intended to use one of them for this at all.
















It all started with a journalling page - I was just playing with lots of DecoArt Media Line sprays, some stencilled circles, splatter and so on.










And then I looked at it and I thought, "Well, that's got a look of the seashore about it"... the spume and the spray and the bubbles.

"That might work for the Summertime theme", said my brain.










I started to gather embellishments and it became clear pretty quickly that I'd never be able to close the journal with the bits and bobs I wanted to use. That was when my brain flickered onto the idea of the clipboard and - to my delight - the page fitted almost perfectly onto the board.

Now I was able to set to with my beach combing additions.
















There's an Occasions Found Relatives photo at the heart of it. I'm fairly sure I've already shared the e.e.cummings poem at the foot of the post before... but it was bubbling inside me all through this creative process. This may be Maggie and Milly or Molly and May... you decide.

In any case, I used DecoArt Media Line Fluid Acrylics to tint the sea, dabbing it on with some water, and rubbing with my finger, and then repeating the process until I was happy with the depth of colour.
















The stained and torn book pages are coated with crackle glaze to give a look of sandy dunes rippling up between the shallow waves.













There are more bubbles thanks to a bargain Elizabeth Craft Designs die...













And cheesecloth - somewhere between fishing nets and the wisps of white on the top of breaking waves.












The girls have been collecting shells and sea glass from amidst the tiny stones and sparkling grains of sand (seed beads and some Finnabair micro beads)...














... starfish (Calico Craft Parts primitive stars lightly crackled in that role) and pebbles...













... an old anchor (another Calico special) - a really lucky find, that.













As you know, I love glassy translucence, so I added Glossy Accents and Crackle Accents to some of my journalling bubbles.














They catch the light very pleasingly!











The clip itself has also had some work. I've tried to give it a look of the ocean waves just offshore, in the distance from where our girls are paddling.














I've used a variety of crackle paints and glazes and the DecoArt paints again to offer a look of the cresting breakers heading in towards the beach.











I hope this captures some of the feeling of those golden childhood days, paddling in the shallows, exploring rock pools...

... discovering and collecting all the exciting beachcombing bits and bobs we find so fascinating.








And with everything they've collected, it would never have closed inside the art journal, so it's just as well I went with the altered clipboard idea!  If you'd like to meet someone else who's been collecting far too many seashells, take a wander over to Cestina's Dollshouses to see who's selling seashells (though not quite on the sea shore!).

We'd love to see what Summertime conjures up for you, so come and play along with us at Country View Challenges this month. Remember, there's fresh inspiration from the team every couple of days over at the blog and a great prize from our fabulous sponsors Country View Crafts, so we hope to see you there soon. Happy Summertime crafting all!


maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang 
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing 
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone 
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me) 
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea
e.e. cummings


I hardly ever get to play in challenges these days, but I would like to enter this in the Happy Holidays theme at Stamps and Stencils (the bubbles were made using the large Prima 12x12 bubbles stencil).

Remember to check out the Coaches, Planes and Automobiles at Calico Craft Parts if you're looking for inspiration for some boys' toys (though as a lover of vintage vehicles I hope you'll let me come and play with them too).