Sunday 24 March 2013

Simon Says Stamp and Show... Water

Last Sunday was St. Patrick's day and to celebrate we spent a wonderful weekend on the Inishowen peninsula in Donegal. On the Sunday morning we drove up to the car park at Malin Head and I fished out a cheap set of watercolours and had my first go at painting.

Now Malin Head is about as remote a part of this island as you can get and Tom and I were just wondering what we were going to do about lunch when the strangest thing happened. A man with a van turned up. He opened up the side of the van and there was a state of the art espresso machine, complete with oodles of handbaked fresh cakes. Next thing, cars arrived out of nowhere and soon the whole place was buzzing. MMmmm, I can honestly say that was the best cappuchino I ever tasted, and his homemade ginger cake was glorious. Can't promise the man will be there every Sunday, but if you're ever in the area it's worth a try :-)

"Water - a Weekend in Donegal"

So back to today's card. When I saw this week's theme at SSS&S was water, I had to make use of one of my "paintings" of Donegal (I use the term in the loosest sense of the word lol!). I scanned the one I liked the best and printed it twice onto A6 card (roughly 6" x 4" for my American friends ;-)).

"View from car park at Malin Head"

What with the arrival of the coffee, I never got time to finish the painting, so my white bits were added onto the print before matting on silver and sticking to the left hand side of a book card blank.

"Lighthouse"


The other copy was overstamped with this fabulous lighthouse scene from Chocolate Baroque using archival ink and carefully lining up the horizons. I stamped a second copy of the scene onto watercolour paper and watercoloured with distress inks, cutting out the lighthouse and sailing ship and adhering over the stamped images in the print using Pinflair glue for some added dimension. Distress inks and a white gel pen were used to add colour and detail to the picture, then I gilded the whole of the foreground and the frame of the bookcard using IndigoBlu flitter glu and gilding flakes. Lastly, lashings of Pinflair dimensional glue were dribbled along the bottom of the book card and I added loads of sequins (mostly silver with a few blue), followed by more glue and lots of seed beads.

Pebbles that you pick up off the beach are always prettier when they are wet with the sea water than when you get them home and they've dried out don't you think? I hope I've captured the feeling of a wet seashore. I could add lots more to this card, but thought I'd leave this one simple for once.

Ingredients:
watercolour set and a weekend in Donegal, or you can nick my "painting" below ;-)
Chocolate Baroque stamp set: Seashore Scenes
distress ink markers (I used a lot, but including Pumice Stone and Tumbled Glass)
IndigoBlu flitter glu and Winter Dawn gilding flakes
Pinflair dimensional glue
sequins & seed beads
bailer twine for card closure
cardstock: grey 300gsm, white 220gsm, watercolour paper

"St. Patrick's day off Malin Head" by Izzwizz
My first ever painting

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show... Water

14 comments:

  1. stunning creation x

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  2. I love this card it really is great and the painting is so natural and very relaxing to do...well done you! The 3D effect of this is brilliant and has given me a bit of inspiration for my next project....thank you for sharing your ideas and talent. Debbie x

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  3. A wonderful piece of art, great summer feeling.

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  4. Wow, Maddy! What a stunning piece of art! I LOVE it! Your artwork is fabulous and the book card is the perfect way of showing it off. I will be following your link to find a how to x

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  5. Absolutely stunning Maddy. Your painting is wonderful and I I love the way you have added the other images to it. The sequins and beads look so beautiful.
    Sue xx

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  6. Absolutely stunning! A brilliant project. Love it.
    Heike xx

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  7. Beautiful book card and your painting real wonderful!

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  8. Maddy...I love this!!! You know how much I love your book cards!!! I have yet to make mine!! But I will!! This little card book is so cute. Love your photograph. So pretty. And your painting on the opposite page is stunning. It works so perfectly with our theme at Simon Says Stamp and Show and the photograph! Thanks for sharing! <3 Candy

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  9. was there myself late last year too Maddie - the coffee and cake was just the ticket that day as it was blowing a gale - such a remote location but gorgeous - fab painting too
    Linda

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  10. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous! Both sides of this sea themed beauty on this chunky card are fabulous! Lucky you and on St. Pats to be where you are! The story was wonderful too! Thanks for playing in our watered down challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp & Show!

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  11. Wow, wow and wow1 Love the book card, it looks like you could literally step inside it. The painting is fab too - something I cannot do to save my life!!

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  12. This is fabulous!! Love your painting and the stamping is wonderful. Great idea to scan and print your painting. Thank you for sharing with us at Simon Says Stamp and Show!

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  13. bwaaahhh...I had to laugh when I read your comment on my blog today about the quotable quotes CARD! Yes, I actually made a card! haha Next time, I want to make a book card and just try to come close to your beautiful work on these! Your book cards are genius! Thanks for the very sweet comment! <3 Candy

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  14. Oh my giddy aunt....Maddy! You never told me you could paint. This is AMAZING!!! Oh my word, that is simply the most breathtaking and serene painting ever. And how clever of you to use it as a background for stamping. I really love, love, love that painting. Ohhhhh, I could buy a copy off you. It would look perfect in our bathroom. I even have a bleached out white washed frame that sort of looks like the wood you'd find on the beach. This painting would go perfectly in it. Right Misses.....you have your first buyer, lol! Lee xx

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Thanks for leaving a comment, it's nice to know I'm not just talking to myself :)