Seashore Collage Valentine

What do the seashore and Valentine's Day have in common?  Very little actually, unless your romance was set in a seaside locale.  But I'm working on some collage backgrounds for my up-coming Technique Class and thought that a marine collage would work out really well.  The Valentine part is just because it's only a couple of weeks away from February 14 and masculine valentines are always a little harder to create.

 Here's some of my inspiration photos:

Oh, yeah!  Definitely making me want to escape winter and go somewhere warm and tropical!  Here's my seashore collage valentine:

•  The main stamp sets I used were By the Tide and By the Seashore.  They have plenty of marine images to use for a collage background, including some script and a postal-looking stamp that I used in this collage.
• I started by sponging a variety of colours, either tealish or sandyish, (add those words to your vocabulary!) on some Very Vanilla cardstock.

• Then I stamped various images in some of the same inks.  I stamped the fish, two of the seaweed and the conch shell in Versamark and embossing them with clear embossing powder.  Then I sponged over them with some of the darker inks so that they would show up better.  I wiped the ink off of them with some paper towel which also helps them show up better.  The embossing resists the ink.

• The Natural Chevron Ribbon from the Occasions catalogue is perfect for lightening this project up, both physically and mood-wise, and helps the sentiment (from a Paper Pumpkin kit) suit the rest of the project.
• Want to know how I got such a narrow matting around the sentiment panel?  Well, the Labels Thinlet card has a label shape that is just slightly smaller than the second smallest framelit from the Labels Collection!  Cool!!  
• The hearts were punched with the small heart punch and die cut using the heart thinlit from the Circle Card Thinlits.  Those two thinlit sets are much more than just swing card makers.  They have an amazing variety of other little shapes you can use and coordinate with other framelits, but it's so easy to forget about them.  My advice is to make a list of shapes contained in the two sets and keep them somewhere visible.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

There you have it!  Fun to make and experiment with collage backgrounds.  Give it a try!

• By The Tide
• By The Seashore
• Crumb Cake 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Bermuda Bay 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock
• Very Vanilla 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Baked Brown Sugar Classic Stampin' Pad
• Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad
• Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad
• Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad
• Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad
• Pistachio Pudding Classic Stampin' Pad
• Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad
• Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad
• Versamark Pad
• Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder
• Heat Tool
• Embossing Buddy
• Natural 5/8" Chevron Ribbon
• Labels Collection Framelits Dies
• Small Heart Punch
• Circle card Thinlits Die
• Label Card Thinlits Die