Beside Me for As You See It Challenge #306

Our next As You See It Challenge is a theme challenge and the theme is At the Beach! I've done so many beachy or sea themed cards lately that I was stumped trying to come up with something new. I searched my stamp cupboard until the set, Beside Me, caught my eye, and when I took it out, I realized that I had not used it yet! It's time had come!

Here is the Challenge #306 Banner:

When my children were young, I could almost guarantee myself a day of relative ease by taking my kids to the seashore. They kept themselves totally amused, running back and forth between tide pools, fascinated by all the life they found in each different puddle. They collected shells, rocks and sea glass, and...there was NO fighting! I'm reliving those days with this card. It's depicting a dad taking his toddler son to show him the ocean for the first time. I can see him pointing out the waves, the gulls, and dangling him in the water to get his little feet wet.  Here's what I came up with:

• On a piece of FLUID 100 watercolour paper, using a water painter, I water coloured a background beach for my image. I started by deciding where my horizon would be and taping it off on the water side using painter's tape.
• Using Azure Afternoon ink, I added water from the Water Painter tool, then washed that on above the tape. I left some white areas for clouds. I dried it with the Heath Tool
• After removing the tape, you could add it to the sky area at the horizon, or you could just carefully add the water. I used Coastal Cabana, Pool Party, and then Lost Lagoon for depth. I dried it with the Heat Tool.
• Using Crumb Cake, I added the sandy beach at the bottom and dried that.
• Using the white Craft Ink refill, I used a Blender Pen to add white caps and clouds. These take forever to dry and I wanted them to have some 3D effect, so I put this background aside for a day to fully dry.
• In the meantime, I stamped the image from Beside Me on Basic White cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black ink as well as the sentiment from the same set.
• I coloured in the toddler image carefully using the Azure Afternoon and Poppy Parade Stampin' Blends Combos and the SU1000 Stampin' Blends Marker.  The father image was coloured in using the Wild Wheat, Copper Clay, Gray Granite Stampin' Blends Combos and the Ivory Stampin' Blends Marker. I used the Pool Party and Lost Lagoon Stampin' Blends Combos to colour in the water between them and between their legs, and the Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends Combo to create the sand under their feet.
• I fussy cut the image carefully and mounted it with dimensionals onto the dry watercoloured background, stamped the gulls right onto the sky and added some Faux Sea Glass Shapes. These are now retired but I had so many left because I loved them and ordered too many.
• I die cut the sentiment using a banner from the Stylish Shapes dies and mounted it using dimensionals. 

The overall appearance is cool because of the focal image on dimensionals, which creates a 3D look.

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Product List

Beside Me Cling Stamp Set (English) [160780] $36.00	Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper [149612] $12.25	Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Thick Cardstock [159229] $12.25	Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock [159276] $14.50	Azure Afternoon 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock [161719] $13.75
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $9.00	Azure Afternoon Classic Stampin' Pad [161663] $12.25	Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad [147097] $12.25	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad [147107] $12.25	Lost Lagoon Classic Stampin' Pad [161678] $12.25
Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [147116] $12.25	Uninked Stampin’ Craft Pad & Whisper White Refill [147277] $14.50	Azure Afternoon Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack [161672] $13.75	Poppy Parade Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154958] $13.75	Natural Tones Stampin’ Blends Collection [160940] $61.25
Wild Wheat Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack [161661] $13.75	Copper Clay Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack [161662] $13.75	Gray Granite Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154886] $13.75	Bronze & Ivory Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154922] $13.75	Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154882] $13.75
Pool Party Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154894] $13.75	Lost Lagoon Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack [161680] $13.75	Water Painters [151298] $18.00	Blender Pens [102845] $18.00	Paper Snips [103579] $15.00
*Faux Sea Glass Shapes [158139] $11.00	Stylish Shapes Dies [159183] $41.00	Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [149653] $175.00	Mini Stampin' Dimensionals [144108] $6.00	Multipurpose Liquid Glue [110755] $7.50

* Retired Product: no longer sold by Stampin' Up!