Summertime Bliss

      Welcome back to a very summer themed Laurart creation!

   'Frilly and Funkie' wants us to focus on holiday destinations for their latest challenge and although it isn't far away or exotic I do always love to go to the seaside....And boy was I so happy when I saw the latest 'Simon Says' challenge!...Simon Says wants the letter 'S'! YAY! I LOVE it when challenges combine so smoothly!

      For me, the ideal holiday destination is the southern coast of England. I was born in Weymouth and lived for a few years on the beautiful Isle of Purbeck. I have lovely memories of the gorgeous Dorset beaches, when we moved away we were able to see Dorset again because my grandparents lived there. During our holidays with them we seemed to spend every single day at the beach - ice-creams and sandwiches, buckets and spades, the smell of the salty air....such bliss. I still go on holiday there now and my husband calls it my 'spiritual home'.

      For this project I wanted to capture the look of holidays of long ago, weathered wooden beach huts, striped deckchairs, bunting and hunting for seashells.

      How to put all that seaside inspiration into my crafts? First I used the Tim Holtz Vintage Cabinet die cut. My usual way of using it is to cut a piece of balsa wood using the die cut as a template and make a hanging. I needed to make a window so I decided to use two pieces of the die cut, and this time use card and create a wood effect. One piece was the back of the project - covered in Antique Linen DS, stamped with a woodgrain stamp using Frayed Burlap DI and covered with a diluted wash of Picket Fence and Vintage Photo DP. I made the effect deliberately streaky to give a weathered sand washed look. The second diecut piece was one that had the center cut out and that got the same stain, ink and paint routine.

       Then I got a piece of card, and painted some Frayed Burlap splodges on it, spritzed with water and then covered with Picket Fence DP. I cut a cross out of it and used this as the window.

      I cut a slit either side of the base cabinet die cut and bending the window frame slightly, slotted the edges into place. Now I had a bay window style effect.

     I chose a gorgeous vintage seaside picture and attached it to ivory card that had been edged in Vintage Photo DI.

    A 'Wish you were here' stamp was stamped on pale mint printed paper with Coffee Archival ink. I found a vintage postcard in my paper stash.

 

I cut bunting from sheets of printed paper and edged them with Vintage Photo DI and attached them to hemp string. Crochet lace was placed behind the window as curtains.

    I chose some gorgeous striped card - To me it added to the scene looking like old fashioned deckchairs that you see on the beach. I tore one edge and using the Vintage Photo DI again I gave it a rustic shabby edge.

      Some frayed beige material was added to the edges along with some seashells that my children collected on our last visit to the Dorset beaches - Lovely to get some more memories into the creation

   ......and some twisted string, that once had been the handles of a gift bag that I had been saving to use when the oppurtunity came along, gave a vintage seaside look of ropes.

    The words Sun and Sand were obviously important. I cut out these words from an old pad of 6x6 'Holiday' papers that hadn't I used for years! So lucky I found them lurking in the bottom of the paper drawer - Edged with the Vintage Photo it completes my Sunny Seaside creation....

     I do like all the creations I make - but this one has a very special place in my heart. When I missing the sounds of the waves, the smell of the wonderful sea breeze and the feel of soft sand under my feet I can look at this and remember happy holidays of the past and look forward to wonderful beach holidays in the future.

        Hope you like it too!

     

I would like to enter this in the following challenges -

Frilly and Funkie - Holiday destinations through a window
Simon Says - Challenge brought to you by the letter S
Vintage Stamping Challenges - Childhood
Anything but a card - Dust off your old supplies
Make My Monday - Use lace and/or ribbon