Tuesday, May 21, 2013

A Virtual Vacation

Creating texture and dimension

I designed this underwater reef scene as a virtual vacation in an effort to ignore the snow that is falling outside my window…yes, I made this tag on Friday, May 17!

 
I hope you love texture and dimension as much as I do because that was a main focus for this tag.  I used scraps to create this scene and the “glitter under glass effect" techniques was added as described in this week’s SCS MIX16 challenge.

The base of this tag is a scrap of paste paper with a debossed swirl pattern. The seahorse was made with a scrap of paper created with the shaving paper technique. It was die cut and run through a crimper. The other sea life elements were cut with original Cuttlebug dies, embossed with small graphic patterns to add texture and enhanced with distress inks. All were attached with matte medium.

The "under glass effect was made by using stickles to highlight the seahorse and large shell and a light covering over the entire element. Once dry each  was covered with glossy medium for the “under glass effect”



The top of the tag is covered with small scraps. Stickles was used to fill in all the gaps between scraps and sparingly cover the surface. When dry the scraps were covered with glossy medium.

Since I previously had not used glossy medium I did a comparison test for this project. I found:

·   Glossy accents provided the look with the thickest layer of coverage and perhaps best meets the description for Glitter under Glass.

·   Ranger's Glossy Glue N Seal was the thinnest layer of coverage.

·   Claudine Hellmuth's Studio Glossy Medium provides a mid-range glossy look-similar to cloisonné and became my preference for this project.

I am entering this project into eP Picks Challenge - Gel Medium at Eclectic Paperie

As always I appreciate you taking time to look at my work and when you share your thoughts you add sunshine to my day! May your day include some happy creative moments!

10 comments:

  1. Gorgeous! I love all the texture. Great job!

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  2. This is so magnificent!! Such a beautiful creation Jan!! The colors remind me of the ocean and beach. The textures are I think my favorite--but that is hard to say since there are so many great things with this tag!

    And I am glad you shared your thoughts on glossy medium!

    Great job! TFS!!

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    1. Thanks Melissa for stopping by...as you see the formatting is now improved. I appreciated the heads up on the issues :-)

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  3. Such a pretty tag Jan, I love all the texture and the lovely sea colors - that 'under glass' technique looks like fun!

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  4. Wonderful tag Jan! Love all the textures and the glitter adds a wonderful touch. I reach for my glossy accents all the time, I have no idea how many bottles I have used through the years.

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  5. what a lovely tag! The seahorse is precious and what a good idea to run him through a crimper! Glitter under glass is a great concept - I'll have to try that!. So glad you shared your tag at eclectic Paperie!

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  6. Love tag art and yours is very strikingly beautiful. I wish I experimented more (sigh)

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  7. That tag just seeps warmth, sea, sand and beach. Wonderful job!!!!! Absolutely love all the wonderful texture! Sigh, I would love to visit Alaska. I love cold weather but I admit snow on May 17th.....that's a bit extreme, even for this winter loving person :-). Thanks so much for playing along with the eTeam in our eTeam Picks Challenge.

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  8. Wonderful tag - your colors are so pretty and sea-like! Thanks for playing with eP! :)

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  9. Beautiful tag and great techniques Jan!!
    Thank you so much for joining us over at eclectic Paperie.
    Hugs
    Tracy
    Pssst one day I would looove to visit your country..stunning!!

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