2017 #9 Aqua: Bobbing Bottles {by Keren Baker}

2017 Topic 9: Aqua

Here in England its been ridiculously hot for us in recent weeks. Keren splashes us with a cool perspective in soothing blues with this lovely post for our new Topic Aqua.

Hi everyone, it's Keren back with you today, and I'd like to share with you a little piece created after considering what the word Aqua made me think of and an assortment of Aqua type tones.

I went back to acetate- as I wanted to include layers but without bulk, and acetate gives me the ability to stamp on both sides, building up colour and depth. 

I've created a notebook using a new Journal die that will cut through mount board and is sturdy enough to attach acetate to. I decided to gather together a pretty eclectic group of stamps to create an ocean scene. My thinking was to use different shades of Aqua (or loosely aqua) to create something aquatic - hopefully you can see where I'm going here. I used a combination of Frescos with this ESA02 Seth Apter stamp.

By adding translucent paint first, after masking off a section of the acetate cover, I could then build up to Opaque paints and then add a final layer of lighter opaque (Fresco Finish Smurf Acrylic) once I'd attached the Stazon stamped bottles. I really wasn't sure whether it would just look like a bunch of dots, but I persevered and it seemed to work out ok!

There was method in creating this way; a notebook is going to carried and used and bashed; so paint (unless covered with a protective layer) would chip off the acetate quite easily. By adding the main layers of paint on the reverse, the patterning was therefore protected. I hadn't thought well enough about my design so I did end up adding some sea foam with Snowflake Fresco at the front, but with better planning, I'd have added it before the translucent layers.

I used the bottle and tags from the Hot Picks Set HP1109EZ, because I was musing about bottles floating in the sea, and messages in a bottle etc. I stamped the bottles separately so I could play around with positioning with wrecking the paint (in case I made stamping errors!) and also meant the bottom of the bottle would show through the painted layer and give it more realism (I mean, who's going to point the fact that bottles don't ever float in perfect formation whilst remaining absolutely vertical!!)

I wanted to add a tiny pop of contrasting colour- so added the tiny red heart onto the tag. The bottles had been painted with more translucent Frescos to give them that olde worlde look. I discovered that very thin layers of translucent paints works much better than just lobbing a dollop on!! 

To bind the top and hide the sewing of the internal signatures, I wanted a strip of colour. Copper is a beautiful contrasting colour to the aqua shades so I brushed some Copper Metallic Finish Fresco onto cardstock and adhered it to the binding.It looks reddish in this photo but has a gorgeous sheen and is more coppery in real life.

All I needed to do was add my sentiment which tied it all together and was from The Cat's Meow- Ocean 

Creating with Aqua as a word or as a colour could take you in all sorts of directions. I loved trying to create depth and a little movement using one wonderful stamp and some acetate. Being able to add layers but still keep it clean looking fits right into my preferred style. It does require a little planning ahead, and the more I play with this technique, the more I learn. I can't wait to use multiple colours with this stamp and the star stamp from the same set or even another combination of tones or shades.

Thanks for joining me, and hope you join in with this inspiring topic

Blog: Kerenbaker's Blog
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We love the depth you create with those wonderful spots in the foreground, and your bottling bobbing bottles are totally a 'thing' Keren. A lovely sentiment from one of our earliest sets of stamps from the Cat's Meow series too! Thankyou! ~ Leandra

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Why not join our 2-weekly challenge by blogging your create response to the current topic and link it here?

The current topic link Topic 9 (Aqua) will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, July 22nd 2017, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

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