Anything Goes Week - FISHING BOAT "ANNA"

Hi lovely fans ! I illustrate for the first time a "Free for All" week, and that's always a perfect theme as we can do everything that crosses our mind... For me, I fancied painting and decorating a Tando kit that I LOVE,  I find it so inspirful ! It's Layered Rowing Boat with Oars. If you like this small marine kit, please see also the versions created by Di and Karen recently on the Craft Barn's blog, they are totally different but so gorgeous both too !!!   

To do my boat, I started from a Manilla tag Size #8. I used Gesso and a Bingo mask to introduce very light texture at some parts only and I highlighted them with some blue paint sprayed with water. I also used my distress Barn Door in two ways: First I water colored a bit of red ink on my non-stick craft sheet and wiped my tag into it. Second at the last stage I also directly applied the pad in all senses on my tag.  Finally as I was satisfied with the result - it really make me think to ocean and boats ! -, I cut out the shapes of the oars and the background of my boat in it and covered the bottom and the oars by gluing the shaped pieces onto them.   

The top and sides of the boat were painted in Fresco Finish Sky and then in Baltic Blue mixed with a finger of Gloss Glaze. I dried off each layer with a heat tool. At the end I covered my boat with some translucent Inky Pool and added a coat of Gloss Glaze all over it for even more brilliance. But before that, I also stamped horizontally my large background stamp imitation "wood" in Versafine Deep Lagoon and also London bus at the top and outer sides of the boat. I also painted these latter alternately in red and blue before gluing them firmly together.

Here are some close-ups of my small fishing boat, I named it "Anna" and registered it for fun as "GV 3011", with GV standing for "Le Guilvinec". This is a nice small fishing port located in Finistère, Brittany !

I used a single fish stamp with fine details to create a lot of small fishes: red, blue... and even multicolored as you will see at the end ! :) This stamp comes from my new - very useful I find - "Tiny Things" plate by Stamper Anonymous. I stamped my fishes on some water colour paper and used my Distress inks and two Opalite reinkers I had for ages and never used yet to color them... They proved to be really perfect for fishes as they are slightly pearlised ! I all coated with Glossy Accents to do beautiful embellishments. I glued two of them on the top right side.

I also created a small jute bag with a piece of extra-large jute ribbon. I tied it up with small jute rope just stringed inside the big holes. I put some true tiny shellfishes and some remaining multicolored fishes in it for fun. I must confess that this little scene of grounded boat on the sand is not my idea, it has been made by my brother in-law and my twins in their sandbox LOL !!! :)

My small fishes hanged up to a metallic wire are done using the same tiny fish stamp but in shrink plastic this time (white or black). I'm very happy since I did them with my twins, it had been a true game for them! They have loved inking each fish and testing every Brilliance ink color, making a small hole into eye, and finally heating each one with the gun and looking at their incredible shrinking in a few seconds... Shrink plastic embellishments are a great fun with kids ! 

The little heart was done roughly following the lines of the Distress red pad (I used Barn Door). I drew it slowly, then inked it and/or painted it in London Bus and finally covered it first with a layer of Crackle Accents and next with more Glossy Accents for extra texture and brilliance. 

For my life-belt, I played with my embossing powders. I used Gold and Clear UTEE added to Distress powders (Black and Fired Red). With UTEE powders, several layers are needed to get a beautiful result... Patience is needed but it well worth doing it ! At the end I even more highlighted the red colour by inking the edges in red again before briefly heating it all again.    

And here is what I made with my leftovers of paint and fishes on a wooden tag !!!

I also realized 3 small tags just for fun freely, using the wastes of paints and playing with two beautiful masks by Andy Skinner. I used ~{Owls}~, ~{Burning Rubbers}~ and ~{SunBurst}~. Could be useful one day... :)

Et voila ! Sorry for this very looooong post... I'm used to explain my process of creation... but you can always skip some steps if it's too boring !!!  

Hope you like my project today... I had a great fun doing it, this small kit from Tando is so lovely and enjoyable to paint and assemble, I highly recommend it !!!  

Please pop over my blog for even more photos and design notes if you like this project !  Coco xxx