Inspired by the Ocean Blue

For all you artisans in Blogville, especially those of you who live in SoCal, you may be familiar with the Laguna Beach Sawdust Festival.  It's the community's annual art fair which runs through the entire summer.  The sawdust-laden grounds are filled with beautiful original artwork including paintings, pottery and jewelry, created by local Laguna Beach artisans.  It's wonderful to sip a glass of wine while strolling up and down the many aisles, looking for that one piece of art which will capture your eye, and maybe even your wallet!  Of course, as all of you know, we crafters stroll for inspiration. 

While recently vacationing in Laguna Beach with family and friends, I took an afternoon to meet some of the artists and see the new collections offered in each booth.  Afterwards, I shook out the collected sawdust that found their way in between my toes and sandals; and instead of joining everyone on the sand, made my way up to the top terrace of our vintage hotel for some serious art work of my own. 

Using the many blue colors of the Pacific Ocean as my backdrop, I decided to create a canvas collage that will showcase one of our vacation photos.  I covered my blank canvas with acrylic paint, various scrapbook paper, and paint chip samples (I love these so much!).    If you look really closely, you will see that one of the colors on the paint chip is named "Laguna Blue".  How completely perfect is that?

I added some chipboard letters (which my daughter and I had scooped up at Big Lots for a dollar the day before), which I painted to match the canvas with a sandy terracotta color (that I actually made by blending two colors together).  When the letters dried, I stamped them with a flourishy acrylic stamp to give the letters a swirly design.  I Mod Podged some pretty paper and my paint chip samples onto the canvas, and then lightly brushed more paint on the paper and paint samples to give the collage a distressed, beachy feel.  (Yes, I could've used some actual beach sand as well, but that would've meant getting sand in my toes!)

I chose a summery patterned paper and a contrasting solid to use as my photo mat to make the photo "pop" on the board.  (Side bar:  I used a magazine to cover my workspace.  Note the hunky guy on the magazine cover who supervised me!)

Then I added a few embellishments including:

 a cute tag tied onto the "A" with a gingham ribbon,

a two-tone silky flower attached with a tiny brad,

a found sand dollar (OK, you caught me, I did take a few walks on the beach),

couple small shells,and a multi-layered flower "tied" with a button and then topped with this cute sea star!

Once at home, I added this photo of our two beach beauties, and...

the canvas is complete and ready to adorn the wall--a lovely momento of our great beach vacation.

I would love to see what momentos you have from your summer vacation!  Please leave me a comment and any links to show me what kind of creative memories you have made.