Shore Birds

Good Morning, Friends!
It is a beautiful and sunny fall day here; the fall colors are past their prime and can you believe Thanksgiving is less than 3 weeks away!?  Vacations are but a distant memory now.  Mountain hikes and walks along the beach will have to wait until next summer.  But that did not stop me from pulling out this stamp set that I just had to have and yet has never seen ink!

I wanted a lot of texture on this card, so I grunged it up a bit- well, actually grunged it up a lot!  I started with a piece of watercolor paper and spritzed it generously with water, then used a Not Quite Navy ink spot to lay down the water, direct to paper.  I added Crumb Cake direct to paper for the sand and Sage Shadow direct to paper for the sky.  I started moving color around a bit with an aqua painter and then dried the paper.    I used my color spritzer and a Soft Suede marker to add texture to the sand.  So Saffron was sponged in at the sky line and a bit onto the water for the sunset.  Then I spritzed it with water and let the water dry again.  I stamped my birds and then dabbed on some white paint here and there for white caps, sea foam, and glare off the water-whatever your eye wants to see, basically!  :)
I stamped the Of the Grid image in River Rock on Naturals Ivory cs and distressed the edges of this cs.  But that did not seem like enough texture for me, so I grabbed some Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Paint and a piece of burlap.  I dabbed the burlap into a small amount of paint and then dabbed than onto the Naturals Ivory cs.  I did that again with some River Rock ink.
The sentiment is stamped on a piece of So Saffron cs and also received the burlap and medium treatment.  Similarly, I grunged up the canvas by wetting it and dragging it through mediums, drying in between layers. 
While this may be a bit much grunge for some, I really like how it turned out!
I am linking this card up to Seize the Sketch and Seize the Birthday Challenges.

Thanks so much for visiting and have a blessed week!

Lee Ann :)

Products Used-
Stamps- Stampin' Up Wetlands, Espress Yourself, Off the Grid
Paper- watercolor paper, Early Espresso, Naturals Ivory, So Saffron, Sage Shadow
Ink- River Rock, black, Early Espresso, Soft Suede
Other- Canvas, square punch, color spritzer, dimensionals, aqua painter, Tim Holtz Distress Paint in Vintage Photo and Picket Fence