Sizzling Summer ..........

Sizzling and Summer are two words which we would rarely put together in Shetland!  but what a great theme for this month's challenge over at Country View Crafts.  I do hope you will join us in this lovely challenge theme.

We may not get sizzling temperatures but when the sun shines here in Shetland there is nothing as blue as the sea, the white of the beaches or the green of the hills.  So as today I start my sailing holiday my tag is "sizzling sea shore"!   

So grab a cuppa as there are alot of photos!

I covered my tag with bits and pieces of scrim, net, muslin and lace (all stuck down with Claudine Hellmuth Mixed Medium) and then I covered the whole lot with gesso.

When it had dried (I left it overnight) I sprayed it first with Gingersnap Smooch Spritz (in places as this is very strong colour!).

Then I sprayed with Glimmer Mist Seven Seas and a little Sprout - the Shetland colours of the sea, beaches and hills!

I dry brushed a bit of gesso over the top once it had all dried to tone it down a bit.

The texture on the tag is amazing, but no good for stamping, so I stamped these lovely Tim Holtz stamps (they are now on holiday with me!) onto tissue paper with Staz On Midnight Blue Ink and layered the pieces carefully over the top with Claudine Hellmuth Mixed Medium.

And the background of my tag was finished.  So then it was down to decorating.

A Dusty Attic anchor with a bit of copper embossing powder and these wonderful turquoise shells I picked up in our children's toy shop.  The other shells are all gathered from beaches here and in Orkney.  

A few seed beads, jade eyelash ribbon and some treasure!  

Hopefully when you are reading this I will be somewhere reminiscent of these colours in sizzling sunshine - maybe! the West Coast of Scotland can be as cold as here in Shetland!  

There is a great video HERE by Simon King - only a minute long but it really sums up life here in Shetland - on a sunny day!