Hi Everyone I would like to firstly apologise if I have not visited your blog during this last week, we are away at the moment, internet connections are poor and I really wanted to spend some quality time with family so I have been away from the keyboard! Normal service will resume tomorrow! Over at Anything But Cute Challenge Blog the theme for this month is Summer Romance with a romantic and or beach/sea theme, and as many of you know I love anything sea themed so I just had to join in. There is a mood board for inspiration: A while back a lovely young blog friend sent me some fabulous seaside Prima goodies and I have been saving them to make something special and they fitted right in with this challenge. I used a 5" x 5" deep canvas as my base and after covering it with gesso I applied some DecoArt Media Texture Sand Paste which I had coloured with some DecoArt Cobalt Teal Hue Media Fluid Paint. I applied quite a thick coat of the paste and ran my finger across to create the illusion of moving water (well in my mind that is what I intended!). I added some coloured sand to a line across the bottom and also painted some DecoArt Titan Buff Media Fluid to a another line to represent sand. It does not show in the photo but the coloured sand has a real 'sparkle' to it. I gathered together all the bits and pieces that I wanted to add to the canvas, the beautiful Prima resin pieces (which I gently coloured with more DecoArt paints in the colours shown on the mood board), some Tim Holtz leaves from the Pinecone die set and some spools for feet. These were coloured in the DecoArt Cobalt Teal Hue Media Fluid mixed with some Titan White Media Fluid Acrylic to tone the colour down slightly. The finished canvas again, I added some of my beloved seed beads for water bubbles and some strands of twisted card 'reeds' for the seahorse to cling too. The Tim Holtz Discoveries word band is attached with some bakers twine. I am entering this into Anything But Cute - Challenge #3 - Summer Romance Challenge. Thanks for looking, I hope to catch up with you all very soon. Hugs, Anne xxx