Weathered Beach Sign

Hey there, friends-

Welcome back to Paper Play!  Today I’m sharing this post about a weathered beach sign that I made using some beautiful artwork from The Gingerbread Prints digital kit, A Day at the Beach.

This sign was a lot of fun to make and would look great hanging in a beach house or adorning a door.  The inspiration for it came to me while I was looking at all of the great images included in the kit and thinking about how to use them in something other than a card or art journal.  I started to envision some of these images mounted onto small pieces of weathered wood, and those pieces of wood arranged on an old, small sign.   I went through my supplies, found the perfect tools to use, and started to create.

I’ll walk you through how I made it:

• Started with making the tags that look like pieces of weathered wood by using a tag die to cut them out of chipboard.
• Used a paint brush to apply some Brutus Monroe Acorn Chroma Mist to color each tag a medium brown color.  This was quicker than coloring them with ink and a blending tool, and left a rich, deep color.  I used a paint brush rather to apply the Chroma Mist, rather than spraying it, to give myself better control over how much was applied.

• Used my heat tool the dry each of the tags in order to speed up the drying process.
• Once dry, I used the Deck Planks 3D embossing folder from Altenew to give them the look of wood.
• Here’s a TIP: put some darker ink on the embossing side of the folder before running the tags through your die cut machine.  This will make the lines in the wood look darker and more realistic.  I used the Ground Espresso Distress Ink from Tim Holtz and Ranger.

• I then wanted to give them a weathered look.  My thought was that this wood was at the beach and had been exposed to the elements and salt water.  To achieve this, I applied some Picket Fence Distress Ink from Tim Holtz and Ranger onto my glass craft surface and sprayed it with water.  I then used a paint brush to paint the tags with this water and ink mixture.  After that, I used a dry paint brush to apply just a little bit of Tim Holtz Weathered Wood Distress Ink randomly over tag.  The last step was to spray each tag with a little water and then use a heat tool to dry them.  Look at the difference bellow in the before and after picture.  I love how they turned out!

   

 

Look at these beautiful results!

 

• Next was to prep the images so that they could be mounted onto the wood tags.  I selected four images and used a ruler with a deckled edge rip them.  This allowed me to trim them down to size and give them that torn paper look.

• Tim Holtz Tea Dye Distress Ink was gently applied over each image with a blending tool and Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink was rubbed along the edge of each image to give them and aged look.

• Each image was then mounted onto a tag with a combination of doubled sided tape and craft glue.
• Next up was painting the weathered wood sign that the wood tags would be mounted on.  I used a 5” x 12” wood sign from The Dollar Store for this.  I first rubbed some Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink onto the sign and then brushed on some Patina Folk Art Chalk Paint.  The chalk paint and the ink combine to create an aged undercoat on the sign.  I used a heat tool to speed up the paint drying process.

• A coat of Folk Art Crackle Medium was painted on then dried with a heat tool.
• A few drops of Acorn Chroma Mist was added to some Folk Art White Acrylic paint and a light coat was painted over the sign.  I used a heat tool to speed up the drying process.  Look at the beautiful crackled finish that was achieved!

• The word “beach” was stamped at the top center of the sign using the PinkFresh Studios Heather Lowercase stamps and Altenew Almond Butter Crisp Dye Ink.
• Each wooden tag was then mounted onto the sign with a combination of double sided tape and craft glue.
• Here’s a closeup view of a portion of the sign:

I am truly happy with how the sign came out!  Such a fun way to use these digital images in a new way, and also a fun way to celebrate both the beach and Summer.

The great thing about these beautiful digital kits from The Gingerbread Prints is that the opportunities for creation are endless!  Sure, the intended usage is for an art/junk journal, scrapbook, or card.  But why not use the images in a mixed media project like I did?

I hope that you enjoyed learning about how I created this sign and seeing the photos of the process.  Drop a comment and let me know what you think!

Until next time . . . be well!

You may get this beautiful digital kit and all other printable kits  from the Ko-fi shop.  Links down below:

Ko-fi shop:

https://ko-fi.com/thegingerbreadprints

Etsy shop:

HTTPS://TheGingerbreadPrints.Etsy.com

TGP club:

https://linktr.ee/TheGingerbreadPrints

Facebook group:

The Gingerbread Prints

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHlwuziPCaqZxoRO3TAJPDw