Hoping to Sea You:Starfish Totem

Happy Friday everyone! Pam DeChellis here with one of my favorite Totems from Eye Connect- the Starfish.

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For those of you who may not have heard the Starfish Story- here it is:

The Starfish Story A young man is walking along the ocean and sees a beach on which thousands and thousands of starfish have washed ashore. Further along he sees an old man, walking slowly and stooping often, picking up one starfish after another and tossing each one gently into the ocean.

“Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?,” he asks.

“Because the sun is up and the tide is going out and if I don’t throw them further in they will die.”

“But, old man, don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it! You can’t possibly save them all, you can’t even save one-tenth of them. In fact, even if you work all day, your efforts won’t make any difference at all.”

The old man listened calmly and then bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the sea. “It made a difference to that one.”

This inspired me to create this project using the Starfish Totem:

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This close up of the Starfish shows the texture created with Distress embossing powder.

And here's how I did it:

[caption id="attachment_4533" align="aligncenter" width="450"]DSC_8036 To create the textured Starfish, I began by inking all pieces with VersaMark Watermark Ink.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_4534" align="aligncenter" width="450"]DSC_8043 Cover each piece with a mixture of Antique Linen and Walnut Stain Distress Embossing powder. Shake off excess.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_4535" align="aligncenter" width="450"]DSC_8047 Heat set the embossing powder. Remember that Distress embossing powder does not melt like traditional embossing powder but you will see a color change to indicate the powder is set. Let cool.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_4536" align="aligncenter" width="300"]DSC_8050 Ink top and sides of each pieces with Distress Ink- I used Wild Honey and Vintage Photo.[/caption]

The Starfish was then assembled and placed onto the background (stencil mono print with distress ink) layered with craft fish netting. The sentiment is from the My Favorite Things Sea Life Stamp set which I though coordinated with this so well!

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Finally the entire piece was placed atop a corrugate card base-spritzed with blue Perfect Pearls mist.

Hope you enjoyed today's project and stay tuned here and on my blog for more great inspiration from Eye Connect Crafts!

Embrace Imperfection

Pam

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