Preview of my 4 x 4 ART pages "Under Lock & Key"

I am working on a BIG little project. I am swapping 4 x 4's with 37 other ARTists that are being bound into a book. The theme is "Under Lock & Key". I have finally come up with my idea.....and am steadily making progress.

I decided to use my new "Life's a Beach" Cricut cartridge for the main components. So, I set about cutting all the tiny pieces times 38. After they were all cut out they were cool, but lacking. The Cricut cuts all these awesome shapes with great details that you can't really see. Hmmmm......they are very lifeless and flat. So I set about enhancing them. The background blue cardstock and the treasure chests were livened up with coats of watercolors. I used my very fave Peerless watercolors. www.peerlesscolor.com To bring out all the highlights of the sea shells, sun, sand dollars, treasure chests, skull and crossbones, palm trees.....I used similar colored ink pads and lightly swiped them across the cut outs. Wow!! The details just exploded off the page. Ta-da!! I am a happy camper now. To give dimension to the eye patch, skull cap and red"X"'s, and the coconuts, I used coordinating Sakura Glaze pens. www.sakuraofamerica.com/Pen-3d-pen I made the "sand" with some of DH's sandpaper!! Shhh!! :)

I'm sharing a few of the pieces today to show you the difference. Hopefully tomorrow I can share the completed pages.......side one is drying with a top coat of Mod Podge. Stay tuned......

Plain Cricut cutouts

Embellished Cricut cutouts

Plain treasure chest

Wow....what a difference
Peerless watercolors, Gold gel Pen, Black glaze pen (on lock)

Boring Palm Tree

Dimensional cool palm

No faced sun, invisible detailed sand dollar, flat skull

Sunny face, awesome sand dollar and dimensional skull

Plain blue cardstock

Gorgeous backgrounds from the Sea

Left - Peerless Watercolors

Right - blue ink pad, bubble background rubber stamp