Tales of the sea

Well, I have finally finished my Big Project! Now all I have to do is mount it and get it framed. It's a quilled picture that has taken me three months to complete (working on it whenever I got a chance). Unfortunately, because it's going to be a competition entry, I can't show the whole picture to you yet. However, I AM going to reveal just a tiny corner of it, because it's also provided the inspiration for the quilling on this card:

On my 'Big Project' picture, there's a small section of sea, with quilling to represent waves gently lapping on to a sandy beach. Here's the section that I'm going to show you, so that you can see the pairs of blue and white marquises that I've used to represent the tumbling wave-lets, plus the sections of 'beehive' coiled blue strips that represent the swirling water in between. The idea is that the lines of paired marquises lie in parallel to each other, just like the never-ending succession of waves that are gently rolling in.

When I completed my picture, I found I had quite a few marquise pairs and 'beehive' strips left over, so I decided to utilise them on this 'sea shore' card. You may well recognise the photo of my favourite sea-gull, and the close-up of the shell which I have used in other projects before. (Both photos were taken in the wonderful Isles of Scilly, where we often take our holidays.)

I used the 'four-square' design format that I like so much for the background printing, with the two photos complemented by blue and beige squares to represent sea and sand. Then I added my remaining pieces of 'wave' quilling down the middle ... and I hope that the resulting card will conjure up the magic of a stroll on the beach for the person who eventually receives it!