Saturday, September 14, 2013

Send in the Clowns ~ Eclectic Ellapu Purple Challenge


Wahoo! It's a new challenge for the Purple Team at Eclectic Ellapu and it's my turn to set the challenge. I always find that so fun because I get to see how my tiny idea gets translated into all of this cool art. The challenge I set for this week is called Inspired by a Song. Think of a song, one you like or just an ear worm that burrows into your head and stays there, and use it as an inspiration for your project. Be sure to let us know the title of the song in your post because it makes it so much more fun.


The song I chose, oddly enough, is Send in the Clowns which is a very old song sung by Peggy Lee...way back in the day. The reason why it's an odd choice for me is that usually I am terrified of clowns. I mean I (and my husband and sister) could tell you stories...I digress. The exception to that is those wonderful French clowns, sometimes called Harlequins or Pierrots. For some reason, they don't creep me out and give me shivers like other clowns do. I find them sweet and touching with wonderful stories to tell. So when I saw these three charming images from Rick St. Dennis, I knew I wanted to play with them and this was the song that seemed to fit. They are hauntingly touching...how does he do that?


I started out gessoing the two page spread in my altered dictionary, making sure to leave the word and definition unaltered. Then, using Matte medium, I joined those two pages to the ones next to them for strength because mixed media can be hard on single pages. Next I layered three colours of Neocolor II watercolour crayon in scribbled stripes across the page and used water on a wide brush to activate and blend the colour. To intensify the hues at the edges, I applied Gelatos in the same three tones using a wet finger to blend.


I brushed some gesso on the bottom of a flipflop and stamped it in two directions to make the crosshatching. More gesso was pounced through Dylusions  dotted flowers stencil. Black gesso was pounced through TCW's Mini Chevron Arrows stencil. Both Memento Love Letter and Peanut Brittle inks were applied through TCW's Mini Tile Texture stencil using a make-up wedge. Jet Black Archival ink was stamped randomly on the spread using a TH script stamp.


The fabulous clowns were coloured with Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut leaving a narrow border of white around each. The pompoms were emphasized with Black Diamond Stickles. The Pierrots were then mounted on black punched circles and adhered to the background. I love that parts of them are coming off of the circles almost like spotlights. It seems more playful and Cirque de Soleil-ish.


MFT's Harlequin border die was used to cut the diamonds. The horizontal ones were left intact but the vertical one was cut apart to place then point to point. Four different fonts were used for the message. Three are stickers and the word clowns is made using Idea-ology AlphaParts in Ransom font.


After checking out the page to see what it needed, more gesso marks were made with the side of a gift card, with a splatter stamp, and with a bottle top and watered down black gesso. Three music note brads were added to the pages to play up the song theme. Doodling with a black pen and edging the pages with Black Big Brush pen were the final touches.

Thanks so much for joining me today. You have made the clowns and me very happy. Those are tears of joy they are shedding. Be sure to check out the Eclectic Ellapu blog to see what the rest of my fabulous Purple teammates have created  for my "Inspired by a Song" challenge. Not only is it worth the trip but you might just come away with the urge to play along with us on this challenge.

I am entering this project in the following challenges:
Left of Center Creative Challenges ~ #14  No designer paper
Bloggers Challenge ~ Backgrounds
Digitally Sweet Challenges ~ #53 Anything Goes
Crafter's Cafe Challenge ~ #28 No designer paper
Crafting by Designs ~ Anything Goes
Creative Belli Challenge ~ #178 Use yellow/orange/red plus older embellies (letter stickers)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

16 comments:

ParkNSlide said...

Love that song and your clowns are delightful.

Rick said...

Thanks for using my images so well-beautiful pages-well done!

Angie said...

What amazing color! Love all the clowns! My son who is now 23 is also fearful of clowns, we never could figure out why, but he just doesn't care for them. :( Anyone would love this card though - so colorful and so cute! Thanks for joining our challenge at Crafting By Designs - Good Luck!

Redanne said...

Great song and a truly inspiring piece of art Bonnie, I love how you have coloured and placed the beautiful French clowns - definitely much better than the scary ones. Love the wonderful background you have created too. Hugs, Anne x

Keren Howell said...

So much detail in this and the colours are sooooo lovely. There is something a bit creepy about clowns but the pages are lovely. And now I've got that song going round in my head... Thank you for joining in with us at LOC! xxx Keren

lilyandthelotus.blogspot.com said...

This is fabulous I love what you did here and the clowns are perfect..Beautiful beautiful art.
Hugs
susan s

Michelle said...

Beautiful - so bright and colourful. Thanks for joining us at The Crafter's Cafe.

Words and Pictures said...

Fabulous use of the images, Bonnie - and I agree they are pretty special, and not scary like most clowns. The pages are so bright and beautiful... just fantastic.

Have you ever heard Judi Dench singing Send in the Clowns? Amazing, heartbreaking simplicity (a lament for a broken marriage)... if you've got a moment, it's here - and I highly recommend it!

(Still not posted your tag - so sorry... it will come!)
Alison xx

Bonnie Irvine said...

Wow! I just listened to Judi Dench's version. really incredible and powerful. She drew me right in to her story. Thanks for the link. It's one of my favourite all time songs and I love that version.
Not to worry about the tag...you have had a few other things on your plate lately...lol. Brilliant makes...I'm so enjoying your inspiration.

Sandy said...

Bonnie this is really delightful - I love all the colors and I really love the clowns. Normally I don't like clowns but these are so rich and delightful. I tried to hear the song by Lady Dench but could not open it for some horrid reason. You must have had so much fun with that very colorful and pretty background!
Sandy

Tracy said...

A flip flop! Oh boy are my art lessons going to be fun. LOL You are not alone in the dislike of clowns. I think it really has a lot to do with the expressions they choose to paint on their faces. Some of them ARE just down right scary. Another amazing MM project from you. Hugs!

Doris T. said...

Fantastic!! Thanks for joining us this week at Crafting by Designs! Doris :)

Karen Wilson said...

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one! I don't like clowns either, but these are kinda cute! Very fun and colorful! Thanks for joining us at Digitally Sweet this week!

http://digitallysweetchallenges.blogspot.ca/

Denise Pustelniak said...

What a marvelous card! Love that song!
Thank you for joining us at Digitally Sweet!

Julie Lee said...

I so agree with you about pierrots: they are touching rather than creepy! Your art is just lovely! I'm so glad I found my way to this entry, as I'm far away in the UK! Thank you for sharing something so beautiful! Julie Ann x

purplecinn said...

I love your journal pages, they are so colourful and well just awesome! mine look positively plain by comparison lol