Hope ~ eclectic Paperie challenge

Hello, everyone! It's time for another eTeam Picks Challenge at eclectic Paperie with the lovely and talented Andie (Adriana Templeton) as our hostess with the mostest. Andie has chosen the theme of Hope for this challenge...love that! As I hadn't completed the H page in my altered dictionary, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so and, of course, I had to include the lovely Hope quote from Emily Dickinson...it immediately sprang to mind and became the inspiration for the pages.

Once I had gessoed the two page spread, being careful to leave the word/definition uncovered, I adhered the two pages to the adjacent ones with Matte Medium. This strengthens the pages and allows them to better stand up to all of the media I throw at them. I began by scribbling three shades of pink and two of yellow Neocolor II watercolour crayon over the page and spread the colour with gesso with a piece of Cut n Dry foam. I did a second lighter layer over that and spread with water to intensify the colour. I then applied Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress inks through the TCW Mini Bricks stencil to create a wall effect.  Metallic Melon and Watermelon Gelatos were used to deepen the edges of the pages and Butter Cream gelato emphasized the areas where I had placed no bricks. White gesso was applied through TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil to create the dotty parts. Coffee Archival ink was used to stamp Live Inspired from Donna Dowmey's Empowered Words stamp set.

.

This Mo Manning A Little Birdie Told Me digital stamp seemed ideal for my quote and was the reasoning behind the bricks. I coloured the image with Prismacolor pencils, fussy cut it, and matted it with black to give it some visual weight and greater contrast with the background.

The two quotes were printed onto kraft cardstock from the computer and the edges were distressed on both the kraft layer and the black matting. Vintage Photo Distress ink was applied to the kraft edges. The open letters on the Dickinson quote were coloured in with white Prisma pencil.

In order to bring some of the blue from the window frame onto the opposite page, two scalloped borders left from another project were adhered to the page creating that visual triangle that keeps the eye moving around the spread. I also added scuffs of metallic Blueberry gelato randomly onto the background. Feathers were glued or stapled onto the page and image as a nod to the Dickinson quote. I love the texture they add to the spread. Two lengths of offcut brown border were added to the inside edges of the page.

At this point, the pages still weren't quite doing it for me. Close...but no cigar! They needed more pops of white and black as it was all too much the same.

I added a white metal star and punched some small cardstock stars which I scattered over the pages. Black circles were punched and doodled with a white pen. White gesso was scuffed randomly across both pages and various elements using my finger as the tool. Snippets of drywall mesh were scattered across the pages. Black Ransom Alpha Parts letters were added to the page as well as a small H letter tile. The word Hope on an  Idea-ology metal tag was emphasized with white paint pen before being attached to the page with a brad. A tiny piece of jute which was sitting patiently on my desk waiting for me to notice it was knotted and adhered to the feather.

The final touches were the doodling, where I discovered that my pen didn't like the metallic gelatos, some white gesso dots, and black Big Brush Pen around the outside edges to help frame the spread. Oh yes, and I can't forget those clusters of splatter dots stamped with Coffee Archival...they end up on every piece I create :)

Thanks for hanging out (and hanging in!) with me for this lengthy post. I do appreciate your fine company. if you get a minute, pop over to the eclectic Paperie blog  to see Andie's gorgeous mixed media layout and the other DT projects which cab be found in the thumbnails of the same post. Hope you'll join us :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Here are links to the eP store for some of the products I used:

Liquitex Acrylic Gesso	Ranger - Cut n′ Dry Foam Pads	Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Distress Ink Pad - Walnut Stain
Archival Ink - Coffee Ink Pad	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Metallic Colors	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Yellow Colors	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Tropical
Unity Stamp Company - Empowered Words (Donna Downey)	Uni-Ball White Gel Pen	Findings - Alpha Parts, Ransom	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pen - Black