Glad you like my shoes! ~ Inspired by a Vera lane Studio image

Hi everyone! I love the Vera Lane Studio version of Lydia from the Beetlejuice (Betelgeuse) set. She has a wonderful attitude and a killer facial expression. I couldn't wait to colour her in her business attire and pair her with this saying. It suits her hands-on-the-hips stance beautifully.

I coloured Lydia with my usual mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils, fussy cut her leaving a white border, and then again leaving a black border once she was adhered to a layer of black cardstock. Don't you love those pleats in her skirt?

The background on this page visited several stages of ugly before it made me happy. That's the thing with nmixed media...if you don't like it, add another layer or six :) I began by spritzing the 6x6 inch watercolour paper with Lindy's Drop Dead Gorgeous Green and Bachelor Button Blue Starburst sprays. Then I added two stamps from Indigo Blue tasty Textures set with either Cracked Pistachio or Blueprint Sketch Oxide Inks. White gesso was brayered over the background to break it up and knock back the colour in some places. Manganese Blue Archival Ink was sponged through AALL & Create Lotza Dots stencil and the larger dots were circled with black pen and charcoal outside that. The blue was not as bright as I hoped so both Inktense pencils and Neocolor II crayons were addded to them to shade and highlight...and add a little life to them. A spiral stamp from another AALL & Create set (Dot Matrix) was added to the two largest circles with Jet Black Archival and more loose outlining was added to all of the dots.

The page still wasn't bright enough nor was there enough contrast so I added  Ranger Texture Paste through Studio Light MB03 Mask. It picked up the colours from the sprays and Inktense so once dry, I used a Posca Paint marker to brighten the white. Then, with a waterbrush,  I added more Inktense pencil between the raised white Texture Paste and let it drip and run a little. Phew! Happy Place at last! To give Lydia a place to stand, a torn piece of book text was gessoed and added beneath a torn piece of black cardstock, and a length of washi tape with shaped ends. A black punched star was coated with Black Diamond Stickles and added to the fishtail end of the washi.

In the opposite upper right corner, a black fishtail flag was cut and two sparkly teal epoxy stars were adhered to the banner. The two stars help move the eye through the page and the three pops of black do the same thing. The wording was printed onto white cardstock, cut into sections, and matted with black. To finish the page, the outer edges were inked with Cobalt Blue Archival Ink and Black Big Brush Pen.

Thanks for joining Lydia and me today. We appreciate that. I will be sure to feature Lydia's companion from the set, Beetlejuice himself, in another page. After all, fair is fair :) To see more of Janet Klein's fabulous images be sure to pop by the Vera Lane Studio shop. It's filled with must-haves :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie