Tah Dah!

I recently scored a whole box of well-loved multiplication flash cards at the thrift store. They are a great size (3 x 6 inches) and decent weight cardstock. I like the bold black writing on the white cards and thought they would be fun for mixed media tags and art journal tip-ins. The price was right...$1 for 91 cards.

I applied gesso to the card still allowing the black numbers to peek through. Next I scribbled pink and yellow Neocolor II watercolour crayons over the gesso and spread the colour with a waterbrush. I intensified the colour by smushing Picked Raspberry and Scattered Straw Distress inks onto my craft mat and then spritzing with water. The flash card was then placed into the pools of watery ink, dried, and dragged through the remained of the ink until I was happy with the results. I turned the card in different directions to get drips.

A TH text stamp was applied to the background with Brilliance Archival Rocket Red Gold ink...love the shimmer of that ink! White gesso was sponged through TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil. Old book text was then torn and applied to the background in three chunks. White gesso was washed over the top of the text and then finger painted on to get stronger streaks in some areas. A small woven lines texture stamp was lightly inked with Jet Black Archival ink and stamped randomly on both the text and the background.

The images are a mix of collage elements from Deviant Scrap, mainly from the Dream Fairies digital images. They are separate elements which can be combined in so many ways and can be sized to fit. I often take a head from one set, wings from another, legs or overskirt from yet another until I create an image that makes me smile. Then I fit them together, trim here and there, and voila...a new character emerges. I applied Icicle Stickles to the wings and double layered the crowns with foam tape in between. Flat black pearls accent the crown and white ones form her tiny buttons. The Tah Dah sign was also part of the Dream Fairies package and so reminded me of one of my mixed media inspiration sources, France Papillon. She says that at the end of her videos and it always makes me grin...so cute!

Lots of doodling and outlining, some washi tape, and black heart shapes (which just happened to be sitting on my messy desk), also made their way onto the tag. Black twill ribbon became the tag topper and a punched scalloped border completed the bottom of this funky tag. I had so much fun creating and playing. I started a couple of other backgrounds while I was mopping up so you'll be seeing the friends of the Queen of Tah Dah very soon.

Thanks for popping by...love it when you do that :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Sneaky Peek of my eclectic Paperie blog post

Hi everyone! Today I am posting the N (N is for Novel) spread in my altered dictionary over at the eclectic Paperie blog. I'd love it if you bounced over there to see the real deal :) This is just a teaser! I used a ton of eP products for this play session.This gorgeous digital image comes from The East Wind shop on Etsy. I love Unky's fabulous images...they are wonderful to colour. Prismacolor pencil heaven!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Complicated Artists Who are Not Amused...lol

Did that title confuse you? I just took bits of the sayings on each of my altered playing cards and smashed them together. It sounds like a tabloid headline...gave me a chuckle anyway. It's been a while since I have posted any of these so I thought I'd share another three. I have to prep another deck so that I'm ready to play some more. Once again the backgrounds are a combination of products to get colour onto my cards. I won't go into the steps since it's a spin-off from the wonderful workshop I took with Mary Jane Chadbourne last summer. I can tell you that I used gelatos, watercolour crayons, and Big Brush pens primarily, along with white gesso stencilling, and stamping with Archival inks. Rings were added with watered down black gesso on bottle lids. Paper scraps, washi tape, and a litttle drywall mesh also make their appearance. All of the images are from Deviant Scraps and were fussy cut. All of the wording was generated on the computer, fussy cut, and matted or edged with black. The woman in the first card is indeed complicated given that she is part bee. However, sometimes complicated can be fascinating or at least a great story. Anything or anyone with layers can seem complicated initially.

The second one has a saying that I truly believe. We are all artists and we all are creative. We might not all be in touch with those parts but if we look for both, they are there. I love how matter-of-fact his expression is...like we should know this. He also embraces his individuality. There is a tiny piece of burlap behind him plus old book text and some stencilling from TH's Measured stencil.

The third playing card just makes me smile because the girls who I imagine as sisters look so serious. I wonder if their brother is teasing them again or if Uncle Ted just pranked them.The stencil at the top of the sky is from TCW's Well Rounded template. The brown trees behind them are part of the leftover or negative piece from a die cut which was sitting on my desk waiting its turn to make art.

That's it for me today. I thank you for visiting and for the wonderful and supportive comments you leave me. I do appreciate them. I hope you get a chance to get messy and play soon.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Young at Heart ~ CYP Challenge #204

We have a new challenge at Craft Your Passion this week: Young at Heart. We want to see projects made for the young or the young at heart. Our wonderful sponsor is Heather Ellis. I love the sweetness and innocence of her adorable images. They speak of a simpler time. This one is called Pure Innocence 013 and I coloured her up with my trusty Prismacolor pencils. Her eyes are tiny flat black pearls. I fussy cut her leaving a narrow white border around her so she would contrast more with the busy background. She was popped up on foam tape and asked to wait patiently while I made her a home.

The background is a piece of chevron paper from my stash which was matted with black. A scrap of black paper which looks like a child's printing on a chalkboard was cut with a Memory Box ticket die. The layer in between the two patterned papers was torn from a child's dictionary, inked with Vintage Photo Distress ink,  and matted with a torn piece of black cardstock. Two lengths of black twine were layered over the background before it was adhered to the white card base. Three threaded black buttons were glued to the left side of the card with Glossy Accents. A red heart was hand cut, embossed with dots, and inked around with Black Soot Distress ink before being popped up on foam dots. The lettering for "at" is stickers and two circles in the word young were coloured in red, both to draw attention to the word and to add another spot of red to the card. A simple scalloped border completed the card.

Thanks for popping by today. I love when you do that. If you get a minute, check out the Craft Your Passion Challenges blog to see the cards from the rest of our creative DT. It's so fun that we all interpret Young/Young at Heart a little differently. Can't wait to see your take on it.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create ~ #62 Anything Goes
Glitter n Sparkle ~ #75 Anything Goes
ABC Challenge ~ G is for Girls
Doodle Pantry ~ #44 Any Digi Goes
Sweet Stampin' ~ Inspired by a Song, Film, or Book  ((Song...Young at Heart by Frank Sinatra)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Two Beauties and a Touch of Green ~ Craftitude Challenge # 60

We have a new challenge at Craftitude Challenges this fortnight and two amazing sponsors. Our themes this time are Anything Goes (always) or Add a Little Green (as a nod to St. Patrick's Day). Our two sponsors are Sassy Studio Designs and Aurora Wings...so hard to choose the images to play with when they are all gorgeous! From Sassy Studio Designs, I decided to play with St. Patrick's Day Sassy in honour of my one quarter Irish background. I coloured her with Prismacolor pencils and used a metallic gold jelly pen on her buckles. Then I fussy cut her and popped her up on foam tape. The foam on the beer is  a combination of  Icicle Stickles and white 3D fabric paint. The background paper was a scrap of green patterned paper edged with Mowed Lawn Distress ink, and layered over black and then green cardstock. The edges were doodled with a black pen and the layer of pp and black was wrapped with black twine to mimic the lacing in her corset. The shamrocks were cut with a Fiskars punch, smeared with Green Stickles, and then inked on the edges with Black Soot. March was printed from the computer and the 17 is stickers.

The image I chose to play with from Aurora Wings is called Water Lily Fairy. Again (and no surprise) I coloured her with Prismacolor pencils and then fussy cut around the top. I matted the image with black cardstock and popped her up with foam tape. The background is another scrap of green matted with white and then black cardstock. The white layer was edged with Black Soot Distress ink. Once again, I doodled a border with black pen and punched three stars from the black cardstock. These were adhered over her head and tiny silver star beads were glued onto them with Glossy Accents.

Thanks so much for visiting today and for checking out my ATCs. I'm always appreciative of your company. If you get a chance, pop over to the Craftitude Challenges blog to check out the wonderful cards and ATCs by the rest of our talented DT.  We'd love to have you join us this fortnight for Anything Goes or Add a Little Green.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

The bee on my nose ~ ePlay Challenge

It's the first Thursday of March and that means a new challenge at eclectic Paperie. We have changed our format slightly. Here's the scoop:

·         We’ve combined our two challenges into one called ePlay ~ Push Your Boundaries. It will be announced on the first Thursday of each month.  This gives the design team more flexibility with challenge topics and projects and allows you more time to enter! 

·         We’ll also feature a product each month, and during the first day of the challenge, you’ll receive a discount on the featured product….be sure to check for the special code! 

·         Our prize drawing is increasing from $15.00 to a $25.00 gift certificate and the winner of each challenge will be announced on the last Thursday of each month and will be featured on the eP blog. 

·         Each month we’ll hold a blog hop featuring the beautiful artwork from our design team…just scroll down to the bottom of the post for all of the links!  Talk about inspiration!!

 Our challenges are about encouraging you to explore your creative journey and inspiring you to step outside of your comfort zone.  When you submit your artwork, share a unique card, scrapbook or journal page, a canvas, home décor project, or anything that you’re excited to share!  We’re looking forward to crafting with you!

 Today’s special is on Liquitex Gesso and for one day only, you can save 10% on a bottle of gesso…perfect for all of your altered projects!  Simply use code GESSO03when checking out.

 This month’s challenge is Altered Books and our hostess is the lovely and talented Karen Crossen. This challenge was "right up my street" as my friend, Alison, says. I always have a bunch of altered books on the back burner just waiting for me to find the time to work on them. I restrained myself somewhat, deciding to do the last double page spread in my bee-themed altered board book. I love how this book is turning out and have had a blast playing with each spread.

I started this one with the pages gessoed and then tore sections of TH kraft resist paper and a page from G45's The Olde Apothecary Shoppe collection. These were edged with Vintage Photo Distress ink and adhered to the white background with Matte Medium. To fill in the white spaces, various brown Neocolor II watercolour crayons were scribbled and spread over the white gesso. Mocha chalk paint was sponged on with Cut n Dry foam, and then Walnut Brown Big Brush pen was smudged around the edges of the paper scraps. Vintage Photo DI was applied through TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil to create the hexagon pattern and thenwWhite gesso was stencilled through TCW's Texure Tile stencil.

The beautiful woman's face from TH's new Daydream stamp set was stamped with Coffee Archival ink onto plain kraft cardstock. It was colourized with a combination of Distress markers applied with a water brush and also Prismacolor pencils. Her face was then fussy cut and matted in black. Her hair was a whole lot of flowers punched from more G45 paper. These were glued to the hair area and the centers were added with black flat pearls. The bee on her nose, a nod to the hidden children's poem, is from the internet.

To continue developing the background, a TH script stamp and splatter dots were randomly applied with Jet Black Archival ink. Various collage elements purchased from Etsy were distressed with Vintage Photo and adhered to the left side. 

The tip-in element was created by gluing a Bo Bunny Timepiece Journal spot to  kraft paper which had been printed with the bee poem. More bees were fussy cut and attached to both sides along with clock hands. A wooden button popped up on foam tape creates the closure for the tip-in.

The lettering which is in French says "The bee on my nose" (L'abeille sur mon nez). It was created with Ransom Alpha Parts as well as three other types of stickers. To finish off the page, Black Big Brush pen was used to outline the edges. Washi Tape and die cut scallop borders and an arrow were  added to help the eye move around the page. Outlining and doodling as well as black gesso rings were also thrown into the mix.

And there you have it! All that's left to do on this book are the covers. Thanks so much for visiting today. I hope you get a chance to pop over to the eclectic Paperie blog to see Karen's fabulous project and hop around to the other DT members' blogs. Loads and loads of inspiration!

Life is good; so is art.

Bonnie

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

Liquitex Acrylic Gesso	Claudine Hellmuth Studio - Black Gesso	Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pens - Neutral
Faber Castell - Big Brush Pen - Black	Claudine Hellmuth Studio-Multi-Medium Matte	Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous) - Daydream	Tim Holtz� Distress� Markers - Worn Lipstick
Tim Holtz� Distress� Markers - Faded Jeans	Archival Ink - Jet Black Ink Pad	Archival Ink - Coffee Ink Pad	Findings - Alpha Parts, Ransom

Wanna Party? ~ CYP Challenge # 203

There's a new challenge at Craft Your Passion...it is Monday, after all :) The theme this week is Birthday Bonanza and our fabulous sponsor this week is Eureka Stamps. I chose to play with this adorable party cat image called Kitty Party which I coloured with my Prismacolor pencils. The looks on their faces make me laugh, especially the grumpy one...the party pooper. The little one peeking out is so cute, too. I fussy cut the bunch of them, adhered them to black cardstock, and cut a narrow border before popping them up on foam tape.

I created a birthday hat shape for the card to reflect the shape of their party hats and make the card more playful. The card base is 5 and 3/4 x 6" and I scored the back triangle about 1 1/4 inches from the top so it would fold back to open. The front and back are glued together above that fold line so the card opens from the bottom. Clear as Mud? The background paper is from a birthday themed pad from Paper Wishes which I have had for ever!. It was cut smaller than the card base and then matted in black. Narrow black strips of the same cardstock became the stripes at the top and bottom.

The sentiment on the hat topper comes from Doodle Pantry and was cut with a Spellbinder's die before the edges were inked with Mowed Lawn Distress ink. The letters for "Wanna party?" are stickers. The white letters are sparkly and have been outlined with a black pen to make them more visible.

I kept the inside very simple with scraps of the front papers layered and faux stitched to outline, The letters are more stickers. I often complete the insides of my cards this way, layering up some papers or elements from the front to add flow to the card. It's such a simple way to finish the inside and quick to do because the scraps are still on my desk.

Thanks for popping by today. I appreciate that so much. If you get a minute, stop by the Craft Your Passion Challenges blog to see the fabulous projects from the rest of the DT. I'm hoping you will join us for this challenge...after all, who doesn't need an extra birthday card in their stash!

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create ~ #60 Optional Twist: Use Your Stash ( birthday paper and stickers)
Glitter n Sparkle ~ #74 Add a Sentiment
One Stitch at a Time ~ #202 Anything Goes
Robyn's Fetish ~ #201 Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenges ~ #194 Animals
Catch the Bug ~ March Anything Goes

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie