Wormie Apple Condo 1101 ~ a Sandra Caldwell new release

Hi everyone! One of my many favourite things about fall is that the apples are absolutely yummy this time of year. I cannot say though that I enjoy finding my apple already occupied...even if it's by a worm as cute as this one. This is a new release by Sandra Caldwell called 1101 Wormie Apple Condo and it will be in her shop, Babycakes Digis and Designs, later on today. This worm makes me smile...others I have met in real life...not so much! LOL

I coloured Wormie with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. The image was then fussy cut leaving a narrow white border and then adhered to black card stock. This was trimmed out again leaving a narrow black border to frame it and help it show against the background. Foam tape was used to adhere it to the background.

The background began as a 6 x 8 inch rectangle of green card stock. I am still working away at using the scads of coloured card stock and designer paper in my stash. I stamped the numbers and spiral, both from VLVS, with Library Green Archival Ink to break up the background and add a little mixed media flavour to it. White acrylic paint was pounced through  TCW's Mini Texturized stencil in several placesto brighten the background and add texture. Three lengths of washi tape were adhered to white card stock and then layered under Wormie so he had a place to rest his home.

The sentiment was printed onto white card stock, matted with black, and each segment was popped up on foam tape. Small hearts were punched from red mop-up paper, edged with black ink, and adhered next to each part of the sentiment. Two sizes of black circles were cut, embossed with a folder, and half of each was glued to the edges. The rest was trimmed even with the edges. Black faux stitching was added as a simple border. Black Big Brush pen was used to remove the white edge of the card stock background before it was adhered to a black mat which framed the page.

Thanks so much for joining my little Wormie friend and me today. He promises to tell his friends to stay away from your apples because you visited. To see some of the other new releases, be sure to pop by Sandra Caldwell Stamps Fans Facebook group where the rest of the DT will be sharing their creations with other new releases. Later today, you will want to hop on over to Sandra's Etsy shop because not only these new releases will be available, but she often sneaks in a couple of surprises, as well. There are images for every occasion and inspiration galore there!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

A Bump in the Night - The East Wind Challenge #65

Hi everyone! I have no idea how it became the 15th of the month already but that's what my computer is telling me. We have a new challenge beginning on The East Wind blog today. The theme is A Bump in the Night and we want to see embossing on your project. I also thought it would be fun to pull Halloween into this project because things that go bump in the night certainly bring Halloween to mind. I decided to go with adorable though rather than scary.

Aurora Meow Meow is the image which I have featured on my art journal page. I thought this would make the most adorable cat costume and given our usual Halloween weather, it would be very practical for keeping this little kitty warm and toasty. I coloured Aurora with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils, using short choppy strokes where the fur would be. I am absolutely smitten with her beautiful face...love colouring this style of drawing. Aurora was fussy cut without leaving my usual white border. She was matted with black card stock which was trimmed out leaving a black border to contrast with the background. Foam tape was used to adhere her and create a natural shadow around her.

The background began with a 6 x 8 inch rectangle of  one of Doodlebug's Boos and Brews papers. A 4.25 x 5.5 rectangle of orange paper was cut, corner rounded and embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder. This piece was matted with black and adhered directly to the background. Aurora was adhered toward the top of the orange layer and two number disks were glued to the bottom left corner to mark the date of Halloween.

To balance the other side, four different lengths/widths of washi tape were adhered to white card stock and cut into fishtail flags. They were adhered along the right edge and embellished with enamel dots. The bottom right corner was given a double offset layer of punched photo corners to help balance the design. The sentiment was printed onto white card stock, die cut, matted and faux stitched. A tiny punched star was added to the label and foam tape popped it up. To finish off the piece, Black Big Brush Pen was used to edge the checked background so the white edge disappeared and black card stock was used to create a mat which framed the design.

Thanks for joining Aurora and me today. We are delighted that you did :) To see the other wonderful Bump in the Night projects from my talented TEW teamies, be sure to pop over to The East Wind blog. We would love to have you play along with us.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles Art Journal Adventure ~ Week 40 Response

It's a good thing that there is no pressure to keep up with or follow the exact order of the Art Journal Adventure prompts on the Joggles blog because fallen behind and working out of order are where I'm at right now. I skipped a few which I will definitely return to and have leaped into Week 40's prompt, Insects, with inky glee. Barb featured gorgeous butterflies on her page but I have such an affinity for dragonflies that I went in that direction instead.

I spritzed an un-gessoed page in my art journal with Lindy's Stamp Gang Marigold Yellow Orange, California Poppy Gold, and Yellow Rose of Texas Starburst Sprays and dried the page with a heat tool. Next, I set Joggles Global #1 stencil over half of the page and spritzed with Lindy's Sassy Sapphire Starburst spray through the openings. I lifted the stencil off, moved it to cover the second half of the page, and repeated. The leftover spray on the stencil was cleaned off on a blank page in my journal so as not to waste it.

The flight of dragonflies always reminds me of nature's ballet with wonderful choreography and graceful movement. I wanted to add swirls to the page to create visual movement but I also wanted them to be textured swirls. I traced the swirls from TCW's Swirly Qs stencil onto black card stock and fussy cut them. Versamark ink was used to stamp a distressed dot stamp from 7 Gypsies repeatedly over the swirls. Fine white embossing powder was then sprinkled over the Versamark and heat set. The embossed dots are shiny and contrast beautifully with the black background creating awesome texture. Different size punches were used to create the plain black circles at the top of each curlicue. A brown Inktense pencil activated with a waterbrush was used to shade the inside edges of each curlicue.

White Texture Paste was scraped through Dylusions Bubble stencil in several places using a palette knife. Once this was dry, a white Sharpie paint pen was used to brighten some of the circles. Black pen was used to outline the bottom of a few in each grouping. The dragonflies, fussy cut from a collage sheet purchased from an Etsy shop, were matted with black card stock and trimmed out leaving a narrow black border. The wings were given shimmer with Clear Wink of Stella and the eyes were given shine and dimension with Glossy Accents. Foam tape was used to adhere them in place. Vintage Photo Distress ink was applied to the outside edges of the page before they were edged with Black Big Brush pen. A simple doodled border was added to three sides of the page. The final touch was to add the word Ballet using Idea-ology Alpha Parts letters. White paint pen dots repeated the dots from the swirls and tied the letters to the rest of the page.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed the dragonflies' performance :)  If you haven't already been following along with the Joggles Art Journal Adventure and Barb's weekly Monday prompts, it's never too late. You can join in at any point, catch up or not, and we'd love to have you join our wonderful AJA Facebook group as well. It's an awesome group filled with creative, friendly, and supportive people who share the same enthusiasm for this fun adventure.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Senorita Lolita (963) ~ a Sandra Caldwell New Release

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my fellow Canadians!

Today in her Etsy shop, Babycakes Digis and Designs, Sandra Caldwell will be posting a lovely collection of new releases just like she does every Monday. I look forward to Mondays just to see what she has created and what the DT have come up with to feature them. This week I was able to play with the lovely 963 Senorita Lolita, a dark haired (at least in my mind) beauty.

I coloured Senorita Lolita with Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils using blue for her hair highlights. She was fussy cut leaving my usual narrow white border. She was then matted with black card stock, fussy cut leaving a narrow black border, and popped up on foam tape to add dimension and create shadow.

I wanted the background to be rich in colour, a little elegant, and a little spicy because that's how Lolita strikes me. I tore strips from three designer papers from different collections and layered them onto red card stock, allowing some of the plain red to show through between groupings. Black pen was used to loosely outline the edges of the designer papers and to create a border around the art journal page. Joggles Nonsense Latin Text stamp was added to the plain red areas using Red Geranium Archival Ink for a little tone on tone texture.

Once the Senorita was placed onto the background, the sentiment from Create With TLC, was printed on white card stock, cut out with a die, and matted with black. To repeat the flower idea from her hair, pull a little white and purple into the background, and create balance, two mulberry flowers were stacked and topped with a purple resin flower. To bring a little of the green from her leaf into the background, leaves were punched, shaded with pencil, and veins added before they were tucked under the flower.A black card stock mat was added to the page to create a contrasting frame which  pulls the eye into the page itself.

Thanks or should I say Gracias for joining the lovely Senorita Lolita and me today. We both appreciate your taking the time to stop by. To see some of the other new releases, be sure to pop by Sandra Caldwell Stamps Fans Facebook group where the rest of the DT will be sharing their creations with other new releases. Later today, you will want to hop on over to Sandra's Etsy shop because not only these new releases will be available, but she often sneaks in a couple of surprises, as well. There are images for every occasion and inspiration galore there!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles Blog Sneak Peek ~ Halloween Cards

Hi everyone! I'm hosting over on the Joggles blog again today featuring three fun mixed media Halloween cards using Red Wooden Flag  stamps. I have used six of the Halloween images on cards that make me smile. I also threw in a different way to use Sticky Snippets and had a great time with the new 6 x 9 inch Joggles/Margaret Applin Designs stencils. (Yum!) I'm only showing one here...to see the other two and read the full tutorial on my process, you'll have to visit the Joggles blog.
Hope you do!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

1068 Tiny Candy Elf ~ a Sandra Caldwell New Release

Hi everyone! One of the new releases today in Sandra Caldwell's Etsy shop, Babycakes Digis and Designs, is this adorable image called 1068 Tiny Candy Elf. He makes me smile with his sweet little face and that gigantic candy cane he is supporting. He looks plum tuckered out! I decided he would be a wonderful star of another Christmas card.

I coloured Tiny with Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. He was fussy cut leaving a narrow white border and matted on black card stock. Again, a narrow border was left when he was trimmed out so he would contrast with the background. It also gives extra strength to those signature marks Sandra includes in her fabulous drawings. Foam tape was added to Tiny's back to pop him up and create natural shadow.

The plaid designer paper was cut slightly smaller than the white card base and then matted with black card stock. An oval die was used to cut the green dotty paper and it was also matted with black before it was adhered to the plaid paper. Tiny was placed where he wanted to go and the die cut sentiment label, also matted in black, was adhered with foam tape so that it bridged the two designer papers. Because the sentiment referred to mistletoe kisses, a printed mistletoe ticket was fussy cut and matted with black before it was tucked under the sentiment label. Black faux stitching was added to the label and a lipstick kiss image was matted with black and adhered to the sentiment.

A black die cut leafy branch was added to the bottom left corner to represent mistletoe and white half pearls became the berries. To balance the card design, two black photo corners were punched and adhered to opposite corners. I kept the design fairly simple because I like Sandra's sweet images to really be the eye-catching focals without a lot of competition from other embellies...just personal preference.

Thanks for visiting with Tiny Candy Elf and me today. When you get a chance, pop by Sandra Caldwell Stamps Fans Facebook group to see the other amazing new releases she has for us this week. The DT have created some wonderfully inspiring projects to showcase them.To check out the rest of Sandra's awesome images, pop over to her Etsy shop, Babycakes Digis and Designs.  There is such a delightful collection of wonderful quirky images in Sandra's signature style that you are sure to find some Must Haves!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

She believed...Challenge #64 at The East Wind

Hi there! Today marks the beginning of a new challenge at The East Wind and because October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, we decided to show our support by making the theme In the Pink. We either want to see mainly the colour pink in your creation or a project for this wonderful and important cause. All of the DT have created with the October newsletter freebie image which is actually a re-release of a retired image. It's called Ashley In the Pink and was inspired by a friend of Unky's who is a breast cancer survivor.

I coloured Ashley with a mix of Polychromos and Prismacolor pencils. She has the most gorgeous hair to colour with all those curls. She was fussy cut leaving a narrow white border, matted with black card stock, and trimmed out again. She was then popped up on foam tape to create dimension and natural shadow. The Think Pink ribbon image was a freebie some time ago on Joanne Fink's blog. Joanne is very well known for her Zenspirations teaching and beautiful designing.I coloured the ribbon image with the same pencils and fussy cut it.

The background started as a 6 x 8 inch zigzag patterned pink card stock to which I added circle and mesh stamps with Magenta Hue Archival ink. Two patterns of washi tape adhered to white strips of card stock were added to ground Ashley and a third scrap was added above her head. Tiny enamel dots embellished the outside edges of the washi and each piece was also outlined in black pen to help it show. Little pierced hearts were punched from white card stock and added in the upper left and lower right corners of the art journal page.

The sentiment was printed onto white card stock and the words cut apart. They were then matted with black and adhered to the background. Tiny black rhinestones became the dots separating the first partof the saying from the second. Enamel pink hearts were added to the top right corner to balance the design and a simple border was doodled with black pen. Faber Castell black Big Brush Pen was used to edge the outside of the pink background to remove the white. A black card stock mat was added to the back to frame and unify the journal page.

Thanks for visiting Ashley and me today. We appreciate that so very much. Be sure to pop by The East Wind blog to see the other fabulous creations by our talented design team. We have all used the same image and it's cool to see how different they all are. We would love to have you play along with our In the Pink Challenge.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie