Sweet little Vera Lane Studio collage sheet ATCoins

Hi everyone. I have a super quick project to share today featuring images from the newly released Fun Collage Sheet(s) from Vera Lane Studio. There are 2 sheets in this set with a fabulous collection of images including borders and washi strips...everything you need to complete a quick card, art journal page, or in my case artist trading coin set. I have a cardboard template with a 2.5 inch diameter hole punched out so it's easy for me to see which images fit the small size.

When I have leftover smaller scraps from either mop up pieces of cardstock or from backgrounds for other projects, I see if either an ATC or an ATCoin can be cut from it. If it can, I do that when I'm putting away my materials during clean up. When I have a few punched or cut, I miss mount them to chipboard and keep them in a container ready for my next play session. It's a huge time saver to have them ready and makes use of scraps filled with goodness.

I add stencilling or stamping to them when I'm ready to use them so that I can pick up the colours from the image. Then it's a matter of fussy cutting and matting the images I want from the coloured collage sheet. Sometimes I add my own details to the image and other times I let them be.

I usually add some sort of wording, in this case either TH rub-ons or Chit Chat Stickers. I also add some doodling and mark making with a black and a white pen...and always a border to help frame it. I also add Black Big Brush Pen around the outside edge to serve as a frame. Then it's time to finish the backs and they are good to go. Easy peasy!

Thanks for popping by today. My "fun" friends and I appreciate that. To check out these and the many other collage sheets Janet has created, be sure to stop by the Vera lane Studio shop. If you are looking for inspiration on other ways to use these versatile images, pop by the Vera Lane Studio Facebook group where people share their awesome VLS creations.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles Art Journal Adventure ~ Week 24 ~ A is for Alice

Hi everyone! One of my favourite classic stories ever is Alice in Wonderland so when I found out the prompt for Week 24 of the Joggles Art Journal Adventure was the letter A, I knew exactly where I was going with this one. I chose an image from Mo's Digital Pencil called Alice with Baby. I love the way Mo depicts Alice...and her facial expression makes me laugh.

I coloured Alice and her wee pig friend with Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils, sticking to a very traditional colour palette for Alice. They were fussy cut leaving the narrow white border, matted with a narrow black border, and popped up on foam tape to create dimension.

The background for the page is a copy of the Duchess page from one of my many AIW books. I printed it on tea dyed copy paper to give it an aged look. To tie the background into the image palette, pink, blue, and teal Neocolor II crayons were applied here and there using a water brush. The first of several circle elements were added using one of the AALL & Create Dot Matrix stamps and Jet Black Archival Ink. Dots were added by sponging Coffee Archival Ink through AALL & Create Lotza Dotz stencil. A third set of circular elements was added by scarping Ranger Texture Paste through TCW Tiny Dots stencil. Black splatter dots came from Jet Black Archival Ink on a TH stamp.

Black checkerboard pattern always springs to mind when I think of Alice in Wonderland so a frame of black and white checked washi tape was adhered to the outside edges of the page. The letter A alphabet card from the TH set was inked around the edge with Black Big Brush Pen before it was attached to the right side of the page with embroidery floss cross stitches. Two more of the stitches were added to the left side to repeat the detail. A bright teal button, which reminded me of those flowers with the faces, was threaded with black embroidery floss and adhered to the top left corner of the page over a scrap of cheesecloth.

To balance the piece and add another little black detail, a punched scalloped border section was added to the bottom right corner. Black pen was used to outline the book title which had disappeared a little in the busy background. A simple outlining of the washi border added a little more depth and drew attention to it.

Thanks for joining Alice, the Duchess' baby, and me today. With an open-ended prompt such as the Letter A, I am curiouser and curiouser to see what direction others in our AJA Facebook group go. We would love to have you join us!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Top Of My Head AJ Page and clips ~ inspired by Vera Lane Studio

Hi everyone! I am smitten with the new release from Vera Lane Studio called Top of My Head. There are six fabulous designs that lend themselves to everything from art journal pages to items as small as inchies, thanks to the re-sizing possible with digi stamps. I chose to make two projects: the first - an art journal page and the second - some paper clips for my planner. My goodness these guys are cute!

The art journal page features Worldy with a cat from another set called Crazy Cat Lady on top of his head. The saying, which if you know cats rings true, fit this image so well. They were coloured with Prismacolour and Polychromos pencils, fussy cut, and matted with black. The background was a mix of 5 acrylic paints ( blues, greens, white) brayered and gel printed onto the 6x6 background and boosted here and there with Gelatos. White Texture Paste through a Studio Light Mask, stamping with Jet Black Archival and a Studio Light Grid stamp, and some random doodling gave the background further interest. Washi tape layered over book paper, and the saying printed onto white cardstock and matted with black finished the page.

The next project was to create three 2.5 inch clips for my planner...or they could be used as bookmarks. They were inspired by a wonderful YouTube tutorial by Paula Foerder who demos so clearly how to construct them. I learn so much from her videos.

The images were coloured and matted in the same way as Worldy was (see above). When I was cutting the black cardstock to form the mats, I doubled the paper over so I could cut two of each at the same time. That way, I knew they would fit exactly when glued together. One half of the paper clip is sandwiched between the two layers of matting and glued shut.

Before I glued them, a large black paper clip was attached to the extra black mat which would form the backing. I then used E6000 on the inside of the back layer around the clip itself and Fabritac on the rest of each mat to adhered the two parts together. I added extra wording to the plain cup image because this saying always makes me smile, just like these heads do. Wouldn't these make adorable magnets?

Thanks for joining the Top of my Head guys and me today. I had so much fun with them and from the looks of the other fabulous projects shown on the Vera Lane Studio Digi Stamps Facebook group, I am not the only one! I love how creative people are :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles Art Journal Adventure ~ Week 23 - Round

Hi everyone! We are quickly approaching the half way mark both in the calendar year and in the Joggles Art Journal Adventure prompts. Week 23 was inspired by the fact that today is National Yo-Yo Day so we are asked to feature something(s) round (yo-yo or not) or some string or both if the spirit moves us. I decided on circles, some leather "string", and a quote about circles. I also consciously chose to leave white space in my design because that always challenges me...if I don't purposely do it, it rarely happens :)

I began with my usual 6x8 inch rectangle of mixed media paper. Twisted Citron Distress Oxide was sprayed onto the craft sheet along with a little water, and then tapped in a horizontal line using a rake brush. It was also flicked onto the page to leave dots of various sizes. Once the Twisted Citron was dry, the process was repeated with Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide Spray, again flicking the rake brush to add the dots after the horizontal lines were added above and below the first colour. The sprays were allowed to dry thoroughly before Carabelle Studio Du ronds et du texte stamp was added across the horizontal lines using Jet Black Archival Ink. To emphasize a few of the circle borders, black Pitt Pen was used to colour some frames in.

I wanted a strong black horizontal element to contrast with the bright colours and to tie in with the black stamping. Tiny holes were made and two lengths of fine leather string were added, criss crossing them off center and tucking the ends through to the back where they wouldn't show. Black gesso was watered down until it was more translucent and then splattered across the page using the rake brush. Extra pools of black were soaked up with paper towel to keep these dots light and somewhat see through. Circle stamps from Eileen Hudson Bokeh Dots set were combined with Jane Davenport and Visible Image eye stamps to create more Jet Black Archival circles. These were first colourized with Jane Davenport watercolour to lay the skin tone in, and then further shaded with coloured pencil. They were fussy cut, matted with black cardstock, and popped up on foam tape.

The sentiment was printed onto white cardstock and divided into two sections which were matted with black, and popped up on foam tape. A border was added around the outside edges with black and white striped washi tape. A few more circular elements were added in the form of clear domed Dew Drops which batch the light and magnify what is under them. To finish the page, black Big Brush Pen was used to edge the background before it was adhered to the black base common to all the pages in this journal.

Thanks for stopping by today. If you are thinking of playing along with the Joggles AJA weekly challenge, it's not too late. There's no pressure to catch up or even keep up and it's a fabulous group of creatives who have become friends and supporters through our Facebook group. We would love to have you join our community.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

The Beatles ATC Swap ~ inspired by Vera Lane Studio images

Hi everyone! There is a fun Artist Trading Card swap going on on the Vera Lane Studio Facebook group for the month of June. We are to use a Beatles song or song lyric to inspire our ATC (2.5x3.5 inches) and after June 24, we will be assigned swap partners. Janet Klein, the artist behind Vera Lane Studio, has designed two fabulous digi sets featuring the Fab Four and  wonderful Beatles lyrics: George and Ringo and John and Paul.

I have used Paul from the later set paired with his hippie girlfriend, Paz, from the Peace Out stamp set. I thought they made a lovely couple and suited the song lyric, When I'm 64. Both are coloured with Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils and fussy cut. The background for the atc is cardstock spritzed with yellow Lindy's Starburst sprays and stencilled/stamped with Tiger Lily Archival Ink. A small strip of torn music paper grounds them. The atc design was completed with a black puffy heart, a doodled border, and black Big Brush Pen to edge it.

Thanks for joining Paul, Paz, and me today. We would love it if you decided to participate in the Vera Lane Studio Beatles swap. It's always so exciting to receive happy mail and to know that something you create finds a good home in another part of the world. To check out the other entries over the month of June, be sure to visit the Vera Lane Studio Facebook group and go to the photo album for the swap. I can't wait to see what others create!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Be You ~ inspired by Vera Lane Studio Back to Back image

Hi everyone! There were several fabulous new releases this week in the Vera Lane Studio Etsy shop and today I am featuring two from the Back to Back set. As soon as I saw this set, I had an idea of the front facing girl standing out from the crowd and not following it. Although the set comes with two awesome sayings, I created one to encourage her to be authentic and celebrate her uniqueness.

I printed the image showing us her back five times and the front facing one just once on white cardstock. All of the clothing were printed onto designer paper, with the five being the same, and the other being on brightly coloured patterned paper. These were shaded with coloured pencil, and fussy cut to fit the original girls. The girls were coloured with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils, again keeping the five with brown hair and giving the one in front vibrant blue hair. She was also given a set of three punched flowers for her hair because that's how she rolls :) They were all fussy cut leaving a narrow white border and matted with black to leave a second black border. The clothing was adhered to each girl and only the one in front was popped up on foam tape to help her stand out.

The background was dipped several times into layers of  Faded Jeans and Peacock Feathers Distress Oxides which had been smushed onto my craft sheet and spritzed with water. Each layer or dipping was dried before the next was added, making sure that some white space was left at the end. The bottom row of images needed to be grounded so a piece of book text was torn and adhered to the bottom of the background. This was pushed back with white gesso to knock back the text. Pattern was added with Cornflower Blue Archival Ink and a text and circles stamp from Indigi Blu Tasty Textures stamp set. Jet Black Archival Ink was used to add one of the circles from Stampotique Original Kate's Doodle Cube stamp block. To bring the star of the page even more attention, a small strip of the border cut from the Pretty Ladies Collage sheet was layered beneath her feet along with a skinny piece of washi. Waste not, want not...LOL.

White texture paste was added to the background through AALL & Create Lotza Dotz stencil to brighten and break up some of the more solid areas of the background. The wording was printed onto white cardstock, cut into individual words, and matted with black. Foam tape was used to adhered the words to the bottom of the page. A simple border was doodled around the outside edges of the page and black Big Brush pen was used to hide the white edges before the page was matted with black cardstock which serves as a frame. To bring in a little more of the pink from the star's clothing, two shades of pink dots were added to the border in four places, and the openings of the wording were also coloured in pink.

Thanks for joining my Back to Back friends and me today. We are delighted that you did. To see this wonderful image set, as well as the other new releases be sure to pop over to the Vera Lane Studio Etsy shop and also check out the Vera Lane Studio Facebook group where my talented teamies and other members of our VLS community have shared their creations. You'll be delighted you did!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles Art Journal Adventure - Week 22 - Space or Celestial

Hi everyone! It's Week 22 of the Joggles Art Journal Adventure and in 1965 on this very date, the first US space walk occurred. This week's AJA prompt is asking us to incorporate a space or celestial theme into our page or project. Celestial images and references are some of my favourite things so this prompt was right up my alley. I had a fabulous sun/moon/stars image from Faery Ink in my stash that I have been wanting to colour so that became the focal.

I coloured the image with Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils and fussy cut her leaving a narrow white border. She was matted with black cardstock, and fussy cut a second time leaving a narrow black border. She was then popped up on foam tape and asked to wait patiently for her background. I love her face! Black Diamond Stickles were added to the dangling stars to help them sparkle.

The 6x8 inch mixed media paper background was to become the sky so it was spritzed with three Lindy's Starburst sprays ( Bachelor Button Blue, Sassy Sapphire, Afternoon Delight Denim) plus water to help with blending and drippage. My camera skills didn't allow me to pick it up but these sprays have beautiful shimmer. Tim Holtz Rays Layering Stencil was set on its side to cover the top half of the landscape page and Mustard Seed Distress Oxide was applied through the openings to create a glow. Clear Wink of Stella was added to each ray to give it additional shine. Further texture and interest was achieved by applying Cobalt Archival Ink to Studio Light Grid and Crafty Individuals Script stamps. Jet Black Archival Ink was used to add the circle stamp from AALL & Create in three places on the background.

The sentiment was printed onto white cardstock and cut into sections before being matted with black. Foam tape adhered the saying to the background. Silver star sequins were scattered across the sky...love how they catch and reflect the light. A simple border was doodled around the page and black Big Brush Pen was used to edge it before adhering it to the black mat which frames all my pages in this journal.

Thanks for joining my celestial friends and me today. We're glad you did and can't wait to see where others in our Art Journal Adventure Facebook group go with this space or celestial prompt.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie