Saturday, December 15, 2012

To Fairyland

I am in such an unsettled and emotional mood today after the tragic news of the school shooting yesterday. Being a retired elementary teacher, the tragedy seemed very close to home and my heart goes out to all those whose lives were horribly altered yesterday. It touched and saddened all of us whether we knew any of the victims personally or not. I also want to say how proud I am of the staff and students for the way they handled the emergency. As a teacher, I know that we train for those events, we practise, but we never in a million years think that it will happen in our school. It is beyond our imagination. They are all heroes in their own way.

When I am upset, I lose myself and calm myself in art and as long as it isn't too complicated or requiring clear thoughts, it usually gives me some relief from my sadness and troubled heart. Today I chose to play with fairy houses and to throw myself into a world of make-believe and peace. Wicked Wednesday has a new challenge up and it is Fairy Houses. so I coloured and inked and sat quietly with my comfort tools. The image is from Make it Crafty and I coloured it with Prismacolor pencils, adding a little Liquid Pearls to the mushroom dots. The image was fussy cut and mounted on black cardstock before being fussy cut again. A small sign was hand drawn, stamped with a Crafty Secrets "To Fairyland" message and then fussy cut. A little Prismacolor pencil was added to give it dimension.



The background is stamped with a Stampabilities vine stamp using Versamark and was then clear embossed. Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans Distress inks were applied over the embossing to form a resist effect. The bottom section was covered with a torn piece of vellum and washi tape was applied over that before the sign was attached with foam tape. The background was cut smaller than the atc size so that a black border could be added and still have it be "legal". A Martha Stewart corner punch was used to create the faux stitched corner piece.

Just a simple little atc but it's amazing how healing and comforting art can be. Thanks for visiting today. Go hug someone you love and be kind to each other.

I am entering this in the Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge ~ Fairy Houses

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

4 comments:

Jenn Borjeson said...

I know exactly what you mean, my friend. Sending you a big hug. Thanks for joining us at Wicked Wednesday - it makes me feel good knowing that you could find solace in creating something for us. xoxo

Denice said...

You are not alone in your sadness. I finally had to turn the news off this afternoon because it is too much to internalize.
Your ATC is peaceful and pretty...the perfect place a fairy would go to lay her head. Thanks for playing along with us this week at Wicked Wednesday.
:Dxx

ParkNSlide said...

So sweet---the liquid pearls add to the fantasy.

Words and Pictures said...

Hope you found some solace in your crafting... our thoughts are indeed with all the families and friends - a terrible, terrible thing.
Alison x