A is for...TCB Alpha/Dictionary challenge

Yay! I had time to play in my dictionary today for the next letter of the Alpha/Dictionary challenge at The Craft Barn. Each fortnight we are given a new letter and must find a word in our dictionary to illustrate. It can be done as an altered page in the dictionary or in a different format as long as the word and definition are clearly visible. This week's letter is A. I had a huge list of words beginning with A but kept returning to "attitude". I chose to feature one of my favourite Mo Manning images called Two Jill. She reminds me of pictures of me taken when I was little. I coloured Jill with my Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut her.

As usual, I adhered the two pages I needed for my spread to the page before or after using Decou-Page. The open two page spread was gessoed making sure to leave my word gesso-free. Then I decided to break out my new toys...Derwent Inktense Blocks. I've had the pencils for ages but really wanted to play with the blocks. I scribbled three colours (blue, green, teal) in blocks over the page and then used a wet paintbrush to spread the ink. It starts out dry like a chalk but when you add water it becomes lovely vibrant ink. So fun!!

Next I used Dylusions White Linen ink spray over my Christy Tomlinson doily mask allowing some of it to drip down the page. Peacock feathers Distress ink was applied through the Dylusions Number Jumble stencil and Mowed Grass Distress ink through TCW's Mini Chevron stencil. A little Studio 490 white embossing paste was spead through the Dylusions Spotted Flower stencil.

Jill was adhered to the page on the left and yellow and pink striped washi tape was used for a platform to ground her. A leftover piece of diecut zigzag border was placed over the top piece to give it more weight and punch. Two flat black pearls were added to the bottom piece. Three more chunks of tape were added to the two pages to spread the yellow around and increase flow. Another length of the zigzag was adhered to the top of the two pages to repeat the pattern, repeat the black, and to stop the eye from drifting off the top of the page. A Graphics 45 letter A was added to the top left of Jill as was a brad that says "grumpy" ('cause she is).

The bulletin board on the right hand page was created by modifying a K& Company paper frame to fit the page width. Paper resembling cork was adhered to the back of the frame. The Choose one list was created on the computer with the "choose one" letters coming from a sticker pack. This element is a nod to those papers you see on bulletin boards advertising some service or item for sale and then you tear off the phone number tab at the bottom. It made me laugh to think of going into a grocery store and choosing my attitude off the board after I picked up the ice cream and paper towel :) You can see where Jill chose grumpy which is why it's been torn off the sheet. It may not be quite as simple as this process but I do believe that we choose our own attitude and the way we respond to situations which is a reminder for myself.

To finish off the pages, I doodled with a black Micron pen as well as a paint pen. I stamped the TH Bitty Grunge circles here and there in black ink and coloured the outside edges with Pthalo Green Big Brush pen. Black Big Brush pen was used to underline the long pieces of washi tape and to outline the word/definition. The letters spelling "is for" were stickers and "attitude" letters are alpha parts. Two half pearls became the thumbtacks to hold the paper to the board and a sticker with a pink flower was placed on the notice to bring pink to that page as well as draw attention to the large words.

That's it, that's all for my A is for page for The Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary challenge for this fortnight. Thanks so much for visiting today. I think we'll leave grumpy Jill alone for a while and see if her mood improves. I'm off to link up at TCB and check out the other entries. Love that part.

I am also entering these pages in the DP2 (Mo's Digital challenge) of Anything Goes with a Mo image.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie