Choose Joy and Love Life ~ eP Picks Challenge

On the third Thursday of the month,the eTeam Picks challenge begins at eclectic Paperie. It's an opportunity to be inspired by one of the eTeam's creations, to share your work, and to be entered into our prize drawing. It's a great chance to mix it up, enjoy the creative process, and try something new. Last Thursday was our talented Teresa Jaye's turn to host the challenge and she has asked us to use papers from our kitchens as part of a collage. Hmmm. Gotta engage the brain for this one :) I actually love that because by shaking things up and having to think outside the box, it gets my sometimes lazy mojo fired up.

I began with an 8" x 10" canvas onto which I spritzed water, Pink Bubblegum, Squeezed Orange, and Lemon Zest Dylusions ink sprays. While that was drying, I raided the kitchen drawer and tore off a piece of parchment (cooking) paper. Using black Stazon, I stamped Dy's Alphabet a, b, and c on the sheet and ripped it into strips. The strips were crumpled and then flattened by hand before being adhered with spaces between them onto the canvas using matte medium.

Out came the stencils! To create texture and interest, I used Dylusions Number Jumble and Picked Raspberry Distress ink, TCW's Mini Chicken Wire Reversed and black Archival ink, TCW's Confetti and Dylusions Dotted Flowers with white gesso, and finally, TCW's  Chevron Arrow with Studio 490 Black Embossing paste . After applying a  little black and white Duck tape in three places, I felt that the colours and contrasts were too strong (hard to believe, I know) so I spritzed the whole canvas with Dylusions White Linen ink spray.

Next I stamped Prima's Doll with Bolero Dress once on white cardstock and then the jacket only on the center of a cupcake paper. The doll was coloured with Prismacolor pencils before being fussy cut, The ruffled outsides of three cupcake papers were cut away from the centers and used to form her three tiered skirt. Kitchen twine was used to create her belt. Her jacket was shaded with black coloured pencil and then cut out and adhered to Joy's form. I called her Joy because then the sentiment makes me smile. It reads like a campaign slogan or a personal ad if Joy is a person...just my quirky sense of humour :D and not what I meant when I created the sentiment. Just a little secret bonus...which is no longer a secret.

The top lettering, Choose Joy, was done with stickers from my stash. White dots were added to the letters. The 'and' was part of another sticker sheet. The words 'Love life' are on one of the stamps from the Melody Ross set by the same name. I knew that I wouldn't get a good impression if I stamped directly over the wrinkled parchment paper so I stamped it onto a piece of Melange Tissue wrap and adhered it to the canvas with Matte Medium. Once dry the letters were outlined in black pen and highlighted with white.

I punched circles from black cardstock and scattered them across the canvas without gluing them down. Then I removed some of the circles and auditioned some stars in their place. Better but not quite there so back to the kitchen I went to find some corrugated cardboard torn from a box in the pantry. I ripped and cut it and added it several places both for the texture and for the colour.

I added stamping with more black Archival ink. The stitching is from Tim Holtz's Seamless Experience set and the crackled stamp is from Stampendous. White dots were added to the stars and spirals to the circles. Finally, Black Soot Distress ink was added to the edges of the canvas and black doodling around some of the elements to complete this kitchen paper extravaganza.

Thank you for stopping by today and for reading yet another marathon post, if you managed to get this far. I had absolutely no plan for this piece when I began. I hadn't even thought as far as the Dylusions ink sprays which was the first step. Some projects are like that. If you want more info about any of the products I used here, click on the thumbnails below and you will be magically transported to the eclectic Paperie shop where Kim can hook you up. We would love to see your kitchen paper creation.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Dylusions Cling Stamps - Dy′s Alphabet	Dylusions Ink Spray - White Linen	Dylusions Ink Spray - Squeezed Orange	Dylusions Ink Spray - Lemon Zest
Dylusions Ink Spray - Bubblegum Pink	Dylusions Stencil 5x8" - Number Jumble	Dylusions Stencil 5x8" - Dotted Flowers	TCW 6x6 Template - Confetti
TCW 6x6 Template - Chevron Arrows	TCW 6x6 Template - Mini Chicken Wire Reversed	Distress Ink Pad - Picked Raspberry	Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot
Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 - Embossing Paste - Black	Idea-ology - Tim Holtz - Tissue Wrap - Melange	Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso	Claudine Hellmuth Studio-Multi-Medium Matte
Prima - Bolero Doll Mixed Media Stamp	Unity Stamp Co. - Love Life (Melody Ross)