My Paintbrush is Dylusional!

Oh my goodness, I had a blast with Tracy's FUNtastic theme for the eclectic Paperie eTeam Picks challenge. Her  challenge is to Get Your Mixed Media On with a Paintbrush as your focal point. The eTeam picks challenge is held on the third Thursday of each month and each challenge is an opportunity for one of the DT to choose the theme and then inspire us with her creation. It's a chance to share your art, have some fun, try something different, and be entered for a prize drawing for a $15 gift certificate to the eclectic Paperie store. I started with a 4" paintbrush from the garage which I never have used because it's too big for my hand to hold comfortably for any length of time. I painted the handle with black gesso and went in search of a face.

The face I chose comes from a Dylusions stamp set called Bits of This. I stamped her on white cardstock using Coffee Archival ink and coloured her funky face with Prismacolor pencils. The circles at the end of her eyelashes were filled in with black half pearls and then her face was fussy cut and matted in black cardstock cut freehand to echo the stamped outline. Since I saw the bristles as her wonderful spiky hair, I tipped the ends with Aquamarine craft paint applied liberally with a 1" brush and allowed to dry.

Next, the lovely lady needed a hairband to cover the silver-coloured metal ferrule of the brush. I chose the harlequin paper from Graphic 45's Olde Curiosity Shoppe collection and the vintage ruler from Graphic 45's An ABC Primer. The ruler was matted on black cardstock first so that a narrow band of black separated the two papers, making each stand out better. All papers were adhered with Scor tape. A twisted length of turquoise dyed crinkled seam binding was hot glued between the bottom of the ruler and the top of her head to pull the turquoise colour down the brush. The harlequin paper was also fussy cut to create the black diamonds along the top edge. Three mulberry flowers were adhered to her headband.

Now, Milady needed a necklace to grace her slender neck. Again, I wanted to bring the turquoise colour through the brush top to bottom so I chose a domed butterfly sticker for the center and Glossy Accented turquoise gems on both sides to form the necklace. We tried out earrings but both Milady and I agreed that it was too much. Less is sometimes more :) We did finish the very bottom of the brush handle with one of the triangles that was cut off of her harlequin headband. It was inked on all sides with Black Soot Distress ink and glued below the hole in the handle. Oh my word, she makes me smile.

Be sure to pop over to the eclectic Paperie blog to check out the wonderfully creative and talented Tracy's awesome altered paintbrush. Oh. that hair! If you click on the thumbnails below her post that are marked DT, you can see how the rest of the team responds. I'm really hoping you will be inspired to join us. I can't wait to see what you create. I'm thinking I might have to make another one.

Thanks for visiting today.That makes me smile, too.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Here is a set of links to the eclectic Paperie store for some of the products I used on this brush:

Claudine Hellmuth Studio - Black Gesso	Inkssesentials - Glossy Accents 2 oz.	Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot	Scor Tape -1/4"wide x 27 yds long (double sided)
Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Crinkle Ribbon 10 Yards