Happy Haunting ~ CYP Challenge 186

It's Monday and that means a new challenge at Craft Your Passion Challenges. The theme this week is Halloween (the fun child-friendly kind) and we have the pleasure of being sponsored by and working with images from Just Some Lines. I chose Vampirette who has the sweetest face of any vampire I've never known...lol. I coloured Vampirette and her fun devil cat with my Prismacolor pencils. The spider string, her wine glass, dress bauble, and her fangs were all outlined with Clear Star Jelly Roll pen to add sparkle. Devil cat has wonky black gem eyes which make me smile. Vampirette and her friends were fussy cut and asked politely to wait for the background.

The background consists of three layers of papers from DCWV's The Midnight Spells matstack, as well as a strip of black cardstock. They were cut and layered to form a floor, baseboard and wall. The center of the spiderwebs and a few dots were accented with black gems and the spider printed on the paper was given a coat of Glossy Accents for shine and dimension. Vampirette was adhered slightly off center with a dimensional pumpkin sticker to add more atmosphere. Love the spider on it!

A scalloped border was cut from black cardstock using an MFT die. Two tiny holes were punched top and bottom to hold the green baker's twine  in place once it was wrapped around the border. An extra half scallop was added to the top right corner for balance. The sentiment was fussy cut from the same paper pack and mounted on a black folded paper rosette. The dimension it gives the sentiment is so fun.

Thanks so much for dropping by to visit Vampirette, her friends, and me today. Her little smile tells it all~ you've made us happy. If you get a chance, pop by the Craft Your Passion Challenges blog to see the fabulous projects the rest of the DT created with these sweet images. You won't be disappointed. Hope you'll join us for our Halloween Challenge. Molly, my cat, said she'll protect me from anything too scary :D

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create ~ Challenge 43 Anything Goes
Robyn's Fetish ~ #183 Halloween
Challenges 4 Everybody ~ #32 Anything Goes
That Craft Place Challenge ~ Halloween
Come and Get It Challenges ~ A Little Boo For You (Halloween)
Dream Valley Challenges ~ #68 Halloween
One Stitch At a Time ~ #187 Boo
Just Some Lines Challenge ~ Happy Boo to You Week 4

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Live in Colour ~ eP get Altered Challenge

It's time for October's eTeam Picks Challenge at the eclectic Paperie and this time the wonderfully talented Giovana is hosting. She has chosen the theme of watercolour...love it! Now I frequently use watercolour crayons on my backgrounds but since the eTeam Picks Challenge is all about stretching boundaries and trying new things, I decided to also colour my images using watercolour...something I have never tried.

I chose to work on the letter F page in my altered dictionary so I picked the word Fish for my theme. The background began with gessoed pages adhered to their neighbours with Gel Medium for strength. This is especially important when working with watercolour because the added moisture can make your pages fragile so they disintegrate.

 I scribbled various shades of blue and green watercolour crayon over the page and activated the colours with a wet.brush. When I do this I clean the brush often and try to activate one colour at a time to keep them true. When I'm ready to blend the edges, I bring the dark into the light areas just enough so there are no harsh lines. Once this was dry, I added gelatos randomly, making sure that the darker ones were used on the edges to frame out the pages. I blend these with a damp finger. The edges were further deepened with Dark Pthalo Green and Pthalo Blue Big brush pens which were smudged with a finger while still wet.

Studio 490 white embossing paste was applied through Dylusions Chequered Dots stencil and then outlined with a black pen. Archival Jet Black ink was loaded onto a Stampendous marble texture stamp and rolled onto the pages. A TH script stamp was inked with Memento Nautical Blue and rolled randomly onto the background. Dylusions Letter Jumble stencil was used with the same blue ink for more texture. 

White gesso was pounced through TCW's Halftone Borders stencil and loaded onto a TH splatter stamp. The curly grass was done with Peacock Feathers and Mowed Lawn Distress inks followed by Archival Jet Black using a Stampotique stamp. Black gesso was watered down slightly and the center ring of my ATG refuill was used to stamp the double circle. A smaller bottle top created the circle around the word fish.

The images which are digi stamps from Whimsy Stamps and Oak Pond Creations were printed on watercolour paper using an inkjet printer. To keep that ink from running when wet, I sprayed them with a fixative. Colour was applied with Inktense watercolour pencils and blended/spread with a wet brush. Love the intensity of colour these pencils give and also how beautifully they blend. The images were fussy cut, lined with Black Big Brush, and popped up on foam tape for dimension.

The bubbles were punched from watercolour paper coloured with gelatos. Treasure Silver was spread lightly over them as well as on the background. Cobalt Blue Big Brush pen was used to edge the circles and shade the left and bottom of each before they were popped up on foam dots and adhered next to the fish. 

The sentiment was created from Idea-ology AlphaTiles and AlphaParts oultined with Black Big brush pen. More of the same was used around the outside edges of the pages. Scalloped border cut using an MFT die was adhered on the edges and embellished with white pen. The AlphaParts letters were also dotted in white.

That completes my whimsical F is for Fish watercoloured altered dictionary spread...try saying that five times fast! I has great fun with this challenge. Thanks, Giovana...great theme. Pop over to the eclectic Paperie blog to check out  the awesomeness Gio created. If you click on the DT thumbnails below her post, you can visit the other DT blogs and see how we all interpreted this fun challenge. Hope you'll join us. 

Life is good; so is art.

Bonnie

The following are some of the product links to the eclectic Paperie store:

Liquitex Acrylic Gesso	Claudine Hellmuth Studio - Black Gesso	Claudine Hellmuth Studio-Multi-Medium Matte	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Blue Colors
Faber Castell - Gelatos - Green Colors	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pens - Blue	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pen - Black	Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 - Embossing Paste - White
Dylusions Stencil 5x8" - Chequered Dots	Dylusions Stencil 5x8" - Letter Jumble	TCW - 6x6 Halftone Borders Stencil	Distress Ink Pad - Peacock Feathers
Distress Ink Pad - Mowed Lawn	Uni-Ball White Gel Pen

Believe ~ CYP Challenge 185

With October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, we at Craft Your Passion Challenges wanted to show our support for this wonderful cause so our theme this week is Think Pink. We want to see a whole lotta pink on your cards. Dilly Beans is our fabulous sponsor this week and I was able to play with Daisy Girl Framed, one of Megan Suarez's beautiful face images. I coloured her with Prismacolor pencils, accenting the centers of those pink daisies with brown flat pearls. Daisy was then fussy cut and matted in brown cardstock which was also trimmed to the shape of the flower frame. The image was given two layers of foam tape on the back for dimension.

The background consists of 3 matted rectangles using papers from DCWV's Garden Tea Party stack. The papers already have some brown splotches as part of the design so I added to those with two Tim Holtz stamps, coffee rings and splatters, using Vintage Photo Distress ink. More Vintage Photo was used around the edges of each rectangle before matting them on dark brown cardstock. A scalloped border was punched from another patterned paper from the same collection and adhered to the right edge of the card. Doodling and faux stitching were added with a Sepia Micron pen to repeat the sketchy drawings on the one paper.

A length of shiny cream satin ribbon was cut into a banner shape to house the sentiment. The letters are puffy stickers that started out purple but were altered with a brown Copic marker. The brown alcohol ink over the shiny purple plastic made this fabulous shiny copper colour...who knew? Very cool happy accident. The two pink buttons came from my grandmother's button box which I inherited years ago. They look like cupcake icing ...yum.

Thanks so much for joining Daisy and me today. It's always a delight to have your fine company. If you get a minute, pop over to the Craft Your Passion Challenges blog to see the fabulous responses to this theme by my talented teamies. I hope you will feel inspired and want to join us for our Think Pink challenge. I look forward to seeing what you create.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create ~ #42 Anything Goes
One Stitch At A Time ~ #186 Anything Goes
Quirky Crafts Challenges ~ #21 Favourite Things (Vintage Buttons, Pink & Brown combo)
That Craft Place Challenge ~ Colour Pink
Sister Act Card Challenge ~ #29 Anything Goes
MilkCoffee Challenge ~ Spots and Dots

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Sneakety peek of my ep post

It's my turn to post on the eclectic Paperie blog today so I created a canvas featuring the Susan K. Weckesser stamp, Happy Homestead. I love this house stamp. I had a good old play with all things messy...and had the hands and work table to show for it! Follow this link to see the results. Hope to see you there.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Be afraid...be very afraid ~ Craftitude Challenge 51

Hello crafty peeps! Another fortnight has passed and it's time for a new challenge at Craftitude. It's also the first post for our new DT members so there are lots of great things to celebrate. Our challenge themes are Anything Goes or Spooky and our sponsor is one of my faves, QKR Stampede. I love the quirkiness and playfulness of their images. They always make me smile. I coloured the RIP image with my Prismacolor pencils and then fussy cut the image. It was then popped up on foam tape for dimension.

The background is a piece of black cardstock embossed with a Cuttlebug mesh embossing folder and then brushed with Treasure Copper gilt wax. The moon was punched from DCWV's The Midnight Spell matstack making sure that one of the spiders on the paper was within the circle. The spider was highlighted with Glossy Accents to give it shine and dimension. The outside of the circle was inked with Worn Lipstick Distress ink. The sentiment was cut from a collage sheet from Lisa's Altered Art.

The wispy clouds were added by adhering a cheesecloth scrap to the moon and background. The eyes were cut from yellow paper and Glossy Accented. Once dry, black half pearls were added for dimension ...and menace.

Thanks for popping by today. Hope you weren't too frightened :) If you get a minute, check out the Spooky cards and atcs by the rest of the Craftitude DT. They have outdone themselves. Hope you'll join us.

I am entering this atc in the following challenges:
Little Red Wagon ~ #207 Mini-mize me (no bigger that 3x3")
Paper Crafting Journey ~ Use Halloween Colours
Sarah Hurley Challenge ~ #85 Halloween
Scrap It With a Song ~ Thriller ( I took my theme from the creepy monsters sneaking up behind in the video)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

House of Love Mini Shadowbox (eP)

Hi there. Quite some time ago I bought these lovely little Prima wooden houses from eclectic Paperie. I have been using the little icons in various mixed media and altered art projects ever since but I kept coming back to the idea that the little wooden box they came in (4.25 inches square x .5 inches deep with 9 cubbies) would make a lovely shadow box.

When I saw the fabulous Catherine Scanlon Designs Hope, Inspire, Dream, Love stamp set in the eP store, I knew I'd found just what I wanted  to complete the vision in my head.

 I printed each stamp using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink and coloured them with the brightest Prismacolor pencils I own. I used the same palette on each stamp, making sure that I featured some black spaces on each. Using a white gel pen, I added dots somewhere on each design, usually on the black but sometimes over another colour depending upon the design.

I wanted the stamped inserts to be a bit larger in the cubbies so I auditioned various colours of matting. All of them seemed to take away from the designs until I remembered an inchie checkerboard border stamp from Lockhart Stamp Co. which I had in my stash. I used the same Jet Black Archival ink to stamp these borders trimmed them next to the stamping and adhered the Catherine Scanlon Designs to the frames. They fit perfectly...yay...and did not detract from the designs.

The wooden box was painted with two coats of black gesso and allowed to dry thoroughly. Eight of the twelve designs were chosen and adhered to the cubbies with Scor tape leaving the middle one free.

 One of the Prima wooden houses was coloured with a Cobalt Green (which is really turquoise) Big Brush pen to pick up on the turquoise accent colour found in every image. The house was adhered to the center cubbie with Glossy Accents. The word Love is also part of this stamp set along with three other words. It was stamped in black, cut out and lined on the edges with Black Big Brush pen before it was glued to the house.

I had coloured all twelve of the stamped designs because I was unsure which I would use and I had a plan for the leftovers. I often include a small (2.5 "square) note card when I am swapping with friends or giving a gift. I usually decorate the front quite simply but include a hand coloured inchie as part of the design. That's what I did with the remaining four coloured images. A strip of black and white designer paper was adhered to the right edge and white faux stitching was doodled next to it. The stamped image was bordered with the same Lockhart stamp but then matted in white and turned on point when it was adhered to the black note card. These photos show the colours as they truly appear. I had to wash the colours out slightly on the photos above in order to get the black dividers to show up.

My shadowbox is going to sit on a shelf but a wire or ribbon hanger could easily be added to hang it. I have a few more two row boxes that other wooden icons came in. They might be next...lol. None of them are safe any more. Thanks for visiting today. I am always appreciative of your company and your interest. I am a little slow getting around to everyone's blogs these days because my mom is still in the hospital but I will get there. I wouldn't want to miss anything :D

I am entering this project in the following challenges:
The Crafting Cafe October Challenge ~ Anything Goes
Creative Craft Challenges ~ #21 Anything Goes Blogaversary
Through the Craft Room Door ~ Oct. 15-22 Anything Goes
Artistic Inspirations ~ #63 Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create ~ # 41 Anything Goes

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Here are links to the eclectic Paperie shop for some of the products I used in this project:

Claudine Hellmuth Studio - Black Gesso	Archival Ink - Jet Black Ink Pad	Inkssesentials - Glossy Accents 2 oz.	Uni-Ball White Gel Pen
Faber Castell - Big Brush Pen - Black	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pens - Blue	Scor Tape -1/4"wide x 27 yds long (double sided)	Catherine Scanlon Designs - Hope, Inspire, Dream, Love