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