The bee on my nose ~ ePlay Challenge

It's the first Thursday of March and that means a new challenge at eclectic Paperie. We have changed our format slightly. Here's the scoop:

·         We’ve combined our two challenges into one called ePlay ~ Push Your Boundaries. It will be announced on the first Thursday of each month.  This gives the design team more flexibility with challenge topics and projects and allows you more time to enter! 

·         We’ll also feature a product each month, and during the first day of the challenge, you’ll receive a discount on the featured product….be sure to check for the special code! 

·         Our prize drawing is increasing from $15.00 to a $25.00 gift certificate and the winner of each challenge will be announced on the last Thursday of each month and will be featured on the eP blog. 

·         Each month we’ll hold a blog hop featuring the beautiful artwork from our design team…just scroll down to the bottom of the post for all of the links!  Talk about inspiration!!

 Our challenges are about encouraging you to explore your creative journey and inspiring you to step outside of your comfort zone.  When you submit your artwork, share a unique card, scrapbook or journal page, a canvas, home décor project, or anything that you’re excited to share!  We’re looking forward to crafting with you!

 Today’s special is on Liquitex Gesso and for one day only, you can save 10% on a bottle of gesso…perfect for all of your altered projects!  Simply use code GESSO03when checking out.

 This month’s challenge is Altered Books and our hostess is the lovely and talented Karen Crossen. This challenge was "right up my street" as my friend, Alison, says. I always have a bunch of altered books on the back burner just waiting for me to find the time to work on them. I restrained myself somewhat, deciding to do the last double page spread in my bee-themed altered board book. I love how this book is turning out and have had a blast playing with each spread.

I started this one with the pages gessoed and then tore sections of TH kraft resist paper and a page from G45's The Olde Apothecary Shoppe collection. These were edged with Vintage Photo Distress ink and adhered to the white background with Matte Medium. To fill in the white spaces, various brown Neocolor II watercolour crayons were scribbled and spread over the white gesso. Mocha chalk paint was sponged on with Cut n Dry foam, and then Walnut Brown Big Brush pen was smudged around the edges of the paper scraps. Vintage Photo DI was applied through TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil to create the hexagon pattern and thenwWhite gesso was stencilled through TCW's Texure Tile stencil.

The beautiful woman's face from TH's new Daydream stamp set was stamped with Coffee Archival ink onto plain kraft cardstock. It was colourized with a combination of Distress markers applied with a water brush and also Prismacolor pencils. Her face was then fussy cut and matted in black. Her hair was a whole lot of flowers punched from more G45 paper. These were glued to the hair area and the centers were added with black flat pearls. The bee on her nose, a nod to the hidden children's poem, is from the internet.

To continue developing the background, a TH script stamp and splatter dots were randomly applied with Jet Black Archival ink. Various collage elements purchased from Etsy were distressed with Vintage Photo and adhered to the left side. 

The tip-in element was created by gluing a Bo Bunny Timepiece Journal spot to  kraft paper which had been printed with the bee poem. More bees were fussy cut and attached to both sides along with clock hands. A wooden button popped up on foam tape creates the closure for the tip-in.

The lettering which is in French says "The bee on my nose" (L'abeille sur mon nez). It was created with Ransom Alpha Parts as well as three other types of stickers. To finish off the page, Black Big Brush pen was used to outline the edges. Washi Tape and die cut scallop borders and an arrow were  added to help the eye move around the page. Outlining and doodling as well as black gesso rings were also thrown into the mix.

And there you have it! All that's left to do on this book are the covers. Thanks so much for visiting today. I hope you get a chance to pop over to the eclectic Paperie blog to see Karen's fabulous project and hop around to the other DT members' blogs. Loads and loads of inspiration!

Life is good; so is art.

Bonnie

Here are links to the eP store for some of the products I used:

Liquitex Acrylic Gesso	Claudine Hellmuth Studio - Black Gesso	Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pens - Neutral
Faber Castell - Big Brush Pen - Black	Claudine Hellmuth Studio-Multi-Medium Matte	Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous) - Daydream	Tim Holtz� Distress� Markers - Worn Lipstick
Tim Holtz� Distress� Markers - Faded Jeans	Archival Ink - Jet Black Ink Pad	Archival Ink - Coffee Ink Pad	Findings - Alpha Parts, Ransom