You Can Do It! ~ CYP Challenge 211

Hello there! It's time for a new challenge at Craft Your Passion Challenges. The theme for Challenge 211 is Up in the Air. We want to see anything that can fly. Easy peasy! Our fabulous sponsor this week is The Doodle Garden and I chose to work with this sweet image called Eloise the Tightrope Elephant. I coloured Eloise with Prismacolor pencils and cut her and her tightrope out with a Spellbinder's Wonky Squares die. The edges of the square were inked with broken China Distress ink and the image was matted in black cardstock. Eloise was given black half pearl eyes and black cord was glued over the tightrope in the image with Glossy Accents.

The background papers are a mixture from my scrap box. I chose the harlequin pattern because it reminds me of the pattern on those animal stands in the circus. Both of the main papers were matted in black. The flowers were fussy cut from Amy Tangerine paper with extra centers cut and popped up on foam for dimension.

The sentiment was computer generated, cut into a banner, and matted in black. Black enamel card candy was added to either end as well as the corner element. Dots and faux stitching were doodled to add to the whimsy of the card.

Thanks for stopping by to visit with Eloise and me. We both love an audience and certainly appreciate the time you spend here. If you get a chance, pop over to the Craft Your Passion Challenges blog to see the delightful projects created by my teamies. These images from The Doodle Garden are so fun...they are sure to bring you a smile. I hope you will play along with our Up in the Air challenge this week.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create ~ #69 Anything Goes
One Stitch at a Time ~ #210 Anything Goes
That Craft Place ~ Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge ~ #198 head gear
Kitty Bee Designs Aloha Challenge ~ #22 Animals
Open-Minded Crafting Challenges ~ #9 Sports & Activities (Extreme Tightrope Walking)
Cute Card Thursday ~ #318 Blue & Green

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Love You, Mom ~ The East Wind new FB contest

On the 21st of each month a new contest begins on The East Wind Facebook page. The theme for this month-long contest is Mother's Day which will fall within this contest period. I chose to create a tag featuring this absolutely gorgeous image by Unky called Aurora Love You. I coloured Aurora with my Prismacolor pencils before fussy cutting her and matting her in black cardstock. Colouring her hair and that sweet face was a treat. She was popped up on foam tape and set aside to await her background.

I used a Wendy Vecchi Art Parts scallop tag with trim as the base for my tag. I covered the extra scalloped piece with scraps of patterned paper and traced the tag shape onto a larger scrap. Stamping was done on both pieces with a text stamp and Brilliance Archival ink in Rocket Red Gold. Two torn pieces of French text from some thrift store books was inked with Vintage Photo and adhered to the tag background. Three banner flags from sparkly scraps were adhered as bunting to the upper portion of the background. Then I made the trek upstairs to do some machine sewing to the background before adhering it to the tag base. I stitched both across the bunting flags and over the text paper to add subtle texture and interest.

The background was adhered to the tag and then stencilling was done by pouncing gesso through TCW's Mini Tiny Circles and Well Rounded stencils. Coffee Archival ink was sponged through Memory Box's Rings and Puddles stencil. Doodling was added around the edges, around the larger gesso circles, and to outline the added text paper and flags. One of the hardest things I had to learn with mixed media was to keep the doodling loose and a little messy. It just looks better when it is less precise.

The scalloped edge was adhered to the back of the tag and flat white pearls were added. Aurora was placed so that her hands were at the bottom of the main section and the bow overlapped the scalloped edge. A length of baker's twine was adhered above the bunting and a punched star matted in black covered the hole in the tag. Black ribbon with white stitching was glued to the back of the tag as a topper.

Thanks for stopping by today to visit with Aurora and me. We appreciate your fine company. We'd love to see you play along with The East Wind's new contest on our Facebook page. It's always inspirational and a delight to see how you use these fabulous images and who knows...you could be our next winner.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Peek! ~ CYP Challenge 210

A new week...a new challenge at Craft Your Passion Challenges. For Challenge 210, our theme is Pretty Pastels and our sponsor is the fabulous A Day For Daisies. I can't even describe how these images make me feel...there is something so gentle and innocent about ADFD images...a sweetness without being syrupy. I'm always delighted when they are our challenge sponsor.

I chose to play with Bunny in a Rose and coloured it with Prismacolor pencils. I cut out the image with a Curved Rectangles Spellbinder die, inking the outside edges with Tumbled Glass Distress ink, followed by Vintage Photo on the very edge. Faux stitching was added to the die cut layer and a tiny rhinestone was added to the eye for the sparkle.

The background papers were cut from two different sources from my old stash. Both the yellow and the green DP were matted with brown cardstock for contrast and visual weight. The green layer was wrapped with both green and turquoise ribbon which were fastened to the back. The image layer was added with foam tape for dimension and to create a shadow.

A pink mulberry flower and two tiny blue ones with gem centers were added to the upper right corner along with some leaves punched from text and coloured with Peeled Paint Distress ink. Two more of the leaves were adhered to the bottom left corner for balance. The opposite corners were given photo corners cut with a Martha Stewart punch.

A simple card to suit the simple image. It needed very little extra, something I often find when creating with ADFD images. Thanks so much for stopping by. If you get a chance. pop over to the Craft Your Passion Challenges blog to see the inspiring creations by the rest of our talented DT. We'd love to see you play along with our Pretty Pastels challenge this week.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
A Gem of a Challenge ~ #117 Spring is in the Air
Di's Digi Designs ~ Easter
Hiding in my Craft Room ~ #146  Flowers
Open-Minded Challenges ~ #8 Easter or Pastel Colours
Sugar Creek Hollow ~ #84 Easter
Sunflower Fields Designs ~ April Easter or Spring
613 Avenue Create ~ #68 Anything Goes
Cupcake Inspirations ~ #257 Bunnies

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Spring has sprung ATC ~ Craftitude Challenge #63

Well, the good news is that we are getting rain instead of the snow we got twice this week. No hint of flowers poking their noses out of the ground yet but at least I can see the ground...Bonus! It's time for a new challenge at Craftitude this fortnight. Our themes for Challenge #63 are Anything Goes OR Spring has sprung (spring or Easter images or colours). Our wonderful sponsor this week is Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps & More. I chose to feature this adorable image called, Ms. Cutie Bear, colouring her with Prismacolor pencils. I used my fuzzy bear technique of layering tiny strokes for her fur and added white paint pen dots on her dress and the pink flowers. Ms. Cutie was fussy cut and then matted in black cardstock to allow her to stand out from the background. She was popped up on foam tape for dimension.

The background for this ATC was a scrap of DCWV's Collage Art paper matted on black cardstock with a faux stitched edge. Two little buttons, a dragonfly and a bee, were added to the garden scene. The word Spring was printed from the computer and matted in black. Simple design, letting Ms Cutie do all of the heavy lifting to make it work :)

Thanks for visiting today. If you get a chance, pop over to the Craftitude Challenges blog to see the awesome inspiration provided by the rest of the DT for the Anything Goes/Spring Has Sprung challenge. Hope you'll play along with us.

I am entering this ATC in the following challenges:
As You Like It ~ #25 Favourite Stitching (Faux because I can put it so close to the edge without going off)
Creative Knockouts ~ #33 Furry or Feathery Friends
Delightful Challenges ~ Bloom (include a flower)
digistamps4joy ~ #90 Easter or Spring
The Paper Shelter ~ #154 Spring is Here

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Why yes,...The East Wind Challenge #5

Hello everyone! The new challenge theme (#5) at TheEastWind Challenge blog is Humour...right up my alley. I decided to play in my Dylusions art journal, creating a spread featuring Lucy Loo Being Lucy because I've been wanting to colour her for a while. Her attitude makes me smile. I coloured her with Prismacolor pencils giving her funky pink and yellow hair and purple lipstick. The little zipper teeth in her hair ornament were inked in with a Silver Jelly Roll pen for the sparkle effect. Lucy Loo was fussy cut, and the white edges were inked with a Black Big Brush pen. She was popped up on foam tape and set aside out of the range of my messy mixed media process.

The two journal pages were given a liberal coat of Studio 490 black embossing paste applied with a palette knife. While it was still wet, gauze pads were unfolded and then twisted or folded l the long way. These were crisscrossed over the pages to mimic the look of Lucy Loo's wrappings in the image. Once that was dry (it took a while because it's thick in places), black zippers with silver metal teeth were adhered across the pages in an X pattern. These are a reference to the zipper in Lucy's hair ornament. It also creates an edgy feel to the background which suits the image and the page concept.

The specimen labels and experiment log are downloads from Vectoria Designs...love her stuff! I had this vision of Lucy being created or re-created in a mad scientist's lab so the labels and log fit that notion.

The log was given extra kraft paper pages behind the cover and all were machine stitched to look more like a notebook.

The sentiments came next. Why yes,... comes from Create with TLC and I imagine Lucy pausing and saying that in answer to someone's silly question. Looking for trouble and Wanna play doctor were computer generated and printed on white cardstock which was torn or cut into fishtail flags and inked with Vintage Photo. All were popped up on foam tape.

To continue with the edgy look, I added more metal bits.The safety pins which I imagine the mad scientist keeps handy for gauze emergencies, the spider bead, the star sequins, and lens all help to scatter the metal about and lend continuity to the design. The resin hand and the bug under glass further the specimen theme.

At this point, Lucy's hair was the only pink on the page which created a jarring effect. I added the two pink mulberry roses along with the checked button to repeat the flower and button in her hair decoration and bring that bit of pink to the top and right. The small metal arrow was given three small pearls before it was added to the bottom of the page completing the visual triangle. A little doodling on the one set of sentiments, some scattered dot stamping on the paper elements, and the pages were complete. It might not be everyone's sense of humour but it is definitely mine.

Thanks for visiting today. To see the other inspiration pieces from the rest of my talented teamies, be sure to visit TheEastWind Challenge blog. We'd love to have you join us for this challenge and can't wait to see your take on the Humour challenge.

I am entering this project in the following challenges:
One Stitch At A Time ~ #208 Use a digi
Quirky Crafts ~ #8 Mixed Media Mayhem
My Sheri Crafts ~ #131 ~ A Moment of Laughter
Left of Center Creative Challenges ~#29 Dark Themed
The Stamping Boutique ~ #12 Distress It

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

What Did You Expect? ~ CYP Challenge 209

Hi there! It's time for a new challenge at Craft Your Passion. This week, the theme is Bunnies, Chicks, & Eggs...oh my :) we want to see one or more of these in your project. Our sponsor is Stitchy Bear's Digi Outlet which is awesome because they have so many fabulous designers. I chose to work with this image called Bunny Break from Stitchy Stamps...how fun is he? He's not saying what's in that glass, only what isn't but I think bunnies need to let their ears down every once in a while. I coloured BB with my Prismacolor pencils, fussy cut him, and gave him a narrow black mat. before popping him up on foam tape, I added some silver gel pen to his little bunny zipper.

The background is paper from DCWV's Collage Art stack. The pink has sparkly clear embossed flowers over the music paper and was cut with the Alterations Cameo die and then matted in black. A printed border from Tumble Fish Studio was fussy cut and added to the left side and then outlined in black pen. The happy little eggs also come from Tumble Fish Studio and were fussy cut and their white edges outlined in Black Big Brush pen.

The sentiments came out of my twisted little brain. They were printed from the computer onto white cardstock. Black matting and foam tape help to make them stand out. The small threaded black buttons were added to the right side of the pink layer with Glossy Accents in order to create better balance within the design.

BB and I thank you for visiting today. We always appreciate your fine company and encouraging comments. If you get a chance, pop over to the Craft Your Passion Challenges blog to see the fun projects by the rest of my talented teamies. Maybe you'll be inspired to join us in our Bunnies, Chicks, and Eggs challenge this week.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create ~ #67 Anything Goes
Crazy 4 Challenges ~ #231  Get Their Egg On
Di's Digi Designs ~ Easter
Kitty Bee Designs ~ Aloha Friday #21 Easter
My Sheri Crafts ~ #131 A Moment of Laughter
Open-Minded Crafting ~ #8 Easter
Cute Card Thursday ~ #316 Easter
Delightful Challenges ~ You're Egg-stra Special

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Warm Furniture for Cats

Hi everyone. The other day, I saw this adorable sentiment on the Create With TLC blog and it made me laugh. It's so true and I feel fortunate to be one of Molly's favourite pieces of warm furniture...at least for a while each day. I knew that I wanted to create a tag and went in search of an image that would both inspire me and suit the wording.

I chose this adorable image from The East Wind with the sweet little girl holding her cat dressed as a teddy which can be found here. The look on the cat's face is so funny and the I love the girl's face and hair, not to mention her pretty dress. I coloured her with Prismacolor pencils, fussy cut her with a narrow white border, and matted her in black. These borders lend strength to the thin hair pieces which could easily tear if left unsupported once fussy cut.

The background started with a piece of packaging from some Sharpie markers. It had such a cool artsy design on it that it became the perfect jump-off point. I added some gesso stencilling, some embossed hot pink circles, and a purple punched border to bring out the background colours. The TLC sentiment was matted with a vibrant green scrap of cardstock, again to pull out the green from the backing and to contrast with the dark frame around the sentiment. It also brings green to the top of the tag to balance her dress.

Medium flat pearls were added to each scallop of the purple border. Faux stitching was doodled around the pink circles and a length of ribbon was stapled to the top of the tag using my Tiny Attacher. Both the image and the sentiment were popped up on foam tape for added dimension and to create shadows.

Thanks for popping by today. Remember to check out the Add a Sentiment Challenge on The East Wind blog. There's still time to play along for a chance to win some of Unky's fabulous images at The East Wind shop.

I am entering this tag in the following challenges:
2 Cute Ink ~ #103 Anything Goes
Digi Makeover Challenge ~ #135  Anything Goes
Squigglefly ~ # 14 Bright Spring Colours
The Squirrel and the Fox ~ #67 All Creatures Great and Small

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Awesomesauce! ~ CYP Challenge 208

Hi everyone! Since it's Monday, it's time for a new challenge at Craft Your Passion. The theme for Challenge 208 is no designer papers and we are excited to have a new sponsor, Zap Pow Designs...such fun images. I decided to go mixed media on my card. The background is heavier mixed media paper spritzed with water and various spray inks, some through stencils and punchinella, and some directly onto the paper. I stuck to mainly blues and turquoise, leaving some of the white showing through. The background was matted with dark blue cardstock for contrast with the white card base.

 I layered up some leftover scraps which were sitting patiently on my desk, awaiting their turn to be stars (literally). The torn text already had a star punched from it. The yellow also had the stars punched from it. I just cut the yellow scrap into a circle and layered it behind the book paper lining up the stars. Vintage Photo Distress ink was used to grunge up the book paper a little more. A scrap of dark blue cardstock was run through my CB with a dotty embossing folder and then a fishtail flag was cut from it. Once those scraps were adhered to the background and doodled around, gesso was pounced through TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil, being sure to have it on the background as well as the collaged scraps to embed them into the background and create another layer.

The cute bottle image was printed on yellow cardstock and coloured with Prismacolor pencils. It was printed a second time on white cardstock and the labels and cap were coloured, fussy cut, and adhered to the bottom layer. The larger label was popped up on foam tape for added dimension. The word Awesomesauce is also from Zap Pow. It was printed on white cardstock, coloured with a Prismacolor Brush marker, fussy cut, and matted in black. Foam tape was used on the two ends and glue in the center. The sentiment came out of my twisted little mind and makes me laugh. I figure this could be a thank you or congratulations card. The finishing details were the orange enamel dots and punched star to which white paint pen dots were added.

That's it for my fun and funky DT card for the No Design Paper challenge at Craft Your Passion. Thank you so much for visiting today...I think you must have had some of that awesomesauce on your cornflakes this morning, too. If you get a chance, pop over to the Craft Your Passion Challenges blog to see the fabulous inspiration projects by my talented teamies. We'd love it if you joined us this round.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Allsorts ~ #253 No Flowers
Catch the Bug ~ April Anything Goes
Bloggers ~ Stencil It
Just Add Ink ~ #209 Just Add Layers
613 Avenue Create ~ #66 Anything Goes
Ditzie Digi Designs ~ Always Anything Goes


Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

April ePlay Challenge ~ Wood

Welcome! It's time for our April ePlay challenge at eclectic Paperie and this month Sherry is our hostess with the mostest. She has chosen the theme "Wood" so we want to see projects where you have added something made of wood or where the substrate itself is wood. I had a  5.5 x 6 x 1.5" block of wood which I decided would be perfect for my project. I love the chunkiness of it. I adhered some Idea-ology Melange Tissue Wrap to the front and four sides of the block using Matte Medium and covering it again with another layer on top. I love how the colour of the wood showed through and gave me instant aging. I helped that along by applying Vintage Photo Distress ink in random places with the applicator tool. The edges were inked more heavily a second time. Spun Sugar was also applied here and there to the front.

Torn scraps of three papers (black cardstock, rose coloured DP, and yellow DP) were layered across the bottom after having been inked with either Vintage Photo or Victorian Velvet Distress inks. Stencilling was then done with black gesso pounced through the TCW Mini Circles stencil. White gesso was patted onto a TH Harlequin stamp with my trusty finger and stamped over the background in a few places. The yellow paper was way too bright and clean for my taste so the colour was knocked back by applying Vintage Photo over it. The corner stamp from TH's Classics 16 was applied to the background using Jet Black Archival ink. You can just make out a bit of it in the bottom left corner.

The star topper across the top of the block was cut twice using Alterations Star Cluster On the Edge die: once from the rose coloured DP and once from black cardstock to create a drop shadow. They were glued together and then popped up on dimensional foam. Doodling with a Pitt pen, highlighting with a white coloured pencil, Remnant Rubs elements harlequins were applied to the top along with the word Imagine and some Christy Tomlinson Doodle Art rub ons. Silver sequins were adhered to four stars with Glossy Accents.

The reason for the star border came from the fabulous quote from Wendy Vecchi's Art Comforts stamp set. It was stamped with Jet Black Archival ink onto a scrap of Printery paper which was then inked around the edges with Black Soot DI before matting it with black. It was backed with a scrap of cheesecloth  and then adhered to the background.

The sweet little girl in pink comes from a Hidden Vintage Studio image collection called Just So Bossy. Her name in the collection was Bossy Bonnie...an oxymoron if you ask me...lol. She was fussy cut and inked around with Spun Sugar Distress ink and a black Big Brush pen. Her wings were from my computer file. They were stamped with Victorian Velvet and Wendy Vecchi's Background Mesh stamp. The corners of the wings were coloured with a black Sakura Glaze pen and they were outlined and doodled on. Bonnie was matted in black before she was given her wings and then they both were popped up on foam tape.

To finish the  block, words and phrases from Idea-ology Remnant Rubs were scatttered around the piece. Christy Tomlinson Doodle Stitch rub ons were also added. Two small and three large enamel dots were adhered to the wings and the corner for the shine and the dimension. White gesso was pounced through TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil onto the four sides. A small finial and two wooden doll head beads were painted black and added to the top and bottom respectively. The final touch was to add black Big Brush pen to the edges of the front and sides.

And that's it, that's all for my response to Sherry's wood ePlay challenge. I thank you for dropping by today...both Bonnies love that! If you get a chance stop by the eclectic Paperie blog to see Sherry's amazing project to launch the challenge. Watch the thumbnails below her post to see the links to the DT pieces as they are added. We'd love to see your link added as you play along.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

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

Liquitex Acrylic Gesso	Claudine Hellmuth Studio - Black Gesso	Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot
Distress Ink Pad - Victorian Velvet	Distress Ink Pad - Spun Sugar	Idea-ology - Tim Holtz - Tissue Wrap - Melange	Claudine Hellmuth Studio-Multi-Medium Matte
Tim Holtz Alterations - On the Edge Die - Star Cluster	Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 - Vintage Mesh Background Stamp	Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 - Art Comforts Stamp Set	Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous) Classics 16
Stickles - Cotton Candy	Idea-ology - Remnant Rubs - Elements	Idea-ology - Tim Holtz - Remnant Rubs - Words	Pink Paislee - She Art (Christy Tomlinson) - Doodle Art Stitches Rub Ons
TCW 6x6 Template - Tiny Circles	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pen - Black