The East Wind Challenge #6 ~ Die Cuts or Punches

Hi everyone! I don't know about you but I cannot believe it is May, both because of the still cold weather and  because I swear it was just the beginning of March yesterday. Anyway, May it is and that means that it's time for a new challenge at The East Wind. Our theme for this month's freebie challenge is Die Cuts or Punches and we have the sweet Aurora image, Love Mom, to work with this time. You will get her in the May newsletter if you are a subscriber. 

I coloured Aurora with Prismacolors except for those wonderful balloons which I paper pieced. I fussy cut the image, leaving off the strings and printed two more balloon images for the patterns. I traced those onto the backs of the DP(could have flipped the image and printed it on the back of the various papers, too) and then cut each balloon out. The edges were edged with Distress inks to create the shading and the roundness. All were glued flat to the original white image. The pink ones were cut out a second time so that a layer could be popped up on foam tape but still be pink underneath...a little detail but it makes a difference. Hemp cord was used as the balloon strings. The entire image was then layered on black cardstock and fussy cut close to the original lines, leaving a narrow mat. This added strength to the skinny bits and gave the strings something to support them.

The background is a section of an old Scrabble Board which had been chopped into quarters. Watered down white gesso was applied to the board so that the Scrabble squares were still visible. Then mottled blue paper was torn and adhered to the right hand 2/3 of the substrate with Matte Medium.

Stencilling was done with Cornflower Blue Archival ink sponged through a Memory Box Star stencil as well as TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil. The same ink was applied to a script stamp and rolled randomly here and there on the background. Vintage Photo Distress ink was sponged through TCW's Mini Confetti stencil to create the splotches and then stamped here and there with my favourite TH splatter stamp. Black gesso was pounced through TCW's Tiny Circles stencil as well.

The lettering is a mix of Idea-ology Ransom Alpha Parts, scrabble tiles, and various stickers. The Scrabble tiles and the mini wooden letter tiles were edged with Vintage Photo to age them and also make them contrast with the background. Remnant Rubs were added to the balloons to remind me of some of the lessons my mom taught me. The wee stars and the Post Card symbol are also Remnant Rubs. Heart washi tape was added in three spots and two photo turns with pearl inserts were added to opposite corners. The stars were punched out of black cardstock using a Tonic punch...almost forgot to add them. Hello...the theme is Punches or Dies :) The turquoise flower is actually a button covered with card candy. I like how it draws my eye to the top of the piece where the wording starts.

The final touches were the doodling done with black pen and the darkening of the edges with Black Big Brush pen to help frame the piece.

Thanks so much for visiting with Aurora and me today. It's always a treat to have you here. When you get a minute, check out The East Wind Challenge blog to see the clever ways that my talented teamies used this very same image. I love seeing how different the same image can look. We would love it if you joined our challenge #6, Punches and Dies. Hope you do!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie