Rick St. Dennis Euro Girls Artist Trading Block

Hi all. A few weeks ago I posted  my bees and flowers artist trading block which you can see here if you missed it. I had such a blast with it that I decided to create another one using some of Rick St. Dennis' Euro Girls. There is something sweet and innocent about them within their quirkiness that appeals to me. The ATB, which I purchased pre-cut from Joggles, measures 3.25 on all sides and although I did the background on all six sides, I couldn't bear to have an image face-down so I didn't add one to the bottom.

I coloured each of the five Euro Girl Images with my Prismacolor pencils using Polychromos to shade the skin. The images I used are: Euro Girl LinDa, Euro Girl Pauline, Euro girl Springi, Euro Girl Rosa, and Euro Girl Easter Edna. While colouring, I kept the palette the same, trying to incorporate most colours on each image for continuity. I fussy cut each one leaving a narrow white border, matted each on black cardstock, and trimmed them out again. I like how this double matting gives them contrast with the background and allows them to take center stage.

The background was created by spritzing the flat block pieces with Yellow Rose of Texas, freaky Franklin Lime, and Bells of Ireland Green Starburst sprays. I didn't tip them to make the colours run because I wanted the yellow to stay true in some places and with yellow and green side by side on the colour wheel, I knew they would blend easily and make one colour quickly if I wasn't careful. I actually heat dried them and re-spritzed with the yellow to strengthen it. I did pick up some of the green over-spray to make stronger spots here and there.

White embossing paste was scraped through a Memory Box Rings and Puddles stencil with a palette knife, varying the design on each side. I love how it picks up a little of the background colour in places.  A bubble stamp was inked with Mowed Lawn Distress ink and rolled onto the background randomly. The same ink was used to deepen the outside edges of each cube face. Bits of drywall mesh were added to each side once the box was assembled and I knew approximately where each image would be placed.

Now you know it wouldn't be my piece if there weren't touches of black accenting the design. I began with stars punched from black cardstock. next I added bits of black and white harlequin washi tape to each side and then finally added larger black half pearls. I also added tiny black half pearls to the pull toy duck's eye and Pauline's dress. White half pearls were added to the buttons on Rosa's blouse. White paint pen dots were added to the stars. Initially I edged the sides of each face with a green Big Brush pen, thinking that I always use black and I might change it up. I assembled the block and finished it but something was definitely missing. I left it over night and in the morning went back and added the black Big Brush pen to each edge over the green. Much happier :) To me, it needed that frame to look finished.It was worth a try though...lol.

Thanks for joining the Euro Girls and I today. We appreciate your fine company. Hopefully, we have made you smile and sparked an idea or two.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie