It's the Little Things ~ One Sweet Challenge post

Wow! seriously, is it August already? I feel like Rip Van Winkle...I keep losing days and weeks. If I'm sleeping them away, why am I still so tired? LOL Anyway, since today is the first Monday of the new month, we have a new challenge theme at One Sweet Challenge. Our theme for this month is Back to School but not in the traditional sense. This time we are going back to school by learning and experimenting with a technique or medium that is new to us. I love having that little push to try something new! My something new is Brusho Crystals which aren't new to  the world but are to me. I bought them a while ago but never experimented and just played with them until now. They are tiny crystals of colour which when activated with water give the most glorious rich hues. Yum!

I wanted to colour this gorgeous image from Sweet Pea Stamps called Blueberry Fairy by Holly Durr. Holly Durr creates these gorgeous faces,delightful hair, and wings. I cannot resist her images. I coloured BB (blueberry) with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. The photos don't show it very well but her wings are a blend of turquoises and green. There are actually four colours on each feather. BB was then fussy cut leaving a narrow white border, matted in black cardstock, and fussy cut again. She was then popped up on foam dots to give her dimension and create a shadow around her.

The background began with a 6 x 8 inch rectangle of mixed media paper. This was the first time I tried using only one colour of Brushos (Purple) and varying the intensity with the amount of water I added. I tipped the paper to get bigger runs and then used the TH Spritzer tool to get the tiny drips. White embossing paste was scraped through TCW's Mini Netting stencil. I love how it picked up some of the Brusho purple from the background...cool effect. Stencilling was also applied using Forget-Me-Not Ranger Archival ink and Memory Box's Alpha Crumble template. Black rings were added with Black Marble Dylusions paint and a bottle lid.

Two different patterns of washi tape were added in three spots and faceted jewels layered on top of the left side flags. The sentiment was computer generated, printed on white cardstock, and matted with black. Foam tape on the back of each segment gave them a little dimension. Black Big Brush pen was used to edge the background which was then framed with a black mat.

Thanks for joining BB and me today. That might seem like a little thing to you but to us it's huge. When you get a minute, pop over to One Sweet Challenge blog to see what the rest of my talented teamies created and what they chose to experiment with for our Back To School theme. Remember to stop by Sweet Pea Stamps as well. There are always new images and I always come away from a browse with inspiration galore...not to mention new images too :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie