Joggles Art Journal Adventure ~ Week 50 Response

Hi everyone! Twas the Day before Christmas...and I took some time out to finish up my response to Barb's Art Journal Adventure prompt for Week 50 which was to Use a Brayer With Something That Will  Act as a Resist. As usual there is no pressure to follow the prompt exactly so I chose to use the resist part and skip the brayer part. Like Barb, I chose Gel Medium as the resist medium of choice.

I began by scraping gel medium onto the page background through Joggles Number Sparkle Mask using a palette knife. It took a while to dry but once it did, I spritzed Hag's Wart Orange, Hottie Patottie Hot Pink, and California Poppy Gold Lindy's Starburst Sprays over the stencilled page and then used paper towel to blot the sprays off the gel medium. It sunk in where there was no gel medium showing off the stencil pattern. To deepen the colour and add a little more pink, Picked Raspberry Distress Ink was added here and there.

The page looked very cool at this point but WAY too busy...even for me. To break it up and give the eye some places to rest, I tore out the page and then tore the background into three strips leaving white space between each. A big improvement! Black gesso was stencilled through Joggles Punchinella Quartet stars overlapping both the coloured strips and the plain white. This helped to tie them together. The white spaces were too stark now so Gray Flannel Memento ink was pounced through Carabelle Studio Handwritten Text Stencil. First black Pitt pen and then Gray Neocolor II were used to outline next to the coloured sections.

The stars of this page were going to be the funny little Birds stamps from Carabelle stamps. I love those little guys with their fancy hats. They were coloured with Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils, fussy cut leaving a white border and then matted with black card stock. Hexagons were die cut from previously white card stock which I had used to clean paint off my brayer when gel printing.

To make the backgrounds a little more interesting and textured, Tiger Lily Archival Ink was used to stamp Joggles Nonsense Latin Text stamp. Magenta Hue Archival Ink was used to stamp a large mesh stamp in a few places and then Ranger Texture Paste was scraped through TCW's Microbial stencil. Faux stitching was added to the outside edges of each hexagon before they were matted with black.

The wording, from the old camp song we used to sing as kids, was printed onto white card stock and then cut into sections which were matted with black. To finish off the page, black Big Brush Pen was used to edge the two sides and bottom edge making sure that some of the ink overlapped the front edge. I like the way that frames the page and also makes the edges less perfect and more in keeping with the rest of the page.

Thanks for stopping by. The Junior Birdmen and I appreciate that and wish you a Merry Christmas. I cannot believe that this Monday will be the last prompt for the 2016 Joggles Art Journal Adventure. It's been a blast. I sure hope you will join us for 2017 :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles DT Post Sneak Peek ~ Twinchies

Hi everyone! It's my turn to host on the Joggles blog today. I've been getting my January Create 365 Happy Planner all ready to go because it looks like a busy month ahead plus it's a new year and a new season, I decided to make some art to include in my planner. I love having my own seasonal art in there...it keeps me motivated to stay current with the planning. Today I took one of the Create 365 page protectors with the 2x2 inch openings and filled it with double sided twinchies featuring some of my mop-up pages and the Joggles Snowy Portraits and Winter Animals Collage Sheet images.

You can check out the completed Pocket Letter and the full tutorial on the Joggles blog. I hope you do! And to all who celebrate, Merry Christmas! I hope your holiday is filled with joy and love.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Java...Java...

Hi everyone! I needed to take a break from Christmas images and this image from Bloobel Stamps has been calling me very loudly. Her name is Just One Coffee and she makes me laugh. I know that desperate look in her eyes where you just know that a small regular just isn't going to do it...LOL

I coloured her with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils and fussy cut her leaving a narrow white border. That thickens all those crazy hair strands so they are less likely to tear off in the fussy cutting or gluing. I then matted her with black card stock and trimmed her out again leaving a narrow black border which helps her show against the background. Foam tape was used to pop her up and create a natural shadow.

The background was created using my gel plate and pulling prints onto white card stock. I used two colours of pink Liquitex Basics acrylic paint and brayered them onto 1/2 of the 5  x 7 inch plate. Then I used a bottle cap to create rings and stamped the lid off each time on the other 1/2 of the plate. I cleaned the brayer horizontally across the page and then printed the gel plate design vertically on the same page. Extra pattern and texture was added with Carabelle Studios Texture Etoiles Stamp and Magenta Hue Archival Ink. More was applied with Cactus Flower Archival Ink and a VLV numbers stamp. The word Java was stamped repeatedly with Jet Black Archival ink and the stitching pattern was stamped with the same ink.

To give my coffee fiend a place to stand, two washi tapes, one which had been punched with holes, were layered near the bottom. The sentiment was printed on white card stock, cut apart and matted with black. Foam Tape was used to pop each word up. Two coffee themed buttons were adhered in opposite corners to emphasize the diagonal line of the image. Black Big Brush pen was used to edge the background before it was adhered to a black card stock rectangle cut slightly larger to serve as a frame to the page.

Thanks for popping by today. The crazy coffee lady and I appreciate you doing that. To see more of Lisa's wonderful quirky images, be sure to stop by Bloobel.com. You are sure to smile and to find many Must-Haves there!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Santa says....

Hi everyone! The other day I stopped by Sassy Cheryl's Stamps to check out Cheryl's retiring stamps and a whole bunch of retiring and not-retiring stamps fell into my cart. I had a lovely time browsing her images which I hadn't coloured for quite a while (no idea why!) and fell in love with her style all over again.The image I coloured for this Christmas card is called Better Not Pout. Is he not the cutest with that little wink and big ol' stache?

I coloured Santa with a mix of Polychromos and Prismacolor pencils. He was fussy cut leaving my usual white border. He was then matted with black card stock and fussy cut leaving a narrow black border to help him stand out against the background. Foam tape was used to pop him up and create a natural shadow.

A layered frame was cut out from designer paper and dark red coloured pencil was used to shade on the red next to the green. A black mat was cut slightly larger than the red rectangle and the red/green frame was adhered to it. A small rectangle of Christmas music designer paper was cut to fit inside the frame opening while still leaving some black showing. The entire stack was then adhered to a white card base. Small white buttons threaded with red were added to each green corner. The sentiment was stamped on white, die cut and matted with red card stock. The inside of the open letters were coloured with green marker and the edge of the label was faux stitched with black to repeat the stitching on the green layer.

Thanks for stopping by today. Santa will be moving you to the good list now...LOL Stay tuned for more projects with these sweet images. I see an altered children's board book in my future ;)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

1231 Old Lady Kissing Santa ~ a Sandra Caldwell New Release

Hi everyone! It's New Release Monday at Sandra Caldwell's Etsy shop and you know what that means...all kinds of fabulous new images and wonderful DT projects on the Sandra Caldwell Stamp Fans Facebook group. This week I was able to play with and image starring one of my favourite characters Old Lady. I just love the mischief she gets up to as well as her fabulous feisty attitude. This one is called 1231 Old Lady Kissing Santa. The expressions on both of their faces cracks me up. She seems far more enthusiastic than he does :)

I coloured them with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. The image was fussy cut leaving a narrow white border but I didn't need to mat the image with black since the background was going to be that colour. Yay! Saved a step!

I once again used designer paper with a frame that looked like two layers. I am almost out of that paper now. I used a craft knife to cut out the center of the paper and cut a piece of black card stock slightly larger than the opening. The red layer was edged with Black Big Brush pen and then shaded next to the green with coloured pencil. The green layer was faux stitched next to the red part. Before the black was adhered behind the opening, black and white checked washi tape adhered to white card stock to take away the transparency was adhered to the top and bottom of the opening. That allowed the top of the mistletoe to "hang" from it.

The sentiment was one that came to me when my sister and I were talking about Vegas. I switched it up to suit being under the mistletoe. It was printed on white card stock and trimmed close to the words. To finish off the card, small hearts were punched from red card stock and adhered above the couples' heads and either side of the bottom section of the sentiment. Red Stickles was added to all of the hearts for a little festive sparkle.

Thanks for joining Old Lady, Santa, and me today. We all appreciate that you took the time to do that. When you get a minute, be sure and pop by the Sandra Caldwell Stamp Fans Facebook group where our talented DT will be posting their makes throughout the day.  Steal some time to stop by Sandra's Etsy shop, Babycakes Digis and Designs, to browse through all of her awesome images. She still has a great sale going but only until the 15th so don't procrastinate :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles Art Dolls Collaboration

Hi everyone! A little while ago, Barb from Joggles emailed me with an idea. Virginia England had created a template for art doll bodies using the small size of head from Joggles/Margaret Applin Designs Fearless Face Stencil System. Barb wondered if the four of us, Virginia, Barb, Margaret, and I) would like to do a joint collaborative post where we posted our own versions.

I was in...she had me at art dolls and the Fearless Face Stencils both of which I love! As a matter of fact, I couldn't stop at just one. I created two with a big list of future art dolls I would like to make. Virginia's template is wonderful and these two inspired me!

For both dolls, I started with the faces because they tend to inform the rest of the design. It's like their personalities emerge and tell me what they want to wear. The blue/green doll's face, whom I think of as an alien from outer space, was created using the small square face and Facial Features 2 stencils. She was stencilled lightly with pencil onto white card stock and then coloured with Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils before being fussy cut and matted with black card stock. The matting both framed and strengthened the individual parts of each doll.

The butterfly doll's face was created by tracing the small round face and Facial Features #4 onto white card stock and colouring it in the same fashion as the first one. It's amazing how the various face shapes and features create completely different looking faces.

I created both of the bodies and head pieces using mop up and gel plate printed papers already in my stash. I always have a stack of these from cleaning off sprayed stencils or my gel plate which I often use to load foam stamps. I added extra texture to the alien's body with Stampotique's Dot Swirl stamp and Manganese Blue Archival Ink as well as Texture Paste scraped through one of the Joggles Punchinella Quintet Stencil designs. Black punched stars were also scattered across her and formed part of her head piece. The rest of it was from a paper where I cleaned off the Star and *** foam stamps when gel printing. Black pen was used to outline some of the design and black enamel dots were also included on the head star and neck. Small brads connected the parts together and allow her to be posed.

Butterfly Girl was given added pattern by pouncing Magenta Hue Archival Ink through Dylusions Diamond of a Border stencil. Again, black pen was used to outline part of this design. Her hat, hands, feet, and the circle on her skirt were created from old book text paper which was previously spritzed with Lindy's Starburst Sprays. The hat band was a left over piece of black card stock which had been stamped with Jurassic Leaf #3 and embossed with white powder. The pompom on the top of her hat is a resin flower. Her skirt was created by folding two pink artificial flowers in half and adhering with Scor tape. The waistband is a length of black and white dotty ribbon. The wings are from an internet butterfly photo which was fussy cut, matted with black, and given Stickles dots. Black faux stitching was doodled with pen and tiny rhinestones added for her buttons.

Thanks so much for popping by today. The Alien and Butterfly Girl appreciate it, too. To see the other fabulous dolls created by Margaret, Barb, and Virginia, be sure to stop by the Joggles blog today. We would absolutely love to see the art doll(s) you create. Barb has made Virginia's template available to everyone. See where your imagination takes you!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles Art Journal Adventure ~ Week 49 Response

Hi everyone! It's a beautiful snowy day here and I created an art journal page featuring flowers...LOL. I can't believe that we are already at Week 49 of the 2016 Art Journal Adventure. It's been an awesome journey. I'm looking forward to 2017 :) Barb's prompt for this week was to add paint to our pages using a brayer. I actually do that fairly often so I decided to tweak it a little. First of all, Barb used one of my favourite colour palettes (black, pink, orange) so that was too comfy for me. I switched to blues and did my doodling with white instead of my usual black.

Barb used two colours for the background layer but I decided to use three shades of Liquitex Basics  blue: Ultramarine Blue; Cerulean Blue Hue; Light Blue Permanent. I spread two colours at a time onto my gel plate in order to blend them. I started with the lightest and the medium colour and applied a brayer width beginning in the center. I reloaded, flipped the brayer over and overlapped the lightest colour, this time moving toward the left. The process was repeated with the medium and darkest colours, keeping the darkest to the outside edge and working into the center. Flip and repeat going to the left. The three colours were blended at the overlaps and because the brayer was nearly dry, I brayered over the center to bring some of that dark colour onto the middle and lightest sections.

While the gel plate was already painty, I blended a little  of the medium, light blues and the white. I loaded the oval foam stamp several times and stamped off onto the variegated page. I also pulled a print from the plate to use for another project. Why waste paint if you don't have to!

Once everything was dry, I traced the flower and some leaves from Joggles/Margaret Applin's Flora & Fronds #12 stencil with my white Signo pen to create two different flowers. One of the leaves from Flora & Fronds #10 was used to add small foliage to the bottom of each flower. A combination of Sharpie White Paint pen and the white Signo, doodles were added to the openings of the petals and leaves.

A butterfly was hand drawn with the Sharpie pen and doodled to decorate the inside.

The sentiment was created with white stickers. A simple border was doodled with the white Sharpie to complete the page. I love how this page turned out with the blue gradation and the white doodling plus using these fabulous stencils. Happy!

Thanks for joining me today! If you haven't already joined our wonderful Art Journal Adventure Facebook group, you can do that here. We would love to have you play along with us and it's a lovely group of art-minded people to hang out with, learn from, and be inspired by. If you join now, you'll have a better idea if you want to play along in 2017.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles Art Journal Adventure ~ Week 48 Response

Hi everyone! Barb's prompt for Week 48 of the Joggles Art Journal Adventure was to repeat an all over design. She used a little triangle gel plate and created a very cool page. I struggled with this one, trying to come up with my own version of this. Finally I came up with what I thought was a workable idea and when I finished...I really disliked it. Hmm...I lived with it for a day or two and then decided that it would be much better used as small collage pieces on another project entirely. Back to the drawing board! Then I realized that I needed to create a repeated design in my own style and just follow the spirit of the prompt.

I grabbed a previously sprayed Starburst Sticky Snippets page where most of the starbursts had already been used and what was left was the negative or background area. The colours which I had used to create the original Sticky Snippets were Lindy's Stamp Gang Hag's Wart Orange, Hottie Patottie Hot Pink, and Yellow Rose of Texas Starburst sprays plus the Joggles Ancient Ruins Stencil. I peeled the background away from the backing sheet a little at a time and adhered it to the page. To create more of a repeating pattern, Stampotique's Dot Swirl and Kate's Doodle Cube were stamped onto the page with Brilliance Rocket Red Gold Ink.

A silhouette of a cat was printed, fussy cut, and painted over with Liquitex Basics Black acrylic paint to even out the black. The white edges were inked with Black Big Brush Pen and he was adhered so his tail touched the bottom of the page. Shading was done under and around him with Inktense  and Stabilo pencils activated with a water brush. A butterfly punched from black card stock was adhered above him and a flight line was doodled in to create movement.

To complete the page, Black Big Brush Pen was used to outline the three sides and a black pen was used across the top edge of the Sticky Snippets sheet. Idea-ology Ransom Letters were adhered in the upper right quadrant to spell Cat. This ended up being a very simple page design but it makes me happy. The colour palette, the all over pattern, and the two silhouettes are true to my style and the prompt pushed me out of my comfort zone which is one of my favourite things about the Art Journal Adventure.

Thanks for popping by today. I appreciate that. If you haven't already joined our wonderful Art Journal Adventure Facebook group, you can do that here. We would love to have you play along with us and it's a lovely group of art-minded people to hang out with, learn from, and be inspired by. If you join now, you'll have a better idea if you want to play along in 2017.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

I've Got This ~ inspired by a Sandra Caldwell image

Hi everyone! We have a running joke around our place about "YouTube Expertise". Whenever I want to know how to do something, I always check to see if there is a YT video showing how. This works well for some things but as you can imagine, it leaves a few gaps in others where it takes more than a ten minute video to master something. When I saw this fun image by Sandra Caldwell called 957 Ice Skating Girly, I immediately imagined that she had "YouTube Confidence" as she was lacing up her skates for the very first time. Sometimes reality is quite different from the brochure :)

I coloured Girly with a mix of Polychromos and Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut her leaving a narrow white border. She was then matted with black card stock, fussy cut leaving a narrow black border, and popped up on foam tape. The foam tape gives enough dimension that a natural shadow is created behind her.

The background began with a 5.5 x 7 inch piece of blue toned card stock which was part of the packaging for a stencil. I love it when I can recycle and also have part of the work done for me. I applied pattern with three different Viva Las Vegas background stamps (stitching, numbers, triangles) and French Ultramarine Archival Ink.To give Girly a surface on which to skate, I added snowflake washi tape adhered to white card stock along the bottom of the page. Two more fishtail flags were cut from the same washi tape and added to the right side to continue that snowflake pattern. White die cut snowflakes were adhered around Girly.

The sentiment was printed on white card stock and the words were cut out individually. Black Card stock was used to mat them before they were popped up with foam tape. A simple border was doodled around the outside edges of the page and Black Big Brush Pen was used to colour the white edges. To complete the design and frame the page, black card stock was cut to serve as a mat.

Thanks for joining Ice Skating Girly and me today. We are happy that you did. To see more of Sandra Caldwell's Fabulous images, be sure and pop by her Etsy shop, Babycakes Digis and Designs. There are a ton of wonderful images there with new ones added every Monday. In the meantime, I'd better go...I'm sure there's another YouTube video I need to watch :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

1214 Snowbird Nap ~ a Sandra Caldwell new release

Hi everyone! It's New Release Monday at Sandra Caldwell's Etsy shop and you know what that means...all kinds of fabulous new images and wonderful DT projects on the Sandra Caldwell Stamp Fans Facebook group. This week I played with a sweet image called 1214 Snowbird Nap and guess what...after 2+ weeks of rain every single day, we woke up to snow this morning. Yay! Snow is much prettier than rain and at least the birds come to the feeders with snow.

I coloured these little guys with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils using vibrant colours to make them pop.I love their sweet faces and cozy hats. They were fussy cut around the top and left side leaving a narrow white border for contrast against the background.

The white card base was stacked with layers of pattern and colour. The black background was cut smaller than the white base. The red and yellow frames were centered over the black and faux stitched along the inside edge of the red. The image was placed inside the frame opening and then black and white striped washi tape, which had been adhered to white card stock, was used to fill in between the red frame and the image. I love the playfulness this adds to the design.

The sentiment was printed on white card stock, trimmed close to the letters, and edged with black Big Brush Pen. Foam tape was used to pop it up. White die cut snowflakes were added along the top of the card as well as either side of the sentiment to finish the card.

Thanks for stopping by today. Before you settle in for a long winter's nap, be sure and pop by the Sandra Caldwell Stamp Fans Facebook group where our talented DT will be posting their makes throughout the day.  Steal some time to stop by Sandra's Etsy shop, Babycakes Digis and Designs, to browse through all of her awesome images. You are sure to smile, to find inspiration and Must-Haves there. I know I always do!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie