Step Off the Path ~ eP sneak peek

Hi there! It's my turn to post on the eP blog today and I created a fun mixed media canvas featuring a Wendy Vecchi sentiment and two of Dina Wakley's Scribbly Birds. If you want to see more than this little sneak peek, you'll have to visit the eclectic Paperie blog.
Hope you will!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Broken Dolls ~ new releases from The East Wind

Hi there! It's an exciting day at The East Wind. Not only is there a new challenge on our FB group, Zombies, but Unky is releasing FOUR new images to fit the bill. That's not to say you can't zombify another TEW image to play along but these are brand spankin' new and just waiting for you, as well.

I chose to colour two of the four, Broken Doll and Broken Bisque, using my Prismacolor pencils. I wanted the page to feel distressed and worn, damaged so I tore around the images, matted them with black cardstock, and tore that to frame each.

The background started with an ungessoed page to which I added spritzes of Patience and Plush Art Anthology Colorations sprays plus a little water to help get drips and splats. After drying that with my heat tool, I added Black Marble Dylusions spray ink to the top of the page, again letting it drip. I also flicked some over the page and blew some drops using a straw to get finer drips. Again, I dried it and then added Jet Black Archival ink through a crackle stencil randomly. Smaller cracks were stamped on using the same ink and a marble  crackle stamp.

The sentiments were computer generated...I am such a font freak! Loved the sketchy messiness of this one. Once printed on white cardstock, the sections were distressed on the edges and then inked with Vintage Photo Distress ink to grunge them up. They were matted with corrugated cardboard with the top layer removed. This added to the distressed and imperfect look I was going for.

The finishing touches were the black scalloped border which I divided into two sections and to which I added white paint dots, and the shiny textured purple stars. I love the shine they provide as well as the pop of colour. They also help the eye move through the spread as they are in opposite corners. The page edges were inked with Black Soot Distress ink as well as Black Big Brush pen.

Thanks for popping by today. All three of us are happy you came. Check out the other DT makes on The East Wind Facebook page where you can also see the other two new releases. I hope you will join us for our Zombie challenge!

Life is good...so is art...so is running faster than a zombie:)
Bonnie

Autumn ~ ePlay challenge

Hi everyone! It's time for our October ePlay Challenge to begin at eclectic Paperie. The theme this month is Fall or Autumn. Easy peasy since Fall is my favourite season of the year. I love the freshness of the temperature, the gorgeous changing leaves, pulling out my heavier sweaters...all of it.

I decided to have a play with my TH Tattered Leaves die since it hadn't seen the light of day in a while. I began by cutting the leaves out of watercolour paper. I wanted to add my favourite leaf which does not happen to beincluded on this die, the maple leaf. After all, I am Canadian, eh! I printed an outline of the maple leaf onto copy paper and then cut it out with a watercolour layer underneath. That way there were no inky lines on either side of it so if I messed up (and I did) I could just flip it over. I spritzed some Watermelon, Guacamole, and Glorious Art Anthology Colorations Sprays onto my craft mat with a little water and dragged my leaves through the puddles, layering until I was happy.

To intensify and vary the colours in some places, I edged and applied Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Peeled Paint, and Scattered Straw Distress ink paying particular attention to the edges of the leaves. The Mini Ink Blending Tool was awesome for getting into those tiny curves. The new Steampunk Gelatos were also used, spreading the colour with a dry finger...just had to try them out plus the metallic catches the light beautifully.

Once the leaves were coloured and arranged on the black matboard background, I was able to see where and in what direction eye stamps could be added. Two came from Wendy Vecchi's An Eye for Art set, and the other two came from a stamp from my stash. The Fall lettering is also an alpha set from long ago. Most of the leaves were adhered flat to the background with Beacon 3-in-1 glue. Three of the leaves were popped up on foam tape, with the Fall one getting a double layer to pop it up even further.

The center embellishment is a layering of clock/watch faces. The bottom layer is a cardstock one from a collage sheet which I fussy cut and edged with Black Big Brush pen. The next layer is a black metal clock face from my stash, and the top layer is a clock button. All layers have foam tape on the back for added dimension. The sentiment was computer generated and printed onto kraft cardstock, edged with Vintage Photo Distress ink, and adhered to the background with Scor Tape. To finish off the piece and add a little more texture to the background, steniclling was added by pouncing the Emboss It Dabber through TCW's Mini Netting stencil and then clear embossing it.

I love how this turned out. The fall colours contrasting with the black background, eye stamps, clocks, and a great quote..these are a few of my favourite things...LOL. be sure to check out Debbie's wonderful project on the eP blog. She is our fabulous hostess this month for October's ePlay Challenge. Others on the DT will be adding their links below her post so there will be lots of inspiration to encourage you to play along. Hope to see you there.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Here are links to the products I used from the eclectic Paperie store:

Distress Ink Pad - Walnut Stain	Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Distress Ink Pad - Barn Door	Distress Ink Pad - Peeled Paint
Distress Ink Pad - Scattered Straw	Art Anthology - Coloration Color Spray - Watermelon	Art Anthology - Coloration Color Spray - Guacamole	Art Anthology - Coloration Color Spray - Glorious
Ranger - Emboss It Dabber	Ranger Super Fine Embossing Powder - Clear	The Crafter′s Workshop - 6x6 stencil - Netting	Faber-Castell - Gelatos - Steampunk
BEACON: 3-In-1 Advanced Craft Glue	Scor Tape -1/4"wide x 27 yds long (double sided)	Ranger - Mini Ink Blending Tool

Creativity ~ eP Art Journal page

Hi there! I love to challenge myself to try new or different styles or techniques. I have a pretty good handle on my style yet by trying new things it pushes my creativity, helps me stretch those creative wings, and keep from slipping into a rut. It keeps art fresh. If I try something and don't like it, I learn from it. If I try it and like it, I learn. Win/win. One of the things that I struggle with is keeping white or empty space in my art journal pages. I love colour and detail and while I think I'm going to create a more minimalist piece, it rarely ends up that way. One of my eP teammates, Broni Holcolme, does a fabulous job with this so when I saw Tamara LaPorte's Life Book Lesson, I decided to give it another go. I followed Tam's example, added my own twist, and ended up loving the results.

I started with an un-gessoed page in my 7x10 mixed media journal so that it would take the Art Anthology Color sprays in all their glory. I spritzed puddles of Glorious and Studio Blue onto the page over water sprayed from my Mini Mister. Then I just splashed, splattered, and dripped to my heart's content...just like a little bird in a birdbath...lol. Once dry, Beach Hut and Inky Pool Fresco Finish paints were pounced through TCW's Mini Harlequin Circles stencil creating circles, rings, and the harlequin pattern.

The next step was to grab some of that wonderful black Studio 490 Embossing paste and scrape it through TCW's Tiny Circles stencil. You just know that I had to add black...love the contrast with the vibrant colours. It just seems to ground the page for me. Jet Black Archival ink was used to randomly stamp some ledger text from Wendy Vecchi's A Form of Art set by rolling it onto the page. A few pieces of black dotty washi tape were added. I love this particular roll because it's defective so part of the next layer sticks to the bottom one giving it a very distressed grungy look...a happy accident.

Tam created a large ring around her stamped image using paint on a lid. I wanted something more substantial so I punched the outer circle and die cut the inner one. White gesso was then stencilled onto the page in a few places through TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil. The ring was overlapped to embed it into the background, creating more depth. The bird was cut from a scrap of designer paper, given a black flat pearl eye, and popped up on foam tape.

To finish off the page, the creativity quote was inked with Jet Black Archival onto one of the TH Random Quotes stamps. I chose this quote because I had placed what I thought were limitations, following a template and leaving white space, but which ended up encouraging me to be more creative in order to "do it my way". The inside of the letters in the main word were coloured with a Prismacolor pencil and the shadow was filled in with a Micron pen. Using a black Stabilo pencil, shading and outlining were added to some of the stencilling and around various elements. Black Big Brush pen was used to narrowly edge the page.

And Tah Dah! I did it...created a minimalist (for me) journal spread. Not only that, but I was able to follow a template provided by Tam's lesson which is something else I struggle with since my approach is much more intuitive and not thought out :). I might start out following a sketch or template but usually lose it so quickly that the end product in no way resembles the original. And I did it using some of my favourite products ~ Art Anthology sprays and Embossing paste. Doin' the happy dance! Thanks so much for sharing this adventure with me!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Here are links to the products I used from the eclectic Paperie store:

Art Anthology - Coloration Color Sprays - Studio Blue	Art Anthology - Coloration Color Spray - Glorious	PaperArtsy - Fresco Finish Acrylic Paint - Inky Pool (Translucent)	PaperArtsy - Fresco Finish Acrylic Paint - Beach Hut (Translucent)
Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 - Embossing Paste - Black	TCW 6x6 Template - Tiny Circles	TCW - 6x6" Stencil - Harlequin Circles	Archival Ink - Jet Black Ink Pad
Dina Wakley - White Gesso - 2 oz.	Stabilo All Pencil - Black	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pen - Black	Tim Holtz (Stampers Anonymous) - Random Quotes

ePlay Challenge ~ Embossing

Hi everyone! it's my turn to host the ePlay Challenge at eclectic Paperie this month and I have chosen Embossing as my theme. We want to see some sort of embossing on your project. It can be wet embossing, dry embossing or embossing paste. It can even be a combination of all three. I can only offer you a sneak peek here but if you are curious to see more, you can pop over to the eP blog to check out my post.

Thanks for visiting. We'd love to see you play along with us.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

eP Sneak peek ~ Altered bottle

Hi there! Today it's my turn to post on the eclectic Paperie blog and I decided to create an altered bottle to play along with the current ePlay Challenge. I can only offer you a peek here but if you are curious, I'd be delighted if you popped over to the eP blog to see more and get the scoop on the process. There's still a week left to join in for a chance to win a $25 shopping spree at the eP store.
Thanks for visiting today.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Tag Trio...sneak peek

Hey! Thanks for stopping by. I had a lovely play with some of the Art Anthology Coloration sprays and #8 manila tags which I have posted on the eclectic Paperie blog today. I can only offer you a sneak peek here. To see the other two, you'll have to hop over to the eP blog. I'd love it if you did!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

A little Twinkle ~ Sneak Peek

Thanks for stopping by. It's my turn to post on the eclectic Paperie blog today so I can only show you a sneak peek of the #10 tag I created. I used lots of layers including stencilling, stamping, vintage papers, and metal sheets. I'd love it if you popped over to the eP blog to check it out.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie