Craft Your Passion: Think Pink Challenge # 130

Second post for today :)
Happy October, everyone! It's Monday and that means a brand new challenge at Craft Your Passion Challenges. The theme this week is "Save the Hooters" to highlight Breast Cancer Awareness month. We want to see pink on your cards which can be either Breast Cancer Awareness related or have owls with pink.

I was able to work with this fabulous kit from The Cutting Cafe, one of our wonderful sponsors this month. This kit is amazing...it has so many digital images that can be mixed and matched. I chose to feature the sweet little owl, the pink ribbon, and the "Save the Hooters" sentiment.

The owl was printed on white cardstock and coloured with Prismacolor pencils. She was popped up on foam tape to add dimension. The ribbon was printed on pale pink patterned paper, cut out, and mounted on black cardstock to make it stand out on the paler still patterned background. The leaves and overlap on the ribbon were coloured with Prisma pencils. The ribbon's flowers were punched from pink cardstock, cupped with a stylus and pad, and stacked. Flat pearls were added to the center before adhering them over the flowers on the digital image.

The sentiment was printed on white cardstock, matted in black, and glued to a pink handcut banner. Two layers of cardstock back the BG paper and create contrast with the white card border. Pink faux stitching was added to the light pink background layer. Three flat back pearls finished off the top left corner and provided better balance to the card.

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to check out the projects at Craft Your Passion Challenges created by the rest of this awesome design team. They are sure to provide you with just the inspiration you need to join in this week. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

I am linking this card up with the Link Up for Pink A Breast Cancer Awareness blog. Check out the beautiful entries there and consider entering your project there as well as Craft Your Passion.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

RRR No Bones About It challenge

It's the end of September so that means that it's time for new challenges at Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re-Invent. Our regular challenge for this month is October Halloween with a Bonus Round called No Bones About It. For October Halloween, think fall colors, black cats, anything spooky, haunted and even Goth. For our No Bones About It Bonus Round, we want to see Bones. These may be real bones or faux bones and the only restriction on faux bones is that they can not be printed pictures or made of paper. Oh my goodness, these are such fun themes. Wait 'til you see what the CS Designs DT and our October guest artist have in store for you!

I'm normally more of a cutesy Halloween type, favouring images with sweet witches and pumpkins, but lately I have become more and more intrigued by the art projects with an edge and a good dose of creepy thrown in. I decided to try my hand at this style for this month's No Bones About It challenge. I chose to play with Tattooed Talia, a new CS Designs image. She's such a beauty and may have hidden secrets we've yet to discover. I coloured Talia with my Prismacolor pencils, using OMS to blend her face. Her dress was paper pieced using snakeskin printed paper. Talia was fussy cut and mounted on an embossed piece of black cardstock which had been dry embossed and dry-brushed with 3 different metallic acrylic paints.

To create the background, the recycled lid of a cookie tin was alcohol inked with 4 colours. Talia was adhered to the tin and cheesecloth was draped and glued beside her. The sentiment, There's a little bad in all of us, was printed on white cardstock and then matted with snakeskin paper and black cardstock Once it was adhered to the tin, chicken bones were used to frame it. Below the frame, a watch sticker to signify the witching hour perhaps, and a raven recycled from an earring were adhered to the background.

The final detail to create the  vignette was to glue skeleton hands, complete with bling rings, to the edge of the tin so that they are reaching for Talia. Do they mean her harm or is she their mistress...you decide. Bwaaa-haa-haa! OK, maybe I'm having a little too much fun here :) For more fun, make haste to the Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re-Invent blog to see what my cohorts have in store for you. As a special treat this month, Lyn (aka Blackdragon) Brough is joining us as guest artist. Check out the detail on her project.

Thanks for dropping by. I hope you weren't too creeped out. I can't wait to see what you create for these themes.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

SNP Iris Fold Christmas Ornament card

I cannot believe how the time is flying. I do this every year thinking that I have lots of time before I start making Christmas cards for my Mom and for me to send. Then all of a sudden, I check the calendar and "eek", I have to go into overdrive. Good thing I love making Christmas cards :)

I love making iris fold cards. They are like drawing Zentangles, so repetitive and calming. Also, instant gratification because they are easy but very dramatic when completed. For this card, I used this stamp from Stamp N plus Scrap N. It was stamped on dotty design paper with the tiny holly leaves coloured in with Prismacolor pencil. Bling and Sakura pen were added after the iris folding was completed.

Once again, I inked the folded edge of the red paper to show off those folds better. The card did get a little lumpy bumpy but my good friend, Paulette the iris fold Queen, gave me some great tips for next time to reduce the bulk. She doesn't fold the paper in half but rather creates a narrow fold which reduces the bulk a lot. She also uses thinner paper like wrapping or floral papers for a thinner end result. The other suggestion was to lay some double stick tape down on the back of the card to catch the first few layers. That means less tape so you are eliminating several thicknesses. All great suggestions. I'm going to make another card using the same stamp and show you what a difference these tips make. Another solution would have been to mount the thin dotty paper to stronger cardstock before stamping and cutting out. That way, I could have added foam tape to the back to compensate for the bulky layers. Thanks, Paulette!

I kept the rest of the card simple by adding a scallop of music DP and ribbon at the bottom and kraft cardstock and ribbon at the top. A button was added to the top right and a computer-generated sentiment printed on kraft to the top left corner. Simple matting and a scrap of gold metallic paper added to the center of the ornament finished off this ....my very first Christmas card of the year. Go me! Check out the Stamp N Plus blog to see some other ways to use this stamp...so gorgeous!

Thanks for visiting today. How far along are you with your Christmas cards?


Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

SNP - Iris Folds and Red Hair

For my Stamp N Plus post today, I made a card combining two of my favourite techniques: iris folding and colouring red hair. I love doing both of these things because it's like instant gratification. I always get to the end and think magic happened. Both are easy but you get a big bang for the buck :)

I started this card colouring this SNP image, International Fairy bust (P3763), which had been stamped on white cardstock. I used my Prismacolor pencils but skipped the OMS because the face is small and the hair didn't need it. I inked around the edge of the image where I knew it would show through the opening using Distress ink. The faux stitching was done later.

I cut my printed cardstock to size and stamped on the back with the iris folded square stamp (T-IR056), centering it. Using an exacto knife, I cut out the stamped section in one piece, taped that square to a scrap piece of cardstock and taped it to the front of the card so the stamped square showed through the window I just cut. Next, I cut my orange strips, folded them in half, and inked the folded edge. I really like the effect of this because the pattern of the folds shows up so much better. Then I just started taping down the layers following the lines on the stamped piece and overlapping with the inked side of the strip down (facing the front of the card).


When you turn over the iris folded sheet, feel free to exclaim "WoW!" It does look so cool and complicated even though it isn't. The coloured image was glued in place so that she was centered in the diamond and the faux stitching was doodled. A ribbon with a brad over the knot was adhered to the bottom of the card and three metal buttons were affixed to the top right corner. Finally the entire layer with the folds and image was glued onto the white card leaving a thin border.


Thanks for dropping by today. I hope you will try iris folding on a card very soon. There are so many amazing iris fold stamps at the Stamp N Plus store...for any occasion.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Art With No Boundaries Asian challenge week 2

This is week 2 of our Fortnight challenges of Anything Goes and Asian Inspired at Art With No Boundaries. This week we were able to play with two new designs by Chris Stern at CS Designs. The first one is a more traditional Geisha style domino design and the second one is a Harajuku style image. I just learned about this fashion style and am absolutely smitten...not for myself so stop rolling your eyes. I love the design possibilities and the inspiration this style provides. It's kind of a cross between Edwardian and Alice in Wonderland...with a little steampunk fashion thrown in. Think of the character, Abby, on NCIS. It's very funky and extreme but so fun. Google it, especially the Lolita style. Harajuku is a fashion district in Japan where people dress in this style and then congregate to strut their stuff.

I decide to create tags this time. I love tags and haven't done any in a while. I also wanted the contrasting styles of these two women to hang side by side in my craft room. The first tag uses the traditional geisha domino digital image. I printed the bamboo background on red cardstock and made it the base of both tags. A piece of black cardstock was embossed with a bamboo folder and then drybrushed with copper metallic acrylic paint. The domino image was coloured with Prismacolor pencils. Gold gel pen was added to her hair decoration as well as square blue bling. The background was painted with this shimmery irridescent watercolour that is sometimes pink and sometimes green depending upon the angle you view it. I wish I could have captured that on film becuase it really adds to the tradiotional feel of this tag. It looks like the inside of an oyster shell. The additional embellishments for this tag were the gold sequin trim, the metal tassel, and the dragonfly button.

The second tag used the same bamboo background image printed on red cardstock. The black band behind the image is also dry embossed using a more modern geometric pattern and no drybrushing. I wanted the stark black contrast to the red and the gray background of the image. I coloured this Harajuku girl with Prismacolor pencils, adding silver gel pen and bling to her shirt. Her hair ornaments were first covered in purple Stickles and then bling was added to the segments. A rhinestone flower with a purple center was adhered to the middle of the hair ornament. To further play up the edginess of this image, silver metallic stars were added to the design. Becuase she looks like a fierce warrior or rock star type, I used beads to spell out proud. The fibres attached to the top of the tag also have beads strung on them.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating these two tags: one so serene, natural, and traditional and one so edgy, with attitude plus. Check out the rest of the wonderful projects created by the other members of the design team at Art With No Boundaries. It's always so much fun to view the different interpretations of the same theme. Have you linked up yet? We'd love to see what you've been creating, too.

Thanks for coming by and visiting the three of us. It's always a pleasure to have your company.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

CYP Challenge 129 - Buttons & Bows

Another Monday...another fun challenge at Craft Your Passion. This week's theme is Buttons and Bows. You must include at least two buttons and a bow in your project design. Easy peasy, right?


This week I was able to play with Betsy the cow, a fun image from StampFairy. She's sure to bring a smile to the face of the card receiver. I thought I'd make a Thank You card just for that purpose. Betsy was coloured using my Prismacolor pencils and using a little OMS to blend. I didn't want my colours too blended because I was looking for texture and a hairy look :) Betsy likes to go au naturel. No waxing for her.

I used a template to cut the bottom of the white cardstock which held the image. Faux stitching and inking of the edges added detail. This was layered over black and white dot CS and then yellow CS. leaving a layer of the card showing around the outside. Black & white dotted ribbon was added in two spots and two red buttons were popped up on foam at the ends of the ribbons.

The sentiment was written on the computer, punched out, doodled, and mounted on red cardstock to bring a bit of red to the third point of the visual triangle. A red floss bow was added to Betsy's hair with a dot of Glossy Accents.

Check out the rest of the sweet projects the DT made this week on the Craft Your Passion Challenge blog and then come and join in the fun by linking up with us. Remember, 2 buttons and one bow. I'm looking forward to seeing your designs. "Moo"chas gracias for visiting!

Life is good; so is art.

Bonnie

Chalked Inchies Card Sept 23

I wanted to participate in the Chalk-Ah-Lot Cafe challenge this fortnight where the theme is Thinking of You. I'm having fun experimenting with the powdered chalks and accompanying products sold by Stamp N Plus Scrap N. I love the vibrant colours and the many ways that the chalks can be applied for different effects.

This time, I cut inchies (1" squares) from white cardstock. Each inchie was covered with Versamark ink, working one at a time. I needed the Versamark to stay wet which is why I did each one separately. Once coated with ink, I pounced three colours of chalk onto the square using three different scruffy paint brushes for each colour. I wanted to blend the colours where they touched but also wanted the colours to stay true and strong. After the excess chalk was tapped off from the side (much like embossing powder), I spritzed each inchie with a mix of Stardust chalk and water shaken together in a mini mister. It gave a very pretty glimmer to the cards. Then, just cuz, I rubbed my finger in the tiny bit of Stardust chalk left on the plastic spoon and smeared it over the background. Gorgeous! Far less subtle than the spritzing but so pretty. I dried the inchies with my heat gun because I wanted them to be very dry before I stamped and I'm impatient.

Next, the inchies were stamped with black ink using a Stamp N Plus image called Mountain Ash (L1584). The inchies were adhered to a strip of black cardstock which had borders cut using an MFT die. This was glued to a piece of script printed paper from MME's Reunion stack which was mounted on the same black cardstock The entire background was then adhered to the cream card leaving a thin cream border showing. The sentiment, also an SNP stamp, was stamped on a scrap of the script paper and embossed with black embossing powder. Once it was matted on black, tiny orange brads were added to each end to bring some of the inchie colour down to the bottom. Foam tape was added to the back for dimension. The card was finished by adding three small buttons to the top left corner.

I'm having fun learning what these powdered chalks can do. Be sure to check out the Chalk-Ah-Lot Cafe blog for tutorials on Fridays, challenges every second Sundays, and lots of inspiration all the time. Order up some of the chalk yourself and play along with us. You'll be amazed!

Thanks for stopping by. Love it when you do that!

Life is good; so is art.

Bonnie