Friday, April 19, 2013

April Showers ~ ATCs With Attitude


We are more than halfway through April. Have you been awash in April Showers and hoping for May flowers? The former is the theme for this fortnight's ATCs With Attitude challenge. We want to see your celebration (or not) of all of the lovely showers that the month of April brings us.

For my ATC, I was lucky enough to work with Bugaboo Stamps' Ruby Calendar girl April. I love Bugaboo stamps, and both Ruby and Stella always bring a smile. They both have attitude, different from each other as that might be. Ruby was coloured with Prismacolor pencils, fussy cut, and given black dimensional dots using Scribblez fabric paint. It dries so shiny and keeps its raised shape once dry. Ruby's glass lenses were given a shine with Glossy Accents and her earrings with Black Diamond Stickles.


The ATC base (2.5 x 3.5") was cut from black textured cardstock. The paper which has water droplets all over it comes from Colorbok's Textures papers. Dew Drops were added here and there to highlight some of them and provide greater dimension and shine. The sentiment was computer generated and matted with red cardstock. The word NOT was given an extra mat of hot pink and then mounted on foam dots to emphasize Ruby's dismay at the type of rain she is getting. She's still looking for that special place where it actually does rain men :)

Thanks for visiting Ruby and me today. We always appreciate that you take the time to do that. if you have a minute, be sure and pop by the ATCs With Attitude blog and see how the rest of the DT interpreted this challenge. It's worth the trip :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Monday, April 15, 2013

CYP #158 ~ Lucky Duck


Can you guess what the theme is this week at Craft Your Passion Challenges? If you said, Adorable Animals, then...DING, DING, DING...you are right :) This sweet little duck from Doodle Pantry, one of our fabulous sponsors, is the star of my card for the CYP challenge. He was coloured with Prismacolor pencils in layers of short choppy strokes to make him appear fluffy. Then Donald or Don as he likes to be called, was fussy cut, matted in black and layered up on foam dots. A short length of teal seam binding was knotted at his neck and Glossy Accents was applied to his eyes for shine and dimension.


The background papers come from MME's Follow Your Heart-Be Amazing 6x6 stack. Both the background and the fishtail banner were matted in teal cardstock. The photo corner was cut from the same cardstock using a Martha Stewart punch and then faux stitched to make it more visible and to add an extra detail. Before the fishtail banner was adhered to the background, a length of yellow seam binding was wrapped around it and tied in a bow. A paper doily was sprayed with Turquoise Glimmer Mist and adhered beneath the image and the banner. To complete the card, the sentiment was computer generated, matted in teal, and popped up on foam. A heart button was threaded with floss and adhered over the banner V.

I can't wait to see what adorable animals you showcase on your projects. Be sure to pop by the Craft Your Passion blog to see the cuties that the rest of the DT have featured on their cards. It's well worth the trip :) Thanks once again for visiting today. I truly appreciate your support, your interest, and your sharing of your valuable time. I think I am the "Lucky Duck".

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Eclectic Ellapu ~ It's Good to Be Queen


Yahoo...it's my turn to host the challenge for Eclectic Ellapu and it's the Purple Team up to bat. The theme that I have chosen for the challenge is to add a tag to your project ...or your project could be a tag. I decided to alter a large wooden crown from the Dollar store. It is 15" at the widest point and 11.5' at the tallest. It's going to become a door crown (no pun intended) which means that it will hang between the top of the door and the ceiling in my art room. As soon as I saw the bare wood crown I knew what expression I would include. It's one of my favourites from Mary Engelbreit: It's good to be Queen.

I started the process by painting the crown with black gesso. I traced the outside shape on newsprint and then measured in 3/8" to get the inside shape. This was taped to some corrugated cardboard and the smaller crown was cut out and then peeled to expose the corrugation. The now bumpy cardboard was brushed with white gesso and then Picked Raspberry Distress ink to highlight the corrugation and add interest. Black embossing Paste from Studio 490 was spread through the TCW Harlequin stencil for added texture, although most of it ended up being covered.


The queen image is one of my favourite digis from Deidre Mosher Designs. I love her stamps. Queenie was coloured with Prismacolor pencils, given gold gel pen dots, and fussy cut leaving a narrow white border. Flat black pearls were added to her crown and scepter. A Martha Stewart doily was spritzed with Dylusions Pink Bubblegum spray ink and then stamped with a script stamp using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. This was glued behind her royal head.


The background was layered with two playing cards portraying queens. On top of that was adhered a torn piece of DCWV Collage art paper which had been stencilled with the TCW Mini Punchinella template using Picked Raspberry. Two Darkroom Door stamps (Top Secret and Evidence) plus a chevron stamp from 7 Gypsies were scattered around the edges. A scrap from a die cut leftover was adhered under the top secret stamp with another piece attached to the right edge of the crown.


The tag was cut from another scrap from the DCWV paper, inked around the edges with Picked Raspberry, and stencilled with gesso through the Dylusions Dotted Flower template. An Idea-ology book plate was afixed to the tag with brads and letter stickers spelling Royal were placed inside the opening. Stamping was done at the top and bottom of the tag with one of the Regal Flourish stamps from Tim Holtz. More number stickers indicated 100% (ROYAL). To complete the tag, crinkled seam binding was adhered to the top and part of a black zipper was glued to the right side before the tag was layered over the yellow background scrap.


A length of gold K& Company border was adhered over the cardboard and the tag but under Queenie. I love her fancy shoes so I had to make sure they showed. The lettering is a mix of Idea-ology alphas and Scrabble tiles. A die cut key was added the left side and a crown charm to the right side of the project. The circles at the top of the crown were given huge rhinestones for four of the points and a rhinestone and metal flower charm for the middle one.


This crown makes me smile in part because it was fun to make, partly because I like how it turned out, and mostly because of the humour in the phrase. I am not the queen of anything, not even my art room where my cat, Molly, rules. Ann Estelle, Mary Engelbreit's character, is Queen of Quite-A-Lot. I wonder if there's room for two :) Thanks for stopping by today. Be sure to pop over to the Eclectic Ellapu blog to see how the other Purplies responded to this challenge. They are awesome! I hope you'll join the fun. There's a DT call going on over there right now. Check it out, too. It's a great group.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie




Flight Risk ~ a recap

front cover

As promised yesterday, I'm posting the photos of my completed child's board book. I don't know how to do a You Tube  video flip through but maybe if you scroll through this really quickly and hum to yourself, it will be kind of the same...or not :) Anyway, here it is from front cover to back.

pages 1 and 2

pages 3 & 4

pages 5 & 6


pages 7 & 8

pages 9 & 10

back cover


If you missed any the first time you can click on the links under the photos to return to the original posts with details and more photos. Thanks for visiting! Enjoy your weekend.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Friday, April 12, 2013

The Art of Flying (eP)


Yesterday on the eclectic Paperie blog, I posted the final double page spread of my altered child's board book which I started in response to February's Get Altered challenge. Today I want to share the back cover which completes the book (sniff...I've really enjoyed this project and hate to see it end). Because both the front (Flight Risk) and back cover (The Art Of Flying) are visible at the same time and the book is unlikely to ever close again (LOL), I followed the same process as I had on the front cover so they would read as one.


The background was sponged with Beach Hut, Mermaid, Inky Pool, Avocado, and Hey Pesto Fresco Finish paints using a piece of Cut N Dry foam. A torn piece of Idea-ology Melange tissue wrap was adhered over that with gel medium and then more paint was sponged over the wrap to blend it into the background. White gesso was pounced over TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil and once dry, the left side of the chicken wire was lined with a Micron pen.Avocado paint was pounced over the TCW Mini Chevron stencil and then some random script stamping was done with a stamp from Inkadinkado using Archival ink.


Two torn pieces of washi tape were added where the sweet fairy would stand to ground her. Another torn piece was adhered to the top edge. As usual, all washi tape was sealed with gel medium to prevent it lifting over time. The sweet little fairy comes from an adorable Alpha Stamps collage sheet by Nichola Battilana. She was layered with the butterfly wings from the same Winged Things sheet...love her! More butterflies were punched from Authentique's Renew paper pad, stamped with the script stamp, doodled on, and given threaded dotty buttons for bodies. The two tiny ones were also punched from the same paper stack.


The words, which were computer generated on kraft cardstock except for Art which is a Wendy Vecchi stamp (An Eye For Art), make me smile. This really is a book about my art about flying so I'm enjoying the double meaning. White paint pen was added as highlights and patterns and Black Soot Distress ink edging was applied to the torn out words. Memento Teal Zeal ink was used on the stamped word which was popped up on foam dots. Once the words were adhered to the background and the doodling was completed, a final look told me that it needed a little sumpin' sumpin'. I watered down both black and white gesso and made rings using bottle lids. The rings, the script stamping, and the doodling were repeated on the front page of the book for continuity.


That completes this project unless I decide to add a closure which I doubt I will do. This last photo shows how I will display the book...just standing up in all its chunkiness :) Tomorrow I'll post a quick look back at all of the pages since I can't do a flip-through for you.


Thank you for visiting today and for sharing this part of my art journey with me. I've had a blast and am glad you've been along to keep me company. If you are curious about the products I used for this final page, just click on the thumbnails below to find them in the eclectic Paperie shop. Hmmm, I wonder what I will get into next :D

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Thursday, April 11, 2013

EP Sneaky Peek ~ Collect Happiness


It's my turn to host the eclectic Paperie blog today so here's a sneaky peek of my project. I altered the last two pages of my board book, leaving only the back cover to finish. If you are curious about what I have done, I'd love it if you visited the eP blog to check it out. Hope to see you there!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Monday, April 08, 2013

CYP # 157 ~ Ahoy!


Happy Monday...and no that's not an oxymoron. Monday means a new challenge at Craft Your Passion and I like that. The theme this week is Water, Water Everywhere so we want to see water in your image. I was lucky enough to work with this cute image from Robyn's Fetish called Sailing, Sailing. This little duck looks like he's having such a blast. I coloured him using my Prismacolor pencils, then cut him out as a rectangle. The corners were rounded with a punch, the edges doodled and inked with Stormy Sky Distress ink. It was then matted with textured green cardstock and had foam dots applied to the back.


The papers came from the Me & My Big Ideas Low Tide paper stack. The anchor paper was adhered t the white card background and the striped paper as a band over that. Faux stitching was added to the band edges. The fishtail banner was cut from the yellow stripe, faux stitched, and decoratively stapled with the tiny attacher before being glued to the card. Three green  buttons of different sizes were threaded with yellow floss and attached to the fishtail with foam dots. The Ahoy sentiment was cut out with an MFT die, faux stitched, and given sticker letters. The sentiment was adhered to the card with foam dots on the right end and glue where it overlapped the image.


Just a fun little card in response to the latest CYP challenge. Be sure and pop by the Craft Your Passion blog to see what the rest of the DT created for the Water, Water challenge. You're sure to find inspiration there. I'm looking forward to seeing what you create. Thanks for stopping by today. I'm always glad to have you visit and love reading your comments.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Created With Love #36 Recipe (1 image, 2 DP, 3 embellies)
Digi Makeover Challenge #83 Water = Digi
Glitter n Sparkle #27 Buttons
One Stitch At A Time #158 Anything Goes

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie