Watch out world ~ Rick St. Dennis Mixed Media Spread

Hi everyone. I had some fun combining three of Rick St. Dennis's images to create this mixed media spread. I love combining images to tell a story.I love the image Bad Bitsy where she is making the classic teasing gesture. I can almost hear her saying the Na..na..part. Who doesn't remember both being the sender and receiver of that message? Bitsy needed to be higher than whoever she was bugging. It's far more effective when you are up on a "stage" looking down at the person...don't ask me how I know this. Ha!I decided to use the tree stump and mushrooms from Rick's Wonderland Elements Set One for Bitsy's soapbox.

All three images were coloured with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. They were fussy cut singly leaving a narrow white border. A small slit was cut in the trunk so that Bitsy's shoe would tuck in behind it for a more realistic look. The three images were tacked together where they overlapped and then the entire new image was mounted on black cardstock and trimmed again before foam tape was placed on the back to create added dimension.

The background, a 6 x 8 inch rectangle of mixed media paper, was coloured with Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress ink for the sky and Shabby Shutters plus Peeled Paint Distress inks for the grass. Both of the darker colours were applied through Sheena Douglass' Distress Grid stencil. Water drops were flicked onto the background and then mopped up with paper towel to create light spots. Text stamp was rolled onto the background with either green or blue ink. Bottle top lids were used to create paint rings with Hey Pesto or Inky Pool Fresco Finish Chalk Paint.

The image was adhered to the background and white embossing paste was scraped through TCW's Tiny Circles stencil. The sentiment from Create With TLC seemed like the perfect choice for Bitsy. It was printed on white cardstock, matted with black cardstock, and popped up on foam tape. Two lengths of baker's twine were added to make it look like a hanging sign. Short lengths of washi tape brought the pink up to the top half of the spread. Na...na was stamped with Forget-Me-Not Archival ink around Bitsy...just for fun! To finish the page, a black border was doodled around the edge, Black Big Brush pen used to ink the edges, and black cardstock used to mat the page.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you know that Bitsy's sassy gesture is not directed at you...or me for that matter! You must admit, she is enjoying her attitude :) And by the way, have you seen the two fabulous Aadult colouring books which Rick has published? They are amazing...Rhinestones, Furs, & Feathers and The Day of the Dead. Check them out!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Altered Playing Cards Trio

Hi everyone. One of my favourite things to create is an altered playing card. I've been making these for years ever since I took a fabulous online class with the very talented Mary Jane Chadbourne. It's a wonderful mojo spark and I also love to play with them when I have finished a series of projects with deadlines and have nothing looming :) It's sort of a palette cleanser for my brain. It's also a fabulous way to use up all those little scraps of paper, washi tape, fibres, die cuts, etc. that have been collecting on my table.

The backgrounds are all done with Neocolor II crayons, gelatos, Big Brush pens, anything that will get vibrant colour down. It is pure play. Stamping, flicking water or paint, bottle top rings, gift card lines and scuffs are all part of the next layers. I do this all intuitively with no plan and no specific image match in mind. It's very freeing. Layers of paper scraps, cheesecloth, drywall mesh, fabric, punched or die cut shapes are all added to create compositions I like.

Once I have a pile of backgrounds done I either go through some sayings I have collected and find ones I want to illustrate with once of the collage images I have already fussy cut or vice versa. I find an image I want to pair with the background and then choose a saying that I think fits. After that...the outlining, doodling, and finishing embellies and touches. It's a delightful process where I create just for the sheer joy of it!

Thanks for stopping by today. We're all glad that you did :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Sweet Little Vampire ~ Sweet Pea Stamps

This adorable vampire from Sweet Pea Stamps artist Charmaine Flannery just seemed to call my name until I coloured her. Her name is Age of Vampires and she was delightful to colour. The detail as well as her beauty made me smile the whole time.

I coloured her with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. She was then fussy cut leaving a narrow white border, matted with black cardstock, and trimmed out again. This adds strength to the image so that it can easily be popped up on foam tape. It also provides contrast with the busy background as well as visual weight.

The background began as a 6 x 8 inch rectangle of mixed media paper. The paper was spritzed with water and yellow, orange, and red Brusho crystals were sprinkled into the puddles and spritzes. The paper was tipped this way and that to get blending of the colours. Black Brusho crystals were also added in a couple of places but the black ended up more diluted than I wanted. Once it was dry, I added black ink over the same areas and allowed it to run horizontally and vertically to create a cool graphic look.

Two drippy borders were die cut: one from red cardstock and one from black. They were cut on an angle so the drips got closer to her head as the border went from left to right. They were adhered slightly offset so that the black created a shadow for the red. The sentiment was computer generated and made me laugh. It was printed on white cardstock, die cut, and  matted with black. It was then faux stitched.and popped up on foam tape for dimension. To finish the page, Black Big Brush pen was used to edge the background before it was matted with black.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. To see more of Charmaine Flannery's gorgeous images as well as an absolute ton from other equally amazing artists, please visit Sweet Pea Stamps. You are sure to be inspired!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Alice in Wonderland Shadowbox ~ Part 2

And we're back..Haha! This is the second post showing the Alice in Wonderland shadowbox that I created using mainly the Tenniel style images. The first 6 cubbies and info on the background are in this post from yesterday.

This scene with Alice and Chessie is very simple. I used the two images and featured a chipboard tree branch which was coloured with sprays and shaded with Archival ink.

I wanted a library background for this cubby so I sized a bookshelf image, punched a little floor mat, and used mini Scrabble tiles to spell Alice.

An image from Etsy was fussy cut and matted in black before being popped up on foam tape like the other images. Die cut vines, a blue butterfly, and wording from the book helped set Absolom's scene.

This image is from Pool of Tears where Alice ends up swimming in her giant tears. The Explore arrow is made from wood and the rabbit's fan is folded from origami paper.

Oh dear, this poor fellow has to get the roses painted red before the Queen comes along.The fence and grass were die cut. The roses are metal and were first painted with gesso and then red paint. A little extra red was added to the image because I think he paints messy like me!

China teacups from an actual child's set were stacked in front of Hatter and the March Hare. I like the effect layering dimensional pieces gives to the occasional cubby.

 And this is the finished project complete with the door and a few little extras on top. The cat's face reminds me of Chessie, the tea pot and cup for the Hatter and friends, and the gloves and watch for the White Rabbit. Thanks so much for stopping by. I had a blast creating this shadowbox. It was one of those projects Just For Me...something in my head that just had to get out :)

Life is good; so is art...and Alice in Wonderland.
Bonnie

Alice in Wonderland shadow box ~ Part 1

Hi everyone. I have been playing with a shadow box for a while now and I finally finished it. I had the idea to fill each cubby with one of the scenes from Alice in Wonderland...still one of my favourite books. The shadow box started out as a taupe colour but I wanted black to make the scenes pop so painting it was the first order of the day.

The back piece came off so I tore out pages from one of my many AIW books and collaged the sections onto the background, adhering them with gel medium. Once dry, I set the front back onto the backing, marked the squares on the text paper and used Vintage Photo Distress ink to deepen and age the edges of each square.

From there, it was a matter of choosing twelve characters/scenes and finding the appropriate digital downloaded images. Some came from Etsy, some from Alpha Stamps. I must say I have a large collection so it was easy to find what I wanted.

I decided not to worry about the order...I wasn't trying to retell the story. I only wanted to have a reference to parts I like and to have fun in the creating...which I surely did.

I took the cubbies one at a time starting with the characters first. These were fussy cut and matted in black to help them stand out against the text as well as giving them strength. They were then popped up on foam tape.

I kept the additional background elements simple so as not to compete with the colourful images. I knew once all twelve cubbies were finished that it would look busy so simple was good.

So here are the first 6 of the twelve squares. Come back tomorrow to see the other six and the finished (door and all) project. Don't be late...LOL.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Gear Up ~ One Sweet Challenge Mid Month Reminder

Hi all. It's time for the mid-month reminder of our August challenge at One Sweet Challenge. This month our theme is Back to School...not in the traditional sense but as in trying out a new technique or medium. I love this as there were a couple of things I wanted to try and this gave me the little push I needed. This time it was using alcohol inks (not new) on Yupo paper (new to me). It's awesome!

The Sweet Pea Stamps image I chose to feature for this project is Holly Durr's All Aboard. I am such a fan of her images and always enjoy creating anything steampunk. I coloured her with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. A little Glossy Accents was added to the charm hanging from her tunic. She was then fussy cut leaving a narrow white border and matted with black cardstock. Foam tape was added to the back of the image to add dimension.

The background began with a 6 x 9 inch rectangle of Yupo paper which I have never used before. I had seen it on a YouTube video on Joggles' channel and was able to purchase a pad of Yupo at an art store. It looked like too much fun not to try it! Yupo is a coated paper which causes alcohol ink to react in cool and somewhat unpredictable ways. A drop spreads like crazy and gets a halo of another colour around the edges. When dropped close together, you get organic shapes where one pushes into the other. If dropped on top of each other, you get the coolest rings. So fun! I let it dry thoroughly and then stamped some gears over top using black VersaFine ink. The only thing you have to watch is how slippery it is when you set the stamp down. It was also slow to dry so I sprayed a fixative over the stamping before moving on.

Black cardstock was embossed witha TH folder and Treasure Gold, Silver, and Copper were rubbed over the raised pattern to highlight it and create an industrial feel. This was torn into three scraps and adhered onto the background. Metal and cardstock gears, a metal clock face, propeller, and key were all adhered to the background with Glossy Accents. The wording was added with Idea-ology Alpha Tiles. To complete the page, black cardstock was used to mat and frame the piece.

Thanks for stopping by today. To see the other fabulous creations by my teamies, pop over to One Sweet Challenge blog. It's worth the click! You still have two weeks until this challenge ends. We sure would love to have you join us!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

You Ought to be in Pictures ~ The East Wind Challenge

Hi everyone! We have a brand new challenge theme on The East Wind Challenge blog today. Our theme for #37 is You Ought to be in Pictures. We want to see your creations inspired by a movie and be sure to let us know which one. One of my favourite movies of all time is still The Princess Bride As many times as I've seen it, I still laugh. I decided that Aurora Floral Kiss would make a fabulous Buttercup.

I coloured Buttercup with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. I used a little mound of Liquid Pearls in the center of one of the purple flowers. Can you guess the colour of that? Why, Buttercup, of course :) She was then fussy cut leaving a narrow white border and then was matted with black cardstock and trimmed out again. Foam tape was added to the back to add dimension.

The background started as a 6 x 8 inch rectangle of blue patterned paper to which I added texture with paint and bubble wrap as well as stamping with Cornflower Archival ink. Layered over that was patterned paper and book text scraps. White gesso was used to knock back the text. Doodling and rub ons added some black detail. Die cuts and punches were used to create hearts from ink spritzed paper which were added in three places. The writing is a quote about Buttercup from the movie. It was printed onto white cardstock, cut into segments, and matted in black. Foam tape was used to adhere the segments to the background.

The title Buttercup was created with puffy glittered letter stickers. A doodled border as well as black Big Brush pen were added to the outside edge. Black cardstock was added as a mat to frame the piece and add strength.

Thanks for joining Buttercup, AKA Aurora, and me today. We are delighted that you did. When you get a chance, pop over to The East Wind Challenge blog to see the other fabulous DT responses to the You Ought to be in Pictures challenge. We would love to see you join us.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie