The New Midnight ~ inspired by a Vera Lane Studio image

Hi everyone! I'm back again for the second of my art journal pages for today, both featuring Vera Lane Studio images. This one stars the lovely Ester Jean who is all dressed up for New Year's Eve which she and I celebrate a little early :) I'm an early-to-bed, early-to-rise kinda person and apparently Ester Jean, a former night owl, is, too...NOW! LOL

I coloured Ester Jean with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils, using Dandelion Yellow Nuvo Crystal Drops for her necklace and earring tops. She was fussy cut leaving a white border, matted with black, and fussy cut again.

The 6x6 watercolour paper background was generously sprized with Lindy's Delphinium Turquoise and Yellow Rose of Texas. The Tim Holtz Spritzer tool was used to move the puddles around resulting in the most gorgeous green shade where they mixed. Love that! Once dry, an Indigo Blu Tasty Textures stamp was added with Manganese Blue Archival Ink. Jet Black Archival was used to apply Ellen Hutson Bokeh Circles stamp in a few clusters. A length of dotty Duck tape, which was doodled around, was used to ground Ester Jean so she didn't get carried away with celebrating.

A doodled border was added around the page using a black pen. The message was printed on white cardstock matted with black. Three enamel dots were added to the top right corner to add balance and a bit of shine, finishing the page.

Thanks for joining Ester Jean and me today. We appreciate your fine company. We wish you a wonderful 2020, filled with good health, laughter, creativity, and special moments. 2020 is going to be an amazing year at Vera Lane Studio...you should see what Janet has in store for us! Pop by our VLS Facebook group for all the latest as well as a lovely dose of inspiration and friendship.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

This magical world ~ inspired by a Vera Lane Studio image

Hi everyone! Wow! This is the last day of 2019 so I wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope 2020 is spectacular for you! I am finishing off 2019 with a couple of art journal pages featuring images by Vera Lane Studio because it makes me happy to play with those images and I want to end 2019 on a good note :) The image I used for my first aj page is from the set called The Fairy House. I used the sweet fairy who also comes with a mushroom house, a flower, and two sentiments. Her joy and knowing smile seemed appropriate for the spread I had in mind.

I coloured Fairy with Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils, adding Clear Wink of Stella to her star, wings, and eye heart for a bit of magical shimmer. She was fussy cut leaving a narrow white border, matted with black cardstock, and fussy cut again.

The background is 6x6 watercolour paper which I spritzed with Lindy's Hottie Patottie Hot Pink and Yellow Rose of Texas Starburst Sprays making sure to leave lots of big drips and splats by pushing the pump only half way in. The bigger splats were then moved into finer drips using the Tim Holtz Distress Marker Spritzer tool. I find I can get thinner, finer runs with this tool than with a straw. Brilliance Rocket Red Gold ink was applied through Bad Ass Mini Stencil 1037 to create the spray of stars around Fairy's head. The stars were then outlined with black pen to help them stand out and add that pop of black I love. A larger star was stamped with the same ink where her one foot would be situated.

The saying was printed onto white cardstock and matted with black. A very scribbly border was doodled to frame the page and the edges were darkened with the Rocket Red Gold ink. Four sparkling puffy stars were adhered to the corners.

Thanks for joining Fairy and me today. We are delighted to have you here and hope you will hang around to see my other art journal page. While you are waiting, why not pop by the Vera Lane Studio Etsy shop and the Vera Lane Studio Facebook group? We would love to see you there and there's always lots going on :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles Art Journal Adventure ~ Week 52 ~ Goodbye 2019

Hi everyone! Happy New Year! Well, we made it! This is Week 52 of the Joggles Art Journal Adventure, the last one of the series and the last one of this Adventure. I am stepping down from running it and Barb has decided not to continue for another year. It has been quite a run, and I have met some fabulous people who I now call friends. Thank you all! The prompt for Week 52 is Goodbye 2019 which as you may remember is the Year of the Pig. I began this year with a page featuring a watercolour image of the front view of this fabulous pig, a download from Lola Graphic Images. It seemed fitting to say goodbye to 2019 using an image from the same Etsy shop except this time with a back view.

The background began with spritzing the 6x8 mixed media paper with Lindy's Creme Brulee Cream and Opal Sea Oats Starburst Sprays. Vintage Photo Distress Oxide Ink was mixed with water and flicked over the Lindy's once it dried to create even more splatter dots. The same Oxide Ink was used to apply the patterns from Carabelle Studio Des Carrés avec des Ronds stencil. Coffee Archival Ink was used to apply Ellen Hutson Bokeh Dots stamp as well as Crafty Individuals text stamp in a few places. Ranger Texture Paste was scraped through AALL & Create Lotza Dotz stencil. Because the Texture Paste picks up the colour from the Lindy's beneath it, I added white Posca paint pen over the stencilling to brighten it up.

A simple border was doodled around the page to frame it and Coffee Archival Ink was applied to the edges. Two strips of washi tape adhered to white cardstock and then matted with black were added to the bottom of the page to ground Mr. Pig who was popped up on foam tape. The wording was printed on white cardstock, matted with black, and also popped up with foam tape. To finish the page, black Big Brush Pen was applied to the edges of the background before it was adhered to the black cardstock which is the background for all the pages in this set of journals. Just for fun, here's a photo of what 52 weeks of art journals look like:

Thank you so much for popping by this week. Thanks to Barb for allowing me the privilege of running this challenge and Facebook group. A very special thanks to all who participated in the weekly prompts and those who followed our adventures. You made it all worthwhile! I will miss you!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Hello, sweet friend card ~ inspired by a Vera Lane Studio collage sheet

Hi everyone! My second DT project today for Vera lane Studio is a quick and easy "thinking of you" type of card. This would make an adorable gift if you made a set of them. They would also be wonderful to have on hand when you want to send a little note to a friend. The card features one of the fabulous pre-coloured images from the Doodle Flower Stamp and Collage Sheet. If the colour palettes don't fit  what you are creating, there is an uncoloured digi in the set for you to colour as you wish. Love that!

I fussy cut one of the pre-coloured flowers, leaving a white border, and matting it with black. I added a few extra white details with a Posca pen both because I like to add my own voice and to help pick up the white spaces left in the background. I also cut out two leaves from a scrap of gel printed paper, matting them with black and adding black doodles to tie in with the flower.

The background was simply a rectangle cut from a paper I had used to catch the over-spray from Lindy's Starburst sprays. I chose the section I wanted, cut it to fit the black mat, and doodled a simple border around the outside edge. The sentiment was printed onto white cardstock and matted with black to frame it. I love the results and how quickly the card came together.

Thanks for stopping by today. I appreciate that, especially during such a busy time of year. When you get a bit of a break, be sure to stop by the Vera Lane Studio Etsy shop and the Vera Lane Studio Facebook group to catch up and gather some inspiration for crafting when life settles into its quiter routine again.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

So Very Merry card ~ inspired by a Vera Lane Studio image

Hi everyone! I am posting my very last Christmas card for 2019 today. It's a little one (only 3.5 x 4.5 inches) just big enough to accommodate the sweet little image called Treena by Vera Lane Studio. She is one of two images plus a sentiment from the set. She is so cute I want to hug her!

Treena was coloured with Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils, fussy cut leaving a narrow white border, and then matted with black cardstock to give that second narrow border. She was popped up on foam tape to create dimension and shadow.

The background was a rectangle of plaid paper matted with black cardstock. A strip of washi tape was used to ground her and faux stitching created a border using black pen. The sentiment from the digi set was printed onto white cardstock, matted with black. Once it was adhered to the top right corner, two enamel holly stickers and a berry were added, overlapping the sentiment and the plaid background.

What a sweet and simple card to create! Thanks for joining Treena and me today. We both want to wish you a Merry Christmas or a happy holiday depending upon what you celebrate. Be sure to pop by the Vera Lane Studio Etsy shop and the VLS Facebook group when you get a minute. There is a lot of inspiration and more than a few must-haves to discover :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles Art Journal Adventure Week 51 ~ Winter Solstice

Hi everyone! It's Week 51 of the Joggles Art Journal Adventure. One more week after this and we will have completed all 52 of the year's prompts. The one for this week is Winter Solstice or just plain Winter since Saturday marked the shortest day in the year for this part of the world. I am one who is really affected by the lack of light, to the point where I use a special light each day over the winter months, so I am really happy that the days will start getting longer from now on. Bring on the light! LOL

I chose a Mo's Digital Pencil image called Happiness is as the focal for this page. We have had lots of snow and very cold temps lately so that seemed like a natural fit for a page about the official start of winter. I coloured the image with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils, fussy cutting around the sweet girl and her new friend leaving a white border and also leaving some extra white at the bottom for the snow on the ground.

I wanted to create a large ray of sunlight coming from the sun which is a Mary Engelbreit chipboard piece. I wanted the rest around the ray to be black to show that there's only a small portion of daylight and a bigger portion of darkness each day. I drew an angle on mixed media card coming from the sun and just wide enough for the image to fit. Once it was cut out, the angled section was dipped first into Antique White Distress Oxide + water on my craft sheet and then Scattered Straw Distress Oxide Ink + water. This was repeated a few times, drying between layers until I was happy with the build up of colour and pattern. The Scattered Straw was also applied just to the edges of the angle coming from the sun to darken them slightly.

Once the sun, ray, and image were adhered in place, a few punched snowflakes were added to the sunny part. Shading around the image and the flakes was added with Neocolor II crayon and a water brush. The lettering for Winter Solstice was added with glittery white stickers and the saying was printed onto white cardstock which was popped up with foam tape. Metallic silver sequin stars were scattered around the black areas to make it seem more like a night sky.

Thanks for joining us today. All four of us appreciate that as well as those extra few minutes of daylight we gain each day :) I hope to see you next Monday for the final Art Journal Adventure post!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Ugly Sweater Tags ~ inspired by Vera Lane Studio images

Hi everyone! I wanted to create some cute little gift tags to attach to presents and, more importantly, I wanted to colour 4 of Lulu's Ugly Christmas Sweaters by Vera Lane Studio because each one makes me smile. The tags are about 2.5 x 3.75 inches and are a great way to use up scraps of patterned paper. The girls were coloured with Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils, fussy cut leaving a white border and again leaving a black border. They were popped up on foam tape to add dimension.

The backgrounds were cut into a tag shape, matted with black cardstock, and faux stitched around the edges. Black reinforcements were punched and adhered to the holes in the tags. Lengths of washi tape or a strip of patterned paper were adhered across the bottom of the tags to ground the images. Gold circle embellies were adhered to both ends of the contrasting strips. To finish these super simple tags, white satin ribbon was added as a topper to each one. The to/from will be added to the back with white pen.

Thanks for joining the Sweater Girls and me today. We're so glad you did. Be sure to pop by the Vera Lane Studio Etsy shop and the Vera Lane Studio Facebook group when you get a chance. Both are great places to hang out and are chalk full of inspiration!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie