Summertime ATC

As you know, I'm a big fan of ATCs. They are such fun little pieces of magic and lovely for experimentation. Lately I have been combining more mixed media techniques and elements into my atc designs just to see how they translate into a smaller scale than journal pages and canvases. Our theme for this fortnight's challenge at ATCs With Attitude is Summertime which leaves so much room for creativity and interpretation. I was fortunate to be able to play with a gorgeous floral image from one of our amazing sponsors, Delicious Doodles. I coloured the image, called Floral Watering Can, with Prismacolor pencils, adding a little white paint pen for the baby's breath. The image was cut out as a rectangle and the background was inked with Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint Distress inks.

The background papers were scraps of green tone on tone vine print and black and white text print. The green was adhered to a heavier atc base and inked around with Black Soot Distress ink. The text was torn into a narrow strip, inked with Black Soot, and glued vertically toward the left side of the atc. A length of black twine was knotted over the band of text. The image piece was inked around with Black Soot and mounted on foam tape to create dimension and allow it to be seen as a separate element. A tiny photo corner was handcut and adhered to the top right corner. Three half pearls in graduated sizes were adhered to the bottom right. The word Summer was printed from the computer, matted with black cardstock, and popped up on foam tape on the lower left side of the image rectangle.

This is such a gorgeous image to colour and allows me to replicate the gorgeous colours that are just now making a spectacle of themselves in my flower beds :) Just like on my art pieces, I enjoy a riot of colour in the garden, too. Thanks for stopping by today. I appreciate your fine company. be sure to pop by the ATCs With Attitude blog to see what the rest of our DT have created. We'd love it if you would join us with a Summertime atc of your own. While you are there, you can read all about the DT call that is currently going on. We're looking for a couple of people to join our team...it could be you!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Buried Treasure ~ a housing recap

The amazingly creative and talented Seth Apter is running his 4th annual Buried Treasure Blog Hop today. It's an online collaborative venture that invites bloggers to highlight a favourite posting or more from their personal blog. We can re-post or re-cap and Seth will list all of the blog links on the same page on his blog, The Altered Page. Then, anyone is able to discover old favourites from blogs they follow or discover new favourites and blogs they may not have visited before. Cool idea for a blog hop! I am participating, along with many of my eclectic Paperie DT mates.

I decided to post a few projects that all follow a similar theme...houses. I'll show you the photo and give you a link if you want to read more about any particular one. Be warned though...my posts are lengthy because I always describe the steps involved and try to share tips. The first project is an altered canvas for the eP Get Altered challenge where we had to use recycled fabric. The background was from an old stool covering and the middle house was my first attempt at stamping and painting on muslin fabric. I love the texture on this piece. You can see more pics and description here.

The second house post I'm  showcasing was done as part of an altered book project for an eP challenge. You can see more photos and get the scoop here. I altered a child's board book following the theme of flight or wings. The background of this spread is covered with tissue paper and gel medium and features the little Prima houses along a corrugated cardboard road. There's tons of dimension on this spread and I used Studio 490 embossing paste for the first time. It's since become a go-to product for me.

The next project featuring houses actually involved altering small wooden houses with paper, corrugated cardboard and metal bits and bobs. They were altered for the e-Team picks challenge of using corrugated cardboard which you can find on the roof of each house. All four sides of each house were altered so there was lots of opportunity to add stencilling and lovely embellies on all that real estate (pun intended).

The last house related post I am featuring was a tag done for another DT I am on called Eclectic Ellapu. The background started life as a mop up page from a pad of Strathmore Mixed Media paper which I use to clean off stencils, ink, and paint brushes. Stencilling and washi tape were added before the house was constructed from scraps and some Idea-ology stickers. I love the colours on this one and the roof, door, and eaves. It, like all of the other houses, makes me happy.

I don't know what it is about houses but obviously, they appeal to me. Thanks for hopping by my blog today. Be sure to check out the other participants' blogs by following this link to Seth Apter's Buried Treasure blog post. And while you are there, spend some time on Seth's blog. I learn so much from him and always come away inspired. I'm off to visit Seth and the rest. Maybe I'll see you there :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

CYP Challenge 166 ~ Father's Day

It's time for another challenge at Craft Your Passion. This week the theme is Father's Day and you know what that means...masculine cards. I always find those trickier than cards for women or kids. This card, though, came together very easily because of the fun image I chose from Eureka Stamps. It's called Cool Cat With Shades.

I coloured him with my Prismacolor pencils in short choppy strokes to create the effect of fur. I used four colours in layers and ran them in the direction the fur would be growing. Once Cool Cat was coloured, he was fussy cut and placed on foam tape for added dimension.

The card base is cream cardstock. The papers used are from Authentique's Strong paper pack which is double sided...Bonus! The gold background is the back of the striped paper and the two thin strips above and below the band are the border from the top of each page. The papers were inked around the edges with Vintage Photo Distress ink and then doodled around with a Micron pen.

The sentiment was computer generated and cut out as a banner. The edges were inked with Vintage Photo DI and then dotted with the Sepia Micron pen before the sentiment was adhered to the background. Two short lengths of brown ribbon with white dots were looped into tabs and adhered beside Cool Cat. Three brown buttons were threaded with natural jute and glued to the left side with Glossy Accents. A sunglasses button had the shank cut off (ouch) and was adhered to the bottom right corner to balance the buttons and draw the eye through the image.

A fun card...something my dad would have enjoyed. Thanks for popping by today. I appreciate your visits so much. Be sure and stop by the Craft Your Passion Challenges blog to see the wonderful creations by the rest of the DT. They are an awesome bunch! I hope to see your Father's Day/Masculine project linked up to our challenge so I can come visit you and get my infusion of the inspiration you always provide.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge #73 ~ Masculine with Ribbon or Trim
The Crafter's Cafe Blog Challenge #17 ~ Fathers/For a male
Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #93 ~ Father's Day
Eureka Stamps Challenge #43 ~ Father's Day
Tammy's Scrapin Corner Challenge #66 ~ Manly Card/ Father's Day

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Own Your Style at eclectic Paperie

Hey there! It's my turn to post a creation on the eclectic Paperie blog and today I am sharing a mixed media canvas featuring the Strapless Mixed Media Doll stamp by Prima and Julie Nutting. I am really enjoying these stamps. Here's a sneak peek of my canvas:

For more than a glimpse of one corner and a complete and lengthy (again) explanation of the steps for the project, please visit the eclectic Paperie blog. I'd love it if you did :)

Thanks for dropping by.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

My Heart Bee-longs to You ~ Eclectic Ellapu challenge

It's the Purple Team's turn to respond to the challenge at Eclectic Ellapu and I get to host this week...so much fun. In honour of myself (just kidding!), I chose the theme B is for... I'd like to see at least three things on your project that start with the letter B. They can be in the image(s), the embellies, or the colours. For my project, B is for block of wood, bees, buttons, border, and baker's twine. Yes, I got carried away but it's my party and I'll B if I want to...LOL.

I started with a block of wood that is about 5.75 x 6.25" by 1.5" thick. I painted Fresco Finish paints (Haystack, Zesty Zing, Pumpkin Soup) wet on wet to create a streaky background with variation in colour. Once that was dry, Studio 490 Black Embossing paste was messily scraped across TCW's Reverse chickenwire stencil and allowed to dry. White gesso was pounced over TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil using the hexagonal section.A leftover  die cut border remnant that was sitting on my desk was added to the bottom edge of the block. One of the lids in my stash was dipped into watered down white gesso to create the overlapping white rings.

The images are from QKR Stampede. Their quirky designs are delightful and make me smile every time. I coloured both the queen bee and her handsome friend with Prismacolor pencils. The black stripes were coated with Versamarker pen and then sprinkled with black embossing powder before being heat set. The queen's lovely crown was coated with the Versamarker pen and then embossed in gold before black and white half pearls were added to it. Both bees had Icicle Stickles added to their wings before they were fussy cut and adhered to the background. Glossy Accents were added to their eyes. His antennae were redrawn with black Micron pen and more flat pearls were added. Shading was done around the bodies with brown watercolour and a waterbrush. Mr. Bee had this wonderful flight trail on the image which, of course, was cut off so I decided to add baker's twine to replicate it and add another B element.

Two black and white dotted buttons were threaded with narrow satin ribbon and adhered to the top right corner of the block. Three pieces of black and white washi tape were added, two to the front and one on the side. Doodling was done with a Micron pen. The sentiment is a digi from bird's cards which was printed, coloured with Prisma pencils, fussy cut,and matted in black before being popped up on foam and adhered to the block.

That's it for my B is for...project. Pop by the Eclectic Ellapu blog to see what the rest of the Purple Team has created for this fun challenge. They really outdid themselves...knocked it out of the park on this one! Thanks for checking out my blog today. I'm always happy to have your wonderful company. And now, I think these two want to be alone so I'm going to make myself scarce...at least for a Bit!

I am entering this project in the following challenges:
Crafty Calendar Challenge (June) ~ Things With Wings
Crafty Friends Challenge #2 ~ Bingo Die Cut border, yellow, Buttons
Digi Haven Challenge(June 7) ~ Anything Goes
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #210 ~ Anything But a Card

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Trust Your Heart ~ eP Get Altered Challenge

It's that time again...time for eclectic Paperie's Get Altered Challenge. The Get Altered Challenge is held on the first Thursday of each month and each challenge is an opportunity for you to be inspired by one of our eTeam’s creations. This time it is Toni's turn to set the challenge and she has chosen the theme of Altered Spoons. The first time I encountered this idea was when I received a lovely altered spoon for my birthday as a gift from my good buddy, Paulette. I loved it and said I was going to alter one myself but you know how that goes :) Thank goodness Toni set this challenge so I finally made good on that intention.

I raided my grandmother's silver chest to find a vintage spoon with lots of character that didn't actually belong to her good service. My mom thinks it was my great grandmother's serving spoon that I actually altered. I think that's very cool. I pulled out my alcohol inks and applied copper, lettuce, and stream to the spoon's bowl with a felt applicator. I actually had to remove the felt from the blending tool in order to get into the curved part of the spoon. My hands are exceptionally lovely today. I applied the inks a couple of times letting them dry after each application in order to achieve the depth of colour I wanted.


While that was drying, I fussy cut my fairy from a Paper Whimsy collage sheet and the butterfly wings from an internet image. I added Black Diamond Stickles to the outside edges of the wings and blue metallic gel pen to the lines where the blue meets the black. The wings were adhered to the sweet fairy and more blue gel pen was added to the buttons and buckle of her outfit (I think it's actually a him but not in my world :D). Her crown is a silver charm with black and white half pearls added to cover the holes and make it regal enough for Sweetie to wear.

A section of a small doily was fussy cut, spritzed with Irridescent Gold Glimmer Mist and adhered to the bottom of the spoon with Glossy Accents. A scrap of Grunge Paper was sprayed with Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise and Fresh Lime ink sprays along with a little water. It was blotted with paper towel and allowed to dry before being stamped with Versamark on a sentiment from Donna Downey's Empowered Words set. White embossing powder was layered over the Versamark and then heat set. The grunge paper was then cut close to the words and the edges were inked with Black Soot Distress ink before the message was adhered over the doily. The way Sweetie is standing with her hand on her little hip and the message under her feet makes me smile. It's like she is saying, "Trust your heart, for goodness sake!" in an impatient tone like I should remember that without her telling me...again :) Sweetie was mounted on a double layer of foam tape with a good layer of Glossy Accents on the tape and the crown. To frame the bowl and add another element, Versamarker pen was applied to the edges of the spoon and Frantage Aged Black embossing enamel was added and heat set...cool effect!

To complete the top of the spoon, a Maya Road canvas butterfly was stamped with Christy Tomlinson's Copped Up Notes stamp and Tuxedo Black Memento ink. It shows more IRL but I kept getting a glare from the silver which messed with the photos.  A Blossom Bucket heart was coloured with Wild Plum alcohol ink plus a little Snow Cap mixative. The heart and butterfly were stacked and adhered to the spoon top with Glossy Accents. An Idea-ology metal word stick was tucked under the heart so that the hole was covered by the point. A length of seam binding was knotted onto the handle to repeat the heart's colour and bring it down to the base area.

I am now the proud owner of two altered spoons. I already have Paulette's displayed in my craft room so I'm thinking I need another little shadowbox for this one. You know, things look more pleasing hung in threes so I do see another one in my future. I thoroughly enjoyed this challenge. Be sure to pop by the eclectic Paperie blog to see Toni's amazing crackled altered spoon and while you are there check out the DT makes by clicking on the thumbnails in the linky section. I can't wait to see what everyone creates. I'm hoping you'll join us for this Get Altered challenge at eP. It can be any kind of spoon...wooden, plastic, metal, old, new...have fun.

Thanks for joining Sweetie and me today. I do love and appreciate your visits and awesome comments.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

To connect with the eclectic Paperie store to see what products were used in this project, click on the thumbnails below:

Dylusions Ink Spray - Vibrant Turquoise	Dylusions Ink Spray - Fresh Lime	Inkssesentials - Glossy Accents 2 oz.	Idea-ology Word Sticks
Idea-ology Grungepaper	VersaMark Stamp Pad	VersaMarker Pen	Ranger Embossing Powder - Seafoam White
Unity Stamp Company - Empowered Words (Donna Downey)	Stickles - Black Diamond	Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot	Wendy Vecchi - Blossom Bucket - Natural Hearts

A Cut Above ~ CYP # 165

Awesome Monday! Can you tell I'm feeling better? Thanks to all of your Get Well wishes ...you guys rock! We have a new challenge at Craft Your Passion. The theme is Haberdashery Items. We want to see buttons, ribbons, stitching...anything to do with sewing/tailoring.

I chose to play with this sweet image from Crafty Sentiments called It's Party Time. I coloured her up with my Prismacolor pencils and cut her out with Spellbinders Labels 25 die. While the image was still in the die, I applied Tumbled Glass and Spun Sugar Distress inks to create the white border. The die cut was then matted with chocolate brown cardstock.

The card was cut from sand coloured textured cardstock. The main layer of patterned paper came from the DCWV Collage Art stack. The corner was cut with a punch (unknown origin) and then matted with the same brown cardstock as was used to mat the image. The scissors charm was adhered next to the fancy corner. The sentiment was printed on white cardstock, cut in a fishtail flag, inked with Vintage Photo, and faux stitched.

The green paper with the raised dots from the same stack was cut as a band and, again, matted with the chocolate brown cardstock. It was adhered across the middle of the background layer. Holes were pierced over the green raised dots and again into the patterned background so that brown embroidery floss could be cross stitched into the holes. Two vintage buttons were threaded with white satin ribbon and popped up on foam dots. Dots were added along the bottom edge with a Micron pen to complete the card.

Thanks for stopping by today and once again for your get well wishes. They worked and I'm extra grateful. Be sure to stop by the Craft Your Passion Challenges blog to see the inspiration created by the rest of the DT. I'm hoping you'll want to play along with the Haberdashery Items challenge...I look forward to seeing what you create.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie