Happy Fall Y'all ~ Eclectic Ellapu Sketch Challenge

I don't normally follow sketches when I make a project...not because I don't like them. There are some amazing sketches out there that I'd love to follow. I just find it difficult to work that way because for me it seems backwards to my normal process. Lately, I have been trying to learn how to work from the finished concept to the finished piece instead of just letting it evolve without a plan so I was delighted to learn that Jacki, our wonderful host for this week's Purple Team challenge at Eclectic Ellapu, had chosen to make it a sketch challenge. Here's the sketch she has chosen for us to follow:

Instead of a card. I began with a 5" x 7" canvas board, Using a black on cream text paper for the center panel and cream on black text for the torn side panels, both from DCWV's The Timeless Type Stack, the entire canvas face was covered using Matte Medium as the adhesive. The medium was also spread over the top of the adhered paper to create a good bond. A band of Graphic 45's Olde Curiosity Shoppe paper was glued  horizontally across the middle. Another scrap of kraft coloured text paper was cut into a rectangle and placed at an angle over the center piece. A chunk of manilla tag was inked around with Black Soot Distress ink and layered over the kraft coloured text, both to follow the sketch and to allow the focal image to stand out.

This sweet little scarecrow is a Rick St. Dennis digi called It's All About Balance. I just love his facial expression and the detail that Rick always captures in his images. Sammy the scarecrow was coloured with Prismacolor pencils and then fussy cut before being adhered center stage as befits a scarecrow of his obvious talent and good looks :) He makes me smile.

Now here's where I deviated from the sketch a little...you knew I would, right? I crisscrossed two pieces of natural jute twine on either side and fastened them to the back. I still had two of those Dylusions ink sprayed, Distress inked and fussy cut leaves left from another project so they were popped up on foam tape and placed at the center of the jute Xs. The last piece of the puzzle was to add the sentiment which was computer generated onto a small tag. Inking around the edge with Black Soot, faux stitching, and a jute tie were all added before the tag was tucked between the jute on the left side. And...Ta Da...I did it...mostly. I followed the sketch and ended up with something I like. Hope you do, too.

Thanks for popping by today to meet Sammy and hang out with me. I always appreciate your good company. When you get a minute, pop over to the Eclectic Ellapu Challenge Blog to see how the rest of my wonderful Purple Teamies interpreted Jacki's sketch. It's always so fun to see how different the results are when we all start from the same place. I'd love to see your take on this, too, so join us if you can.

Check out the massive Treasure Hunt starting October 1 on the Eclectic Ellapu blog. Details are over there...it's going to be fun!

I am entering this little fellow in the following challenges:
2 Sisters ~ #163 Anything Goes
Di's Digis Designs ~ Colouring Skills
Simply Create Too ~ #47 Fall/Autumn
Designed to Color ~ #20 Anything Goes
House of Gilli ~ #54 Anything Goes/ Fall

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Time Flies ~ eP art journal page

Well, today was the day...the day where I completed the last page of my old mixed media journal and can officially call it finished. I have mentioned before that it is like an old friend and it's fascinating to go back through it and see how my style has evolved. I rarely do single page journal spreads any more but when I first began two pages at once looked overwhelming...too much real estate. It was fun to return to the single page for these last three pages.

I began with a gessoed page which I covered with four colours of Neocolor II watercolour crayon: two browns and two oranges scribbled in blocks and then activated with water on a brush. Once that was dry, I intensified the colours at the edges and where they touched each other with Gelatos: Chocolate, Tangerine, and Mango. A wet finger spread the colour for those.

I loaded a make-up wedge with Coffee Archival ink and rubbed it over the TCW Mini Time Travel stencil to cover the page. Dylusions Alphabet Border stencil was applied here and there in the same manner. A page from Recollections Steampunk Botanica paper stack was torn, inked with Coffee Archival ink and adhered in three stripes across the page.

Dylusions Melted Chocolate ink spray was spritzed onto a craft mat and then applied in rings using a bottle lid. White gesso rings were added in the same way. More of the Melted Chocolate was flicked onto the page from the end of a brush.

The focal image is actually two separate ones: the clock face and the pilot's cap. The first came from Etsy and I can't remember the seller. The second was a free internet image. Both were fussy cut and inked around with black Big Brush pen. Her cheeks were also rosied up with Tropical pink gelato smudged with a dry finger. The cap was popped up on foam tape for dimension. Her bow tie is a piece of orange grosgrain ribbon tied in the center with embroidery floss.

The saying, Time Flies Be the Pilot, was adapted from another quote to suit the page and my thoughts. The larger words are Idea-ology Alpha Parts in Ransom font. They were doodled on with white paint pen to make them more visible and interesting. The smaller words were stickers with white doodling and a black half pearl for accents. Arrows were stencilled using Black Big Brush pen through TCW's Susana's Arrows stencil. White paint pen was added for accents.

The finishing touches were edging the page with black Big Brush pen, doodling with a black Pilot pen, shading around the face and hat with red Prismacolor pencil, and stamping some splatters on the page with gesso and a TH Bitty Grunge stamp.

Thank you for hanging out with me today and for all of your kind wishes for my mom's recovery. I really appreciate your support and thoughtfulness. I hope you stay tuned for my next journal which is the small Dylusions one. I'm excited to see how that one evolves.

I am entering this journal page in the following challenges:
Crafting by Designs ~ Anything Goes
Crafty Creations Challenges ~ #241 Split it up (sentiment)
Crafty Sentiments Designs ~ Not a Card
Through the Craft Room Door ~ Anything Goes

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

These are the links to some of the products used today which can be found in the eclectic Paperie store:

Faber Castell - Gelatos - Tropical	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Yellow Colors	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Neutral Colors	Liquitex Acrylic Gesso
Faber Castell - Big Brush Pen - Black	Dylusions Ink Spray - Melted Chocolate	TCW - 6x6 Time Travel Stencil	TCW - 6x6 Susana′s Arrows Stencil
Dylusions Stencil 5x8" - Alphabet Border

Sending You Sunshine ~ CYP Challenge 181

It's time for another new challenge at Craft Your Passion Challenges and this week's theme, No Colouring on the Images, really pushed me creatively. Now you would think that not being able to add colour to an image would make it super quick to make...at least I did. Usually I spend a lot of time colouring each image because I enjoy the process so much plus I love colour. I swear this card took me longer  to complete than normal even though the image remains uncoloured. Talk about out of my comfort zone...lol.

 I began with this gorgeous and detailed image called Art Deco Butterfly Garden from our wonderful sponsor, The Sugar Kissed Cottage. In order to emphasize parts of the image, I printed it twice and fussy cut the two largest flowers and the butterfly.These were sculpted, lined with black Big Brush pen, and popped up on clear dimensional tape to raise them off the background. Normally I can get that dimension with shading and highlighting in my colouring. Small half pearls were added to some of the flower centers.

The background was a paper from Authentique's Renew Collection matted on black cardstock. I wanted something graphic with high contrast and it fit the bill. The image was matted in black and then matted again with a piece of mixed media paper taken from my old art journal. The torn holes where the coil binding had gone through made an interesting pattern since they allowed the print to show in the tiny squares. The border on the right side of the card was created by using MFT's Harlequin Diamond die on black cardstock and then bordering the diamonds with strips of black. White half pearls were used to mark the points of each diamond on the narrow strips.

The sentiment was created on the computer and cut out with a Spellbinders ticket die. Black Soot Distress ink around the edges as well as faux stitching took it from plain to more interesting. And finally...colour! Two shades of yellow Prima flowers were combined with a black mulberry flower to provide a pop of colour and contrast to this black and white card.

Thank you for visiting me today. I really appreciate your visits and the sunshine you bring with your lovely comments. I need all the sunshine I can get right now because my mom is in the hospital so your kind words and thoughts are doubly appreciated.. If you get a chance, pop over to the Craft Your Passion Challenges blog to see how the rest of my talented teamies handled this No Colouring of the Image challenge. Hope you'll join us.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create ~ Challenge 38 Anything Goes
Hobbycutz Challenge ~ #17  Black & White & one colour (yellow)
Through The Purple Haze ~ Inspired by a song, book, film, cartoon (You are the sunshine of my life - song)
Lacy Sunshine Challenge ~ Challenge #17 Anything Goes
One Stitch at a Time ~ #182 Anything Goes
Sister Act Card Challenge ~ #25  Anything Goes

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Yum Bunny ~ Craftitude Launch, DT call & Challenge #49

Well, Holy Cow! I thought today would never arrive! I am excited to announce the launch of Craftitude: Paper Crafting With Attitude. We revised and revamped the former ATCs With Attitude challenge blog criteria to include all types of paper crafting so we created a new name and a new blog to reflect that. I also assumed co-ownership along with Abbie Kay who has been a co-owner since the beginning. We have two teams( ATC and Card) and will also be featuring other types of paper crafting from time to time. Now besides all of that excitement, we are also having a DT Call to expand our teams. Have a look at this post if you're interested. We'd love to have you join us.

We now join our regular scheduled programme already in progress...lol.

I love the fall...the crispness of the air, the pumpkins and fall flowers, the leaves changing...all of it. I especially love working outside in the garden when I can last so much longer without the heat and especially that nasty old humidity. Our theme this fortnight at Craftitude is Anything Goes I chose the most delightful garden image from Bugaboo to be the star of this challenge's atc. It's called Garden Bunny - Carrot Patch and it absolutely cracks me up with the bunny and his awesome ears disguising himself as just another carrot so that the gardener won't catch him.

I paper pieced the ground, the carrots, and carrot tops with paper chosen from my scrap box and printed with the digi stamp. The ground is checked, the carrots dotty, and the green tops and leaves also checked. They were shaded with Prismacolor pencils which were also used to colour Mr. Bunny. His little paw was also paper pieced to bring it back to white on the printed ground. The sky was inked in with Peacock Feathers Distress ink and the edges were outlined with my black Big Brush Pen before being matted on  more of the green checked paper. The "finder's keepers" wording at the bottom is an Idea-ology Remnant Rub and the letter chips at the top are tiles from Doodlebug Designs.

I also created a bright and fun card using Bugaboo's Scene It - Fruit Fly image, again coloured with Prismacolor pencils. Their tiny wings have Icicle Stickles added over the blue coloured pencil and white half pearls dot the background of the image.. The image was cut with Spellbinders Curved Rectangles die and matted in brown cardstock. The background papers come from my scrapbox. The brown cardstock borders were cut with an MFT die. Red grosgrain ribbon, flower and leaf buttons from Doodlebug and some letter stickers completed the card. The word party was placed on top of a remnant of corrugated cardboard from another project to make it stand out and give it additional weight in the design.

I so appreciate your stopping by and hopefully sharing a smile with me over Mr. Bunny's antics as well as those of the fruit flies.. Can't you just see the camera panning on the carrots and right over Mr. Bunny, only to suddenly return to him once the penny drops? I love it! If you get a chance, stop by the Craftitude blog to see the wonderful creations by the rest of our wonderful DT. And if you get a chance, join us by linking up your own paper crafted project.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

eP Belated Birthday Bash Blog Hop

Welcome to eclectic Paperie's Belated Birthday Bash!  Today we're celebrating the (belated) one year anniversary of the store's new ownership! It's been an amazing year, full of inspiring projects, wonderful classes, and many, many new products!!  eclectic Paperie wouldn't be where it is today without the ongoing support of our customers and as a BIG thank you you'll have an opportunity to win lots of great prizes!  eclectic Paperie will be giving away the following prizes!  You have until midnight tomorrow (9/20) to comment.

A full set of Tim's NEW Distress Paints

6x6 Paper Pad Bundle

Dylusions Stencil Bundle

A set of NEW Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks

Crafter's Workshop Stencil Bundle

To be entered into the prize drawing, please be sure to comment on the eclectic Paperie blog and on each of the eTeam blogs.  Check out all of the thumbnail links below to view the rest of the eTeam projects!  Enjoy the hop!

For my project, I decided to complete the B pages in my altered dictionary. The word I chose to illustrate was, appropriately, birthday. I started with gessoed pages which I adhered to the pages beside them with Matte Medium for strength. Shades of blues and green were added to the page with Neocolor II crayons and then deepened around the edges with gelatos spread with a wet finger.

Out came the stencils to add texture to the background. Memento Teal Zeal was applied with a make-up wedge through the Dylusions Number Jumble stencil. Memento Bamboo Leaves ink was applied in the same way through TCW's Harlequin stencil and Archival Jet Black through the TCW Halftone borders stencil.

White gesso was used through TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil. In several places, Studio 490 White embossing paste was scraped through one of the stars on TCW's Mini Layered Stars stencil.

White liquid ink was flicked and splatted across the pages off the end of a paintbrush. Blue liquid ink rings were made with the open end of a bottle lid. A crackle stamp was rolled onto the pages randomly.

The two images from Birdie Brown were printed on white cardstock, coloured with Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut . Before adhering them to the pages, blue washi tape was glued to white cardstock and fussy cut to make flags. This gives the birthday bear a place to rest so he could open his gift. Three pieces were added to the opposite page to create flow and continuity. The sentiments were free images from the internet. They were coloured, cut out, and adhered to black cardstock to give them extra weight. Some of the flags were underlined with black Big Brush pen dotted with white gel pen.

An acetate label, a chipboard bracket, and blue bling were added to the pages before the final doodling was done with a black Micron pen. The edging around the outside of the pages and inside the bracket was done with black Big Brush pen.

That's it for my Belated Birthday Bash project. Before I go, I want to send best wishes and a special thank you to Kim at eclectic Paperie for her wonderful ideas, tutorials, and products as well as her fabulous service, her humour, and generosity. I love this team and this store! And another great big thank you to all of the wonderful customers who take the time to visit our eP blog and our own blogs as well as supporting the store. You are awesome! My third thank you goes to my talented and creative teamies. I continue to learn and be inspired by you and truly appreciate your support and friendship. Here's to many more years at eclectic Paperie.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Happy Fall ~ CYP Challenge 180

We have a new challenge theme at Craft Your Passion Challenges beginning today. The theme is Autumn Colours...happy place! I love autumn colours and autumn weather, and autumn apples...and Autumn. I was able to play with Barry Through The Seasons 9 from Stamp Fairy for this theme. I always choose Barry because he is so darn cute and fun to colour. I coloured him with Prismacolor pencils using short choppy strokes and three layers of colour but instead of describing it, I thought I'd show you.

The first layer is done with Goldenrod and has short strokes covering his entire body. The muzzle area is done with tiny circular strokes because the fur is shorter. I'm not trying for solid coverage and I make sure to lay the strokes on in the way the fur grows starting at the outside and working my way in to the center so that the strokes overlap properly. Be careful not to make them like little soldiers all standing straight in rows. Quick and a little messy looks more natural.

The second layer is done with Sienna Brown again all over the Goldenrod.

The third layer is done with Chocolate and is placed in the darkest areas where the shadows fall from the overlaps like the top of his arms, next to the paws, next to the belly, etc. The other place where the Chcolate is important is around the outside of the Barry. This frames in his shape better and also indicates that he is round and not flat. Those parts curve away and around to the back of Barry...if that makes any sense. I do go back either with Goldenrod or Sienna Brown and lightly colour over the entire fur area...very light pressure and the colour used depends on what end colour I'm looking for...goldy or brown.

Barry was cut using Spellbinders Labels One die. The sky was inked in with Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress inks and the ground with Vintage Photo which was carried around the edges of the die cut. The autumn coloured papers come from a Tim Coffey pad from K&Co called Blossomwood. Each layer was matted on brown textured cardstock before being layered onto the white card base. A scalloped border was punched from the same brown and accented with half pearls coloured light orange. The small star was traced with a template and fussy cut to accent the fishtail. The orange leaves were left over from my Autumn canvas from Friday's project. They were fussy cut from Dylusions sprayed white cardstock and then inked with Barn Door and Walnut Stain Distress inks. The tiny sentiment was computer generated.

Thanks so much for joining Barry and me today. Barry was glad of the break from raking and I was just plain glad to see you. If you get a minute, pop over to the Craft Your Passion blog to see the other creations made by my talented teamies. We'd love to see what you do with the Autumn Colours theme. Why not play along?

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Creative Corner ~ #35 Autumn leaves are falling
613 Avenue Create ~ #37 Happy Fall Y'All/Anything Goes
Sister Act ~ #24 Anything Goes
One Stitch at a Time ~ #181 Autumn/Fall
Aud Sentiments Challenge ~ #89 Autumn
Milk Coffee Challenge ~ Fabulous Fall Colours
Di's Digi designs ~ Fabulous Fall Colours

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Send in the Clowns ~ Eclectic Ellapu Purple Challenge

Wahoo! It's a new challenge for the Purple Team at Eclectic Ellapu and it's my turn to set the challenge. I always find that so fun because I get to see how my tiny idea gets translated into all of this cool art. The challenge I set for this week is called Inspired by a Song. Think of a song, one you like or just an ear worm that burrows into your head and stays there, and use it as an inspiration for your project. Be sure to let us know the title of the song in your post because it makes it so much more fun.

The song I chose, oddly enough, is Send in the Clowns which is a very old song sung by Peggy Lee...way back in the day. The reason why it's an odd choice for me is that usually I am terrified of clowns. I mean I (and my husband and sister) could tell you stories...I digress. The exception to that is those wonderful French clowns, sometimes called Harlequins or Pierrots. For some reason, they don't creep me out and give me shivers like other clowns do. I find them sweet and touching with wonderful stories to tell. So when I saw these three charming images from Rick St. Dennis, I knew I wanted to play with them and this was the song that seemed to fit. They are hauntingly touching...how does he do that?

I started out gessoing the two page spread in my altered dictionary, making sure to leave the word and definition unaltered. Then, using Matte medium, I joined those two pages to the ones next to them for strength because mixed media can be hard on single pages. Next I layered three colours of Neocolor II watercolour crayon in scribbled stripes across the page and used water on a wide brush to activate and blend the colour. To intensify the hues at the edges, I applied Gelatos in the same three tones using a wet finger to blend.

I brushed some gesso on the bottom of a flipflop and stamped it in two directions to make the crosshatching. More gesso was pounced through Dylusions  dotted flowers stencil. Black gesso was pounced through TCW's Mini Chevron Arrows stencil. Both Memento Love Letter and Peanut Brittle inks were applied through TCW's Mini Tile Texture stencil using a make-up wedge. Jet Black Archival ink was stamped randomly on the spread using a TH script stamp.

The fabulous clowns were coloured with Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut leaving a narrow border of white around each. The pompoms were emphasized with Black Diamond Stickles. The Pierrots were then mounted on black punched circles and adhered to the background. I love that parts of them are coming off of the circles almost like spotlights. It seems more playful and Cirque de Soleil-ish.

MFT's Harlequin border die was used to cut the diamonds. The horizontal ones were left intact but the vertical one was cut apart to place then point to point. Four different fonts were used for the message. Three are stickers and the word clowns is made using Idea-ology AlphaParts in Ransom font.

After checking out the page to see what it needed, more gesso marks were made with the side of a gift card, with a splatter stamp, and with a bottle top and watered down black gesso. Three music note brads were added to the pages to play up the song theme. Doodling with a black pen and edging the pages with Black Big Brush pen were the final touches.

Thanks so much for joining me today. You have made the clowns and me very happy. Those are tears of joy they are shedding. Be sure to check out the Eclectic Ellapu blog to see what the rest of my fabulous Purple teammates have created  for my "Inspired by a Song" challenge. Not only is it worth the trip but you might just come away with the urge to play along with us on this challenge.

I am entering this project in the following challenges:
Left of Center Creative Challenges ~ #14  No designer paper
Bloggers Challenge ~ Backgrounds
Digitally Sweet Challenges ~ #53 Anything Goes
Crafter's Cafe Challenge ~ #28 No designer paper
Crafting by Designs ~ Anything Goes
Creative Belli Challenge ~ #178 Use yellow/orange/red plus older embellies (letter stickers)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie