eclectic Paperie Sneaky Peek

Hi everyone. It's my turn to post over at the eclectic Paperie blog today. I'm featuring one of my few remaining altered dictionary spreads: V is for Veil. For more pics and description, pop over to the eP blog to check it out! Thanks bunches!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

CYP Challenge #212 ~ Show Us the Funny

I found this week's combination of Bugaboo Stamps as our Craft Your Passion sponsor and the challenge theme of  Show Us the Funny to be completely irresistible...so much so that I made two cards instead of just one. What can I say? I love Bugaboo images and quirky humour. I coloured both images, Stella Fairy Visit and Flowers Trio, with Prismacolor pencils.

The Stella image was cut out with Spellbinders Deckled Mega Rectangles Large and then inked around the edges with Broken China Distress ink.

The flowers image was cut with a SB Labels One die and edged with Black Soot Distress ink. Both were matted with black cardstock and doodled on with a black Micron pen.

Stella's black card base was cut, scored, and folded into a center step card. The lightly glittered patterned paper comes from DCWV's The Posies Stack and was cut slightly smaller than the spaces so that a black mat would be visible and contrast with the DP. Small black stars were punched, adhered to the side panels and embellished with white half pearls. The word Poof, which just happens to be the noise Stella the Fairy makes when she magically appears, was printed twice with a Dymo labeller. The sentiment was computer generated and matted in black so it would have the same weight and impact as the image and panels. Three black half pearls were adhered to the top right of the image panel. Icicle Stickles were applied to Stella's wings and wand. Glossy Accents on her glasses give them shine and dimension.

The flower card has a rectangle of black paper from my stash backed with black cardstock. The corner of both was rolled over a large paint brush handle to give it curve instead of folding it. The very tip was held down with a button brad which allows the corner to still have dimension since it pops up near the flat edge. Two lengths of fuchsia satin ribbon were wrapped to the back of this layer before the image was adhered over top.

The sentiment from Create With TLC was printed on white cardstock and cut with an SB Classic Ovals Large die before being doodled around, matted in black, and popped up on foam tape. A hole was punched with my Crop-o-dile and another length of the same ribbon was threaded through it. A double layered butterfly was cut with an EK Success punch and stacked with the black solid one on the bottom. They were only adhered to each other at the body, allowing the white wings to lift.

Thanks for visiting today for this two-fer. When you get a minute, stop over at the Craft Your Passion Challenge blog to see the humourous creations from the rest of our talented DT. We'd love to have you join us for Challenge 212 and to have you Show Us the Funny!

I am entering the Stella Card in the following challenges:
Addicted to Stamps ~ #81 Things with wings
Catch the Bug ~ May Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create ~ #70 Anything Goes
Quirky Crafts ~ #9 Something Beginning With S (Stella)
Sweet Stampin' Challenge ~ Fairies or Fantasy

I am entering the Flower Trio card in the following challenges:
Catch the Bug ~ May Anything Goes
Dragonfly Dreams ~ #5 How Does Your Garden Grow?
The Ribbon Girls ~ April  Card Challenge  Ribbons & Flowers
Allsorts ~ #257 Butterflies
Crazy 4 Challenges ~  #234 April Showers Bring May Flowers

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Believe ATC ~ Craftitude Challenge # 64

It's time for a brand new theme at Craftitude Challenges. This time we offering our usual Anything Goes theme but our optional one is to follow a Recipe. The challenge theme is called Easy as 1-2-3 and we'd like to see 1 image - 2 designer papers - 3 embellies. It sounds complicated but it's really a piece of cake. Our wonderful sponsor this time is the fabulous Eureka Stamps. I love the range and variety of images they offer and have the hardest time choosing only one. This time I decided to play with Lacy Butterfly...how gorgeous is that? I coloured Lacy with Prismacolor pencils and dotted the body marks with a silver gel pen. The image was fussy cut and outlined along the edges with black. The antennae were cut off and replaced with fine hemp cord and the head was given a black half pearl. The image was popped up on foam tape.

The background for this ATC is blue and yellow scraps. The blue was stencilled with Forget-Me-Not Archival ink sponged through TCW's Tile texture stencil. It was also applied to the edges before being matted with black cardstock. The yellow papers were torn and edged with Vintage Photo Distress ink. Scuffs of white gesso and stamped Vintage Photo splatter dots were also added to the background. The metal Believe bead was threaded onto turquoise hemp cord which was then wrapped around the ATC. The bead was glued in place with Glossy Accents to keep it from sliding. Tiny flowers were punched and sculpted before being adhered and given pearl centers. A tiny scrap of black was cut into a triangle and adhered to the opposite corner for balance.

That's it for my take on the recipe: I image (Lacy Butterfly), 2 DPs (yellow and blue), 3 embellies (half pearls, hemp cord, bead). Thanks for hanging out with me today. I appreciate that and I'm sure Lacy does, too, in her own flighty way...lol. When you get a chance, pop over to the Craftitude Challenges blog to see the lovely creations by our talented DT. Our newest members have added their fab creations this time. Hope you'll join us for this Anything Goes/Easy as 1-2-3 challenge.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Guess who is an artbymiran Guest Designer... Moi!

I am so excited to have been invited to Guest Design for the artbymiran Challenge #5 beginning today. I love Mi Ran Jung's fabulous images which can be purchased from her Etsy shop. They are a delight to colour and have wonderful stories to tell...plus her Design Team is so talented that I feel honoured to be featured on the same blog with them. The theme for Challenge #5 is Anything Goes ~ who doesn't love that!

 I chose to create with one of the images that I won for Challenge #2 called Isabel's Bouquet which can be found here. I coloured Isabel with Prismacolor pencils and then fussy cut her. I matted her with a narrow border of brown cardstock and popped her up on foam tape for added dimension.

The background papers came from DCWV's Collage Art Stack. Both layers had additional stencilling added, although the bottom one was mostly covered. The yellow layer was cut with a Spellbinders Curved Rectangles die. It was then stencilled with Vintage Photo Distress ink through TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil as well as Orange Blossom Archival ink through TCW's Web Doily stencil. The edges were inked with Vintage Photo Distress ink and then doodled around with Sepia Micron pen. Both the pink layer and the yellow layer were matted with dark brown textured cardstock.

Sandwiched between the pink and yellow layers was a piece of burlap which adds wonderful texture even though it barely peeks out. The yellow layer was wrapped with yellow gingham printed ribbon backed by pink grosgrain ribbon with white stitching. This layer was then popped up on foam tape and adhered to the background.

To complete the card, a pink mulberry flower, some burlap leaves and two resin flowers whose colour was altered to brown with a Big brush pen were adhered to the top left corner. A punched photo corner was added to the top right and three brown brads were added to the bottom right. For better balance and layout, three strips of brown cardstock were adhered to the left of the image.

Thanks for stopping by today to meet Isabel. Both she and I appreciate that so much. When you get a chance, pop over to the artbymiran Challenge blog  to see the amazing inspiration provided by the artbymiran DT for this fun Anything Goes Challenge. We would love to see your creations, too. Hope you'll play along!

Thanks again to Mi Ran for this wonderful opportunity. I loved every minute of it!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

The East Wind Challenge #6 ~ Die Cuts or Punches

Hi everyone! I don't know about you but I cannot believe it is May, both because of the still cold weather and  because I swear it was just the beginning of March yesterday. Anyway, May it is and that means that it's time for a new challenge at The East Wind. Our theme for this month's freebie challenge is Die Cuts or Punches and we have the sweet Aurora image, Love Mom, to work with this time. You will get her in the May newsletter if you are a subscriber. 

I coloured Aurora with Prismacolors except for those wonderful balloons which I paper pieced. I fussy cut the image, leaving off the strings and printed two more balloon images for the patterns. I traced those onto the backs of the DP(could have flipped the image and printed it on the back of the various papers, too) and then cut each balloon out. The edges were edged with Distress inks to create the shading and the roundness. All were glued flat to the original white image. The pink ones were cut out a second time so that a layer could be popped up on foam tape but still be pink underneath...a little detail but it makes a difference. Hemp cord was used as the balloon strings. The entire image was then layered on black cardstock and fussy cut close to the original lines, leaving a narrow mat. This added strength to the skinny bits and gave the strings something to support them.

The background is a section of an old Scrabble Board which had been chopped into quarters. Watered down white gesso was applied to the board so that the Scrabble squares were still visible. Then mottled blue paper was torn and adhered to the right hand 2/3 of the substrate with Matte Medium.

Stencilling was done with Cornflower Blue Archival ink sponged through a Memory Box Star stencil as well as TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil. The same ink was applied to a script stamp and rolled randomly here and there on the background. Vintage Photo Distress ink was sponged through TCW's Mini Confetti stencil to create the splotches and then stamped here and there with my favourite TH splatter stamp. Black gesso was pounced through TCW's Tiny Circles stencil as well.

The lettering is a mix of Idea-ology Ransom Alpha Parts, scrabble tiles, and various stickers. The Scrabble tiles and the mini wooden letter tiles were edged with Vintage Photo to age them and also make them contrast with the background. Remnant Rubs were added to the balloons to remind me of some of the lessons my mom taught me. The wee stars and the Post Card symbol are also Remnant Rubs. Heart washi tape was added in three spots and two photo turns with pearl inserts were added to opposite corners. The stars were punched out of black cardstock using a Tonic punch...almost forgot to add them. Hello...the theme is Punches or Dies :) The turquoise flower is actually a button covered with card candy. I like how it draws my eye to the top of the piece where the wording starts.

The final touches were the doodling done with black pen and the darkening of the edges with Black Big Brush pen to help frame the piece.

Thanks so much for visiting with Aurora and me today. It's always a treat to have you here. When you get a minute, check out The East Wind Challenge blog to see the clever ways that my talented teamies used this very same image. I love seeing how different the same image can look. We would love it if you joined our challenge #6, Punches and Dies. Hope you do!

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

You Can Do It! ~ CYP Challenge 211

Hello there! It's time for a new challenge at Craft Your Passion Challenges. The theme for Challenge 211 is Up in the Air. We want to see anything that can fly. Easy peasy! Our fabulous sponsor this week is The Doodle Garden and I chose to work with this sweet image called Eloise the Tightrope Elephant. I coloured Eloise with Prismacolor pencils and cut her and her tightrope out with a Spellbinder's Wonky Squares die. The edges of the square were inked with broken China Distress ink and the image was matted in black cardstock. Eloise was given black half pearl eyes and black cord was glued over the tightrope in the image with Glossy Accents.

The background papers are a mixture from my scrap box. I chose the harlequin pattern because it reminds me of the pattern on those animal stands in the circus. Both of the main papers were matted in black. The flowers were fussy cut from Amy Tangerine paper with extra centers cut and popped up on foam for dimension.

The sentiment was computer generated, cut into a banner, and matted in black. Black enamel card candy was added to either end as well as the corner element. Dots and faux stitching were doodled to add to the whimsy of the card.

Thanks for stopping by to visit with Eloise and me. We both love an audience and certainly appreciate the time you spend here. If you get a chance, pop over to the Craft Your Passion Challenges blog to see the delightful projects created by my teamies. These images from The Doodle Garden are so fun...they are sure to bring you a smile. I hope you will play along with our Up in the Air challenge this week.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create ~ #69 Anything Goes
One Stitch at a Time ~ #210 Anything Goes
That Craft Place ~ Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge ~ #198 head gear
Kitty Bee Designs Aloha Challenge ~ #22 Animals
Open-Minded Crafting Challenges ~ #9 Sports & Activities (Extreme Tightrope Walking)
Cute Card Thursday ~ #318 Blue & Green

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Love You, Mom ~ The East Wind new FB contest

On the 21st of each month a new contest begins on The East Wind Facebook page. The theme for this month-long contest is Mother's Day which will fall within this contest period. I chose to create a tag featuring this absolutely gorgeous image by Unky called Aurora Love You. I coloured Aurora with my Prismacolor pencils before fussy cutting her and matting her in black cardstock. Colouring her hair and that sweet face was a treat. She was popped up on foam tape and set aside to await her background.

I used a Wendy Vecchi Art Parts scallop tag with trim as the base for my tag. I covered the extra scalloped piece with scraps of patterned paper and traced the tag shape onto a larger scrap. Stamping was done on both pieces with a text stamp and Brilliance Archival ink in Rocket Red Gold. Two torn pieces of French text from some thrift store books was inked with Vintage Photo and adhered to the tag background. Three banner flags from sparkly scraps were adhered as bunting to the upper portion of the background. Then I made the trek upstairs to do some machine sewing to the background before adhering it to the tag base. I stitched both across the bunting flags and over the text paper to add subtle texture and interest.

The background was adhered to the tag and then stencilling was done by pouncing gesso through TCW's Mini Tiny Circles and Well Rounded stencils. Coffee Archival ink was sponged through Memory Box's Rings and Puddles stencil. Doodling was added around the edges, around the larger gesso circles, and to outline the added text paper and flags. One of the hardest things I had to learn with mixed media was to keep the doodling loose and a little messy. It just looks better when it is less precise.

The scalloped edge was adhered to the back of the tag and flat white pearls were added. Aurora was placed so that her hands were at the bottom of the main section and the bow overlapped the scalloped edge. A length of baker's twine was adhered above the bunting and a punched star matted in black covered the hole in the tag. Black ribbon with white stitching was glued to the back of the tag as a topper.

Thanks for stopping by today to visit with Aurora and me. We appreciate your fine company. We'd love to see you play along with The East Wind's new contest on our Facebook page. It's always inspirational and a delight to see how you use these fabulous images and who knows...you could be our next winner.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie