The East Wind Challenge #7 ~ Bride of May Altered Canvas

Hi everyone! We are beginning a new challenge at The East Wind today and the theme is Bride of May. I don't think I have ever done a wedding themed project before so this was certainly something unusual for me...and definitely fun.

I chose to play with the Flowery Bride image and a flat canvas for this challenge. I love the folds of her dress, her sweet hair with all of the flowers, and those big eyes. I coloured her with Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut her leaving a narrow white border to allow her to stand out against the black background. Foam tape was added to her back to increase dimension.

There are three papers layered onto the background. Both the black printed paper and the gray scrolly paper hidden behind the flowers and lace are from a very old black and white pad whose name has gone missing. The vintage music paper sandwiched between the gray and black ones is a thrift store find whose edges were darkened with Vintage Photo Distress ink. The black paper was fussy cut around the words to create a more interesting pattern. The same music paper was used to die cut the hearts and the oval for the sentiment which is a rub-on. Black brads affixed the sentiment oval to the black layer before it was adhered to the other layers. Two scroll flourishes, one light and one dark and also rub-ons, were transferred to the black and to the music papers.

A length of gorgeous lace was adhered across the top right corner to tie in with the wedding theme as well as the diagonal elements. Three paper flowers and three leaves were added to that same corner to repeat the colours of her bouquet and provide some balance for the image. Two black resin flowers were added to the cluster to provide contrast with the red and cream and pop a little black into the upper corner.

Three lengths of pearl tape were adhered to the opposite corner. Three rhinestones were glued to the top left corner (diamonds and weddings seem to go together) and another one dotted the i in kiss at the bottom right. Again, this emphasizes the diagonal lines in the design.

Thanks so much for visiting today. I always appreciate that you take the time to do that. When you get a minute, pop over to The East Wind blog to see the amazing Bride of May themed creations by the rest of my talented teamies. We would love it if you played along with us for Challenge #7!

I am entering this altered canvas in the following challenges:
The Paper Shelter ~ #158 Girly Girl
Paper Pretties ~ PWC310 Embellish
Inky Impressions ~ #159 Flower Power
Divas By Design ~ Anything But a Card (Altered Canvas)
Creative Moments ~ #12 Bingo (Flower/sentiment/more than 2 layers)
Crafting With Dragonflies ~ #26 Celebration
Time Out Challenges ~ #5 Time Flies, Love Lasts

I am enough ~ art journal spread

Hi everyone! I decided to have a play in my Dylusions art journal because it was feeling very neglected. I started by gessoing the two pages and then once dry scribbling pink and yellow Neocolor II crayons in bands. I spread the colour with a wet brush and added an even darker pink to the very bottom. The colours on the edges of the pages were deepened with gelatos and blended with a dry finger.

Stars were added to the background by applying Picked Raspberry Distress ink through a Memory Box stencil. Dots were added by pouncing white gesso through TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil and text was stamped with Brilliance Rocket Red Gold ink. The next step was to add some torn black cardstock and a bit of music paper to the base of the left side to give the Princess a place to stand. The stencilling from above was repeated over this and the extra scrap of black to embed them into the background. Vintage Photo Distress ink was applied through parts of TCW's Mini Confetti stencil and Salty Ocean Distress ink was brushed over the music paper.

The scalloped border at the top of the pages is a stamp from Stampotique applied with Archival Jet Black ink to some green and yellow DP. It was fussy cut, adhered to a strip of black for matting and then to the pages. The circles and the dots were added in white paint pen. Another strip of the same green was punched and adhered to the bottom after it was edged with Black Soot Distress ink. White dots were added to repeat the design from the top border.

The digi image comes from Oddball Art Co.Stamps. I really love the characters that the artist, Lizzy Love creates both for their funky styles and their expressive faces. I coloured Mia (she told me her name) with Prismacolor pencils and added a little extra doodling to her leg warmers and hair bow. Mia was fussy cut and adhered directly to the background with no black matting. The background was light enough for her to show up and her tights would have been lost against the black. A crown charm decorated with bling and pearls was added to her pretty princess head. Stabilo graphite pencil activated with a water brush was added for her shadow.

The princess sentiment is a favourite of mine from Create with TLC. I love how empowering it is. It was fussy cut, matted with black, and popped up on foam tape. The book which was printed on cream cardstock is a Tiddly Inks digi which I coloured with Prismacolor pencils, distressed with Vintage Photo DI, and fussy cut before popping it up on foam and adding a ribbon bookmark. Stencilling was done on the open pages to create continuity with the background. A pink ticket from my stash was added behind the book to bring that colour to the top of the page.

A large star was die cut to tuck under the book. White glittery sticker letters were added to the star as well as white dots around the edges. The strips of words were computer generated  and edged with Black Soot.

To finish off the spread, some black dotty strips were added to both sides using the top tear off piece from a pad of patterned paper. It's so cute...how could I throw it out? A couple of die cut rolled flower pieces were added next to the word strips. Black gesso was slightly watered down and applied to the pages in rings using bottle lids. The final details were the doodling done with a black Micron pen and three enamel candies for a little shine.

Thanks for visiting Mia and me today. I always appreciate your support and great company. I had a blast completing this just 'cuz project. Glad you were here to share it with me.

I am entering this journal spread in the following challenges:
Sweet Stamps ~ #169 Polka Dots
Through the Craft Room Door ~ Always Anything Goes
All Crafts Challenge ~ Anything but a Card
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge ~ Something Starting with M (Music, Mixed Media))
613 Avenue Create ~ # 71 Create your own challenge (image, die cut, Glossy Accents, pearls, ribbon)
One Stitch at a Time ~ #212 Use a Digi

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

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