Irish Aurora ~ The East Wind Challenge #51 project

Hi everyone. It's time for our mid-month challenge over on The East Wind blog. Our theme this time is Recycle /Re-purpose which is one of my favourite things to do in my mixed media projects. I often save packaging, corrugated cardboard, junk mail, bits of ribbon or string...anything I think might be fun to incorporate in my art. Bit of a magpie I guess :) I think most people who play with mixed media are so I'm in excellent company.

For this project, I chose to feature the sweet faced Aurora St. Patrick's Day (on sale as this goes live) because she only comes out once a year. I coloured her with a mix of Polychromos and Prismacolor pencils and then fussy cut her leaving a narrow white border. Black cardstock was added to the back and trimmed out again to create a mat. She was then popped up on foam tape for dimension.

The 6 x 8 inch recycled white cardboard background had yellow and two shades of green acrylic paint brayered over it to get the background layer. Viridian Archival Ink was applied with a crosshatch stamp and Joggles Nonsense Latin Text stamp was rolled on using Jet Black Archival Ink. A Stencil Girl X stencil was sponged through with White Linen Dylusions paint and once dry a few of the x shapes were outlined loosely with black pen. To create the ground for Aurora, a piece of corrugated cardboard was ton and then the top layer peeled back to expose the corrugation. A piece of drywall mess was re-purposed into a second layer of ground and a star brad was used to anchor the left corner. Two clouds were die cut from French book text, matted with black, and the smaller one popped up on foam tape.

The sentiment, a freebie from Create With TLC (Thanks, Paulette), seemed like the perfect accompaniment to Aurora. It was fussy cut , matted with black, and  I coloured in some of the shamrocks with green gel pen. It was then popped up on foam tape. A simple black pen border was doodled around the edges and they were inked with Black Big Brush pen. Two tiny green clothespins were added to the left side before the black mat was added to frame the page.

Thank you for joining Aurora and me today. We both want to wish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day on the 17th. To see the rest of the wonderful projects by my talented teamies, be sure and pop by The East Wind blog. We would love to have you play along with our Recycle/Re-purpose challenge.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Vintage Style Collage in a Drawer

Hi everyone. Every once in a while, I get the urge to change up some of my home decor items. This week, it was an empty drawer that I have hanging as part of a group of three things in our living room. I had a painted background in there but I was tired of it and it didn't fit the room as well as it used to. Anyway, I decided to cut an insert from chipboard so that I could collage on it and then slide it over the previous insert. I collected a group of papers, ephemera, and embellies plus an old post card image from Steve's Mom's place.

I tore. inked using Vintage Photo and Black Soot Distress inks, and layered text, dotty, and a composite page to cover the chipboard. Then I adhered a piece of piece of crocheted lace to the right side. Two punched and matted photo corners were adhered in the two left corners. The photo image was adhered next and then  a sentiment pre-printed on a label was inked around and tucked slightly under the photo. Two black photo turns were attached with brads to overlap the photo. Two lengths of drywall mesh tape were cut and layered over the photo and the background, visually tying them together. A wood compass embellie along with two vintage buttons (thanks, Gram) were adhered to the top left of the photo.

Two wooden keys were overlapped along the bottom edge of the photo and a burlap flower was placed so that it linked the photo to the lace. The wooden button which was on the flower was removed and replaced with a vintage button. An Idea-ology metal word band was adhered with Scor-Tape and then brads to complete the bottom embellishing. The final steps were to add Vintage Photo and Black Big Brush Pen to the edges, to outline the layers, and to doodle a border before it was popped into the drawer which serves as a frame.

This is the grouping where the collaged drawer hangs. It fits perfectly with the colours and furniture now in the room. Happy Dance! Thanks for visiting today. I'm happy you did that. I have a couple more home decor projects in the works for future posts. One down...many to go :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Coffee ~ Inspired by a Bloobel Stamps image

Hi everyone. I love coffee...especially in the morning. When I saw this fun image from Bloobel Stamps, I could relate to that look of bliss on her face as she was sipping her coffee. The image is called My Cup of Tea which might be my late afternoon beverage of choice but to me, she is partaking of a steaming hot cup of joe.

I coloured her with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils adding Clear Wink of Stella to her eyeshadow and the steam from the cup for a little shimmer. She was fussy cut leaving a narrow white border, matted with black cardstock, and popped up on foam tape.

The 5 x 6 inch background of mixed media paper was spritzed with Lindy's Starburst Sprays in Witches' Potion Purple and Delphinium Turquoise through TCW's Bingo Stencil. You will  not get a crisp design because the sprays are too thin and seep everywhere but I love that blurry watercolour effect. I use very little spray and lift the stencil immediately flipping it over onto another sheet of paper to sop up the ink left on the front. The word coffee was stamped several times using a Penny Black alpha set and Forget-Me-Not Archival Ink. Deep Purple Archival Ink was sponged through TH's Splatters Layering Stencil to get the rings.

The sentiment from Create With TLC was printed on white cardstock, matted with black, and popped up on foam tape. A Starburst spritzed little doily was cut in half and tucked partly under the sentiment. Three coffee cup brads were attached to the left side of the page and steam was doodled in with a black pen. Dylusions Black Marble Paint was slightly watered down on my craft sheet and lines were created with it using an old gift card. A black photo corner was punched and added to the top right corner. Deep Purple Archival Ink was sponged onto the outside edges before they were edged again with Black Big Brush Pen. Finally to finish off the page, a black mat was added to frame it.

Thanks for visiting today. We appreciate your fine company even if one of us (ahem) is not willing to share her coffee. To see more of Lisa's quirky and whimsical stamps, pop on over to her Etsy shop. She also has a Facebook group where the members share their creations and celebrate all things Bloobel.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Week 9 ~ Joggles Art Journal Adventure

Hi everyone. I played in one of my art journals today completing my spread in response to Barb's prompt for the Joggles Art Journal Adventure Week 9 which was Longing For Spring. And boy, am I ! As usual, I kept some elements the same and varied others to suit my personal style. Instead of using Dylusions paints in the background, I spritzed the page with Lindy's California Poppy Gold and Marigold Yellow Orange and dried it with the heat tool. Then I spritzed Drop Dead Gorgeous Green Starburst Spray through TCW's Tile Texture Stencil and dried it again.

Yellow Ochre Archival Ink was sponged through the harlequin portion of Dylusions Diamond of a Border in several places. Peacock Feathers Distress Ink was applied with a TH splatter stamp to create the green coloured dots.

Joggles' Large Doodle Circle and Scribble Flowers #2 stamps were applied with Jet Black Archival to scraps of watercolour paper coloured with Starburst Sprays. Scribble Flowers #2 and #4 were also stamped onto mop-up cardstock with orange tones. I always keep ATC size rectangles of cardstock on my desk and use them to gather up the over-spray when spritzing with ink. They come in very handy for things like this. Stickles were added to the flower circles both for the sparkle and for the dimension it added. Music paper with left over green paint was used to stamp Joggles Leaf #2 and #4 and also to freehand cut the stems. Black pen was used to outline them and Idea-ology rub-on words were added near the leaves and stems.

I wanted to add a"Ground" line so the stems were anchored in some way so I cut a wonky strip of drywall mesh and colourized it with Peacock Feathers Distress ink. Black pen was used to outline it and create a border. The word Spring was stamped with a Hero Arts set of letters in three places to become part of the border. Black Marble and White Linen Dylusions Paints were used to add the rings using bottle lids. The final touch was to stamp a wee ladybug onto the same paper used for some of the flowers and adhere it next to the one stem.

Thanks for popping by today. I am delighted that you did that. If you haven't checked out Barb's Weekly Art Journal Adventure prompts on the Joggles blog, I encourage you to do that. They are a lot of fun and we have an AJA Facebook group with fabulous, friendly and talented folks who are also playing along. It's a great little community and we'd love to have you join us.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

The East Wind New Release ~ Anne with an E

There is something very charming and Canadian about the Anne of Green Gables book series by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Anne Shirley is such a firecracker, wise, and definitely her own person. I think many of us grew up reading about her adventures. I was so excited to see that Unky captured her in today's new release, Anne With an E,  at The East Wind. Of course, I had to colour her, using a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. Like most of my images, she was fussy cut leaving a white border and matted with black cardstock so she would contrast with the busy background.

The background began as a  5.75 a 8.5 inch remnant of  green designer paper...mostly plain with some faded writing here and there. Scraps of collaged text DP were torn and adhered to the green paper before Unity's Cooped Up Notes stamp was rolled onto it using Coffee Archival Ink. The same ink was used to apply one of the Stampotique Circle Cube stamps...love that stamp! White circles were added with gesso stamped using a mini-mister lid.

The quote from Anne herself was printed onto white paper, shaped with a stencil, and fussy cut. It was then faux stitched and matted with a gray blue paper to match her dress. Both the quote and Anne were popped up on foam tape. A black pen was used to outline the scraps of text paper and a black mat was added to frame the background.

Thanks so much for joining Anne and me today. To see the wonderful creations from my talented teamies, Be sure to pop over to The East Wind Facebook group where they will be posted throughout the day.We would love to see what you do with Anne as well.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

March RSD Facebook Challenge - Metal Magic

Hi everyone. With the beginning of the new month came the start of a new challenge theme on Rick St. Dennis' Fans & Friends Facebook group. The theme for the month of March is Metal Magic so we want to see you either add a metal embellishment, colour something to look like metal within the image or add some metallic paper or effects.Of course, you have to use a Rick St. Dennis image from either his Zibbet or Etsy shops. Easy, right?

I have found myself short of "no occasion" cards lately so that's what I decided to create featuring the sweet image called Astor. I coloured her with a mix of Polychromos and Prismacolor pencils adding clear rhinestones as rivets on her metal wings. She was fussy cut leaving a narrow white border and then matted with black before being trimmed out again. Astor was then popped up on foam tape.

The white card base is 4.5 x 5.5 inches. A piece of textured black cardstock was trimmed to fit inside that base. The black was then run through my Cuttlebug using a TH embossing folder called Riveted Metal. Treasure Copper, Treasure Silver, and two colours of Treasure Gold were then applied with my fingers over the embossed cardstock. Some went onto the flat spots but most highlighted the raised areas creating a shimmery and distressed effect. The black was then adhered to the card base and Astor was adhered to the background.

To continue with the metal theme, three gear embellies were adhered below her using Glossy Accents. Metal trim was adhered along the bottom edge of the background and shiny silver letters spelling out Wish were placed vertically along the left side. And there we have it...a project following the RSD FB Challenge theme of Metal Magic and a card to add to my "no particular occasion" stash.

Thanks for joining Astor and me today. We appreciate that so much. Tune into Rick's Fans & Friends FB page throughout the month of March to see how the other talented DT members respond to this challenge. We would love to have you play along.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

The East Wind Challenge #50 ~ Going Round in Circles

Hi everyone. It's the beginning of March...big YAY to that! One step closer to spring...we hope :) Today also marks the beginning of a new challenge at The East Wind Blog. Our theme for Challenge #50 is Going Round in Circles and all of the Blog DT are playing with the new release in the March TEW newsletter called Spring Has Sprung. I absolutely adore this character...she is sweet and innocent and loves simpler times and nature. She makes me smile.

I coloured her with a mix of Polychromos and Prismacolor pencils. She was fussy cut leaving a narrow white border around her and then matted with black cardstock to create a frame. This is my go-to style because it allows me to create a busy background and still have her show up well. Foam tape was added to the back to give the image dimension and create a shadow around it.

The 6 x 8 inch background of mixed media paper was spritzed with Drop Dead Gorgeous Green and Delphinium Turquoise Lindy's Starburst Sprays and then again with the same colours through TCW's Harlequin Stencil. Faint text stamping can be seen on the background as an Inkadinkado stamp was applied with Viridian Green Archival Ink. The black circles were created with one of the images on the Stampotique Circles Cube and Jet Black Archival Ink. The same ink was used to create the splatter dots with a TH stamp. The white circles were done with Dylusions White Linen paint and a bottle lid. A zigzag stitch stamp was applied to the background with Forget-Me-Not Archival Ink. White embossing paste was scraped through Dina Wakley's Plastic Canvas stencil for texture and dimension.

The sentiment was computer generated and printed onto white cardstock. It was then trimmed close, matted with black, and popped up on foam tape. To continue the circle theme, half circles were punched, faux stitched, and added above the sentiment to give it more visual weight. Pink and white washi tape was adhered to white cardstock, cut into flags, and adhered to the two sides. Small enamel star stickers were used to accent them. A narrow doodled border and Black Big Brush pen were added to the outside edges before a black mat was adhered to the background to frame it.

Thanks for stopping by today. When you get a chance, pop over to The East Wind Challenge Blog to see the other DT members' fabulous creations using this sweet image. We would love to have you play along with our Going Round in Circles challenge.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie