Craftitude Challenge #66 ~ Pop it up!

I love Rick St Dennis images...they tell the most wonderful stories and are a dream to colour. That's why I am so excited this fortnight because Rick St. Dennis is the sponsor for our new Craftitude Challenge, Pop It Up (add dimension). I am particularly smitten with his hat ladies so, of course, that's who I chose to feature on my ATC. This beauty is called May Lily of the Valley. I coloured her with Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut her leaving a narrow white border to help her stand out from the background. She was popped up on foam dots and asked to wait to one side (which didn't please her, I might add.

The background is a scrap of greeny-blue mottled designer paper which I stamped with a script stamp and Memento Teal Zeal ink as well as a circle stamp and Brilliance Galaxy Gold. This layer was edged in the gold ink and popped up on foam tape before being matted with black cardstock. Tiny blue glittery butterflies were punched and adhered to black ones in the center so that the wings could be popped up. Black half pearls were adhered to the bottom left corner and tiny ones to the butterfly heads.

Thank you for joining the elegant May and far from elegant me today. We both appreciate your company. When you get a chance, stop over at the Craftitude Challenges blog to see what the rest of our talented team did with their fabulous Rick St Dennis images. We would love to have you play along with our Anything Goes/Pop it Up challenge this fortnight.

I am entering this ATC in the following challenges:
As You Like It ~ Favourite Colour Duo and why (Bluey-green and turquoise...like the ocean)
Crafty Creations ~ #264  Something that begins with S ~ stamping on BG, silver gel pen on earrings)
Digi Stamps 4 Joy ~ #93 Girly/Feminine
AuroraWings ~  #3 Butterflies
The Squirrel & the Fox ~ #70 Let's Hear it for the Girls
Simon Says Stamp ~ Wednesday Challenge  Anything Goes

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Shattered

The East Wind Facebook Contest theme right now is Out of the Norm which inspired a journal spread that for me is just that. Instead of a watercolour or painted background which I usually create, I chose to use patterned paper and stamp right on top of it. I chose a mottled greeny/blue paper which had a few gold highlights and adhered it to the double page spread in my Dylusions journal. Galaxy Gold Brilliance ink was stamped onto the background using a circles stamp. Text and Crackled Marble stamps were also added with Memento Bamboo Leaves and Teal Zeal, rolling them onto the paper for random imperfect stamping.

Because I wanted the spread to convey both how shattered and broken Lucy Loo felt as well as her incredible strength of which she may not be aware, I decided to add black cardstock embossed with a Sizzix Riveted Metal plate. To me, this shows the strength of metal which has been patched back together and becomes stronger than before...just like Lucy can be. I highlighted the embossing by applying Renaissance and White Fire Treasure Gold, Treasure Silver,  and Treasure Bronze, all gilt waxes, to the background with my finger. I love the richness and age this gives to the simple black cardstock. These pieces were torn and adhered to the background in 4 places.

I coloured The East Wind's image, Lucy Loo Love Me, with my Prismacolor pencils. To make reference to the idea that she was feeling shattered, I decided to cut her into fragments and adhere them to black cardstock with narrow spaces between them. The problem was that she was so pretty that I had to really convince myself to cut her up.

However, the theme is out of the norm and cutting up a freshly coloured image is not something I usually do so I went for it! Yiiikes! I left a narrow border of the black to mat her and popped her up on foam tape, tucking bits of cheesecloth behind her.

The heart is a Paper Artsy stamp which was placed on white cardstock, coloured with Prismacolor pencils, and edged in Black Soot Distress ink. It was also popped up on foam tape and cheesecloth was adhered behind it. I love how banged up it looks and that zipper is cool...and suited the page so well. I like how Lucy is looking toward the damaged heart.

The sentiment was computer generated and printed on kraft which was then torn, inked with Vintage Photo, and doodled on. I wanted the sentiment to be uplifting and encouraging, and to remind Lucy of how truly strong she is...that she has choices.

The lettering for Shattered is Idea-ology Alpha Tiles with white paint dots added. The letters were doodled around and then shaded around with a charcoal pencil. More doodling as well as Black Big Brush pen were added to the outside edges of the spread. The final details added were the screw head brads, resin hand, clock faces and hands, and the key, all of which had meaning for the spread.

Thanks for stopping by today. Lucy and I both appreciate that. Your interest and kind comments are always so welcome! If you get a chance, take a peek at the entries and DT projects  for The East Wind Facebook contest. We would love to have you join us:)

I am entering this project in the following challenges:
MilkCoffee ~ Anything But a Card
Left of Center Creative Challenges ~ #32 Girly
Artbymiran ~ #6 Anything Goes
Come and Get It ~ Lots of Layers
Quirky Crafts ~ #11 Clocks (It's about quirky time)
Glitter n Sparkle ~ #86 Add some metal
Pile it On ~ #21 Metal
613 Avenue Create ~ #73 Use Metal
Oddball Art Stamp Co ~ Girly and Glam

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

CYP #215 ~ Frame it!

Hello everyone! Since it's Monday, it's time for a new challenge at Craft Your Passion and the theme this week is Frame It. We want to see frames of some kind used on your main image of your projects...something you probably already do all the time and don't even notice. You can even mount the image on something to give the appearance of being framed. Our wonderful sponsor this week is Inky Impressions and the image I chose to play with is Golfing PaPaw. How dapper is he with his plus-fours and argyle socks. I coloured PaPaw with Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut him leaving a narrow white border so that he would be more visible against the background.

The card base is white and the argyle paper comes from DCWV's The High School Matstack. The frame layered on top of the argyle paper is one of several that have been in my stash for evah...no idea who marketed them but it was a perfect fit for PaPaw so I popped it up on foam tape to add a little extra dimension and then matted it with black cardstock. PaPaw was also popped up on foam tape before he was added to the center.

The sentiment was computer generated and matted in black. An internet golf ball and tee image were fussy cut and added to the frame with foam tape. A length of green and blue narrow ribbon was fed through a slit in the crease and wrapped around the front of the card.

To complete the design, two tiny blue buttons were threaded with green twine and added to the top left of the frame to create better balance and to bring those colours to the top of the card. Thanks so much for joining PaPaw and me today.We always appreciate your fine company. When you get a chance, pop over to the Craft Your Passion blog to check out the wonderful projects from the rest of the talented DT. I'm hoping they inspire you to play along with our Frame It challenge.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create ~ #73 Anything Goes
One Stitch at a Time ~ #214 Anything Goes
Catch the Bug ~ Photo Inspiration (Outdoor summer activity)
Di's Digi Designs ~ Make it Masculine
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge ~ #30 One for the Guys - Big or Small
Simply Create Too ~ #62 Father's Day/Male

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Oceans of Joy ~ CYP Challenge 214

Happy Victoria Day to my fellow Canadians! I was able to get out into the garden a couple of times in the past few days so my flower beds are looking much better. I have a bumper crop of weeds from all of the rain we have had...lol. We have a new challenge at Craft Your Passion this week. The theme is Pearls and Lace and our fabulous sponsor is Aurora Wings. I am a huge fan of Mitzi's art so I was delighted to play with this sweet Blingy Mermaid with Shoe image for my card. I coloured her with Prismacolor pencils, adding some metallic gel pens to her jewellery and Stickles to her shoe. She was an absolute delight to colour with that fabulous hair and those scales. She was fussy cut with a narrow white border and then matted with black cardstock before being cut out again. Then she was popped up on foam tape to create dimension and shadow.

The background paper comes from K& Co.'s SW Nature Paper Pad. Love the mottled green and gold for the ocean theme. A scrap of kraft cardstock was torn and then tortured! I crumpled it and then inked it with Vintage Photo Distress ink to create the sand layer. It was adhered to the blue-green background and then that layer was matted with black cardstock. A length of delicate lace was tucked under the top edge of the "sand". Some seaweed (work with me, people!) was cut from bronze metallic paper with a Memory Box Twigs die and tucked under and over the lace. A tiny white bow was added to the one branch.

The sand was partially covered with glittery K & Co. seashell stickers and flat pearls. The sentiment was computer generated, cut with a SB die and matted in black. Faux stitching was doodled around the outside. A double row of pearls embellished the top of the card and brought a little white up there to create flow. Dew Drops were adhered to the background to look like bubbles coming from our little mer-friend.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. My mer-friend and I both appreciate that. When you get a chance, pop over to the Craft Your Passion Challenge blog to see the lovely Lace & Pearls creations by the rest of our talented DT. We would love to have you play along with us. The lace can be real or punched which leaves lots of leeway for your imagination and supplies to play along.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Sweet Pea Stampers ~ Use Kraft
Sister Act Card Challenge ~ #57 Anything Goes
QKR Stampede ~ # 88 Punches or Dies
Creative Fingers ~ #36 Anything Goes with Aurora Wings
Addicted to Stamps ~ #82 Inspired by a Song ( Under the Sea...which is now stuck in my head!)
613 Avenue Create ~ #72 Anything Goes

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Asian Beauty ATC ~ Craftitude Challenge #65

Hello, everyone! It's that time again...time for a brand new challenge theme over at the Craftitude blog. This week we have two wonderful sponsors, MilkCoffee and The East Wind. I chose to play along with the challenge theme of That's Die-licious  using an image from The East Wind called Asian Bun. We would like to see you use something cut with a die for this challenge, although you are also welcome to follow the ever popular Anything Goes theme. I coloured this beautiful woman with Prismacolor pencils and then fussy cut her. She was popped up on foam tape and set aside to await her background.

For that, I chose a patterned paper from The Far East Stack from DCWV. The paper has a very subtle gold dragon in the background. I emphasized the gold by lining the outside edge with a metallic gelly roll pen before matting it with black cardstock. The tree branches were cut using a die and then adhered to the page so that they look like one branch. Tiny pink flowers were cut with a Punch Bunch tool, sculpted with a stylus and given pearl centers before they were adhered to the branches to resemble cherry blossoms. Three more were grouped at the bottom left of the ATC in order to bring some pink to that corner as well as create a diagonal flow through the image. A tiny black butterfly was punched and given Icicle Stickle shine on its wings.

I purposely kept this ATC simple both because the image is strong enough to stand alone and because the Asian feel to this card lends itself beautifully to a more serene background. Thanks so much for stopping by today. When you get a minute, pop over to the Craftiude Challenges blog to get an eyeful of the wonderful That's Die-licious inspiration provided by the rest of our fabulous DT. Hoping you'll join us for this challenge!

I am entering this ATC in the following challenges:
Crafty Sentiments Designs ~ Flowers
Digi Choosday ~ Week 19 Embellish It
Glitter n Sparkle #84 Female

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

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