Hi everyone. It's Bonnie here today. Earlier this week, I decided to play with an image from The East Wind for  a circle themed challenge for which I needed an inspiration piece. I coloured Lucy Loo Flower Goddess with my Prismacolor pencils, adding some tiny punched flowers to her neckline and sleeve. The image was then cut out with a Die-namics circle die and inked around the edge with Peacock Feathers Distress ink.

A rectangle was cut from black cardstock slightly smaller than the white card base. Three smaller circles were cut from turquoise designer paper using dies from the same set. They were inked around the edges with Peacock Feathers and faux stitched with a black Micron. A length of black and white baker's twine was wrapped across the card bisecting the circles. Sparkly white letter stickers spelling JOY were added to the black background.

Once the image was adhered to the card, three tiny butterflies were punched from the same turquoise paper and shaded with Prismacolor pencil before colouring the bodies with black pen These were adhered coming off the image circle to seem like the butterflies were flitting about. It also ties the image to the background. A black button was added to the center turquoise circle...one more round element and it seemed to anchor the twine visually.

Thanks for visiting today. Lucy Loo and I appreciate you spending time with us.  Remember to check out The East Wind blog tomorrow when we will begin our next challenge.
Bonnie

If You Can't Take the Heat ~ TEW Challenge #11

We have a new challenge which began July 15 and will continue until the 25th at The East Wind and the theme is It's Getting Hot! Now you can interpret "hot" in many ways and there can be lots of reasons for the heat to rise so it's really pretty wide open. I chose to work with this fun image called Lucy Loo Attitude. I coloured her with my Prismacolor pencils, fussy cut her, and popped her up on foam tape.

The background started with a white card base and a rectangle of black cardstock cut to leave a narrow border of the white showing. I used the Dylusions Diamond of a Border stencil and white gesso to create some background pattern. Golden Iridescent Copper paint was pounced through the TCW Tiny Circles stencil to create a little more texture and pattern.

Three colours of cardstock were cut into a flame design and overlapped for the border at the bottom. Lucy Loo was tucked in behind so that she looks like she is standing in the fire...and obviously can handle the heat. A wooden Prima pointing hand icon was colourized with Treasure Gold and adhered beside Lucy with Glossy Accents. The cuff was coloured in with a paint pen and a "button" was created with a flat pearl. I added the hand to represent someone getting ready to tickle Lucy Loo...not a good idea as you can tell by the look on her face.

The sentiment which I love was computer generated, and the bottom section was matted in black before both were popped up on foam tape. Orange enamel dots were added to the top right corner to complete the card.

Thanks for stopping by today. If you are looking for  more inspiration and wonderful interpretations of the theme It's Getting Hot, pop over to TheEastWind Challenge blog to see the awesome creations by my talented teamies. We would love to have you play along with our challenge.

Bonnie

Fierce

Hi Everyone, It's Bonnie here today to share a tag I created with the new The East Wind release from Monday called Michelle the Nutshell. This was one of the winning photos from the portrait game that Kyra then drew and released as a digi. We all loved the photo and the image is a delight to colour and create with.

I coloured Michelle with Prismacolor pencils, adding a little detail with silver gel pen and a green half pearl for her earring. Michelle was then matted in black partially to add strength to the image because I knew her head would require several layers of foam tape in order to match the level of the metal.

The background started as a black #8 tag (3 x 6.25 inches). I applied Perfect Medium through a Dylusions harlequin stencil and then dusted the gluey spots with Interference Green Perfect Pearls. It has a gorgeous shimmer in real life and yet remains subtle. The metal sheet which is black on one side and silver on the other is from Add a Little Dazzle. It's fabulous stuff...embosses and cuts like butter, can be torn, rolled, so many possibilities. I embossed it with my favourite Tim Holtz folder, Riveted Metal. I then cut it down the center about half way and rolled the two halves back towards the edge like it was opening up. Before I adhered it to the background, I applied Black and Rust Alcohol inks and blending solution to age and grunge it up.

On the image, Michelle has a buckle at her neck so to repeat that I threaded a dotty ribbon through an Idea-ology buckle and wrapped the ribbon around the tag, using the same ribbon for the topper. As soon as I saw the photo and then Kyra's image, the word Fierce popped into my head as in a fierce competitor, fierce friend, and "don't mess with me" kind of fierce. I love the attitude I am imagining. The gold metal beads spell out Fierce and repeat the metal from the lower part of the tag. The last element is the heart with wings. It started out brushed gold but I added a little Treasure Silver wax to highlight the detail and tie it in with the other metals. I chose the heart because to me it represents both freedom to be an individual and speed from her roller skates.

Thanks for visiting today. We have a couple of challenges going on right now ~ our Facebook challenge theme is Wedded Bliss and our blog challenge theme is Ribbon. We'd love to see your projects entered into either of those or just shared with us on The East Wind FB group.

Bonnie

New Release ~ Lucy Loo Morning Coffee

WooHoo! Bonnie here today. It's Monday morning and that means that there is a new TEW image released at The East Wind and featured on our Facebook page. This one is called Lucy Loo Morning Coffee and as soon as I saw her I knew I had to play with this image. Molly (my cat) and I love our morning coffee. Molly loves it because while I am sipping and waking up she gets lots of attention and cuddles. I love it because ...it's coffee! Mmmm...that first cup in my favourite mug.

I coloured Lucy Loo and her feline friend with Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut her leaving a narrow white border. She was then matted with a narrow black border for contrast and to tie the image in with the background colour. Foam tape was applied to the back of the image to create dimension and shadow.

The background is a simple piece of black cardstock scored and cut to create a center step card. There are many tutorials on how to create this simple fold. The one I used is here. The coffee papers were purchased from  Poppy Dreamz  and were sized and cut to fit the three upper sections of the card. They were also edged with Black Soot Distress ink.

The sentiment which comes from Create With TLC seemed tailor made for this image. I printed it on white cardstock, edged it with Black Soot Distress ink an mounted it on foam tape. Two coffee cup brads with cheesecloth :steam" were fastened to either side. The final touch was to add the letter beads beside Lucy Loo...Mmmm because that's the noise I make with my first sip :)

Thanks for visiting today. Be sure to check out our Facebook group for the creations using this image by some of my talented teamies. We'd love to see your creations with Lucy Loo Morning Coffee, too.

Bonnie

Believe in Tomorrow ~ Aurora Gardening

Hi everyone! I'm delighted to share the tag I created for the current challenge at The East Wind. The theme is Embossing ~ Wet or Dry and the entire DT played with the new image, Aurora Gardening, which is the freebie in this month's newsletter for those who subscribe. I won't go into all of the details of how I created the background because you can get all of that on my personal blog post.

What I do want to talk about is a quick little lesson on creating flow in a project, regardless of what form the art takes. Flow is what helps a viewer's eye move through the piece so that the entire project can be read as one before someone zooms in on specific details. It prevents the person from getting stuck in one place on the composition. I want to highlight a couple of ways that I used flow on this tag.

By repeating the colours on the ribbons and layered flowers as well as repeating the round shape of the navy blue buttons, I have encouraged the eye to move from the top of the tag through it to the bottom. The eye looks for similarities within the design so it automatically moves from one to the other. The bits of orange, yellow, and blue in the image create repetition. Had I left the bottom flower off, though, the eye would have become stuck on the image and missed the rest of the tag and sentiment. Repeating those colours within the sentiment has the same effect.

Another tip I wanted to point out is that the butterfly brings a little of that brown colour from the bottom half of the background to the very top, again creating repetition and flow. The eye naturally moves around the tag to find similarities.

The last little thing I wanted to point out is the visual triangle I created with my colouring of the image. The three pops of orange from her hair ornament to the watering can to the carrot create a triangle which moves the eye around the image so that you don't miss a single detail.

Thanks for visiting today. I hope that I gave you a couple of things to think about when you are considering why a design is working...or not. Sometimes the addition of a little detail helps the flow and changes the feel of the entire design.

Bonnie

Friday Release ~ Spring Melody

Hi there! TGIF...and not just because the weekend starts at the end of the work day for many but also because at The East Wind, Friday means a brand new release! Love that! It's always exciting to see what new and wonderful image Unky will come up with and to imagine the many ways it can be incorporated into projects.

Today's new release is called "Spring Melody" and features the beautiful Aurora listening to her tunes.

What speaks to me from this image is how powerful and important our own music choices are to us. Music can energize, calm, evoke thought or make it go away. Music can bring us together, allow us to escape by ourselves, and it speaks its own language.It can make us laugh, cry, sing, and dance.

I found some fabulous quotes to share with you about music which might just find their way into my art journal or onto a card:

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.

Dear music, I will never be able to thank you enough for always being there for me.

When words fail, music speaks.

Music is a world within itself with a language we all understand.

Music expresses that which cannot be said and that which cannot remain silent.

Here is Bettina's fabulous creation using this new release:

I love how the music surrounds her on that amazing background. The sentiment "Live Fully" really sums up the gifts that music brings to this amazing life. The lovely wavy background reminds me of sound waves...so cool. I also wonder what she is thinking about and where the music has taken her.

What about you? Do you have a story about music or a particular song that brings back a memory within its first few notes? We would love to hear about it either in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

Thanks for visiting today. Please remember to share your fab creations with this or any other TEW image on our Facebook page. It's always so inspiring to see your projects.

Bonnie

Bonnie's Challenge #6 Project

Hi everyone. As you know, 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. Once again, I went the Mixed Media route for my response to this challenge.

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 out each balloon . The edges were inked 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 blue and brown inks as well as black gesso through 4 different stencils. The same inks was applied to two different stamps and rolled randomly here and there on the background.

The lettering is a mix of Idea-ology Ransom Alpha Parts, Scrabble tiles, and various stickers. 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. 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!

Bonnie