Monday, August 19, 2013

Party Like It's Mardi Gras

Stephen's World of Colors book (from the Kindred Souls group) landed in my mailbox last week, and seeing his color choices (purple and gold) just made me think of the jewel tones of mardi gras.  I began by painting my page black, knowing that would make his colors pop.  Then came the search for images.  I'm sure many of you get Somerset Studios magazine.  You know those free art papers that they put inside for our use?  Well, I usually pull them out and save them in a folder, and that's where I found the two partiers.  Don't know which issue they were in, but the page is called Bohemian Souls.  I printed it in black and white and colored the characters with pastel crayons, inks, markers, stains, paint, etc. And altered the costumes a bit more with stencils and sparkly bits.   Here they are, dancing the night away with great abandon.

 
 
Before glueing them down, I decorated the black page with stencils and doodling, in various shades of gold and purple.  Then I found some sari ribbon for the "curtain" above.  The ribbons photographed kind of blue and brown, but they are purple and gold. 
 
The quote is a rubber stamp I've had for about six years or so....I purchased it at the first stamp expo I ever attended (along with a few MANY others), and sadly have no idea who manufactured it.  It was one of those unmounted inexpensive stamps you often find at those shows, piled together in a shoebox.  I've used it before, and have always appreciated the sentiment.
 
A closer look at the dancing duo:
 

 
The backs of the pages in this round robin are kept fairly simple, just containing our information.
 
 
 
Gold paper, and the rays are a Julie Fei-Fan Balzer stencil, with Wendy Vecchi's gold embossing paste applied over it.  More doodling with glaze pens, souffle pens and gel pens, a little bling in the center, and that's it.



9 comments:

Nancy said...

Very nice! Love the doodled background! Wendy's paste + Julie's stencil = great combo!

Dorothy said...

Very nice!!!

Bearcrazyman said...

Woo hoo.... another piece of your art for my collection.
Love it

Patzee said...

You really rocked these colors! Good tip about rescuing those art papers. You really captured the spirit of Mardi Gras with your colors and imagery! Bling on!!

Elena said...

Wow! I absolutely love it Eileen!! I adore those colors and the inages are fabulous!

LaStamper said...

Wow - great Mardi Gras imagery. Well done - I'm sure Stephen will love it.

tracyozzie said...

AS usual you work is beautiful. Love the originality of the page

Carin Winkelman said...

Nice! I especially love the doodled background in black white and gold.

Lori said...

Wow, really cool pages! Great idea with the Mardi Gra theme!