What The Dickens- The End of The Bears' 3rd Challenge

Hello there peeps. How are you all this breezy late September day? Today we end our third literary challenge, and show you what we came up with.

First though, we must say a very BIG thank you to our 'joiner-inners'

Ali

Butterfly

Kim

I hope you can take time to visit each entrant, as they all produced such lovely interpretations of the theme.

So, what did the bears produce? Well we tasked Pooh with this challenge, as he'd been mumbling that he wasn't being given enough airtime on the blog (!)
To stop him whinging on we left him to it, and this is what he came up with




Over to you for a walk through, Pooh.

Hello there lovely followers, my interpretation of the Dickens themes of Gentleman, decay, and neglect centred on Pip's idea of what a gentleman is, interspersed with the reality of Miss Havisham's neglected and decaying state of living.

To start, I took a previously worked on art journal page, and challenged myself to see if I could alter it to fit the bill. The page had a giant S stencilled onto it, and I thought I could use this to make the word 'Satis', for Miss Havisham's house. I started by covering the pages in yellow, to depict neglect and decay, and to interpret Pip's impression of Miss Havisham's appearance when he fist meets her.


The yellow was a little too bright for my liking, so I used a glimmer mist spray to introduce a more aged and decaying effect.


Then I inked over the pages in Walnut Stain distress ink. The more aged the page looked, the better.


Next, I just had to add a cobweb, what would a page with Miss Havisham be without one? I asked myself! I added some texture paste to our cobweb mask, using Horace's Itunes voucher (I think he'd used all the credit on it!)


I then created a crackled background effect using stamps without acrylic blocks.



Rolling the stamps randomly over the page produces a less uniform and more sporadic effect. Perfect for a page of neglect such as this.


All the random stamping left me a little lethargic, so I climbed into the bears' bed for a nap.



On awaking I felt like a new bear, however, we've just taken on Cedric, so I continued with the page instead!

I inked up some suitable images from various stamp sets


Using our tried and tested method of stamping, I stamped onto tissue paper


To produce images of a gentleman, Satis House, and a spider! What a random lot!


I wanted the images to blend into the background of the page, so applied some Mod Podge to the page and adhered my tissue paper stamped images to this.


I then applied a generous amount of Mod Podge, to completely cover the images. Left to dry, the Mod Podge, along with the tissue paper, should disappear, like magic!


Next I needed to cut Miss Havisham's heart (that sounds painful). I used the yellow Sizzix Originals heart die in the cuttlebug.



I tore, crumpled and distressed poor Miss Havisham's heart, to show that despite the passing of the years, she had never moved on and allowed it to mend.


I decided the page needed a sentiment, so chose 'In shutting out the light of day, she had shut out infinitely more'. I think this sentiment sums up Miss Havisham's life since her rejection perfectly.


Finally, my finished page, Pip is on the left. Looking down at Satis house, he imagines a grand life as a gentleman, but the reality is very different, as he finds out when he encounters Miss Havisham, and her sad, neglected life. Miss Havisham is shown surrounded by the detritus of her wasted life, her wedding cake is encrusted in cobwebs, as is the rest of the room. Her dress is tattered, and filthy at the ends. Behind her is a huge cobweb, with a spider dangling idly down, he knows he won't be disturbed.


I hope you enjoyed my little demo of my page. We'll be back tomorrow, with an October challenge, which we hope you'd like to join in with.

With love from the bears.

Cedric Earns His Keep

Hello there, Cedric here, the other bears said they thought I was a little lazy, as I've been enjoying relaxing on their sofa whilst watching the widescreen TV. They suggested that as I was only a squatter here I needed to earn my keep.




Apparently the bedroom needed a makeover, so I borrowed some work overalls and started on the coving.




It was hard work climbing up and down the ladder, it's not our real ladder - it's our step ladder!!!




Gluing the coving made my poor paws ache. I had to stay like this for ages to ensure a good 'stick'.




Next, the bears said the walls really needed brightening up. Wilbear had decorated in brown to complement the bears' fur when they moved into the House of Bears, but it was too dark a colour for a north facing room. They chose a soft creamy colour paint instead, showed me where the roller was, and left me to get on with it.




Not content with those two strenuous jobs, Horace suggested the old light switch needed to be replaced.




Goodness, I'll have muscles like Superted soon.




To finish the room off, I had to drill holes for shelf brackets.




The bears didn't posses a spirit level...but being an innovative bear I found my own way to check that the shelves were straight - lie on the shelves, if you don't roll off, it's straight. See, it works!




As for the finished result - the desk area




The bears relaxing in their newly brightened room




And another rather cute shot of us




Our entertainment area.




I think I've earned my keep now. I wonder if the bears will consider letting me stay permanently, I am a rather handy bear to have around, after all.
With love from the bears.

WOYWW - New Stash

Hello there lovely followers and WOYWWers. Podgy here today, sat at our little desk in order to pawticipate in the weekly fun that is WOYWW, hosted by the lovely Julia. If you don't have a clue what I'm on about just press your furry paw hereto find out.

So, Horace has been on holiday, and while he was off on his little jaunt, I 'accidently' clicked the buy option on a Cricut Cartridge, oops!!




It's called Heritage, and was just too lovely to resist.




I'm hoping to combine some of the images from it with the September scrapbook kit from Papermaze, their monthly kits are such great value, and are put together so well, that we can never resist purchasing one at the start of each month. I think September's has to be the best yet. Here are some of the embellishments included in the kit; flowers, wooden butterflies, tickets, bingo numbers, lace....this kit is a veritable treasure trove.




Here are some of the images I cut with the new cartridge. I need to poke all the little pieces of cut card from the house and tree, maybe I'll get Cedric to do that for me!




Now to play with the kit and cartridge and see what I can come up with, after a snoop around crafters' desks blog-wide that is.

Oh, and if you're in search of a crafty challenge, don't forget, the bears host their very own, just for fun literary based challenges, this months can be found Right hereThere's still time to enter, as we won't close til the end of the month.

With love from the bears.

The doubt monster

Hello from the bears. Wilbear says there have been far too many gratuitous bear shots in this blog lately and we really must concentrate on the art. We think he's just a bear with a sore head really but to appease him we thought we'd show you another art journal page, without any bear shots (how boring!)
Anyway, as creative bears, we find we often live with doubt that our work is just not good enough. Every time we attempt any art work we find a little monster inside us starts filling our furry brains with doubt. What better way to diminish his power that to 'out' him? So we did.




We chose a monster image from Google, we wanted him to look really unsure, and this one certainly fit the criteria.We coloured him with Spectrum Noir pens, in suitably monsterish colours.
We then created a background using our distress inks, and made a path for Doubty the monster to stand on, using a brick effect mask, and texture paste, which was then sprayed with glimmer chalk mist.
Our words came primarily from either magazines or adverts. We have a big bag of cut outs ready to use, and once we'd jumbled them about, we came up with the following:
'The doubt monster will make you think your own work is just not good enough, BUT..... You must not listen to him!
The truth is you have the power to choose to believe in yourself! Trust your imagination and have fun. It's all the inspiration you need to make it happen.'
We had such fun making this page, and every time our little doubt monster raises his unsure little head from now on, we will squash him back down again.

Thanks to our friend Butterfly, we're entering this into The collage challenge at unrulypaperarts at the eleventh hour. :)

With love from the bears.

Horace's Homecoming Surprise

Good evening all, Horace here, I'm home, the problem is, so is my friend Cedric!!! I wasn't able to check my blogger messages until I got home, where I read my friend Butterfly's comment to look behind me. Well there was nothing there! Then I realised she probably meant behind me in the photo.

I checked my bag, nothing there except clothes and souvenirs for the bears, I'd had a short snooze when I first arrived home though, so looked at the aforementioned photo to find a rather suspicious looking leg hanging out of my bag!

I hunted high and low in the bear bungalow, to find this little stowaway, relaxing on the bears' sofa!


I guess we have a new resident, he has offered to help with the craft projects though, to earn his keep. If we can force him away from his fascination at the Widescreen that is!

With love from the bears.

homebound Horace

Evening all, I've loved my hols, but I'm really missing the other bears now. I decided to have one last night here, and as I was feeling a little lonely on my own in the cottage I invited my new pal, the homeless Cedric, in for a chat before I left.

Cedric was telling me how he had no home to go to, and as it was a chilly night I invited him to sleep over for my last night. After all, I had a lovely big bed all to myself.




I'm not sure if he had a good sleep or not, as by the time I woke up, he was nowhere to be found. I guess he decided to carry on his nomadic travels.

Anyway, I'd packed my bag ready to travel home last night, but when I tried to pick it up just now, it seems really heavy compared to my journey up here. I really can't think why. Two mysteries, the disappearance of Cedric, and my extremely heavy bag. How odd!!




With love from the bears.

Horace's Friday adventure

Hello there lovely people. My little retreat is wonderful so far. I'm resting and recuperating as well as recharging my artistic batteries.

Today I decided to take a trip to Castleton, a very touristy kind of place, lots of shops and some stunning scenery too. I was most impressed with the coffee shop


And surprise! Look who I bumped into again, my pal Cedric. We had a lovely latte together.


Then I took myself off for a short drive, up to Surprise View, and what a surprise it was.


Panoramic views of The dales, how lucky was I to see all of this?


In fact, all the stunning scenery has inspired me. So when I arrived back at the holiday cottage, I cracked open the crafting supplies.




Fortified with a nice mug of coffee,


I made a thank you card


for my holiday home hosts, who have been most welcoming.


After making the thank you card, I decided to start on the bears' Christmas cards, as a nice surprise for the bears back at home, I know how stressed they get with all the projects we have on our to do list, so this will help alleviate some of the pressure for them.


I made all of these, Pooh will be really pleased with me!


With love from the bears.

Horace's Holiday pics

Hello there lovely followers, I thought, after talking about my lovely holiday so much, I should share a couple of pics from my bearphone camera app.

This is the day I met Derwent, he was sitting enjoying the view at Derwent Dam, how funny that the place was named after him eh? We got chatting,as bears do, and found we had a lot in common, including both being artistic types.



A droolsome pic of my cream tea at Chatsworth farm shop. As you see, I was a little too enthusiastic, and had a little chomp before taking the photo!


This is one of the many lovely views on my drive to Edale today, what stunning scenery there was around there.


And in the heart of Edale I found this wonderful little stream. I do love the sound of running water.


I partook of refreshment at the old Nags Head, after a short walk on the Pennine way ( I put about 10 pawprints on the footpath, so I can officially state that I, Horace, have walked the Pennine Way!)


This is the welcoming fire inside the Nags Head. I meant to take a photo of my delicious dinner, but once again hunger overtook my desire to record the meal for pawsterity, and the meal was gone before I could blink my furry eyes. Rest assured it was a meal fit for a very important bear though.


Tonight I've decided to chill out in front of the widescreen TV provided in my lovely holiday bungalow, must go, The 'Bear'tchley Circle is on. Mystery and intrigue to finish off my pawfect day.

TTFN

With love from the bears.