WOYWW - the beginnings of a journal page

Well hello there, welcome to another Wednesday, I guess that means it's time for another WOYWW? If you haven't a clue what that little acronym stands for then press a furry little paw here to find out.
On the bears desk (dining table) this week we are creating a page for our June challenge, if you'd like to read more about this then click
Here to see details.
Here's the mess on the desk, lots of paints, gesso, sponges, kitchen roll, Mod Podgy.... Everything you'd expect to see for a painty project really. What a creative mess eh? We'll be posting the finished project at the end of the month, so do pop back to see it, we'd love to see you again.



oooh, don't forget to look at our candy, we'd love for you to leave a comment, no need to become a follower but there is a rather interesting entry requirement. The post is a sticky at the top if you'd like to read it.

With love from the bears

Doubling up on challenges

and I decided to try and double up on two of my favourite challenges, DragonsDream , which this fortnight calls for red, book pages/text and an embellishment, and Smudgy Antics, which calls for dripping of some form. Both of these challenges got my furry little cogs whirring.

Now Dragons is a tag challenge, so that was my first remit, and onto that I rubbed my new patterned roller, squidged in Versamark Watermark ink.


I then smooshed red pigment ink over the top of this, and forgot to get a close up of the result, if you bend your head awkwardly to the left, little bit more. Now look to the right of the picture below....you can just about make out the other tag already brayered in the same way.


I sorted through our stash (of two) old books, and pulled out this 1970s Alice in Wonderland book,



Flicking through the pages, I came across this chapter


Ooh perfect for an Alice in Wonderland 'drowning in tears' theme.....

So, what happened? Well, I had chanced upon our fabulous Stampotique Jeepers stamp, and she looked like she was desperate to be stamped, so I did...



Right onto the pages of an old telephone directory which was splattered with all manner of alcohol and distress inks. After a couple of unsuccessful stamp attempts (too dark as I'd stamped on a heavily inked piece of the text) I pawduced this



After adding the Alice in Wonderland book text to my tag, I squeezed alcohol ink in various places and gave the tag a good tap to produce a suitably drippy effect, culminating in a small pool of tears at the bottom. Serendipitously the alcohol ink used was called Stream!


Why add the key? I hear you ask, well before adding the Barn Door distress ink and the Stream alcohol ink, the text clearly referenced Alice talking about finding a key, silly me though, I've covered it up. It's round about where Jeepers' head meanders towards the right hand side of the page!


So, for Dragons dream we have red in the original background and also the barn door distress ink, book pages with text from the original AIW novel, and further text from the image stamped onto the old telephone directory pages, and an embellishment - the key, which was referenced on the original text, and for Smudgy Antics we have a kewl drippy effect, which is Jeepers tears, having spilled everywhere when she burst out crying!

With love from the bears

U is for Unique

( Take a look at our sticky post above, we have bear blog candy to celebrate 50 followers. Come and leave us a comment and win, amongst other prizes, Podgy's very own snack Penguin bar, or the wrapper, if he gets too hungry before we parcel it up! Go on, you know you want to. )

Hello there, it's your favourite blogging bear, Podgy here to present my page for the Alpha Challenge over at The Craft Barn. This fortnight the designated letter is U. We thought there was only one useable word in our French/English dictionary, due to our inadvertent theme of using only words that translate to the same in both languages, and using a mini dictionary, so after a diplomatic chat......








it was decided that I should be the one to create the U page. I started by utilising a Gelli print which I cut into strips and weaved together.




I used my very own brand of glue to adhere everything




My chosen word, Unique, called for a different kind of image, so I mashed up a bird die body with a head from a model, cut from a fashion magazine. The bird die was painted with puff paint, rather a lot of puff paint, wow, does that paint puff up!!!!




I added some Dylusions legs, and a rather odd butterfly hat to really depict the uniqueness of my image. Oh, the background? That's Distress Stain. My word is ringed with sharpie pen, and for once I managed not to stain the word or definition, that's progress.




If you like challenges, did you know the bears host their very own, just for fun, literary based challenge? Details can be found if you press your pawhere. We'd love for you join in.
With love from the bears

WOYWW - Mop ups

(Look up to the sticky post above for blog candy details ^)

Well hello there. It's Podgy here this week to show you WOOW, okay so I changed the original acronym to fit my pawposes, but if you would like to know what the actual acronym means, have a looky here to see the fabulous Julia's website, where we all get to nose around other crafters' desks. it's fab, fun and addictive.
So, what is on the bears' desk this week? Well, remember Horace using the art journal for his misty mop ups? I thought I'd help lighten his creative load by taking this background off his overloaded paws and decorating it in my own furry style.

We bought some Paperartsy Grunge paste from a fab new (to us) store called The Craft Boutique.

I thought I should try it out, so I mixed it with a little green acrylic paint
and spread it onto the journal through a mask.

I repeated the above with purple paint

Pressing both the negative and positive sides of the stencil into the journal, to pawduce different effects.

Ooh grungy indeed

Wilbear says we must clean as we go along, so I told Cedric that if he rubbed the palette and masks hard enough, a genie might just appear and grant him 3 wishes.

Meanwhile, I caught up on some much needed napping.

Once I was suitably refreshed from my artistic endeavours. I carried on crafting. I added a sentiment to the page, which has been going through my furry mind since recent horrific events in Beartain.

A close up? You say? Okay.... Gorgeous eh?

The journal is not too bad either!!



Ooh, before you go, have you seen this month's challenge at The House of Bears? This month we have quotes again, do take a look if you like a just for fun, literary based challenge, you don't even have to have read the book to join in. Look here for all the details.
With love from the bears

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With love from the bears

Just Like a Pill

Aloha dear friends, it's Pooh here today to show you my entry for a fab new challenge we found over at Musically Challenged. What a great concept eh? Draw inspawration from their chosen music video. Well this is just our thing.

After watching the video, and having a little bop along, I began creating my page. I noted that the video used a lot of black, and that, along with the name of the artist -Pink- formed the basis of my inspiration. I also wanted to use texture, as the video strikes me as really in your face, and this was a good way to interpret that into a page.

I started with some texture paste, which I scraped through our brick mask.

Once this was dry, I selected some paint from our drawer of plenty

The pink I chose was rather more vibrant than I had thought before applying

No worries though, as once I'd blobbed a little onto the page and watered it down, plus taking off some excess paint with the trusty kitchen roll,

a more rustic look began to develop, ah, much better.

Now I needed some black, but all i could find was a cheapo tube of runny gloop purchased for using on the Gelli plate. Hmm, ooh, my furry brain had an idea - add some texture paste to thicken it and add oomph.

Along with another stencil, which I decided looked like a popped pill packet, I added the black texturised paint.

Then I went a little crazy, and scraped the excess texture in a haphazard fashion over my pink bricks,and around the edges of the pages- after all, the song lyrics depict a haphazard life to me, so this page could not be created in a uniform and neat fashion.

I printed out the song lyrics that jumped out at me

And began adhering everything, utilising an old pill packet and the information sheet enclosed with a prescription to further illustrate my theme. Ooh, I also used a magazine cut out of a woman looking suitably alone and in need of help

I left everything to dry, and lay down on the bed for a much needed snooze......zzzzzz

Ugh? Sorry, my page, here it is.

And without my snout...

Close up left hand side

and the right hand side

I wish you could reach your paw through and feel all the texture.

I loved this challenge, why don't you have a go at it? Also, if you do like challenges, why not take a look at the bears very own literary based challenge, details for this month are right

here.



With love from the bears

U is for Uniform

Hello there, it's Horace here with you today to show you my page which I created for the Alpha Challenge over at The Craft Barn. The chosen letter this fortnight is U.
At first we thought we only had one letter with which to create our page, due to using a miniature French/English dictionary, along with our inadvertent theme of using only words that translate the same in both languages, so after a short discussion with Podgy,




we agreed I should take a turn at the desk. I decided that my word, Uniform, called for some camouflage type splats, this was great fun, until I looked at the wall and realised I had also camouflaged that, cue some desperate rubbing at the wall before Wilbear noticed!!!




Once I'd cleaned the wall, and the desk, I stopped to inspect my page....ooh splatty!




I found an old Jolees boutique army uniform sticker, and along with some Dylusions stamps and poetic license, I created this




Can you see my army frog? Well of course you can't he's camouflaged!!




Note the manipulation of the army uniform arm to enable Sergeant Frogman to point to the word and definition, which, by some miracle I managed to leave relatively unsplattered.




This was such a lot of fun to create, oh, if you like challenges, why not take a look at ours, which is literary based. You don't have to read the chosen book, as we provide quotes for inspiration. Take a look at ourJune challenge if you like. We'd love for you to join in.
With love from the bears