Art For Art's Sake With A Twist. . . . .

The challenge this time at Dragon's Dream is 'Art for art's sake' - we are asked to include a home made background, a quirky character(s) and a twist.

My tag has a hidden twist which will be revealed in the photo sequence!

I didn't really have exactly the type of quirky character stamp that I wanted so I've had a go at drawing my own combining it with part of a stamp image.

Both backgrounds have similarities but one includes a layer of recycled book paper - the details are below.

I have used a white gel pen much more than I ever have before and I'd like to give credit for this to my uber talented blog friend Alie. She uses one to great effect and often works on the philosophy that you just sit down and see where your journey takes you when creating - I tried to do just that this time and it was so much fun! Usually, I mull things over for ever and a day before committing myself - probably why every thing takes so long!

Don't get me wrong, I'll never be the quickest crafter but at least I won't be the last to post this time at Dragon's Dream!!

Here's what I made:

This view of my tag shows my quirky little character #1. . . . 

and here she is with her alter ego, quirky character #2! It was just a bit of fun really - the sentiment 'my mum says I'm a good girl' came first and I thought that I should make it a bit different by adding the undressed girl and questioning the truth of what was said. . . . . .

The backgrounds were made using dylusion sprays, distress inks, stamping in self colours, white gel pen and masks. 

I drew the character and gave her a hat which was stamped from a dylusion border stamp. I then scanned in the figure and printed her out to size. I used a lightbox to trace off the main outline of the girl but left her clothes off to create the second image. Both figures were coloured with pencils.
If you look carefully, you can see some of the stamping in the background. Little die cut flowers are scattered on the first tag to give the 'sweet and wholesome' feel. . . .

The arrow was stamped and embossed in white. All sentiments were made on a label maker, inked and heated around the edges to turn black. If you look hard you will see some stamping in the background amongst the text.
You can see the jump rings on the left hand side of the photo which join the two tags.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my attempt at 'art for art's sake' and that you like it - it was certainly great fun to create!