Hi, I'm Torrey. Welcome to Left Field, where creativity runs amok and imagination is ALWAYS more important than knowledge. Shoes are not allowed but ties are optional. This is a repository of snippets from my life out here in Left Field. One never knows what shiny bits of creativity will be found here... cards, scrapbook layouts, photography, poetry, recipes, ponderings, rantings and musings. It could be anything! Life in Left Field is always changing, always real, always ...interesting.

July 11, 2012

A Rose By Any Other Name...

...would be called something else.

Duh.

It's time for the monthly sketch over at Bombshell Stamps! As always, our sketch is brought to us by our fearless leader, Kathi! Here's what we have to work from:

And, as always, I took liberties. I mean, I live in America...that's part of our constitution. Heck, we even have a Statue of Liberty. So, it's my constitutional right to...um...take liberties with this sketch. AMIRIGHT?

I was in a very subtle mood today as far as card making is concerned. YES, I can be subtle. Quit rolling your eyes. I was thinking about day trips we used to take when I was a kid and as I was looking through my Bombshell stamps, I was reminded of the Teller House saloon in Central City, Colorado that has this face painted on the bar room floor.  Here is the painting.

It was painted by an artist named Herndon Davis in 1936--who had been commissioned to paint some pictures on the walls of the neighboring Opera House. The story goes that he got into an "artistic disagreement" with the hotel manager who ordered him to either quit or get fired. In an act spontaneous rebellion, he snuck down to the bar in the middle of the night, and with the help of a bellboy who held a candle for him...he painted this portrait (of his wife) right smack in the middle of the wooden floor of the bar. The staff of the bar claim that it's supposed to be representative of the poem written by Hugh Antoine D'Arcy titled "The Face On The Bar Room Floor". But in reality, it probably was just a final nose-thumbing gesture of defiance at the staff that fired Davis.

This picture is what inspired me to do my card. So, here is what I came up with. I colored the image very lightly on Kraft cardstock. I found out that it is very challenging to add "subtle" color to things. I never realized what a heavy hand I've developed when it comes to laying down color on images. There are still something like 4 layers of color on here, all done with the a wispy stroke and the pressure of a feather. After I colored her,  I ran her through my Wizard and embossed it with a "woodgrain" pattern and inked the surface to bring out the grain texture. Then I cut it apart and turned the image into planks. I call my creation:

The Face on the Run-Down Fence


Ingredients:
Stamps - Bombshell Stamps (Rose's Portrait)
Woodgrain texture plate - Fiskars
Cuttlebug embossing folder - Provo Craft (Floral Fantasy)
Prismacolor Colored Pencils
chalk ink - Clearsnap
brads - Creative Impressions
Versamark Ink - Tsukineko

So, head on over to the Bombshell Stamps blog and enter your take on the sketch for a chance to win some FaBuLoUs Bombshell Stamps prizes! You have until the very last day of July to enter!


3 comments:

  1. Wonderful job! This is so freakin fantastic! LOVE it!

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  2. I stand in awe of your spiffy talent. This card just rocks or would that be wood? Doesn't sound right. I love that subtle face on the wood. Neat story about the barroom floor too.

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  3. Fantastic!!!!! All I can say is...stay in left field. :) Very fresh and out of the box!

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