Bernice and Friends

The minute I saw Bernice the hippo was part of the Tim Holtz Sizzix Chapter 2 release, I just knew I had to combine her with the other colorize friends to make a piece inspired by the jungle room from Disneyland's It's a Small World attraction. This is what came out of that inspiration.

I did make a short video walk through of this piece and you can view it here on my YouTube channel: 

To begin with, I took 3 packages of Ideaology Mini Framed Panels. These have been retired but you can currently still get them. I have links to two retailers below where you can purchase some. Begin by adhering 5 of the panels together on a flat surface as shown above. I put some Distress Collage Medium on the sides of the panels where they joined and then let them dry overnight.

Once the panels were dry, I cut 5 of the Folkart Flowers background die from Kraftstock and adhered one to each panel with Distress Collage Medium.

Make sure that these pieces are completely adhered and dry.

Paint the panels with a layer of Pine Needles Distress Paint.

Once the paint is dry, Cover the entire piece with Distress Collage Medium to seal the paint.

Before the Collage Medium dries, smooth it out with your fingers to get the brushstrokes out of it.

Scribble some Pine Needles Distress Crayon over each panel.

Rub the Distress Crayon into the details of the Folkart Flower dies with a Distress Stencil Brush to make them stand out.

Before adding the frames onto the panels we want to add some layers of vines and greenery to make it feel like the jungle room. Color some Distress Mixed Media Heavystock with various colors of green Distress Inks and Oxides, You want 7-8 pieces and make 2-3 of those differing shades of green.

From 5 of the green pieces, cut 5 of the Flower Fields dies. Two will be adhered from the top going down as you see above, and on the bottom three panels they will be from the bottom up.

To add another layer of vines, I used the Funky Nature die set from the Chapter 1 release. I used this long leafy piece as some additional vines in the top two panels, so cut quite a few of them from a different green paper and adhere them hanging down like vines.

In the bottom three panels I cut the fern looking leaf on the left and adhered it along the bottom of each panel for added greenery.

Here you can see the panels in progress. I adhered all the vines and greenery on the panels before I added the frames onto them. For the frames, I painted them with Shabby Shutters Disress Paint. Then sealed each frame with Distress Collage Medium. Once it was dry, I worked some Walnut Stain Distress Crayon into the indentions in each frame to distress them and to bring out the details. Then I adhered the frames to the panels with Distress Collage Medium. 

You can also see that I cut each character out of cardstock scraps so I could see where each would go and where I needed to cut the Gertrudes, Clarence and Winifred so they fit in the frame and fit the characters in the attraction. This really helped so that I didn't ruin the colorize characters once they were finished.

Here is a close look at the Clarence panel. You can see the Flower Field die on this panel has been cut in half and adhered in each corner of the wider panel, then I filled in with more vines and flowers from Funky Nature.

I wanted to tie in all the colors of the animals with the flowers that are in that room in the attractions. I used this one flower die from Funky Nature for all of the flowers on this piece, so you need to cut a lot of them and then water color them individually when you see where you need them to go. 

With the flowers on the greenery I also wanted some dimension, so I layered two flowers and used the Tim Holtz shaping tools.

In the Harrison panel, the Flower Fields greenery was left whole, as it fit perfectly across the panel. I added Funky Nature fern pieces on top of the Flower Field, then Harrison and lastly I added some of the leaf dies from Funky Nature all along the front. 

The Winifred panel was again wider than the Flower Field die, so I cut it in half and put each half in the corners, with the additional Funky Nature ferns and flowers. 

I cut three Getrudes, but flipped one so she would be facing the opposite direction. 

The giraffe in the attraction are orange with blue manes and pink flowers so that is what they got. To make room for the pink flowers, I did hand trim some of the blue spots on this colorize layer.

They also have poofy horns in the attraction which I think is adorable so I colored some small pom pom balls I had with Picked Raspberry Distress Ink and stuck them to each giraffe's horns for that extra Mary Blair flair.

One element that is in this section of the small world attraction is the amount of green leaves that are covering up the stage areas. So I cut this leaf from Funky Nature from more of the green Heavystock used earlier. This leaf has a second die for the veins, but I didn't cut that. I wanted it to have a bit of that artsy craftsy feel of Mary Blair, so I drew them in with a white gel pen.

Lastly we have the lovely Bernice. I used a lot of Kitsch Flamingo with these characters and I'm so glad I had it for this piece! Once she was put together, I added the same flower as the giraffe, but in Wilted Violet Distress Ink, and her eyelashes are bits of her tail. I cut two extra tails from black cardstock, trimmed them down and voila! Lastly, her teeth are just leftover pieces of Distress Heavystock. I realized I needed Bernice to have teeth too, so I looked around and found the oval pieces that had come out of her nose. I trimmed the end of each nose oval so it resembled a hippo tooth and then adhered them under her top lip.

I hope the YouTube talk through and these step outs help answer any questions you might have about how I made this fun piece. If you think of something I missed, feel free to contact me through the link on the right.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and for your interest in this project. Your support means so much to me!

Thank you, Tami

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook.com so the links below send you to one of those stores depending on which logo you choose.  If you wish to purchase something from either store and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order, at no additional cost to you. This helps me to defray the costs of this blog, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!