2020 #6 Jungle Vibes: The Zebra Men with I&D {by Keren Baker}

2020 Topic 6: Jungle Vibes

We all know Keren is extremely good at thinking outside the box, and her Zebra-men might be more likely found on an open field that in a jungle, but top o the class and 10/10 for ingenuity! The layers in the frame of painted patterns topped with leafy stamps is such a clever touch, just onbe of many in this post!

~Leandra

 

Hi everyone, it's Keren Baker with you today, and I'd like to share with you a project about some rugby playing guys that embody exactly the best of what's happening in the world today.

I wanted to just do some simple layered stamping and to make a fun frame. I'll set the scene. Take yourself back to Watford, London in the 1930's. There was a Rugby League team called the Watford Warriors. They were a great team, but struggled with winning..

I've used mostly Ink & The Dog stamps for this project but needed some tiny type. So I added in one of the most versatile alphas from Emma Godfrey's EEG02 set.

I just love rows of different coloured letters. Makes creating your own sentiments so easy!

Onto my colour scheme. I wanted something bright with a mix of greens to give the jungle feel. These 3 colours  Slimed, Sargasso and Cerise are all colours from Tracy Scott's Fresco collection.

To give the jungle vibe without it being too literal, I used these wonderful fur pattern images from Ink & The Dog Travel 1 and Travel 3.

 Ink and the Dog Collection: Travel 1

Ink and the Dog Collection: Travel 3

Back to the story. They were nick-named the Zebra Men because of their black and white striped rugby shirts. Urban legend had it that the manager's grandmother once washed their beautiful white shorts with the red 'away kit', which proved slightly embarrassing (hence why I've painted them pink!) but they reckon this also gave rise to one of their few victories as their shorts were so off-putting! You can see the frame that I over-stamped with another Ink & The Dog set as it looks like the dense foliage you might find in the jungle.

Ink and the Dog Collection: Letters 3

Despite the fact that the team rarely won, that wasn't what kept them showing up. They were a team, they depended upon each other and they encouraged each of their friends when they found it hard and wanted to give up. It was comradeship and it was the beautiful bonds created when friends stick together through thick and thin.

I'd love to tell you that perseverance alone won the day and they were league champions. I can't, but what was distinctive about the band of brothers was they kept showing up. Again and again and again. The destination wasn't a trophy, it was faithfulness and being dependable. Commitment to each other gets you far. Learning those lessons about who you are and who you want to become.

Before we leave these fearless friends, I had a Fresco paint stamped image going spare. I just love that the quality and detail of the rubber stamps is amazingly picked out by the superb Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paints. 

I over-stamped the image with another Ink & Dog stamp (which is one of my favourites!).

Ink and the Dog Collection: Words 2

plus I have to show the wonderful 'zebra men' too.

Ink and the Dog Collection: Gentlemen 6

I've used the tiny alphas from the original set (and forgive me for the ear-worm coming), I couldn't help but think of the High School Musical song 'We're all in this together'. Both these pieces are just so redolent of the situation we find ourselves in.

We are required to be more flexible than most of us have ever been (even that 'no.3' above had to be flexible enough to become an 'E'!). We might have to forego our freedoms in a small way for the sake of both our family, friends, community and wider world.

Wherever we live currently, this ongoing challenge affects us all. We can choose to be taken along with it, or keep going and make changes in our attitude and behaviour to see this as a chance to show friendship, service to others and creativity in our lives. I'm not dismissing or downplaying tragedy, only reminding myself to keep showing up and that we're all in this together. I hope being creative can partially help us all to do that. 

Keren xx

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P.S. Forgive me, there were never any Watford Warriors, but I reckon there were lots of teams who would have fitted perfectly into this imagined story!