Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween

Joshua's Pumpkin from the Pumpkin Farm

Joshua as Spider Man

My little ladybug, Jayda
Happy Halloween from my family to yours.

Florals

I am slowly getting back into my usual challenges. This card represents the Stampotique Designers Challenge #69 which is Scrap it and the Stampendous monthly challenge of fabulous florals.As I'm not usually a scrapper, I went with a scrap card rather than page. The image is of my dear daughter standing at the gate of Mt. Vernon. (Since the deadlines for these challenges are here, I had to temporarily use this image. Of course, my printer ink went low just as I printed this. As soon as I replenish the ink, I will replace the photo and upgrade the blog picture.) The floral image on the card is from Stampendous and the bees are from Stampotique. I used the marker watercoloring technique (TJ June/July 2008) to color the flowers.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Case Study Inspiration

Stampotique Designers Challenge 71 was to case one of the Design Team. I chose to case Kim Howard's card from her September 5th posting.
When I saw this card, I knew I could use my new  Baby Cthulhu stamp.
As a coincidence this layout also works well with the sketch challenge at the Marks Finest Papers Friends of Speedy challenge.

Believing in Ghosts

Stampotique's new policy of grouping all of its weekly challenges into one monthly drawing certainly has given me a chance to catch up with challenges I would otherwise have missed. This card is for Challenge 70 - backgrounds. I am also entering this card in the Take a Word challenge with the theme wings.
I used the stamp Heads as my background. I stamped it with Versamark and then embossed it with cement white embossing powder. I wanted to do Leopard Queen in bright colors to counterbalance the black and white. She is popped out from the background. The sentiment was created from Tim Holtz's ChitChat.

Autumn Leaves

I have always loved the Old Gristmill stamps from Artistic Outpost. As I worked on the technique challenge from Compendium of Curiosities II, I knew I wanted to use these stamps. All of the stamped images and sentiment come from that stamp set.  Our CC II challenge is Crumpled Kraft Suede from p. 40 of Tim's book. (This challenge is generously sponsored by the Funkie Junkie.) Simon Says Stamp wants to see autumn leaves. Kraft Journal's theme is bangles and bows. The monthly challenge at Artistic Outpost is anything goes.
The crumpled kraft sued technique is awesome. To feel the background panel on my card, it is hard to believe that it started off as a piece of kraft paper. Now it feels almost leatherlike. I tried to keep a very rustic feel to the card. All of the framing is done with wood paper. The copper perfect pearls adds zest to the background and leaves. For the bow, I used raffia.

Give Thanks

The monthly Stampsmith challenge theme is give thanks. 
this week Cheery Lynn Designs wants to see vintage and Simon Says Stamp and Show says just add pearl. The Mojo Monday sketch is round or square.
To make my card, I followed the round sketch from Mojo Monday. My focal image is Miranda from Stampsmith's Julia's Friends. Isn't she lovely? I think she works very well with a vintage card. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up. It definitely works with the give thanks theme. From Cheery Lynn I used the pinwheel doily and angel wing dies and two circles from the mini pearl circles dies. My pearls are part of the bling as well as liquid pearls surrounding the card front.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Halloween Zentangle


Here are two views (top and bottom) of my Halloween Zentangle project. I'm still a novice, but I saw this white pumpkin at Michael's and is just screamed to be tangled. So on Sunday, while I was watching the Bears game, I took the plunge and started to tangle. The surface wasn't very even, and the pumpkin had some glitter attached to it which wouldn't come off, so there was more of a challenge than tangling on a tile. I had so much fun finishing my pumpkin. I must say that it has given me the courage to try new tangles in the future.
Happy Halloween!

Amore

Don't you think that Amore is the perfect sentiment for this lovely image? The image is from SweetStamps and the sentiment is from Stampland. The background paper is from Heartfelt Creations.
I created this card for two challenges. SweetStamps challenged us to use the burned embossing technique. It's interesting since i've had my embossing burn or melt completely, but I never realized that it was cool to do it on purpose. The flattened embossing allows you to stamp over the embossed image. Our Daily Bread Designs had a variation on the recipe challenge. We were to use something on our card that begins with at least 3 of the letters in the word leaf. As it turns out, I have something for each letter: L - Lady, E - embossing, A - amore, F - frame.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Trick or Treat

 
inside
 
Hi everyone! It's great to be back blogging again. I just returned on Monday from a fabulous trip to Washington DC. My Dad will be 92 in December and is a veteran of WWII. I wanted him to see the World War II Memorial and some of the other related sights in Washington, so my sisters and brothers and I sponsored the trip for him. On Wednesday I had some minor surgery. It wasn't serious, but it slowed me down quite a bit. Then I had to babysit for my granddaughter yesterday. Today was the first day in a long time I could get down to my studio. It felt good to get inky again.
All of the above is why my Bloggers Challenge posting is a bit late today. Since the week is almost over, and since a number of my usual challenges has a Halloween challenge, my card will be entered in a quite a few challenges.
Bloggers Challenge has witches and goblins as its theme. Tuesday Throwdown, Mark's Finest Papers Friends of SpeedyCornish Heritage Farms, Fashionable Stamping, and Creative Belli have Halloween or Halloween colors as the theme. Octopode says Trick or Treat. Kraft Journal challenged us to show inside and out. Critter Sketch wants to see embossing.
As you can see from this card, Tim Holtz is quite a fan of Halloween. The design paper, all of the stamps, and all of the die cuts are products from his collection. The sentiment is embossed using Rangers verdigris embossing powder.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Altering the Altered

A few days ago I published a blog post featuring an altered coaster which I made into a wall hanging. For todays Bloggers Challenge which is also to alter something, I decided to alter the coaster wall hanging I had made (bottom panel). I took a second matching rectangular coaster, covered it with gesso and colored it using the Dylusions sprays to coordinate with the first. Taking it in the horizontal position, I stenciled the word Dream (Club Scrap stencil), die cut the dragonfly (Cheery Lynn), and added some bling. I removed the chain from the first altered coaster (bottom), put holes in the bottom of the top panel and hung the two panels together. I then moved the chail to the top panel. Now I have a longer, more interesting wall hanging that still fits in the narrow area I had originally planned to decorate.

Monday, October 15, 2012

12 Tags of 2012--October

Tim Holtz has done it again. He's created another fabulous tag tutorial in his 12 Tags of 2012 series, and it's easy to do. I love the crinkled tissue paper background. It works so well for the Halloween theme. Since I don't have the Boo and Spider dies, I thought that the raven on the fence and the black cat worked wonderfully. I love the idea of tinted rock candy dry glitter. I had to make some black glitter as soon as I saw it on Tim's blog. Here's a confession too. I've had the ticket stamp for a long time. I never realized that it was really a universal calendar. I'm sure I'll be using it a lot now.
On a personal note, I haven't been blogging and doing challenges quite as much as usual for the past week or so, and won't be for another week. I'll be enjoying some family time. I may try and sneak in one or two things, but not my usual quantity.

Floral Wall Hanging

After a nice dinner at a restaurant where the coasters are rectangular instead of the usual round or square, what do you have? Well, now I have a pretty floral wall hanging to fit in a small area in my hallway. Both SweetStamps and Marks Finest Papers Friends of Speedy TV challenge want us to alter some item. Just combine a beer coaster, a little gesso, some Dylusions sprays and a floral stamp from SweetStamps with a stencil from Club Scrap and the result is a this wall hanging.
Simon Says Stamp and Show has favorites as the challenge. Dylusions sprays and the rock candy stickles I added along the edge qualify as my favorites.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Week 2, CHAPTER 20: Twinkle like a Bat, Shine like a Tea Tray!

...it was at the great concert given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to sing "Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!How I wonder what you're at!"You know the song, perhaps?' `I've heard something like it,' said Alice. `It goes on, you know,' the Hatter continued, `in this way:-- "Up above the world you fly,Like a tea-tray in the sky.Twinkle, twinkle--"'-- Chapter 7, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Just like the Mad Hatter's song, we want you to create something that twinkles or shines; bats are optional! Think bling, metal, glitter, mirror card; the possibilites are endless! Some of the design team will be using some very unusual Alice-inspired designs. Just like you dress up for Halloween and take on another persona, these racy images have Alice and other characters all grown up and taking a walk on the wild side!
Our sponsor this month is Smeared Ink, home of edgy, wild and fun designs in rubber and digital forms has released a Wonderland Collection; images are available individually or as a set. The randomly-chosen winner of this month's challenge will receive a $15 shopping spree in their online store.
Smeared and Smudged is an online community of rubber stampers and crafters who enjoy using alternative, gothic, edgy, and unique stamps in their designs. "We thrive on different and unusual. We welcome the macabre and devious side of things, and most of all, we embrace ALL types and styles of art. Whether or not you “come to the dark side”, your creations should be a reflection of you. At Smeared and Smudged, the most important thing is being yourself. There are lots of ways to interact with the community!" [ Ning Community | Challenge Blog | Facebook Group ]
Enter your project by Friday, October 25 for a chance at the shopping spree. As always, multiple entries are encouraged (after all, this is a monthly challenge) but each entry must be on a separate post. All projects that meet the challenge criteria are welcome, but entries that feature Wonderland will have two chances with each project entered instead of one.

Inspiration Projects

My first card is a swing card. On the front circle the white rabbit contemplates the time. She has white flock fur and a pink cotton tail.  When you open the card the Cheshire cat appears all curled up with her friend the vulture. Under her are the words "We're all mad here." On the base card I've added a design paper panel from Graphic 45 Halloween in Wonderland. The word Wicked is embossed on the panel. Up in the top corner are a bling spider web and a bling bat. The right side of the card is dry embossed and highlighted with black soot distress ink. The raven and black cat are die cuts. I used Tim Holtz's technique of dying the rock candy dry glitter with alcohol ink (from the October 12 Tags of 2012).


 My second card is an accordian card with two pop-up images. On the front you see Alice sitting under a mushroom. The woods look pretty spooky around her. The background is a panel of orange glitter paper and the sentiment (Red Eowyn) is on a tag. Flying all around are bling bats.
When you open the card the images pop up. On the first is the red queen enjoying her garden of red, or mostly red roses.
On the second is the mad hatter with her table set up for tea. She is really ready for Halloween with her skulls table legs, tablecloth decorated with bones and the skull tea pot with spiderweb tea. These images from our sponsor Smeared Ink are great fun to work with. I think they are really perfect to get you into the Halloween spirit.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Brayered Flowers

SweetStamps challenged us to use brayering on our card. I decided to morph a technique from the current Technique Junkies newsletter -- In the Middle. My floral stamp is from Stampscapes. The sentiment is from Club Scrap. The background was brayered using a rainbow pad.

Cute and Cuddly

This week at Tuesday Throwdown the challenge is cute and cuddly. That gave me the perfect reason to bring out Haiku Bunny from Hero Arts. I stamped the bunny stamp on Ranger specialty paper. I masked the bunny so that I could sponge ink behind him. I then colored the flowers and scarf with distress markers. Bunny is layered on the Japanese Wall Frame die cut from Cheery Lynn. The background panel is from my stash of Oriental paper.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Something Wicked

October brings out the Halloween in us. Here is a Halloween tag created for a few challenges. City Crafter has a color challenge using yellow, orange and green. Frilly and Funkie wants to see a different kind of tag with a Halloween or autumn theme. The Octopode Factory is looking for lime, orange, and yellow. Inspiration Journal wants to see some spooktacular decor.
To make my tag, I started with a large manila tag and die cut it using pumpkin Jack from Sizzix. I then used a splatter technique to add the yellow, orange, and green paint splatters (and some purple). The broom is a Northwoods stamp. The raven is from the Octopode factory. The sentiment is from Quietfire. This tag will be hanging on my door to greet all the little trick-or-treaters on Halloween this year.

Autumn Colors

There is an autumn breeze in the air. The fall colors are starting to show, and both Great Impressions and Fashionable Stamping  challenged us to use fall colors.
I started by stamping the oak leaf in sepia on a piece of glossy cardstock. I then stamped these lovely ladies from Rogue Redhead on the leaf. I used Tombow markers to color them. The sentiment is also a RRD stamp. The background was stippled using dye inks in fall colors. The image panel was layered on a designer paper from Club Scrap and three fall color rhinestones were added. The base card is kraft.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Being Happy


I decided to try a change of pace this afternoon. Instead of doing my usual and making a card, I would work in my art journal. I will be able to enter these pages in a few challenges. Hels' Sunday challenge at Ink on My Fingers is what makes you happy. At Three Muses the challenge is a journal quote. The Sketch With a Twist challenge at Mark's Finest Papers is a sketch and the theme anything but a square or rectangular card.
Every once in a while it's fun to just play. After covering the pages with gesso, I pulled out my Dylusions sprays and stencils and sprayed away. I used the sketch from Sketch with a Twist for the basic layout. I pulled out stencils from various sources that I hadn't seen in ages and stenciled away. My bird stamp from Club Scrap hadn't seen the light of day for years. I even added a zentangle flower (one of my latest interests). I love the sentiment from Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions collection. "Being happy doesn't mean everything's perfect. It means you decide to see beyond the imperfections." Can you tell I really enjoyed myself today?

Gather Love Together

I'm a little late in posting this card. Let's just say I was delayed and then chose a technique which took a little longer than I expected. But it's still Friday and I'm sharing my Blogger's Challenge card. The theme this week is falling for you (love theme with fall colors). The card also works with several other challenges: Simon Says Stamp and Show leaf-spiration; Mojo Monday sketch; I Brake for Challenges - fall; and Artistic Stamper - the Natural World.
The background of my card was made on my gelli plate using fall colors and maple leaves (part of the natural world) from my back yard . Actually it is the ghost print; the positive print will be showing up in the near future. The large, brown circle and the dark green circle die cuts are from Spellbinders. The leaf and branch are from Tim Holtz (Sizzix). All of the stamps are from Club Scrap. I've been wanting to try and use leaves from my tree with the gelli plate. I really like the results I got.
Please feel free to create some art and join in with this week's challenge.


Thursday, October 4, 2012

Blast from the Past

Once upon a time a long time ago I discovered Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous stamps. For my card today I went back into my stash of early stamps and pulled out two stamps that I acquired about the same time I discovered and met Tim Holtz. I wasn't even sure I could make them work together.  I created this card for the Compendium of Curiosities II challenge which was distress markers from p. 50 of Tim's Book. My card mostly shows the stamping with distress markers that Tim described. Everything stamped was done using this technique. The heart was die cut from grungeboard and then colored using the watercoloring technique. Although it's a little hard to see on the scan, I used tissue tape across the background to frame the 2nd stamp. After coloring the heart, I covered it with rock candy distress dry glitter. I believe that this is the first glitter that I can say I really love. I don't feel that I will be wearing it for weeks after using it, and the effects on artwork are so wonderful.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The SKeleton in Armor

This is Halloween Month. I thought this dandy skeleton from Stampendous made a great focal image. The poem behind him is is a portion of "The Skeleton in Armor" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I am entering this card in three challenges: Cheery Lynn -- Halloween; Simon Says Stamp -- glimmer and sparkle; and Take a Word -- manuscript.
The die cuts are all from Cheery Lynn --chicken wire frame, lace corner deco H, and flourish leaf strip. On the spiderweb corner I added rock candy dry glitter and a bling spider. The script poem was sprayed with a heavy spray of dazzling diamonds glimmer mist both for the shimmer and for a bit of eeriness. And  for his eyes I added holographic rhinestones. What fun!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Musical theme

This week the theme of the Our Daily Bread Design challenge is something musical. On my card I started with background design paper from Tim Holtz with musical notes. My sentiment is a stamp from ODBD with the words of a song I love by Jim Croce. My image is a bird (nature's music), also an ODBD stamp. In the corners I added some bling.