Spirits Beware

This week the Stampotique Designers Challenge is to create something spooky, freaky, ghoulish, dreadful, dark, mysterious, creepy, ghastly, tragic, grim, shocking, wicked and fun using only Stampotique Originals stamps! I decided to use the colors of black, white and red to set the mood. Floating heads and hands are pretty creepy, don't you think.

Colors of Friendship

This week the Color Throwdown challenge was to use the colors kraft, tangerine tango, riding hood red, and marine mist. The Created Byhand theme was "Words of Love/Friendship". These were challenging colors for me at first. I had this designer paper and I began to work from there. I think the butterfly in the midst of the flowers works well with the sentiment from Club Scrap.

Industrial Grunge Goes Christmas Nostalgic

The Compendium of Curiosities challenge this week is Industrial Grunge from p. 54 of Tim's book. Of course there's a story as to how this card came about. I was looking through my TH Bigz dies to decide which die I wanted to use with this technique. Tim used the gear die for his example which is very industrial. When I saw the ornaments, I knew these were the perfect images to use. The combination of the technique and the vintage ornaments brought back memories of childhood. Remember the metal lined old glass ornaments that Grandma used to put on her tree every year. And every year these ornaments showed a little more wear. That's what the combination of this technique and the ornaments reminded me of. As my background I used the antique wallpaper technique (from June/July 2010 TJ newsletter), again a reminder of Grandma's house when I was young. I added a few pearls to complete the nostalgic trip down memory lane. This week the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge is Shabby. I think this card fits perfectly with this theme. As my card turned into a Christmas card, I realized that Christmas was the challenge at Critter Sketch this week. How perfect.

Hallowe'en in Wonderland -- Oh Alice Chapter 37

The challenge at Oh Alice came on Halloween weekend, so the challenge is Halloween. I decided to play a little with this theme. Graphics 45 has the most wonderful Hallowe'en in Wonderland paper stack. I found this tin box with a top window. When I combined paper and tin, this is what I came up with. There is no stamping on this project. (This may be a first for me.) However, there are art techniques. I started by using alcohol inks to color the box (cloudy blue, sailboat blue, and twilight purple). I cut out the inner scene to fit the box and the outside characters and sentiment panels. I then highlighted the major elements with Creative Inspirations paints. These shimmery paints added a glow to the whole project. I hope Alice will approve.

BC176 Veteran's Day Tribute

This weeks Bloggers Challenge is Patriotic, in honor of Veterans Day. The process of creating is a fascinating one to me. Once I knew what the theme of the challenge was, I knew I would use one of my Artistic Outpost stamp sets, either Hero or She-roes. Both have wonderful stamps which fit the theme. I chose the Statue of Liberty from She-roes. I had the raised and split background in mind. That's when fate took over. I just received the Tim Holtz Holiday Paper Stack and therein was the perfect background for a patriotic card--a page of patriotic related words. "Life, Liberty, Old Glory, Red, White Blue, American Flag, etc." The final coincidence was when I was putting away some of the "stuff" from one of the moving boxes I found this chipboard star which was the perfect background for the focal image. I guess you can say that this card just came together.

Try That Technique -- Tie Dye Wax Resist

This week's Try That Technique challenge was the Tie Dye Wax Resist technique from the Technique Junkies October 2006 on-line bonus. The polar bear is a stamp from Earthartinternational. The sentiment is from Stampscapes.
This card also meets the Going Grey with Scrap-Creations challenge which is favorite technique.

Play Date Cafe Challenge 53

This weeks challenge at Play Date Cafe was black and white with a splash of burgundy. Anything this week would have been a challenge since my studio is still in a bit of chaos

from the move. However, I vowed to myself that I would try not to miss any more of my favorite challenges, especially Play Date Cafe. I'm getting in under the wire, but I made it. I love splash challenges. This card was acually a simple one to make. The white and black background is paper from Club Scrap. The butterfly mask is from Stamp Zia. And the sentiment is a stencil from Stampers Anonymous.