Challenges - Dressy Edward

I've spent a huge amount of time in the craft room this week - I've started drawing again and ugh, it's been so long I feel lost!  But, it can only get better, right??

This week's challenge over at Haunted Design House is a Gothic Make Over - include a cute or non-scary image that has been made over in a Gothic manner.

First off, I am too old to be Goth - I am just the right age, however, to be totally Wave - which is the more colorful bastard daughter of Punk, I think, while Goth is the darker little brother.

Duran Duran was the hottest group around when I was growing up and I spent way too many of my teenaged years with John Taylor's bleached bangs, as well as Adam Ant's eyeliner issues and dating boys who wore more make-up than I did.  I have to admit that even after all these years, a guy in eyeliner and mascara turns my head.  Oh, along with ripped plaid held together by safety pins or the ever popular black fingernail polish.  LOL!

Here's my card:

I used an adorable digi Dressy Edward from the Greeting farm for my main 'cute image'. Yes, he has a bit of eye make-up on - I can't help it!

He looks like he's making a wish to me, so I gave him a thought bubble full of Heads from Stampotique, fussy cut and mounted in a frame to go with his sentiment.  I added a lonely little head behind Edward's leg so his dream of serial killing can come true.   Hey, who are we to stand in the way of ambition?

It's a tad bottom heavy, but whenever I added something extra to the top, it was too busy.  Thoughts? 

I'm entering this little guy in a couple different challenges this week - several of them for the first time:

Haunted Design House (of course) - Gothic Make-Over
Crafty Creation Challenges - Frame It
Forever Night - Anything Goes
Totally Papercrafts - No Pesky Girls Allowed
Southern Girls - All About Boys

Thanks for stopping by! 

Macabre Monday - Pirate's Booty

It's time for another Macabre Monday over at Haunted Design House - this week's theme is Pirate's Booty.  I decided to go with a map, said to show the location of a chest of coins owned by infamous pirate, Calico Jackman.  Unfortunately, Captain Jackman was caught and hanged for piracy before he was able to retrieve his treasure.

This is the 2nd map that I made - the first one's ashes lie partially melted into the carpet of my craft room.  Did you know that you should not apply open flame to paper that has hairspray on it?  My left brain knows that, my right brain not so much.

Using Versafine, I stamped the map on a thin piece of stationary and added some script, as well as various nautical designs that I thought a sailor might have on a ledger page.  I marked the treasure with a Stazon X and distressed the entire thing with Walnut Ink and water.  While the page was still wet, I took an embossing stylus and wrote some numbers and words along the edge; the ink darkened them up nicely, and folded the map up to get the nice dark creases and let it sit for about 10 minutes and then opened it up flat.  Once the paper dried, it turned brittle.

I refolded it and got out the matches - let's gloss over the fate of the first map, shall we?  After going outside, I strategically burned the edges and some creases of the map.  I made the seal with wax and an unmounted stamp coated with Stazon.  The blood is Memento ink right out of the refill bottle.  Ta-dah, Calico Jack's treasure map.

  

I had a little time on my hands and decided to play with some clay and came up with some Krakken tentacles.   The base is covered in cloisonne embossing powder and the tentacles were darkened with a black ink wash.  It's a perfect paperweight for the map.   

 Thanks for looking!

Macabre Monday - Off With Their Heads!!

It's time for another Macabre Monday over at Haunted Design House - this week, it's Off with their heads!! - replace the head on an image.

I had a few challenges with this particular assignment - first, I have amazingly few full body stamps and my digi images are mostly profile heads.  What is up with that??

Secondly, Haunted House Design is also having a minion call and I've been caught up in doing new items for my submission post and almost forgot this one.  On a side note, apparently you cannot have a conversation with your spouse that starts with 'does this pus have too much glitter in it?' and expect it go well.  Men!

Anyway, here's my submission:

Everything was stamped with Versafine.  The body is from Stampotique and the eye "head" is unmarked blue rubber.  The eyes in the background are an unknown clear stamp.  I covered the head's pupil with some diamond glaze after I did my pencil coloring. Added a goo border punch and a rather apropos greeting that I found in a pile of unmounted rubber.

Ta-dah, a great card for the stalker (or stalkee) in your life.

This card is also being submitted over at Art With No Boundaries - The Eyes Have It.  (Thank you, Beverly!)
Enjoy!!

Challenges Challenges Everywhere!

I'm going to go crazy today and enter multiple challenges.  What is up with that??

It just so happens that I was tooling around with this adorable Hero Arts bunny stamp (secret time: I'm  strangely incapable of not buying bunny (and lamb) stamps and then I never use them because, come on! Bunnies and lambs??)  Anyway, I do get them out and play and this card happened without my full consent.  

The bunnies are stamped with Versafine ink on pale lavender paper that I found in my scrap bin along with the great green polka-dot print.  "Spring" is from a clear stamp set that is no longer in the package, sorry manufacturer!

Surprisingly, it matches a few different challenges:
CAS-ual Friday - Pastels and Black (cfc45)
Dutch Dare Card Challenges - Cute & Cuddly (#157)
Clear It Out Challenge Blog - Easter Theme with Pastel Paper Stash

This is the first time I've entered challenges on any of these blogs - hopefully it won't be the last!

Thanks for looking!

Fun with ATCs challenge - Book Pages

I decided to change gears today and go with an ATC and use my previously uninked Stampotique image - "Head" (and "Heads", oddly enough).

I actually started with a black ATC, which I stippled and smudged with several different inks and then promptly covered it with my background image because I don't plan well.   I layered the heads, which are stamped with Versafine (my favorite ink in the world) on a page from an old text book of some sort.  I gave my little guy a rough coloring with a marker and some chalk on his cheeks.  The frame was made from pre-stamped scraps that I found in the trash.  (Yes, yes, I dig through the trash for fabulous things that I might have thrown away before I knew how fabulous they were!) 

Ta-dah! Creepy little ATC, just perfect for the Fun with ATCs blog challenge - Buchseiten (or book pages). 

As always, thanks for looking!

Challenge - Can I Quote You On That?

It's time for another challenge over at Haunted Design House - this time it's Can I quote you on that?  

Of course, I ran through my favorite movies and kept getting stuck on "The Shining".  

I've incorporated two different quotes - although, does it count if a character never says it?  If not, then it's a good thing that Danny screams "redrum" so many times!

I created the "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" phrase with a magnetic letter stamp set that I don't think has ever seen the light of day in my craft room.  "Redrum" was done in crayon and it was all mounted on red cardstock with a little bling and a layered border punch. 

I showed it to a friend and she wanted to know if it was a birthday card... um.  For someone I really don't like, maybe? 

Anyway, enjoy and thanks for looking!

Halloween at Pennywise Arts!

September is my design team month over at Pennywise Arts Blog.  Definitely check it out; they're currently giving away 10 sheets of double-sided O'So Sticky Tape and only two people have entered - great odds if you ask me!  I'm not eligible to play, so go, get your friends to sign up!

On to my first Halloween card of the season! (Mad props to my crazy staging skills! LOL!)

I took some double-sided paper and made the base card, then I flipped the paper over and made a paper 'ribbon' from the print on the back side (yay! bats!); I couldn't get the tail right, so I ended up using the corner of a medallion shaped die.

Papertrey Ink stamps and die helped make the tickets out of more patterned paper and I added a some hand-dyed seam binding.  To finish it all off, I took a small square of O'So Sticky tape, removed the rubber liner and adhered it to some black paper, which I then punched with a bat. 

I removed the paper liner and dipped it into Clear Mini Beads.  You could use the Black Opaque beads too, if you wanted a little less sparkle but I like a little bit of bling.  Stick it on with some foam tape and you're done!

Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more Halloween goodies!!

Birthdays and Frogs

The sun in shining - what is up with that? 

So, I am going for another two  new challenge blogs today.  Crazy me!  I actually love this color combo - the orange isn't something that I normally reach for when I'm doing crafting, but I thought this all went together perfectly. 

I'm entering this into the Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge - Flowers over at  Marks Finest Paper,  as well as the DIY Embellishment challenge at Tuesday Throwdown because I made that fabulous little flower from 4 loose flower petals from Oriental Trading Company.   This will be my first time entering a challenge on both of those blogs.  

I added beads to some Pennywise Arts micro beads and dropped a little frog charm into a card shaker (that I also got from Pennywise) and sealed it up with a stamped background.   I don't know where the lily pad stamp came from - it's foam mounted white rubber and comes with an adorable little frog but it was busy when I added him.  The leaves and the sentiment are Papertrey Ink.

Enjoy! And thanks for looking.

Monochromatic

Blogger is still being a total pain and won't allow me to comment on 75% of the posts that I see.  I hope they get this resolved soon. 

Anyway, I decided to be brave and branch out with a few more challenges.   Over at Less is More the challenge is doing a CAS card that is monochromatic. 

I think it turned out nicely - I originally stamped the sentiment crooked, so I 'fixed' it by stamping the sentiment on the same color paper, punching it out and layering it over the original goof.  I think it gives it a little bit of omph without going overboard.

I wish my photography was as satisfying as the card.  It seems a little washed out.  I have got to figure out what I'm doing.

I also did a card for last week's challenge for the same blog - Pick A Square - but didn't get it uploaded in time.  

Apparently I like the lower right hand of cards.  LOL!  This was my first card using this particular Papertrey Ink stamps and I enjoyed working with them.  Although, they do seem to stamp better with chalk inks - I need to expand my color selection, I only have about a dozen colors.  Time to warm up the credit cards!

As always, thanks so much for looking.

Challenge Macabre Monday - Forever Mine

I recently found the Haunted Design House blog and fell totally in love.  For those of you who are new to me, I love horror and macabre and blood and wheeeeeeee!!!!!!  I'll have to post my Christmas cards with the rabid dog sometime.....

Anyway! Haunted Design House had a challenge - Love Bites - that I just had to do. 

I'm disappointed with how poorly the blood shows up on the heart, I think it's because I took the picture in natural daylight but the ones inside were too dark.  But I do love this.  Sadly, the heart is an unmounted stamp and I have no idea where I got it; it's extremely detailed but stamps so perfectly when I use Versafine.   

Enjoy!!!