HDH - The Naughty Corner

Of course my first post in a long while is for Haunted Design House; how could it not?

Their theme this month is The Naughty Corner: You can either make a naughty project, or a project about someone or something who's been misbehaving or create something with corners, or decorate the corners.

I went with naughty; well, actually, I went with the rewards that come with taking your punishment well.  So, unless I sorely misinterpreted naughty, please see below....

HDH - Famous Last Words

I'm back.... I was actually back two weeks ago, I was just too scattered after the holidays to post.

Of course, I'm jumping right in with a new Macabre Monday from Haunted Design House.  This time we need to use a famous last line from a favourite book, poem, or movie.  Go even one better, and use a death bed confession or last utterance.

I decided on Emily Dickenson; her last spoken words were "I must go in, the fog is rising" which is kinda creepy.   I wasn't sure what to do, so I went with a memorial type photo that someone might have on their wall of a deceased loved one.

The frame was originally white, which I antiqued with some brown stain.  But then I dropped it and it broke. <sigh>  When I put it back together, you could see the seams, so I painted the entire thing matte black.  UGH.  Sadly, I didn't have anything to make it shiny again, so I rubbed an old chapstick all over it.  Gross but it works.  I added a little bit of gold burnish to the edges and the  flower, which I made with some extremely flammable material and a candle. Yay me for not burning down the house!  Done!  And.... wow, kinda boring. 

So, back to the drawing board.  I decided to go to my favorite movies for inspiration.  One of my Top 10 Things Chriss Loves to Watch Over & Over is The Omen.  Who doesn't enjoy a little antichrist now and then??  And inspiration struck - remember this little piece?  It's my scrapbook page of Damien - so I made another.  I may have to put together a book...

I love it! I used the Nanny's last line "It's all for you!" which she says right before she hangs herself as Damien's birthday present. 

I made the background in Word, using the prophecy that Bugenhagen recites and is used on one of the film posters, added the biblical quote, 666 and printed it on a lightly stamped background paper.   I love my graveyard die cut and the sparkly ribbon added just the right amount of fun for me. 

A friend saw it, said, "Oh, that's really pretty" and then "Wait, what the hell is going on?"  That's my favorite sort of creepy - the kind that slips in under the radar.

Enjoy and thanks for looking!

Challenge - Butchered Blueprint

As always, the weekend brings us my Haunted Design House submission.  This week we're working from a Butchered Blueprint. 

I have to admit, this is my first time doing a blueprint and I set to work creating.  Surprisingly, it came together fairly quickly and wow, it was frightening and not in a good way.  Hubby looked at it and went 'huh'.  So, for future reference, when the person who loves you most in the world can't think of a single thing to say about your art, perhaps it's time to sleep on it.

And I did - and below is what I came up with. 

I rubber stamped my broken doll (unmounted blue rubber) with Memento and colored it with pencils - ugh, brown and blue is the atrocious color combo on the jacket.  I mounted him on a bit of doily that I had thrown away because it didn't go through the die machine correctly.  Some felt, embroidery floss and a few more buttons and I was set.  

The final step was the stick pin in the heart.  Sad little thing. 

As a bonus for sticking with me this long - here's a close up of the best part of my first attempt - I made the 'blood drop' on the pin with embossing powder.  So cool!

Thanks for stopping by!

StRaNgE bReW Challenge

This week's challenge over at Haunted Design House is StRaNgE bReW - making something with a recipe. 

Begin with 2 layers (actual card counts as one layer)
Add 1 main image panel
Mix in some metal bits of your choosing
Add some drops of black pearls
Gently fold in 1 punched element
Tie up nicely with some ribbon or trim

Here's my entry:

For my main image, I used my favorite digi, little baby Medusa, hand colored in reds, browns and yellows with pencils (I did her in green before, I'm trying to decide what I like better...) and gel pens.  I gotta say, there is nothing like the harsh camera shot to show you where your coloring still needs work!  Any suggestions out there for some good tutorials?

I fussy cut her and put her on my two layers of paper - one card stock and other a patterned scrap I found in my closet.  My metal bit is a ribbon buckle with some hand dyed ribbon to match her tail and 10 pairs of eyes - how many pairs before it's eyeses??  :) 

Add a punched border at the bottom, lined with black pearls and something you can't see, a matching bit of patterned paper on the inside of the card to show through the punched border.  Ta-dah! All done. 

I am also entering this into the following challanges (because apparently I am the queen of Anything Goes):
Love to Create Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
Fat Pages and Cards with Attitude - Anything Goes
Tammy's Scrapin Corner - Anything Goes with Any Artist
The Paper Makeup Stamps Blog - Anything Goes
Party Time Tuesday's Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Smudger Challenge - Tag

Back in April, I won my first (and only so far) blog candy from Smudger Challenge Blog.  It was a huge bounty of dark goodies and my inner 12 year old girl squealed.

I was also excited to start doing challenges on a blog from the very beginning so I promptly missed the first challenge deadline because I'm an immense dork.  

But this month, I'm slipping in under the wire.  Challenge #2 is You're It!  (Tags)

I took a manila tag and stamped some Gothic Latin writing on one side and heavily spritzed it with Walnut Ink that has been doctored with Platinum All Purpose Ink.

Tip:  As a great alternative to buying expensive glimmer mists, add an entire bottle of metallic All Purpose Ink (API) to a bottle of Walnut Ink (WI) and shake vigorously.  Tsukineko makes both products and they're really easy to find in most craft stores.  Keep in mind that API is a fabric ink, so you may not find it with stamping products.   

Just make sure that when you add the API to your Walnut Ink, you also dump in the mixing ball that's in the API bottle.  Otherwise, your metallic ink will settle on the bottom of the WI and won't mix as well.  You'll need to give the combo a good shake every time you use it but you get gorgeous shimmery results.   I really like the Cherry Blossom Walnut Ink with Vegas Gold API.

I added some rice paper to one side of my tag and covered the transition between sides with a flourish die cut from a post card.  I felt I needed more sparkle, so I fussy cut a transparency butterfly and coated the underside with blue glitter glue.  I made a smaller embellishment tag and added a tiny little bling and a bit of the glitter glue.  Matching ribbons finished it off. 

Thanks for looking!