HDH - Release the Kracken...

I'm back from my travels - it was too hot in Vegas and way to cold in Alaska.  I prefer the dark moist climate of my studio for sure. 

I was extremely excited by this week's Haunted Design House challenge - Creepy Cryptids.   We needed to make something to do with a creature or plant whose existence has been suggested but is unrecognized by scientific consensus and often regarded as highly unlikely! Think Loch Ness Monster, Yeti, even Faeries.

Whoot! I love monsters!  So, of course, the first thing I did was a make a unicorn horn which isn't a monster or creepy, because obviously the two halves of my brain do not work well together.  So I moved to hypocamps - half horse/half fish.   Still not creepy, but I made a cool ATC. 



Most of my stamps aren't really monsters, so I went looking for images online.  The beauty below comes up when you google 'Kraken Coloring Pages' - the image is from Monsters by Mail and I love him. 

 

I colored him with pencils and used a marker to color the background black (semi-successfully now that I see it under the sunlight), made my own frame with die cut waves and accented it with some water droplet ribbon and a small rosette that I made (probably the hardest bit of this card - good lord, those folds were a pain!) and sentiment.  Green pearls were the final touch.   

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

HDH137 - Perplexing Pigment Play

I'm slipping in under the wire (seriously, less than 30 minutes left!) at my favorite spooky blog - Haunted Design House for this week's challenge - Perplexing Pigment Play.  Your piece has to use black, teal, purple and lime green.  It's being sponsored by Bugaboo Digi Stamps and so I purchased an adorable little image to use - Deacon Skull Flower.

Oddly, teal is not a naturally occurring color in my craft room and I have no idea why.  After scouring for almost an hour, I finally found a fabulous little piece of embossed paper in the right color.  I added a green velvet ribbon that I ran through a skull embossing folder and some purple paper.

I used colored pencils to give Deacon a nice lime green zombie color and gave his eyes a little blood ring.  I think zombies give the best skull flowers. Some teal hair and tadah!

A handmade flower that I dyed black and embellished with a green skull from Creepy Glowbugg completed the look.

I'm also going to submit this over at:
Smudger Challenge Blog - Skulls
Forever Night Challenges - Anything Goes
Poisoned Peas - Goth or Emo (I'm pretty sure zombie boys will skull flowers count!)
Fat Pages and Cards with Attitude - Anything Goes
Stamping with the Dragon - Anything Goes


Thanks for looking!

Friend Good ATC

I decided I wanted to play with a Dilly Beans Stamps image this week, so I picked the adorable little guy below.  I'm totally into bats so he's perfect. 

I originally colored him with pencil, but decided to go back over parts of it with gel pen, which you may or may not be able to see better below. 

Orange and blue paper with a circle punch created the background.  I love how insanity inducing bright it is.

Since the Dilly Beans Challenge this week is Friendship, I used a label maker to create the Frankenstein quote "friend good".

I'm entering this into the below challenges:
Dilly Beans Challenge - Friendship
Ladybug's Crafts Ink TLT Challenge - Something with Wings
ATC's with Attitude - #14 Anything Goes
Crazy Amigo Challenge - Orange

Thanks for looking!

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! 

Missed Deadline - Beloved Monster

Ugh, I missed another Challenge Deadline - this one is for the My Beloved Monster challenge at Haunted Design House.  I blame it on my West Coast location - I'm late for everything that happens in a different time zone.

Anyway, I'm new to digis (this beauty is from Strange Skin) and it's come to my attention that I kinda suck at coloring.  LOL!  I was considering buying some Copics but I think I need to practice a little more before I drop that kind of money. 

She's done in a variety of different colored pencils and some pens. 

Enjoy!