Fiendishly Fun Friday: Transformer Owl

Glittered Acetate tutorial

I love colored glass, stained glass in particular.

When I first saw this technique that is immediately what came to mind.

I had grandiose plans of making some incredible stained glass images, but I have found that some images work better than others with this technique.

For my very first tutorial, I chose this simple Hello Kitty image from StampitCrazy.

I used StazOn ink and a sheet of acetate I found in my craft room. You can use any kind of acetate from overhead transparencies to the backing from stickers.

I've got all of my goodies out.

I have chosen my glitter colors (Doodlebug), got my Glossy Accents, scissors, and an extra fine Sharpie to fill in holidays (blank spots) in the stamped image.

Once you have stamped your image with StazOn and let it dry completely (about 3 minutes or so), flip it over and start putting Glossy Accents on the reverse side of the image where you want your first color.

I have colored her bow and shirt orange first.

I like to let the glitter sit in the Glossy Accents for a minute or two to give it time to soak in and give a more solid appearance, before I dump it back into the jar. I also hold it up to the light to see if there are any light spots that still need to be filled in.

I use a small paintbrush to remove any excess glitter before I add the next color. 

Adding white for her face and feet and hands.

Sometimes it is hard to keep the GA and the glitter confined to a small space.

No worries, just let it set up for a few minutes (not dried all the way though), and use a push pin or needle tool to carefully push the glitter and GA back into the desired space, or remove it completely and try again.

Finally, I add the black glitter for her overalls, and I let it all dry for at least 15 to 20 minutes.

Once it is all dry, you can carefully trim it out, and using either more

Glossy Accents, or another strong wet glue, adhere it to your project for lots of glittery gorgeousness!

Thanks for stopping by and if you decide to try this fairly simple technique, I'd love to see what you made!

Stamp it Crazy Anniversary

This month marks the one year Anniversary for the

StampitCrazy blog!

Barb is also celebrating her Birthday, her husband's Birthday, and their

2nd wedding Anniversary.

Being the generous gal she is, Barb is offering up a ton of blog candy just for 

celebrating with her (and making a card using SIC stamps).

 

Even though I relish the creepy side of life, I am huge fan of the Kitty.

I have been a Kitty worshipper since I was about 8 years old.

I used to steal quarters from my Grandma and go to the Hallmark store and buy

Hello Kitty, My Melody, and Little Twin Stars crap all the time.

My Grandma was a waitress, and she kept quarters in a dish in her bathroom(?), so I'm assuming she just thought it was the commode spirits taking their share.

I digress...

Barb has this great stamp of Hello Kitty and I used it to make some really cute Halloween cards for the less gruesome of my friends.

I used this technique of stamping on acetate and using glitter and Glossy Accents to fill in the color.

{Tutorial to follow tomorrow.}

One wasn't enough.

Two still wasn't gettin' it.

Aaahhh! Third time is a charm!

Happy (belated) Birthday to Barb, and

here's to many more Anniversaries to come!  

Tie One On Ribbon Sale at Hambo!

For a limited time, all of our ribbon has been reduced in price by 50%! This sale includes single colors as well as samplers. All ribbon is available at 25¢ or less per yard, with only actual shipping charged. Now is the time to stock up with the holiday card season fast approaching!

Zombies and Toys - How can you go wrong?

Zombies and toys are two of my very favorite things.

Now combine the two and you have yourself one helluva blog site and store.

Recently they were having an "Undead Bazaar" with tons of cool contests

to win tons of cool Zombified swag from some really talented artisans.

The really cool thing about these contests is that you can enter them all and you can win more than one contest.

I won three.

Hell yeah!

I won a key chain from those kinder-friendly folks at 

The entire abomination baby was up for grabs, but as a

runner-up I just got the missing appendage on a key chain.

Cool. 

I am also the proud new owner of a cute Lil' Zombie phone charm from

  

check out their website and Etsy shop for cute zombie goodies.

Lastly, I just found out that I won this bad-a** bracelet

from the fine folks at

More Everything!

Fabulous!

Man, I am on fire!

I need to get to Vegas and throw some dice!

Check out all of these fine folks and their cool creations and stop by the

Zombies and Toys blog for cool zombie info and happenings.

HDH049 Appalling Arachnids

The largest of the bird eating spiders is the Goliath Bird-Eating Spider, which can boast a 10-inch leg span... the size of a small pizza.

Despite its common name, the bird-eating spider rarely eats birds. Occasionally, hatchling birds will be taken from nests on the ground, however, the bulk of the diet comprises insects, lizards, frogs, and other spiders. Although the fangs are long and robust and can easily penetrate human skin, the bite is not deadly. The venom is quite toxic, however, and bites may cause severe pain, nausea and profuse sweating.

The female bird-eating spider spends most of her life in her burrow. During spring or early summer. The male approaches the female's burrow and entices her out, hopefully without becoming dinner, to mate at the entrance. The female lays about 50 eggs into a 30mm diameter sack several days later, which is stored in the burrow and protected by a tough cover of silk. If the female leaves the burrow to hunt, she will often take the egg sack with her, secured between the palps and fang tips. While females may live in excess of ten years, the male usually dies after mating at around five years of age.

My dear friend's son is having a birthday this week.

This is a kid after my own heart. He LOVES insects, bugs, and

GIANT spiders!

The Goliath is his favorite and therefore, I felt it was necessary to find

the best photo of this gorgeously purple creature

and make that the focus of his birthday card.

Happy Birthday Ethan! 

Wayward Words - finally

Tales from the Darkside is an anthology TV series from The Eighties produced by George A. Romero. Similar to The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling's Night Gallery, The Outer Limits and Tales From The Crypt, each episode was an individual short story that ended with a plot twist. Unlike these other series, Tales from the Darkside centered mostly on horror stories. However, some episodes would more likely be considered science fiction or fantasy-based, and other episodes were more comical and lighthearted in tone. It's also known for its cruel Outer Limits Twist endings.

When I was a wee lass back in the eighties, this was my absolute

favorite tv show. Hands down, this was the very pinnacle of my

young life.

My favorite episode was one where Grandpa didn't know he was dead. He would come down for breakfast every morning, and by lunch you could start to see the decay, and by dinner he would have a smell.

So, the grandson puts pepper in Grandpa's napkin, and when he comes down for breakfast he shakes out his napkin to put on his lap, and starts to sneeze.

He sneezes into this napkin. The camera now only shows Grandpa from the neck down.

Grandpa puts the napkin on the table, and gets up, and goes up stairs.

The camera pans to the napkin, ... the boy flips open the napkin, ...wait for it.... wait for it...

and there is Grandpa's nose!

LOVE it!!!!!!!!

  

'Winter' is the creepiest chick(?) I could think of to accent this card.

She rocks (Thanks Barb) in a really creepy way.

In other news....

Here is a picture of the mask that began my collection over 20 years ago.

 

I found this at a a huge flea market here in Old Sacramento.

I had to borrow the money ($25?) from my Grandpa, who only said,

"You are consistently strange", as he handed me the cash.

Still one of my favorite masks. 

Creepy Cutie Arigato

A very good friend of mine just returned from a trip abroad, to Japan.

Ya, I know. Must be nice. And it was!

She brought back some souvenirs, so I had to make her a thank you card.

I used this little cutie, sent to me from my partner in crime, Barb.

I added a touch of color with Copics and some distress ink, and then these little black pearls fit perfectly over her eyes and her spider's body.

Too cute!

  

I was just fascinated by the stories she told of the culture there and how

they don't have many public garbage cans, because people keep their garbage with them until they get home.They don't have paper towels in the public restrooms (using the term very loosly). Instead everyone carries washcloths or little hand towels of their own to use. 

She said it was immaculate there as well. I don't know about you, but when I see pictures of Japan, it reminds me of Times Square in New York. Must be filthy!

Not Japan!

Oh, ya wanna see what she brought me back from Japan?

     

Um, ... thanks!

She said these were everywhere, and by the end of her trip she had no more self restraint, and had to buy one.

Now, who to give it to?

I was the super lucky recipient of this "Humping Dog".

He plugs into any USB port, and well, he humps away!

My husband took it to work and it was quite a hit!

She also brought back Hello Kitty (another collection/obsession) swag, and some goodies from Disneyland in Japan.

Now for the piece de resistance!!!! 

 

How fricken' cool is this mask?!

He's a demon, known as "Oni". 

Now why would she think I would want something so scary and ominous in my house?

Because he is about #54 in my recent tally of masks in my collection.  

Isn't he awesome?!

I have yet to hang him up until I can settle on a prominent place to display him.

I have some really cool masks from Peru (another devil mask, but he has more  of a creepy- guy vibe), some from Indonesia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and some from Ross and Cost Plus too!

I will take some photos and share more of my various and numerous collections with you very soon.

It's an illness, but I'll share anyway.

Come back later this evening (6PM CST), for the

Tiddly Inks Halloween blog hop.

Halloween is Hoppin' at Tiddly Inks

After much anticipation, it's finally here!

The Tiddly Inks Halloween blog hop!

I am fairly new to Tiddly Inks (6 months or so), but when I started

seeing these adorable images I was an instant fan!

Then when I heard about these new Halloween images I was chompin'

at the bit to get my grubby little snausages on them.

Here is my first round of images from the new Halloween release (I'm sure I'll need them all at some point).

I give you , Batty Bugg, Franko Boto, and his lil' brother, Vamp Boto.

They are out trick or treating by the light of the moon, in the creepy graveyard.

  

And lil' Vamp Boto's pet bat, Belfrey Boto (I named him myself) is keeping 

watch over the kids on their Halloween adventure.

Something about making scenes and making up a story as I go along, helps with the creative process.

Well, that's it for me.

Have fun on the hop and thanks for dropping by for a spell.  

Hippie Birthday!!

Today is my MIL's birthday.

She is a true hippie at heart. She washes her feet and doesn't

reek of Patchouli, but she is quite a free spirit.

She is quite a prolific crafter, and she is also the person who introduced me to the world of polymer clay.

Basically, as far as MILs go, she ROCKS!

I had this perfect digital image from Sassy Studio Designs,

and I paired her up with some hippie-type paper (from the $ store, I think).

Then I attempted the new hair coloring technique that I saw recently.

Not real happy with it, but practice makes pefect right?

What's a hippie without fleurs?!

Voila! 

I layered 5 paper Primas, and then as if that weren't enough, I added a flower brad.

Then, I glued a peace sign button onto the brad and Stickled it!

My MIL is one of my biggest fans as far as my cards go, and she keeps all of the cards I have made for her and my FIL in a basket by her front door to show people.

She keeps her favorites displayed on the table in her foyer.

I think I'll be seeing this one in the foyer next time I'm at her house.

TBD #12 Christmas in July Challenge with Michelle Perkett

Christmas in July seems to be a very popular theme this year. But you know us - we have to put the Burtonesque spin on it. So our challenge is The Nightmare Before Christmas in July! We're dying to see how you fuse Halloween and Christmas on this one! And this week we are sponsored by Michelle Perkett Studios.

This gorgeous image is called, "Snow Goddess", and it is just one of the four

digital images Michelle is offering as a prize this week. 

I chose to keep this one rather gothic with the whole red and black color scheme.

Rather Burtonesque don't you think?

The next image is called, "Sweetie".

I decided to make this obviously Christmas image very Halloween.

I went with my favorite Hallowen colors, and my favorite ribbon.

 

"Sweetie" had this fabulous fur trim all around her outfit, and 

it was just screaming for some black flock!

I also had to use some Stickles for a little sparkle.

Oh, and now for some shameless self promotion.
Just look at how darn cute this bow is with this awesome little

handmade  skull embellishment!

These Glow Skullz are only available at Simply Betty Stamps.

Snatch some up now!!

Don't for get to play along with The Burtonesque Dolls this week to

win the four digital images the DT got to play with from the uber talented

Michelle Perkett.   

My teeth hurt!

Kellie fromTickled Pink Stamps is offering up

a TON of premium goodies as blog candy!!! 

Head on over and check it out!

AND

The Stamping Boutique is offering up some Copics and other goodies

on their blog too!

AND

Let's not forget the fine folks at Simon Says, and their generous helping of swag.

My, what big candy you have!

Jodi is having a birthday.

This is just one of the 5 blog candies she is giving away.

That's right, I said 5 candies! 

Check out Jodi's blog for more details.

Birthday Wishes

One of my dearest (and oldest) friends is having a birthday today.

I called her last night to wish her a happy birthday for today, since she was going out of town first thing in the morning. 

Her response was, "Where's my fancy card?".

Now if it was any one else, I would have told them their

fancy card was at the fancy card store.

But, since it was Dani, and since she is probably getting a 

little senile at her age, I let it pass. 

I know she reads my blog pretty regularly, and I didn't want

to ruin the surprise of this card, so I waited to post it,

and forgot to send it!

Luckily, she is out of town and I can drop it in the mail today.

When she gets back on Saturday, she'll have a fancy card to open.

I used my Copics to color these rhinestones. They were clear to begin with.

I was running my mouth to a fellow DT member about how you can color anything with

Copics, including these cool, faceted baubles she had on her recent post.

Well, she informed me that I was sadly mistaken and that after trying to color them with her Copics, they were not attractive at all.

Sorry Eulanda.

I'll just stick to coloring ribbon and rhinestones.