Happy New Year's Eve!!!

Well, it's that time of year to start shredding old files and documents,

organizing and purging craft supplies, and like it or not, it's time for

my husband's (in)famous black eyed peas! He ends up eating them all himself

so it's not too bad, but the smell is a bit funky.

Anyhoo, this year is my husband's 40th birthday on the 25th of January.

I have this awesome image from Simply Betty's "Sweet Gothic World Kids" line
that I have been dying to use since I colored him up a while ago.

This is Alex. He is perfectly disgruntled.

Not sure where I saw this sentiment, but I thought it

was perfect for my husband, so I typeset it on computer. 

My husband can be rather, odoriferous at times, so this

little quip is beyond fitting for his aged ass.  

LOVE that scowl!!

So, I had a pretty prosperous Christmas.

 I got a new Cannon camera with 14.1 pixels (an upgrade from 6 pixels). I got some

new embossing folders and some new Nesties, plus a MS punch and some warm Hello Kitty slippers.

My husband and I came to an agreement a few years ago when I was very

upset by my lack of thoughtful gifts, that I would shop for myself from now on and just wrap the stuff and open it Xmas morning (well, actually, we changed that tradition this year) with everyone else.

This was my favorite gift this year (only 2nd to my new car!) .

I only have 2 other Living Dead Dolls.

I really don't care for dolls at all (thanks Grandma!), but I did fall for a

Series 5 LDD called "Siren" about 10 years ago and a mini LDD, but found them

a bit pricey to collect since I don't really like dolls anyway. 

And then she showed up....

Isn't she lovely?

The killer part about all of this is that I painted my face (unintentionally) very similar to hers

for Hallowe'en this year, and I really like the whole Dia de los Muertos theme so I HAD to have her. I was hoping she came with the mask too, but alas, it was just a tease.

I lOVE my new dolly!

On the 22nd of December, my '98 Accord gave up the ghost.

She barely made it for the trade-in at the dealership. I mean barely made it!!!!! 

So we went ahead and bit the bullet and got a new Civic. It's an '09, but it's new to us.

She came with her very own payment booklet too!

Boo.

But now we can actually plan a few road trips to the coast and up to

Lake Tahoe for our 15th wedding anniversary in August.

We are looking forward to making big plans for 2011.

Happy New Year!!   

  

What's cooler than cool?

When one of your awesomely talented and creative friends

makes your Christmas gift!!

Yupper! That's what I'm talking about!!

One of my favoritest gals in the world

painted this gorgeous plate for me!!

Now when I opened it she wasn't present, so I had time to

ponder and look at it and wonder. I had no idea it was hand painted by her when I

first opened it, but as I stared at it I noticed the similarities

between the gorgeously painted lady and well, myself.

This was my face for Hallowe'en this year.

MacKenzie, you are an awesome artist and a creative genius,

but most importantly, you are a beautiful person and one

of the most thoughtful people I have ever known.

I truly cherish our friendship and I feel richer for having

you in my life.

Thank you for the most meaningful gift ever!!

My Top 10 Cards of 2010 Blog Hop

Wow! This year sure did fly by! It seems like I was just complaining about

how Halloween was never gonna get here and now it's time to ring in the new year!

Here is a Top 10 (13) List of my favorite cards that I made this year.

Image from Hambo Stamps



Image from Stampotique

Hambo digital images

Hambo "One and Done" auction image


Image from Stampotique


Image from Sweet Pea Stamps 

Image from Simply Betty Stamps 

Image from Mo Manning

Image from The Greeting Farm

Image from Kenny K

Image from Google images

Image from Simply Betty Stamps

Image from Karber Digital images

Once I started compiling my list it became harder to choose just 10 cards.
I made it a Lucky 13 list instead.

It was also fun to see how my style has changed over the last year.

Thanks for stopping by!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies!

My fellow SBS DT member, Jennifer has a creative husband
who drew up a Christmas Zombie digi that I got to play with!

This is "Zombie Bob".

"Bob" is available for purchase as a digital image at

Jennifer's Etsy shoppe.



I had a very specific fellow zombie lover in mind when I made this card.

Actually, I thought of her straight away as soon as I saw him!

The weather across the pond has been horrendous, so I'm not sure

if she's received it yet.

Hate to ruin the surprise.

I got a little chuckle out of using the "naughty but nice" ribbon.

I also got to use my brain stamp! I heat embossed it a couple of times with

some stardust powder and added it like a charm to mimick the brain that

Bob is holding.

Added some festive flourishes and voila!

Cutest darn Christmas Zombie card ever!!

Total brain fart.

Um, not really sure where my head has been, but I totally spaced the final Oh Alice! challenge for the year. I totally had mt card made and everything, but I forgot to post the darn thing!

So here goes.

Chapter 44: Curiouser and Curiouser

`Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); `now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!' (for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off). `Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure _I_ shan't be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you: you must manage the best way you can; --but I must be kind to them,' thought Alice, `or perhaps they won't walk the way I want to go! Let me see: I'll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas.'

Hello from all of us here in Wonderland! This week we are Curiouser and curiouser to see if you are willing to play along with our weekly challenge. The challenge is a simple one, and one that most of us should be able to play along with, we would like to take Wonderland and turn it into a Winter Wonderland! Yes, that's right.....put your boots on, hats, mittens and lets play in the snow! Alice, with a hat on? Rabbit in the snow? Anything that reflects a Winter Wonderland. Have fun with it!

I ran across this insanely adorable image here

and knew immediately what I wanted to do with him! 

Isn't this the cutest freaking Eddie Scissorhands you have ever seen?!

A-freakin-dorable!

So cute and he really didn't need anything other than the

snowflakes and some sparkly rhinestones.

LOVE it!

Happy Holidaze!!



Day 11 of the Simply Betty 12 Days of Christmas challenges

Just one more Challenge after this one... so let's have a

 Skully Jolly Christmas...

it's the best time of the year... is that not how the song goes? Well it does here at SBS! Hee hee! Today we want to see your awesome Christmas SBS images covered in fun Skully decor! Skully ornaments, skully wreaths around any Emo, what ever just make it SBS and make it Skully! You have until Dec. 17th @ 11PM PST!

Betty is giving away some Sweet Gothic images and...

some of these neat-o ornaments to the winner of this challenge.

Cool right?

Now I know today is a Simply Betty challenge and we are

supposed to have SB images on our cards, but that didn't

happen today.

I did the skull thing, but used an image from Delicious Doodles.

Killer images that Teri draws herself. Not all of them are skulled out

or creepy. In fact she has many beautiful image of fleurs and critters and some really lovely sketched designs (like the skull) that really add a nice hand drawn feel to your projects.

So get on over to the Simply Betty challenge blog

and enter your skully project to win some digis and

some awesome skull ornaments handmade by yours truly.  

GLITTER: The Herpes of the Craft World

It's nice to know it's not just me who is not feelin' the holiday this year.

Unfortunately, I don't have to go very far to commiserate with someone about

how "un-joyus" we are feeling. 

I have been immersed in the world of polyclay skulls and glitter lately.

My Etsy shoppe has been very busy this season, and I have been selling

out of my snowflake ornaments and my skull and cross bone ornys. Which is a good thing.

I have also had quite a few special requests for specific colored snowflakes too.

I received an order for 20 flakes, 2 each of 10 different colors. I had to special order the

flakes since Mike's stopped reordering their flakes for the season. I also bought a 1lb. bulk of rhinestones to cut down on the cost of those little suckers.

Well, I spent quite a bit of time glittering the flakes, then adding coordinating rhinestones, and finally, making and adding the color coordinated polymer skulls to the center of each flake.

Did I mention that these take some time to put together?

Well, long story short (too late), the lady totally flaked (pun intended) on me and

never submitted payment for these awesome (albeit labor intensive) ornaments!

So, I have spent the better part of this morning listing them in my Etsy shoppe!!!   

I am so proud of my "Peppermint Skully".

Why is it people don't take the time to let someone know they are no longer interested

in a product or want to cancel a special order? I totally understand that sometimes

the funds just aren't available when you need them, or sometimes you just change your mind. It seems as though common courtesy and consideration of other's time and energy is a distant memory.

At least I have some time to try and recoup some of my time and money on this

order before Christmas.

Drop by my shoppe (link is in the sidebar) and see the cool ornaments and schtuff I have for sale.

Please.    

HDH069 Colorblind Christmas

Well, here we are. The last Macabre Monday challenge of the year.

I welcome the reprieve, but will miss seeing the awesome schtuff my

fellow Minions have created and concocted each week for your viewing and

inspirational pleasure.

Our final challenge for 2010 is

Colorblind Christmas

You are to create a dark, Gothic, or Halloween-based Winter Holiday card WITHOUT using RED or GREEN...

Not even a teensie bit of it anywhere :)

Here is my card.

I kept far, far away from the 'off limits' red and green colors.

Can't go wrong with purple and shades of black! 

I hate it when I do this, but I can't remember where I got

this great little image! I do remember it was a free digi, but I didn't

save it under the company/artist name (Deb something?). What a dork.

If someone knows please leave a comment and let me know the info so I can

add it to the post. Thanks!

**Here is the link for this awesome free digi (thanks Barb!).**

Anyhoo, she is very cute in a weird Gothic sorta way. I wasn't sure if she was

coming or going once I saw her shoes were pointed in the other direction.

LOVE the little snowman behind her back. Very festive.

That's eeet keeds!

The Macabre Monday ride is shut down for the Holidaze! 

See ya next year with a fresh batch of challenges and maybe even a surprise or two!

You'll have to check in with us on January 3rd to find out what I am cryptically

trying to tell you! 

Chapter 41: Christmas Greetings

                                                           LADY dear, if Fairies may

For a moment lay aside

Cunning tricks and elfish play,

'Tis at happy Christmas-tide.

We have heard the children say—

Gentle children. whom we love—

Long ago, on Christmas Day,

Came a message from above.

Still, as Christmas-tide comes round,

They remember it again—

Echo still the joyful sound

"Peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Yet the hearts must childlike be

Where such heavenly guests abide;

Unto children, in their glee,

All the year is Christmas-tide!

Thus, forgetting tricks and play

For a moment, Lady dear,

We would wish you, if we may,

Merry Christmas, glad New Year!

Christmas, 1867.

HAPPY HOLIDAZE!!!!

This holiday season has been so hectic. I still don't even have my tree up yet!

My son is none too happy about that either. It's on the list for tomorrow.

Promise.

Here is my card for this week's Oh Alice! challenge. 

This week's sponsor is Pixie Dust Studio and they have

offered up 2 digital images for this week's random winner. 

I just couldn't resist the White Rabbit from the Pixie Dust Studio .

My friend, "Curse" LOVES the White Rabbit so I had her in mind when I made this card.

The challenge was to use only red and green and one other color.

I followed the challenge rather loosely and used a few more colors, but

the main scheme is red, green, and white.

I finally used those Liquid Pearls (I've had that stuff for over a year!) for the tassels and I like the way it looks.

I used a bunch of punches too!

You can never have too many snowflakes!

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great weekend!

  



On the 8th Day of Christmas

Now... many of us wait until the 25th for Santa Clause to come to town... but today

 SANDY CLAWS

is coming instead! Or well he has actually arrived!

All you have to do is create your version of Sandy Claws on your projects! You will win two very special digis... these digis are going to be exclusive to the DT, a few winners, and as a free set in the future with your purchase at SBS! So, you won't want to miss this challenge! You do not have to purchase a new SBS image, just get those creative gears turning and create your very own, unique Sandy Claws project with any SBS image! Good luck!

You have until Dec. 11th at 11:00PM PST to link your creation at the 

Simply Betty Challenges blog. 

The DT was lucky enough to receive this original digital

design, drawn by fellow DT member, Cheri!

Thanks so much Cheri! Awesome job!

I went with a classic, black and white and red color scheme.

Simple, yet attractive. Tee hee.

If I start to get really goofy it's because I am operating on 2, maybe 2 1/2 hours

of sleep. Had a touch of insomnia that lasted til 3:30Am and then the freaking cat 

started plucking at my bedroom window screen at 4:00AM. I let the rotten

feline in, and then just when I'm hittin' the R.E.M.s, the flippin' alarm starts screamin' at me! 

I'm a bit punchy, ... just sayin'.

I broke out with the Liquid Applique and used it for the fur trim

on Jack's hat and coat.

I flocked his beard too, but it didn't really photograph very well.

I also layered some ribbons from my Mike's stash, and ran them

down the side.

Okay, check out this awesome sentiment.

Cool, right? Yeah, I know. I got it as a freebie over at Tiddly Inks.

Yep! More freebies from Tiddly Inks.

Every Tuesday at PCP, Kristy posts a freebie of sorts (images, sentiments, papers) for members only. Sometimes she posts them on her blog also, but the best way to ensure you are privy to these freebies is to just join the group at PCP. 

Check me out! I am actually posting on the right day and I even scheduled

this before noon! I usually schedule things after 11 PM the night the actual post

goes live. It's a small victory, but I'm all over it. I'll take what I can get these days.  

On the 7th Day of Christmas

I'm a day late for the 7th Day of Christmas over at Simply Betty Challenges.

Hope I don't get fired.

The challenge for the 7th day is to use some rather non-traditional colors.

How about lime green, turquoise, and purple?

I simply LOVE this color scheme and want to make all of my Xmas cards

in this combo!

I chose to work with London this time.

I colored her up with Copics and fussy cut her out. I added some lavender half pearls on

her skirt and as an earring. I found a purple 'snowflakes' sticker that matched the ribbon I used and then added some mirrored snowflakes to go with the theme.  

I think she looks quite stellar with her purple hair. I just can't bring myself

to color any of these Emo's hair in normal colors. What fun is it to be an Emo

if you can't have fun with your hair color?

Stop by Simply Betty Challenges and check out the other DT creations and 

if youre feelin' froggy, play along!

I am going to enter this card in the "Winter" challenge at Lollipop Crafts.    

A little shameless plugging

As I was scrolling through the new posts today on blogger

I ran across this post on my blog buddy, Fitter Twit's blog.

Awwww. Isn't she sweet?

On the 6th Day of Christmas Simply Betty style

***This is my second post today***
Please scroll down for my Macabre Monday challenge
**************

The 6th Day of Christmas

The Children all snug in their beds, while visions of Steampunks danced in their heads!

I am a huge fan of the Steampunk line at Simply Betty Stamps.  

They are beautiful and awesome to color and create with.  Very elegant.

The challenge for this Day of Christmas is to create your most "Merry Steampunk" project.

Add some gears and cogs and metal bits and make it Christmas-y!

You have until Dec. 7th at 11PM PST!

The winner of this challenge will receive a beautiful Vintage Paper collection.

Now, on to my card.

I am pretty stoked (an old "Rocker" term for thrilled) as to how killer this card turned out. 

Every so often I allow myself a paper crafted victory like this one.

Only every so often though, so I don't get too full of myself. 

This is Gwendolyn.

Isn't she lovely? 

I found this image of the gears online and heat embossed some of them

with copper and gold powders. I added on some metal cog brads and added

my Steampunk standby, the compass brad! I also used my new corner dies

from Sizzix, which I heat embossed with copper powder.

Then I aged everything and added a little tag to convey the Winter message.

Okay, I have a dirty little secret.

I am usually a pretty neat colorer. Must be the Virgo in me.

But, sometimes I make quite a mess.

Like while I was coloring the image for this card, I got confused as to 

where the red was supposed to go on her dress.  

It wasn't supposed to go there.

I used a colorless blender to try and remove the hardest color to

remove, red!

I got quite a bit of it with the blender and decided to just go

for it with the green that was supposed to go there in the first place.

I worked it a bit more with the blender pen on her leg and boot,

being very careful to not over saturate the paper so much that it bleeds more.

Speakin' from experience right there.

See, the red is not even noticeable now.

I guess the point of this was to show that just

because you make a mistake with the Copics doesn't mean

you have to junk your entire image. It can be salvaged with just

a bit of patience and a colorless blender.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to drop by

the Simply Betty blog to see the other awesome creations from our

uber-talented design team!

HDH068 - Octopodally Ominous

This is such an exciting Macabre Monday.

Why? Well, we are being sponsored by

The Octopode Factory.

That's right, the strangely talented (I mean that as a compliment)

Lily Chilvers is our sponsor and has offered up a $10 gift certificate

to her Etsy shoppe to the winner of this week's challenge.

Then you can purchase some of your very  own unique and slightly

odd digital images.

I have a few Octopode images in my collection,

and I chose to use the Caterpillar from Lily's Alice in Wonderland line.  

I had a really hard time trying to decide what to with my little

stoned friend.

Lily offered up some free Christmas hat digis last week on her blog

and I figured that was good place to start.

Oh, and did I forget to mention the challenge? We can only use EIGHT ELEMENTS! Total. Including the card base, ribbon, mattes, image, everything.

Sounds easy does it? Yeah, that's what I thought until I got started. 

That's what I looked like as I tried to get only eight

bits onto this silly card!

Nice bloodshot eyes huh?

Maybe this has something to do with the need for Visine.

And 'baked' goods.

You think it's so easy?

Get your eight elements together and make something!

Head on over to Haunted Design House and link up your

awesome creation for all to see.

Maybe you'll win a gift certificate to The Octopode factory!

Hey, that rhymed!

Congratulations to all of the Gruesome Twosomes and

Masters of the Macabres from weeks past.

What Barb lacks in punctuality, she more than makes up for

with her sparkling personality and mad coloring skills!