Wicked Wednesday

Here I sit, at the top of my hump day.

Trying to shake off the funk of last week has proven harder than I had feared.

But I am finding solace in my art.

Today, at Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge we are sponsored by

and our challenge is

Ribbons and Bows.

Sometimes I think Jenn gets a kick out of watching me squirm.

Since I was already on fire (on the insides), I decided to go with

a neon pink and blue green color combo with the 

#430 Skull Bow framed image from Dilly Beans.

Very girly.

Jenn and I both decided to use a Glow Skull for the bow center.

Great minds....

I bought this uber pink and girly ribbon years ago.

I have managed to almost use it up, finally.

Lastly, I added some Glam Pink Stickles to the edges of the ATC for

more girly glitterings. 

Please join us over at WW!!! 

Rest In Peace Ceci

2008-2013

Seems like we hardly got to love you long enough.

Keep your dogs company until we all meet again.

Much love to you, "Fatty Catty".

Churches, Smurches

So after a pretty shitty week, I am trying to get my 

mojo pumping again.

I was inspired by the current challenge at the Smeared and Smudged facebook group, to create a project using the chalk board technique.

I also was inspired to play along with Stampotique's challenge 

of using text in your work.

Here is my latest journal page using "Hunk" from Stampotique.

I inked him with Versamark, and then used white embossing powder

to give the chalkboard effect on the black paper. I have yet to find a good white ink to use. The ones I have don't cover very well, leaving a ghost

image, not a solid white image.

  If memory serves me correctly, our chalkboards were green in school

(circa 1970's), not black.

But I digress...  

I used Dylusions inks to create the background. I love the effect you 

get when you splash water on the dried inks and then the water 

leeches the ink out of the paper. I also do this to remove ink with my 

stencils and a roll of paper towels.

I tried a new technique of sprinkling embossing powder on the

project, and heating it from beneath. In the tutorial I saw, they

used a new chunky embossing powder, but this worked just fine. 

And lastly, my social commentary on the recent (and not so recent)

scandals rocking the Catholic faiths and the recent "resignation" of the 

current Pope. Not trying to offend anyone( just a happy accident),

but am feeling good about my creation. 

I used one of the fabulous church stamps, called Holy City

from Smeared Ink, and stamped it onto an old dictionary page 

(great thrift store find, although I stole mine from high school 

back in the 80's. I don't recommend stealing, though),

with the definitions for church and chump on it, 

and then heat embossed it in black. The Infectious Waste stamp  

is new from Viva Las Vegas stamps.

I like the effect.   

Thanks for dropping by.

Have a creepy day!   

Friday Fanfare

Wow! The month of February is already half gone!

Time sure flies when you get old. Damn.

Today I have four projects to share. Yeah, someone got her mojo flowin'.

These are the beginnings of my journal pages for the Dilly Beans 

Red and Black challenge. 

I absolutely LOVE the Dylusions ink sprays! They are so vibrant 

and they blend so well together. I used the Postbox Red 

and the Black Marble colors, and then used a cool rib cage stencil 

from Retro Cafe Art. I spritzed the stencil with water, let the water 

sit for a couple seconds, and then rolled a roll of paper towels over it to remove the inks. It's nice, right?

Same idea here, but used Retro Cafe diamond pattern stencil. 

I used Dilly Beans #377 Martin's Heart image, and the Zombie sentiment

from Dilly Beans #375 Cute and Dark words set.

I also added the Zombie stencil from Retro Cafe Art on this one.

Looks so cool!!!  

For this panel, I used #255 Framed Zombie Hearts 4, and another 

sentiment from the Cute and Dark words set. 

I couldn't help myself, and filled the heart at the bottom with

googly eyes. It goes with the sentiment, don't you think?

And now for something totally different.

The challenge this week at Sparkle and Glitter is 

All the Things I Love.

We are sponsored by Sweet Pea stamps.

I chose to use this gorgeous image from Ching Chou Kuik called,

The Hummingbirds.

I LOVE hummingbirds! I have a feeder right outside my living room 

window so I can watch them feed and (unfortunately) fight for the feeder.  

I collect their feathers as well. For what? I don't know yet.

This is another journal page. I used some home made acrylic sprays,

and my favorite tool, bubble wrap, for texture on the background. 

Hummingbirds are quite difficult to color. It proved impossible for me

to capture their iridescence with Copics, but I tried. 

Close-up of the varying textures of the painted page, the bubble wrap design, chipboard stickers, and the curled edge of the image. 

I LOVE how this turned out! 

This card is for my Grandma's birthday this Sunday. 

She'll be a young 83, and doesn't act a day over 70! She is amazing, 

and I LOVE and cherish her immensely. Another wonderful gift 

given to me when I married my husband. We may not share the same bloodline, but she is definitely my Grandma! 

I used all purples on this card, as purple is Grandma's favorite color,

and mine too. I LOVE this 1906 Hat image from Rick St. Dennis.

She is stunning in any color!

Please join us at Sparkle and Glitter and Dilly Beans for the current challenges.

Have a wonderful weekend.     

Valentine's Day quickie

Just a quick post from me to say,

Happy V Day!!

Cute little card for my son, using an adorable trio of monsters from,

Torico at Birdie Brown, called Catch my Heart.

Have a wonderful day!

My Valentine is off work today, so we are going out to a

seafood lunch and a walk around old Sacramento 

and the Sacramento River. Nice.

Celebrating the Season at WW

I have a cute little ATC to share today.

The new challenge at Wicked Wednesday ATC is 

Celebrate the Season.

We are sponsored by Jelly Park.  

After fussy cutting the image, I Stickled it a bit on the snow and stars.

Then I made a couple of snow slopes to hide the end of the birdhouse pole.

Looks like the snow drifts on the east coast. Yikes!

Drop by and join in on the fun at Wicked Wednesday ATC challenges.

Monday double whammy

I had quite a productive weekend, and I have two killer projects

to share with you today.

First up is my HDH Macabre Monday Poe inspired project.    

How can you go wrong with a crackle effect portrait of Edgar for starters?

It can only get better from here on out.

I went with an overall graveyard theme for this project.

Poe's writings seem to follow the theme of death and mourning. Obsessively so.    

I used a Tim Holtz quill nib and attached it to a black (Raven) feather.

I also used the graveyard die from Quickutz for the bottom border.  

I cut out the letters for Poe using the Haunted mini alphabet from Quickutz.

I used a Sakura stardust pen to add some sparkle without the use of glitter.

Poe wouldn't approve of glitter.

Lastly, I popped the panel into a shadow box frame.

Very pleased with this one.

Please join us over at HDH for our Poe inspired challenge.

And then next is my project for the challenge at Forever Friends.

Forever Friends is having an anything goes challenge, and are 

being sponsored by Rick St. Dennis.

I made a sweet Valentine card for my husband.

I used the awesome Zombie Soft Centers image from Rick St. Dennis.

What a handsome guy! 

I took advantage of the opportunity to use Glossy Accents on the soft and chewy bits in the heart shaped box. 

Had to go for the glistening, wet look here.   

And more Glossy Accents on Mister Zombie's big blue eyes.

Something tells me this guy can really make your eyes water.

Thanks for dropping by today.

I hope you get a chance to visit Haunted Design House 

and Forever Friends as well.

Keep it Creepy!!

   

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

It has been rumored that maybe I have fallen ill, or that my 

good twin as commandeered my blog. Rest assured, it is me 

that has been creating cute, girly, and sweet cards lately.

It is no big secret that I am a Hello Kitty worshipper,

and that also means that I do enjoy pink and girly schtuff. 

To a certain extent though. Let's not get crazy here.  

So it was kind of embarrassing when Megan released these new 

adorable images at Dilly Beans, and I started reaching for pastels 

and lacy things to make cards with. Hey, I was inspired! 

It's not a bad thing. Is it?

This week the challenge at Dilly Beans is HEARTS.

I'm not a big fan of hearts outside of the body, but I put on my pink, 

big girl panties, and started coloring Cinnamon (circle #536) anyway. 

I think she turned out lovely, and would be the perfect card for a 

sweet little girl or a dainty friend for Valentine's Day.

I added a handmade polymer clay heart, some MS doily border punch, 

and a big lavender, grosgrain bow. 

Girly? Yes? Cute? Yes? My normal style? 

No, but it sure looks fabulous anyway. 

Drop by Dilly Beans and check out the new digis and then pop over to

the challenge blog to play along and win some digis of you own!

Wicked Wednesday Valentine

This week, Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge has set the theme of 

Valentine/Love.

Now who doesn't need to work up a cute V Day card or lovey dovey

project this month? You can whip up an ATC in no time! And it's a great way

to use up those paper scraps, too!  

We are sponsored by Redonkulous Designs, and I have used the 

Friends Forever image. 

There are loads of cute, well drawn images to choose from, and if you 

play along in this week's WW challenge, you may win a free image of your

very own!   

Lollyrot digis

A couple of years back, I was blown away by a particular paper crafter known as, Lollyrot. 

I saw her work on the Stampotique challenges blog as an entry,

 and started following her personal blog posts. Then she became one of their DTs and has since designed stamps for Stampotique, and she even has her own line of digital images. 

Her style is one that I admire and one that is immediately identifiable 

as all her own.  

When I saw that she had released some digital images of her own here,

I had to buy a couple and try them out!

This one is called, Lollyrot.

I cannot tell you  how long I have had this metal charm.

Too long, but maybe it was just waiting for this particular project.

I edged it with Stickles, added some sparkly fibers, and a paper rose to 

make it feminine and pretty.

Such a beautifully unique image, with tons of coloring and creating possibilities.

Check out her Lollyrot blog, her digi shop, and her tutorials for more info

and inspiration. 

More art journaling

Lately, it seems that when I am faced with a challenge theme, my first

instinct is to grab for my art journal. I really like the idea of having an entire book filled with my creations at my fingertips. And it's so therapeutic! 

The new challenge released Friday at Dilly Beans is 

Love Gives Me Wings.

I used one of my favorite (out of many) Dilly Bean images,

#274 Heart Monster. He is perfect for so many uses!

This time he got wings and gets to flit about in the clouds.

I used some Dylusions sprays and  a Tattered Angels stencil for the background treatment. I really like the way it came out.

I used some cloud die cuts from MFT, and I used my favorite

stamps from (so long ago) to stamp the single words, 

wings, love, and heart, in white ink and embossing powder.

Terr derr!

Here he is, all gussied up and ready for some lovin'!!

Check out the Dilly Beans challenge blog and see what the DTs created for this fun challenge!