Gettin' my Chunk on!

I had never heard of a Chunky ATC until a few months ago,

when fellow Minion Sistah, Donna, suggested it as one of our

upcoming challenges for HDH.

Once I googled it, I was blown away by all of the awesome

options this opened up for the pretty much one dimensional, ATC.

The basic measurements are 2.5" x 3.5" x 1.5". There is some

question as to the actual or official dimensions, but this will do for now.

Once I got my husband to cut some wood down for me, I just sat and looked at

the wood blocks for a few weeks. So many options can really be a 

stumbling block, artistically, sometimes.

I settled for a relatively flat CATC to begin with. 

Might as well cool my jets and see how this works first.

I broke out one of my favorite and probably one of my first 

wood mounted rubber stamp from Silver Crow Creations.

I love a laughing Devil! I mounted him onto a distressed

dictionary page, a Poison label, and an online find. 

Another online find (cutaway of skull) mounted onto

a MS Hallowe'en scrap of paper.

Tim Holtz Hallowe'en kraft card stock with a cracked glass

vintage rat poison label.

MS Hallowe'en paper with some creepy bottles from Itkupilli,

and a jar of money paws from my (imaginary) boyfriend, Ryan's personal

collection. Ryan is on the show "Oddities" on the Science channel, and he is

a master of the "exploding skull" displays. He has an incredible personal

collection of wet and dry specimens, plus all kinds of other cool schtuff.

I'd love to spend a weekend perusing his "collectibles".    

Close up of creepiness.

Another Itkupilli cut out for the top of the ATC.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed my CATC, and maybe

was even inspired enough to try your hand at making your own to enter

in our challenge at Haunted Design House.

Keep it creepy!!! 

  

   

I love tomatoes!!!

But I HATE tomato worms. 

Especially HUGE tomato worms!

Yuck!!

Does anyone know why these things exist?

Or why they turn black when you chop them in half

and leave them in the sun? Oxidation? Pure Evil?  

CAS and a triple ATC challenge

I am trying desperately to get caught up on challenges,

tie up some loose ends, and make something cool in the process.

First up, is my submission for the Clean And Simple (CAS) challenge at

Stampotique Designers Challenge.

I have always been a tried and true Daniel Torrente fan when it comes to 

Stampotique stamps, but Kira Nichols is now in 'da house as well.

I love her quirky style, mixed with monsters and cute

critters. Win, win!

I colored these fellas with Copics, fussy cut them out,

and added them to the base along with a cute sentiment

from Ginger's House. If you are ever in need of a great 

sentiment, check out Ginger and her free word art. She ROCKS!

I'd  like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Stampotique Designers Challenge - CAS 

Brown Sugar challenge - LOVE

Chocolate, Coffee, and Cards - Animals

And I have a set of three ATCs featuring some new images

from Rick St. Dennis. 

These little scarecrow cuties are available in Rick's Etsy shop.

This is "It's All About Balance".

This one is called, I Lovs You Dis Much".

This is "You Make Me Blush".

  Just a close up of the straw (raffia) I added to make him

look a little "undone" and to give him some interest.

I'd like to enter these ATCs in the current challenge at 

Fun With ATCs - Set of Three 

I am currently working on a couple of coloring tutorials, and 

a Chunky ATC for the current HDH challenge. I should have

some good posts coming up in the very near future, so keep

stopping by.

Je m'appelle Creepy Glowbugg

Oui, oui! I'm feeling kinda European today, after I got all of my

French themed craft paraphernalia out to play with.

I have been wanting to play along with this month's challenges

over at Stampotique Designers Challenges, but the month has 

gotten away from me, again.  Now I have to make up for some

lost time.

After compiling my supplies, I felt that my dear old,

Kolassal, would best fit the French Flair theme.

Must have been the top hat. Or the bad teeth.

After coloring Kolassal with an aqua painter and TH Distress Inks,

I fussy cut her out, and added her on top of some distressed panels.

I used a harlequin and a fleur de lis stamp on the kraft base card.

I used the water brush to distress the Harlequin pattern and give it a

water colored look.   

 Lastly, I added the linen tag after Distressing it with inks.

I added a copper tag (distressed with Distress paint), some brads and 

some seam binding for the tag.

Voila! 

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Stampotique Designers Challenges - French Flair

Crafts and Me - Anything Goes

Rhedd and Rosie's challenge blog - Anything Goes

Ruby's Rainbow - Layer it up 

City Crafter challenge blog - On the Road

Through the Craftroom Door- Anything Goes

Git yer Freak On!!!

Who say's it's too early for pumpkins?!

A friend of ours tilled the soil in his new place, and without planting a single

seed, has pumpkins, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and various

other vegetation growing wildly in his yard. He gave me the first two (of many)

pumpkins he harvested last week.

Do I smell in Autumn in the air?

The second week to enter the Haunted Design House 

challenge of Freaker's Free for All has begun!

I'm running a bit behind, but I made something! 

I couldn't miss out on an anything goes challenge.

A dear friend sent me a cute little "take n' make" from her local scrap store.

It came with some pretty papers and ribbons, but I swapped them out for

Hallowe'en themed papers and ribbon instead.

I went through my Hallowe'en scraps and used up some good bits.

I added  MS punched elements and papers from various makers.

I also used some cool brads in my stash as well.

One of my favorite Hallowe'en papers. 

I'm down to only scraps of it at this point.

The kit came with these cute little plastic sleeves for the entire 3" x 3" book. 

Now, if I can only figure out how to keep the ribbon binding the pages,

to stay in the holes! As you can see, it's a bit unfinished.

Thanks for dropping by!

Keep it creepy!!!     

  

They're no Fiji Mermaids, but....

... they're gorgeous and magical just the same.

I have recently become smitten with the technique of

"no-lines coloring". Contrary to it's name, there are lines,

but they are printed very lightly so when the image is colored they

show very little, or not at all.

I used #560 Kiki Mermaid from Dilly Beans for this journal page.

These images lend themselves quite well to the 'no-lines' technique.

I created the background using spray inks and some white acrylic paint.

I also managed to catch a rainbow in the upper left corner of this photo. 

Cool.

I also colored #559 Nina Mermaid for the second page.

Her hair was fun to create using a dot technique. Curly hair always

throws me for a loop as far as coloring. 

"The seaweed is always greener 

in someone else's lake."

                           -"Sebastian" from The Little Mermaid.

I have to work on my lettering. I completely ruined two pages by using 

a correction pen as a white pen for my sentiment. Way too runny,

and not much control. I'm open to suggestions...

I chopped up some green weave ribbon from May Arts

to look like seaweed. I like all the layers with the spray inks,

acrylic paint, Stickles, and seaweed.

The challenge at Dilly Beans this week is...

MERMAIDS!!!

Drop by and check out more underwater beauties, and

maybe even join in to win some free images from Dilly Beans. 

Down the Rabbit Hole with WW

Happy Hump Day!!

The weather has finally resumed some normalcy for July

 (was over 100 degrees for seven days straight last week!),

so I have been pulling weeds and bizarre crap out of my yard this week.

I have been putting out snail bait to kill off the offending hoards of shelled

slimers, and now I have flower beds littered with empty (sorta) snail shells.

I want to do something with them, but not sure how to go about it. They seem too 

delicate to really work with, but maybe they'd make a nice display in a jar or

glass holder of some sort. Once they're completely dried out, that is. 

I wonder if bleaching them would destroy them?   

Anyhoo, it's time for another WW ATC challenge.

This week we are sponsored by Rick St. Dennis.

The theme is, "Down the Rabbit Hole", and RSD has

a ton of wonderful Alice in Wonderland themed images in his shop,

under Fairy Tales.

I chose to work with the entire AIW gang for my ATC.

I colored everyone with Copics, fussy cut a bit, and then Stickled the edges, 

and used some clear gel pen on their eyes (and noses and teeth as necessary). 

Lastly, I used my Wonderland stamp from Leavenworth Jackson.

Drop by Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge to check out all of the AIW

madness, and maybe even play along to win some free RSD images of

your very own! 

RSD Freebies and a WW reminder

Looks as though I am a day (or two) late on this post,

but better late than never.

As is his usual, generous style, Rick is offering two freebies

for the next two weeks. A fairy image is available on the

Sparkle and Glitter blog, and the Grumpy Dragon 

is available on the Airless Chambers blog.

The challenges are both Anything Goes, so why

not play along for a chance to win more free images?

Here is how I colored and used the Grumpy Dragon freebie.

I chose to color him in red and black with Copics.

I used some contrasting colors for his eyes and his tongue,

hoping they'd stand out a bit against the red and black. 

I used some ancient dp from Costco that has silver thread stitched into it.

I used a new (to me) ATC and corners die from TH for the corners.

I worked in a (crooked) swirly die cut from a Memorybox die, jazzed

up with red Stickles.

I also managed to add this cool charm I have had for a

couple of years. I affixed it really shabbily, and will be fixing it soon.

It's a little too "rustic". It's crap. I gotta change it.

So, drop by the Sparkle and Glitter blog, and the Airless Chambers blog

to claim your freebies. It would be great if you'd share your makes using the new 

images and enter the corresponding challenges. The EDT really looks forward

to seeing what you create with Rick's awesome images.    

I also wanted to remind you that there is still time to play along

at WW ATC for the current Red, White, and Blue challenge.

We're sponsored by 2CuteInk.

They should be called, "2Stinkin'CuteInk"!

I was trying for a "summer bbq at the lake" feel for this ATC.

Not sure why the right corner went wonky, but that's

handmade for ya!

Drop by WW and play along to win images from 2CuteInk. 

Red, White, and Blue

It's Wednesday, so that means break out your ATC making

goodies and get inspired from Wicked Wednesday ATC challenges!!

This week we are celebrating the good 'ol US of A, with a 

red, white, and blue challenge.

We are sponsored by 2CuteInk this week.

Please drop by WW, and check out what the rest of the team made with their

adorable images from 2CuteInk.

I'd like to enter this ATC in the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Patriotic
Tuesday Throwdown - Stars and Stripes
Party Time Tuesdays - Patriotic

Lucky 13

The number 13 can be considered quite unlucky for some folks.

I, on the other hand, claim the number thirteen as my lucky number. 

I have always chosen it when asked to pick a number between one and twenty.

It has been my phone extension at a couple of different places I have worked in the past.

I have always considered it my lucky number.

With the current challenge at Haunted Design House being

"Unlucky for Some", 

here is my creation,  consisting of no more or less than 13 components.

I decided to add another page to my almost completed,

first art journal. 

I used this awesome image from Rafaella Ryon from Deviant Art.

Such beautiful artwork!

I colored her and her beloved, with Copics.

I love purple, orange, and green together.

Okay, my 13 consists of the following:

1 image, 1 matte, 1 journal page, 1 ripped dictionary page, 3 different Distress Inks,

3 different Dylusions sprays, 2 rubber stamps, and 1 glittered purple flourish cut in two. 

Yup! That's thirteen!!!

Not as hard as you might think. Please feel free to show off your counting skills

and join us in the Dungeon this week for our Lucky 13 challenge.