Not your average mermaid

I needed a birthday card for a special person, and the only

requirement was that it had to have a mermaid on it.

I just so happen to have won a mermaid image from 

Lacy Sunshine, and was looking forward to coloring her up.

Her name is Morticia Siren.

She's pretty bad ass for a mermaid.

I colored her with Copics and backed her on to a glittered card stock.

I also lucked out and found some stashed pre-cut flourishes in the same shade

of pink as her hair. I like it when that happens.

And I had some old stashed dew drops in the same shade, too.

I kind of went wild with the Stickles in various shades of greens

and yellow.

I used a new Stickle color called, Tropical Tangerine in her hair.

I really like this color! I have yet to find a good pink colored Stickles,

but this tangerine color will definitely work. 

Thanks for dropping by today.

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

Try it On Tuesday - Use your stash

Tuesday Throwdown - Anything Goes

Crafty Cardmakers - World of Fantasy 

Stamp and Create - Anything Goes

Left of Center - LOC Anything Goes

A Step in the Darkness - Anything Goes 

   

Macabre Monday: I scream for ice cream!

The new Macabre Monday challenge is up!

The Minions would like you to watch this short film, and be inspired by it.

Cute, right?
I made a list of possible bits of inspiration while I was watching the film.
Checkered floor, boy and girl, ice cream, scary man, kid in a blender, blended kid.
And this is what I came up with...

Since I didn't have a blender stamp, I had to improvise a bit.

I used this cool checkered background from Tiddly Inks and 

used stamps from Inkadinkado's (?) SPLAT! set to bloody up the

background. The red embossing powder I use smells like cherries.

Added bonus!

I stamped Spider Girl from Stampotique, colored her with Copics, 

and fussy cut her and her spider out. I highlighted them both a bit 

with a white gel pen. I also wanted to tie in the whole ice cream thing, so 

I drew up a small ice cream cone and added it to her dress.

I just had to have this spider web die from LaLa Land (I think).

Cut it twice, and sparkled it up a bit with Crystal Stickles.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Be sure to drop by HDH and see the other incredibly inspiring work

for this challenge.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
TTCRD - Anything Goes 

Tuesday Throwdown - Anything Goes

Through the Purple Haze - Anything Goes 

Vintage Smeared Ink DT Hop

Another month has flown by, and we find ourselves face to face

with yet another inspiring Smeared Ink monthly DT hop.

This month the theme du jour is

Vintage.

I have been in a bit of a Hallowe'en colored mood for a while now,

so this has given me a nice departure from my standard varied shades

of green, purple, and orange.

I decided to make one of the corsets from the Heavy Metal digi set

my main attraction on this card. I colored it with E80 Copics and

a some RV90 shades. I also tipped the lace with the same RV95 Copic

that I used on the corset.     

I used a Vintage definition stamp from parts unknown. 

It was perfect for this project. I attached it with a tiny TH paperclip.

I also added a wood cut key from The Porkchop Show on Etsy. Love his stuff!

Thanks so much for dropping by today!

Below is the hop list if you'd like to check out all of the 

marvelous makes for today's hop.

BLACKDRAGON

SHELL

SHONI

CREEPY GLOWBUGG - you are here

ELENOR

REBECCA

Cloudee with a chance of lightning

How flippin' cute is this cloud?

He's part of a new release at Smeared Ink called, 'Hallocuties'.

His name is of course, 'Cloudee'.

I colored him with Copics, and totally scored when I ran

across this paper in my stash. Perfection!

I tried to make lightning-type bolts on the sentiment, but they

kinda suck. Not a big deal though. Just add Stickles.

Popped on some cloud die cuts, and voila!

Thanks for dropping by today.

Keep it creepy.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
Papertake Weekly - To die for (I used the cloud die cuts)
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Just time for a quickie

The current challenge at HDH is

Ferocious Furballs.

I toiled for a week on this challenge, and then it hit me.

Instead of going in an obvious direction with scary critters 

already drawn to ferocious perfection, maybe I could alter

an existing stamp already in my stash.

And here you have it.

I inked up 'Yum Yum', from Stampotique, used a gel pen on the seed he was

holding, and gave him some fangs for good measure. I tried to make the seed into

a skull to go with the pile already started by Yum Yum. The skulls are also from 

Stampotique. The sentiment is from points unknown, maybe Viva Las Vegas Stamps.

I hope you'll join us in our furry fiend challenge.

Go here for more inspiration.

Under the Sea

Wow, I can hardly believe we're already up to challenge #6 at

Aurora Wings Challenge blog.

The new challenge theme is 'Under the Sea', and there is

no shortage of Aurora Wings images to choose from in this category.

I had a hard time choosing an image myself, but I finally decided on this

lovely siren of the sea. And the fact that there was a skull involved help

to sway my decision.

I started out coloring the 'Secret Kisses' using Copics.

I made blotches in blue greens to give her a spotted koi look. Or at least

that's what I had in mind while doing this.

My next logical and obvious choice was to add my favorite lime green hues.

I also started out by making blotches, and then just blended out to the blue greens.

Usually with this color combo, I go for orange as my next color to really

give good contrast and pop against the cooler tones. I decided to just stay in 

the cool tones and went with purple. You can never go wrong with purple. 

I added some air bubbles to the background so she didn't just look like

she was floating in midair. 

When I think of magical mermaids, I think glitter and sparkles. 

Always.

Lots of sparkle and glitter. Lots.

And here we have my all time favorite colors. 

All together, in one magical underwater package.

This card is going to my SIL for her birthday, today.

She's not a super girly-girl, so I think she'll dig this card. 

Thanks for dropping by today.

 I do hope you'll make a trip over to the Aurora Wings challenge blog

and see all of the wonderful under the sea inspired DT projects.

Truly inspired works by all of the DT, you won't want to miss it.  

Naughty or Nice?

Naughty!

Definitely naughty!

There is a relatively new challenge blog called, Naughty or Nice,

and I have been dying to play along with them.

Their current challenge is Anything Goes, so I had to make sure to 

get in on this one. The main idea of their challenges is to make something 

naughty or nice. I have a ridiculous amount of snarky sentiment stamps,

and don't even get me started on naughty images. 

It's called, Naughty or Nice, not foul and inappropriate. 

But I can do both if need be. 

I decided to create a wall hanging out of 

corrugated cardboard that has been peeled.

I really love the look and texture this creates.

When I decided to do something snarky, I knew I had to reach for my

all time favorite bad girls, Karin and Newt from Stampotique. 

These girls are all attitude and creepiness. Perfection.

I had fun using Pearl Mica Flake medium on the corrugated cardboard.

It added such a lovely sparkle, and another cool texture.

I used a Sizzix die for the frame, and used Platinum Stickles on it for

some highlights and more sparkle.  

I ordered a bunch of metal elements like this piece, and finally worked one

 into one of my projects. I swiped it with some gold rub n' buff to make the

details really pop. I think it adds a nice bit of fanciness here.   

The addition of the gold dew drops is a subtle touch, while reinforcing the 

gold and white color scheme. Also, this is a good picture of that mica flake.

That stuff is so cool! 

This falls under the naughty title. I'm not sure I can even do nice.

Thanks for checking out my schtuff today.

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

Naughty or Nice - Anything Goes

Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes

Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Anything Goes Altered Art

Tando Creative Challenges - Lovely Layers 

   

New release at Smeared Ink

There are some new images being released at

Smeared Ink today.  

I am working with some images from the Hallocuties digital set.

It would appear that this little Hallocutie has her head caught in a gourd.

And that she forgot her panties.... 

The sentiment is also available as a digi, and works with tons of images.

I fussy cut this one out because I wanted it to appear as part of the design, 

as opposed to a white rectangular box containing the sentiment. Which is the route I

normally take. The block letters make it easy to do.

I'll be back with another new release sample next week.  

Be sure to drop by Smeared Ink to see the rest of this set, and to check out this month's 

exclusive rubber club selection. 

The rubber club is now open to the public!!! That's right!

You no longer have to join the club to get exclusive Smeared Ink rubber designs!! 

Anyone to can purchase new and past rubber offerings!! 

Check out the details here.     

  

Happy Thirteenth!!!!!

Today is the very first day, of the very first challenge at
Delicious Darkness Challenges.

What's that, you're not familiar with Delicious Darkness?

Well, since you may have been living under a rock, I'll explain.

Delicious Doodles is the mainstream digital image shop of my

fellow Minion Sistah, Teri. Teri has embraced her dark side over the years,

and has amassed quite an impressive collection of darker themed, digital images. 

The new digi shop, Delicious Darkness was born! 

And what better way to spread the disease, but to start a challenge blog 

featuring a wickedly talented DT, and Teri's wonderfully 

dark, and beautifully drawn images.

The new challenges will begin on the thirteenth of each month.

Every challenge theme will keep strictly to the dark side. 

No fluff for this group!

Wanna see what I made for our Anything Goes theme?

Let me introduce you to "Corvus Coralyne",

available in the Delicious Darkness digi shop. 

See? I wasn't kidding when I said Teri was quite the accomplished

dark artist. Her images are fun and nearly fool-proof to color, regardless

of your choice of coloring medium. I nearly always use Copics to color everything.

Teri's images come with nice, crisp lines and shading, which provides for a professional, 

and beautiful end result. 

After coloring this dark beauty, I adhered her onto black cardstock.

I used some really old, random Hallowe'en dp, mounted it onto more black card,

and glued it all wonky onto the card base. An orange ribbon and a black

feather finish it all off. I usually like to keep the image the focus of the card, so I 

try not to overwhelm it all with tons of embellies and goodies. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

I hope you'll drop by the 

Delicious Darkness challenge blog 

and see what the rest of the DT made for this brilliant and new challenge blog.    

Marie Nyantoinette Showcase

Well, it looks like Mitzi at Aurora Wings has done it again.

She has created another beautiful Marie Antoinette image.

And this one is pretty special. 

Say hello to her little friend!

How cute is that kitteh with a wig on?!! 

I have a weakness for animals in wigs and hats, so this was an instant

favorite.

I colored Marie and her fuzzy friend with Copics, in browns and red violets.

I finally decided on some yellow greens to offset the overabundance of

brown and red violet shades. 

This was my first version of the background.

I pretty much hated it the second I was done with it, but after

a pep talk from my son, I decided to re-do the background to

provide more contrast for Marie.

Man, I love my Copics. What a great medium. 

Lastly, I added some sparkle with platinum and cinnamon Stickles. 

I popped her into a 5"x7" frame to accommodate the larger sized

image, and she's ready for her big showcase debut.

Please drop by the Aurora Wings Showcase blog to see all of the 

inspired and talented work of the participating DT members.

Deja-Vu Doo for Macabre Monday

Happy Monday? No. 

Maybe not an especially happy Monday, but it is Macabre Monday, 

and that means the second week of the theme 

Deja-Vu Doo has begun.

The challenge is to revisit a relatively recent project or supply

and use it again, but in an entirely new way.

I decided to try my hand at another altered box.
I made this one a few weeks ago, in case you missed it. 

This time I went with a hinged coffin box made of wood.

I sealed the blank wood box with Americana sealer from DecoArt

before doing anything else. I've learned that this is beneficial to the overall

effects I am trying to achieve here. 

Next, I painted the box with a black acrylic paint. I applied two coats of the black

paint and let it dry completely (with the help of a heat gun), before applying the

Weather Wood medium. I used this project once before but didn't get good results.

Now I realize I misread the directions the first time, but I got it right this time.

The key is to apply a nice, even coat of the WW medium, ending up with a nice,

glossy finish. Let that dry completely. Try to be patient and let it dry by itself to avoid

burning the paint or the medium. Ask me how I know this....  

Once the Weathered Wood medium has dried completely, I chose a highly

contrasting color of acrylic paint. The key to getting a good crackled finish

is to apply a thin coat, quickly. And try not to go over the areas you have already

painted, as it decreases the crackled effect. Work fast, and in the same direction

as the wood grain. 

As a side note: I have had this paint for 17 years....

Once it was all dry, I was thrilled with the weathered effect, but that paint

color was just too garish, and bright for this coffin box.

So I made a wash of watered down brown paint,

and applied it, and wiped it off almost immediately, leaving it in the

recesses of the coffin for an aged effect. I think it toned that purple

down nicely. 

I still felt it was lacking a bit, so I added some

Inka Gold Metallic Rub in green yellow to all of the edges.

This really made it all pop.

I glued a bat I made (using polymer clay and a Martha Stewart mold)

onto the front of the coffin. I like the simplistic look of it. Since there is

so much going on with all the textures and layers, this felt right. 

I glued some wooden balls to the bottom of the box for feet.

I think this makes it feel a bit more special than just a box that sits on it's bottom.

I decorated the inside of the box using various collage cuts from

Itkupilli , and random stuff from my stash. 

It felt like something was missing, so I added some Tim Holtz Halloween rub-ons

to the edges of the box.  

Yup, that's what was missing. I like it. 

More rub-ons, and green metallic rub.

That's it for me. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

I'd like to enter this box in the following challenges:
Allsorts Challenges - Favorite Things

Halloween is my favorite thing in the entire world.

I bleed orange and black, 24/7.

Crafting at the Weekend - Anything Goes

Altered Eclectics - Anything mixed media/altered

PunkyouGirl - Anything Goes

Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Anything Goes - must be altered art