Under the Sea Dream Wedding

My Aunt and Uncle were married on the beach in Hawaii.

My Aunt had a hard bound book of their wedding photos created 

online from Walmart. While she was happily showing around her wedding book

it began to fall apart. She had only had it a few weeks. This made me sad.

So I immediately went on her face book page and started downloading

her wedding pictures. I ordered prints online from Costco, and am now

ready to begin creating their new wedding album. 

Now it just so happens to be the start of a new challenge at Aurora Wings,

and the theme is: Dream Wedding.

I'm pretty sure that a wedding on the beach in Hawaii is a dream wedding.

I'd like to have a vow renewal (next year is 20 years) on the beach somewhere.

Just me and my husband, and the officiant. No one else. No shoes either.

A girl can dream...   

I decided to use this adorable Aurora Wings image called,

"The Gift". Seems perfect for the very first page of the

wedding album. I colored the cute Mer-couple using Copics.

I went with vivid hues since I love using bright colors on

fantasy images. No rules. I love it. 

I've been collecting beach themed dies and embellishments for this project.

I used some TH distress inks and paint to color the TH sand dollar

and seahorse die cuts. I used Frantage on the "love" die cut to make 

it fancy, and stand out against the sand dollar. Added the starfish brad 

and the gold dew drops for more interest. And cheesecloth. Ya gotta have cheesecloth

for many uses, but especially for an ocean netting embellishment.    

I popped a teeny half pearl in the clam shell. It fit perfectly.

I also Stickled bubbles using crystal Stickles, along with punched circles of glittered

and pearlized papers to represent bubbles, too.

I think I got my point across. Gotta have lots of bubbles.

  

And here it is! I am liking where this is going. 

Mitzi has a bunch of other ocean/sea inspired images that will be just

perfect for the rest of this album. I'll be sure to share my progress.

I hope to have this done by their anniversary in September.

Thanks for dropping by. Be sure to check out all the other

wonderful inspiration samples on the Aurora Wings challenge blog.

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

    Going Grey with Scrap-Creations - Anything Goes

Inky Chicks - Pearls

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes 

All Crafts Challenge - Anything Goes

Not Just Cards - Anything Goes

A Quick Haunted Word

So I survived Mother's Day, and true to form,

I didn't do what my Dad told me to do. 

I still plan to write a letter to my Mom, 

but I just couldn't bring myself to do it on Mother's Day. 

I was already having a really hard time, and opted not to 

dive into the most painful part of my life. My fear was that

I may not come back. Ever been afraid to really feel the pain?

I am terrified, but know it will help me heal. All in good time.

I do have a really cool project to share with you today.

Been keeping busy creatively. Idle hands and all that... 

First up is the second half of the Haunted Design House challenge:

Can I Have a Quick Word?

I chose one of my favorite words that doesn't begin with an "F",

and used WEIRD.

 Weird on Google search comes up with a definition of:

suggesting something supernatural; uncanny.

Funny that some of the synonyms for weird are 

odd, bizarre, awful, creepy, spooky, ghastly, freaky, strange,

magical , haunting, grotesque, kooky, etc...

More of my favorite words.

I began with a box frame I have had for months (years?).

I knew it would be perfect for a cool shadowbox display, and as it

turns out, I was right!

I distressed the box with a cool TH hammer with various tips

to give cool textures for aging and distressing. 

 I painted the box red and then black, all the while distressing

as I went along to each layer. I painted some wooden feet

and then gave them a coat of Rock Candy crackle paint. 

I have had this clear embossing paste from Dreamweaver Stencils for a while,

 and was inspired to use it on all sides of this box as soon as my new 

Dyan Reaveley  skull stencil arrived. It goes on very well, and I was worried it

was going to remain kinda rubbery, but once it cured completely ( a couple of days)

it was fine. I am loving the new stencil, too. It comes in a larger size, but this

one will do for now...

One can never have too many doll heads...

I salvaged this one from my kid and chopped the back of

her head off to fit in the frame/box better. I painted her with black gesso

to give me a good base to work with. I used a crackle technique on her

to give a cracked porcelain doll feel.    

As I was waiting for the head to dry onto the frame backing,

I used some TH wood letters and some Scrabble tiles to spell, weird. 

I used the TH hammer to distress the "W" and added some black acrylic wash and 

lime green Inka Gold metallic rub. I used distress paint daubers on the "E',

and white distress paint on the "I" to make it stand out. The "R" got a

smattering of Diamond Dust, and the "D" got a coat of  

green antiquing cream from DecoArt's Media line. 

I really LOVE how the "D" turned out. That is a great product!  

Once I arranged everything the way I wanted, I glued everything

down using Glossy Accents. I usually never use GA as a glue,

but I wanted to make sure this thing wasn't going to fall apart

any time soon.

I used some Pork Chop Show wooden pieces, along with various TH bits

and bobs. I used some mirrors, too.

One of my favorite parts is the eyeball on the top. I used a plastic doll

eye I bought on ebay, and glued it onto one of those TH specimen pins.  

I love the way the plastic TH dolly looks almost like

a negative image in the face after distressing it with black soot

distress paint, and then rubbing some of it off. TH star, and skull and crossbones

made there way onto this, too. I added some Firefly Stickles to the little bottle

to help spread the green color around a bit.

I generously coated the inside walls of the box with

platinum glass glitter. Kinda reminds me of the

genie on Pee Wee's Playhouse, Jambi. 

Okay that's it for my weird HDH creation. 

I love it. How about you?

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

Pile it On - Not Cute

Mixed Media World - Vintage (it's weird, but it does look old)

Left of Center - Distress It

Inspiration Emporium - May challenge - Get Pasted

Such an oddball

I have been having a hard time dealing with Mother's Day this year.

I find myself crying at anything that has to do with mothers. Good or bad.

My Dad suggested I write my Mother a letter to tell her all of the things

that I wish I had, before she died. Looks like I'm going to be writing a letter

this Sunday....

To keep myself busy, and to keep my mind off of painful things,

I have been playing around with my new small format Dyan Reaveley  

art journal. I have the larger one, but find myself intimidated to work

in it as of yet. Maybe once I master some cool techniques I'll have the

courage to work bigger. 

I started off by coloring this adorable image from Oddball Art Stamps.

Her name is Sally Sadness. She reminds me of a character from The Oblongs. 

Man, I love that cartoon.

I colored her up with Copics, and did a bit of customizing on her appendages 

to go along with my sentiment. 

   

I used some swirly die cuts to give the appearance of tentacle-type arms.

Some may consider that a flaw, others may think it's pure awesomeness.

I fall into the category of the latter.   

The background was created with Dylusion spray inks, a hexagram stencil

with some crackle paste (which I sanded down afterwards to make it less

chunky and obvious), and a new TH crackle stencil with black soot distress ink.

I also worked in some skull and barbed wire die cuts, along with some

Firefly Stickles for that bling factor.

I added the other swirls in to make it cohesive with the other

page and Sally's tentacles.

And there it is. The first completed page in my new art journal.

I still have a ways to go before I feel really adept at this art journal thing,

but it's so fun to just play around and make fun art just for me.

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

Oddball Art Art Stamps fb page - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Let's Get Sentimental