Current Design Teams

Thursday, June 25, 2015

What an exquisitely creepy little girl!


I am almost unable to contain my sinister bubblings over the
new images from Vera Lane Studio Digi Stamps. I am always thrilled when
another artist (unwittingly, or not) caters to those of us who are
"less than normal crafters". And I mean that in the best way
possible.

This little zombified booger is named, "Rachael".
And she only resembles a booger because that is how I have
colored her. I usually like my zombies to be green and have 
varying spots of decay and discoloration. And then they 
should be wearing a pretty dress to show that they are still
a girl, after all. 
As a side note, the set this image is from also comes with a little
zombie boy named "Gage", and a kitty named "Meow". Anyone care to
connect the undead dots? What if the cat was named, "Church"?
Anyone?
  
The sentiment is from my favorite word artist, Ginger's House.
Not only are her sentiments funny, sweet, and even kinda naughty sometimes,
but they're FREE!! Yeah, I know. Cool, right?

I have a bunch more Vera Lane images to color and show off, 
so stay tuned...

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Pocket Letter Newbie

I have officially participated in my very first Pocket Letter swap!!
I loved how fun and simple it looked, so I started collecting all of the
"ingredients" to begin making my own. But you really do need someone to
swap with to make it official. I happened to be chatting with my dear friend
(in real life), Dani, who stated that she has been trading pocket letters all
over the US and Internationally for a few months. What?! How did I not
know this?! I made sure she was my first PL swap, although I still haven't
received mine yet....

I went with a purple Goth theme which I chose myself. I guess you can
pick a theme between you and your trade partner, but Dani left it up to me
since it was my first time. I know she doesn't "do pink", so I went with
purple. Everyone loves purple, right? Well, they should!

I began by grabbing a stack of trading card sheets from my ATC stash,
and pulled out my ridiculous amount of ATCs that I have made, but never
gave away. I have a lot! What a great way to share them with new friends far and wide.

I was lucky enough to have won some Bugaboo images from a recent LOC challenge,
and really wanted to color them up. I love this spider hanging from the moon.
I colored it with Copics and then clear embossed a spider web over the entire card
before using Distress Inks to color the background. 
Then the fun really begins when you start adding goodies to every pocket. 
I added a bunch of paper punched spiders to this pocket.   

After filling the pockets with ATCs, and blank coordinating papers,
I added rhinestones, bows, glittery border strips, puffy bat ribbon, etc...
Basically, add fun crafty stuff to share. I guess the original idea is
to add a tea bag, a note about yourself, a fun quote, and all kinds of 
ephemera. There is a great introduction to Pocket Letters here,
by the lady who created them. 

This one was fun. I just added some Tim Burton-y paper clips, and
a bunch of punched bats, and teeny neon clips, too.

This image was fun to color and play with. I got a bit over zealous with the 
polka dot background, but it's very fancy now.

Dani loved her Pocket Letter. I am going to the post office to retrieve mine today.
And pay to get it out of hock. Make sure to add the correct postage, and that it's
packaged properly when you do your swaps. I'm sure Dani did as well, but 
apparently my local post office is super persnickety and wants special handling
fees or something.... Of all the swaps Dani has done, both in the US and Internationally,
this is the FIRST one to have issues. And we only live about 10 miles apart.
I am such a unique experience.  



Monday, June 15, 2015

Sprite Delight part deux

It has been a while since I've blogged. 
Too long, but I have been busy making schtuffs.

Today is the beginning of the new challenge at Aurora Wings.
The new theme is Sprite Delight Part II
When I first saw Mitzi's artwork years ago on Etsy
I fell madly in love with her sprites. 
This is one of my favorite Aurora Wings challenge themes.
  
I'm still chuggin' along on the wedding album I'm making for my Aunt and Uncle.
I'm hoping to have the entire album completed by their second Anniversary, 
this September. Good things are worth waiting for, right?

After using various inks, and distress sprays to achieve a sandy texture on
some kraft card stock, I began the layering of my 8" x 8" scrapbook page. 

I began by coloring up this gorgeous little 
I thought he was perfect for a tropical beach themed wedding.
Just the right pop of color to set off the image against the 
washed out beach colored page.

I also thought it was a good idea to add some bling and fleurs 
that wouldn't compete with the little Sprite, but compliment it. 

More fleurs, die cuts, gumdrops, half pearls, and pearl sprays
to finish it off. I love the look of the frantage on the leaf die cuts. 

And here we are at the completed scrapbook page, once again.
I like to see the completed piece after all of the details have been
accounted for . I still have about 18 more pages to go before this
album is complete, but I am having a good time making sure each
page is perfect, and a good representation of their love. 
They are two very special people, and I want this book to reflect that.

Be sure to drop by the Aurora Wings challenge blog to see all of the
incredible inspiration pieces, and meet our newest DT member, too! 
Thanks for stopping by today.

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


       


Monday, June 1, 2015

Bug. Bugg. Buggs.

The new challenge over at Haunted Design House is a 
theme that is near and dear to my heart,
I'm mainly partial to the bugs and the gems. Still not
quite sure what a "gewgaw" is, but I think it's a
non-essential embellishment. I've got those in spades, too.

I have quite a few framed insect/bug specimens in my collection,
so I figured it would be cool to make my very own specimens.

I got the idea from an episode of America's Next Top Model, where the 
models had to pose with hissing cockroaches that were on leashes 
and covered in jewels.

I used a rubber cockroach I picked up on clearance at Wally World
after Halloween. It comes with a small glow stick you can insert into the  
abdomen for a cool effect. Maybe I'll try and get pics of  that later.
I had a hell of a time getting the jewels to stick to the stretchy rubber 
the bug is made of, but Glossy Accents came through in the end.
I painted the frame with black paint, dry brushed red glitter paint on the edges
and sides, and then added a couple of stamped flourishes embossed 
with red foil embossing powder.  Lastly, I sealed it with a coat or two of
gloss medium.
   
This spider was hard plastic, with a hollow body on the back making
it difficult to glue into place. So, this guy is something of a wanderer. 

He goes very nicely with my spider web under glass, don't you think?

And he looks right at home among the other oddities and creepies
on my mantle.

Thanks for dropping by today.
Be sure to check out the other bugs, rhinestones, and fancy bits 
over at HDH!!