Tuesday, July 28, 2015

BFF Birthday

One of my OLDEST best friends just celebrated her birthday.

This is the card  made for her.
I love that old bitch.

and paired it with some of the elements that came with her, 
and a snarky sentiment from Riley and Co. Funny Bones.

Thanks for stopping by today.

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



Monday, July 27, 2015

Summer Swap 2015

I was lucky to have scored a spot in the exclusive
I love toys and random pop culture swag. It's yet another
facet to my hoarding collecting tendencies. So, when I saw
that Dex was going to put together a box of random schtuff 
(one man's junk is another man's treasure concept),
and then he would send it off to one of the ten people on the list, I had to sign up. 
Each person takes what they want from the box, and then they add more of their own
schtuff to the box and send it on to the next person. It's basically a win, win
situation. You get new crap, and get to dump your old crap in the process.
I have no shortage of random crap, so this was a no brainer for me.

This was the box I received on my doorstep.
Lots of cool stickers all over it. Damn! I forgot to add my own decorations
to the outside of the box. 

Here is a good shot of the degree of random toys
and schtuff contained within. The Dracula is a 
box mascot and travels with the box to each destination.
We had some good times...  

This is the booty I looted from the box of random goodness.

I snagged these wicked cool horror trading cards and stickers.

I kind of couldn't resist this. I was compelled to
add it to my DVD collection. Haven't watched it yet though. 

No explanation necessary.

Miscellaneous bits and bobs of coolness and quirkiness. 

Lastly, I grabbed this big boy. He's a Techno Spawn Code Red Gorilla.
Super freaking cool, is what he is!!! I have a few McFarlane figures,
mainly from the Twisted Fairy Tales collection, but this guy is my new favorite
"desk bling". The details on this guy are amazing. 

This is the schtuff I added to the box.

Disney toys, zombie schtuff, GBK trading cards, a Dunny,
and a Sharknado Survival Guide are just some of the hand me downs
I threw in the swap box. 

I just mailed it out to it's next willing recipient in Terre Haute, IN.
Should be there by Monday. Enjoy! 
 

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Don't touch my Twinchies!

One of the current challenge themes at Stampotique Designer's Challenge
is 'TWINCHIES'.
Now, I have heard of inchies, so it is a simple concept to grasp that if inchies
are 1" square, then a twinchie will be 2" square. Simple enough, right?

I have a stupid number of new Stampotique stamps that I have yet to
ink up. Rudy and Reggie, the seahorses were screaming for ink, so
they are the chosen focal points of my card today. 

I stamped and embossed them before coloring with Copics.

I really like the look of water colored messy shadows behind the images.
I wasn't having much luck achieving that effect with my water color pencils, 
so I went over it all with my trusty Copics and got the desired effect.  
I used my Posca paint pen to add the white bubble dots and highlights. 
I love those pens! 

I am a huge fan of the Riley and Co. Funny Bones sentiments.
This one reminds me of my friend, Deanna. We think we are quite
the funny biotches. We cackle when we're together, and we don't
really care if anyone else finds us funny. It's just an added perk. 

This it for me today.

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

Monday, July 20, 2015

Oh, how I love those things with wings!

I'm kind of excited to show off my newest creation today.
I made this card for the new challenge at 
I am a fan of many a winged beast, fae, or foe.
I really love me a good pixie, though.

I chose to work with the Pixie Kawaii Fairy with Big Hair
Surprisingly, I have had this image for quite a while and this
is the very first time I have colored her up. I am kind of bummed
that the photo shows her face so red. I can assure you, it doesn't
look quite that drastic in real life.
I used Copics to color her to match some papers from Kaiser Craft - Kaleidoscope.  
I left her eyes pupil-less as they were drawn. I don't like to
mess with Mitzi's images by adding mouths, or noses, or pupils.
I'm something of a purist when it comes to interpreting an artist's image.
I like to follow the artist's vision. I try to refer to their colored
sample when it's available, to confirm that I'm seeing a leaf or a curl of hair. 
I like how her eyes look almost insect-like. Mission accomplished.  

The perfectly insightful sentiment was already on the papers I chose, making this
a very quick card to pull together once the coloring was complete.
I usually take at least an hour to color an image. I'll go back and add
shadows again, and again, until I'm satisfied with the contrast. 
It's therapeutic, and a labor of love.

And lastly, like all good pixies, this little lady is covered
in various shades of Stickles. A pixie wing has to drip
with glitter in my world. That's just how it is.

Thanks for dropping by today.
I hope you'll pop by the AW challenge blog to check out the
other stunning inspiration the DT have created for this challenge.

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

Friday, July 17, 2015

Ladybug, ladybugg...

It's no secret that I am a sucker for Mitzi's Aurora Wings Sprites.
And when she releases a new Sprite I always first in line
(among many) to color it up and make a Sprite project.
Today she is releasing a ...

Ladybugg Sprite!! 
Couldn't you just die from cuteness overload?

Per my usual way, I colored this one up
differently than the normal ladybug you would find out in the real world.
C'mon! You know me better than that!

I kept the embellishments pretty simple, with some 
Vintage Photo Distress Stickles, and some gold half pearls. 
I figured that paper was busy enough.
                                                                      
I popped the card in some Begonias in my backyard for the
photo shoot. I was hoping the fading daylight would give
me a good photo this late in the evening. 

Be sure to stop by the Aurora Wings showcase blog to see all of the
wonderfully different versions of this adorable, new image.

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

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

My creative soundtrack

I don't know about you, but I simply MUST have music playing while I'm creating.
Although, I did have TerrorVision playing on You Tube last night while I finished 
up my latest Haunted Design House - Macabre Monday challenge piece.
The new challenge is "I Love Rock & Roll"
and you are to choose a song as your inspiration. It can be the music,
the lyrics, or even the video imagery to whet your creative appetite.

I originally chose "Rat Trap 666" by Die Antwoord, but after listening closer to the
lyrics (they're from South Africa so it gets hard to decipher at times), I chose to
go in another direction. Have you ever ran across an old CD and have no idea
who it is? I found an Otep CD that I totally blanked on, but the very second I put it
on I instantly remembered this chick. I am usually not a big fan of women fronted
metal bands,  but this chick is bad ass. I really dig her and her gritty sound.
The lyrics to "Blood Pig" really spoke to me, and allowed me the freedom
to create something that represents me. The lyrics are a bit "colorful" so
I'll warn you now, and show you the lyrics I used for my altered mouse trap.
Yeah, an altered mouse trap was what I wanted to make, hence the idea to use
the first song, if only for the title.  

Blood Pig on the album Sevas Tra by Otep 

I'm fucked up
I'm different
Words remain
My only escape

Art saves
All of me
Evolving


Yeah, that pretty much sums me up.

I have recently started collecting ideas for this project on a Pinterest board
I created here: Glo's pinterest board . I really like how small these are,
like an ATC, but a little larger at 1 3/4" x 3 3/4". They make great note holders
and just neat little bits of altered art. 
I began by purchasing a set of four traps for under $2, and I'll be checking out the
Dollar Store next time I'm out and about. After removing some of the unnecessary
hardware,  I gessoed two of them, one in black and the
other in white. I was still very undecided at this point.

I decided to use some Silks acrylic glaze, and I love how it turned out!
 I used Spiced Pumpkin and it gave such a beautiful, fiery color to the
black gesso. Like the flames of hell fire coming to get me...

After the paint dried (it actually takes 48 hours to cure completely, so this was a bit tacky),
I used matte medium to apply some images I had saved on my computer. I felt that these
images represented me in some way. Either in aesthetic, or attitude.

My sinister sistah, Donna hooked me up with some super kewl
charms when we finally made contact, so I used this guy as my
main focus. I used black acrylic paint to the recessed areas to
bring out the details more, and even went so far as to use Inka Gold
in green, purple, and orange to add some color to the crown.
I also went nuts with the Glossy Accents and Glossy Crackle products. 
Crackle on the Ouija board, and Glossy on the spider punch cuts.  

I love me a good Cthulhu image, some (paper) spiders, 
a 'Going to Hell' charm, and a sentiment that pretty much sums it all up. 
I usually go with a matte medium to seal everything, but once I saw how the
Glossy Accents really showed off the color of the Silks, I opted for a glossy medium.  

I was just turned onto shopmissa, where everything is $1, and I saw
these spikes that are used on nails as nail art (can't imagine wiping my butt
with hands festooned with spikes, but that is pretty heavy metal). 
I knew I could use them in multiple ways in my art. 
I bought a bunch. They were 20 for $1, c'mon! 

I used Glossy Accents to glue them down, and then thought they needed to be
embedded in GA to stay on forever. Perfect!



I added some Tim Holtz Halloween rub-ons for some
interest on the sides.

So now you know a little bit more about me, and hopefully you'll be
back anyway.

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


Saturday, July 4, 2015

Happy Anniversary Alice!


Today I am celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Alice in Wonderland
by taking part in a celebratory blog hop featuring lots of creative projects 
inspired by this wonderfully strange, and adventurous story.

Not only will you be awed by all of the amazing artwork, 
but you can also win prizes from these generous companies;







Prize winners will be selected from random blogs throughout the hop. 
In order to be eligible for a prize, you must visit all stops on the hop and leave a comment. 
The prize draws will be open until July 18th, with winners announced on July 20th.

Okay, now that all of that is out of the way, I bet you'd
like to check out my Alice in Wonderland inspired project.

I have quite a few Alice in Wonderland stamps and digital images to 
create with, but I was eager to use my newest digital acquisitions
from the very talented, Vera Lane Studios. Actually, the artist is named,
Janet Klein, but she lives on Vera Lane, so hence the business name. 

I recently got some new craft room storage and ended up with a bunch of
dividers that were intended for some of the new drawers. I opted to fill the drawers
without the help of the dividers, but thought that they'd make good wall hangings.
Into the hoarded pile they went! And then I had an idea for some AIW wall art.

I began by painting the panel bright red, and then applied a white
crackle effect over the top. That was way too white, so I toned it down
with a brown acrylic wash. I wiped most of it back, but left enough to give it
a nice, antiqued feel. It is the 150th Anniversary, after all.

I manipulated the Vera Lane images in Gimp, and created the
panel and images to fit my layout and design.

What is Alice in Wonderland without Alice?
Here she is looking a bit disheveled, which is why I love her.
Maybe that tumble down the rabbit hole was a bit more rough than
anyone originally thought. Looks like stitches were necessary. Ouch.
I colored her with Copics, added Glossy Accents to her eyes, and
some Stickles to the bloody bits for a sparkly effect.  

The White Rabbit received the very same treatment as Alice,
but he managed to make it down the hole unscathed. Lucky rabbit.

I adore the Mad Hatter! So fun and silly! I referred to a 
photo of Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter for the color scheme.  

I used the mushroom and the Queen of Hearts here.
I manipulated the mushroom in Gimp to give me a smaller and 
a reversed image mushroom. I colored them both with Copics and
used some Rock Candy Stickles to the spots for a nice sparkle.

I punched holes at the bottom of the panel and added ribbons and charms.
I made the Queen of Hearts charm using a small playing card, Crackle Accents, 
grunge board, and Glossy Accents on the back to seal everything. I added a red beaded
accent to the bottom as well. Super fancy!  


Well, that does it for me.
Enjoy the rest of the hop, and if you are only arriving here
by chance and want to check out the entire hop, the list of
participating blogs is listed below for your convenience.  


Blog Hop List