Rotten to the core

This week at Haunted Design House the theme is

ROTTEN ROMANCE.  

Been there, done that.

I decided to make a heart shaped ornament using burlap.

I cut heart shapes out of burlap and then "glued" them together

using pearl mica flake compound. It gave the heart a nice solid

center to adhere my goodies onto. Plus it made for a cool

glittery center when dry. Win, win!

I colored up this awesome Grotesque Cupid from 

Delicious Darkness.

I fussy cut him out and then I clear embossed him a couple of times

for added strength and shininess. 

After embossing and before gluing him and his polar opposite brother into place,

I added some chip board flourishes in the background for more interest and sparkle.

I added some red foil embossing powder onto the existing silver glitter to make it stand out. 

Lastly, I ran some TH tinsel twine through a eyelet, to hang my heart ornie.

Drop by HDH to check out the other Minion samples and 

enter to win some killer Delicious Darkness images of your

very own!  

A Queen and her rotting court

I made another ATC for the current challenge at WW ATC challenge. 
We're sponsored by my uber talented, Sister Minion, 
Teri of Delicious Doodles.

I immediately thought of this DD image called, Malice,

when I heard the theme was Tarot Symbols. 

She is G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S!

I colored her effortlessly, with Copics. And what I mean by effortlessly,
is that Teri's images have nice, thick lines, that make coloring much
simpler. Not to mention she provides the shading as well. Nice.
Too bad she didn't provide the writing too. I stamped each letter 
myself with various rubber alpha stamps. 
A little wonky, but it does the trick.

There is still time to enter over at Wicked Wednesday.
I see new Delicious Doodles images in your future.....

I'd also like to share a couple of masculine themed 

cards I made recently using images from Rick St. Dennis.

First up, is the rotting head image, "Going, Going, Gone".

I love this image, but after coloring it up with Copics, I was 

stumped as to how to use this image on a card. 

Rick to the rescue! 

It's amazing how one witty sentiment can bring everything together. 

Perfect!!!

The finished card using a MS iron fence punch, some MS paper 

tape, a Pink Paisley banner border, and some tapestry dp from 

unknown origins. An overall, masculine feel. 

I'm always at a loss for masculine cards.

Next I'd like to share my version of the current 

RSD Airless Chambers freebie, "Singing Zombie".

It was all I could do to not color him in my "go to" zombie colors.

I usually always color my zombies in YGs. Don't know why, 

other than they're my favorite color family, 

and zombies are my favorite monsters.

I used all Warm Grays for his flesh and a bit of RV25, 23, and 21

for the exposed bloody bits. I wanted the tongue to show up, and be somewhat realistic, so I colored it purple. I also chose my 

paper first, which is something I seldom do, but it helped 

tremendously when coloring the background. 

I found the musical note image on the web, half toned it, and 

added the Happy Birthday sentiment in Gimp.

Remember, the free Zombie image is still available here,

and you have until the 24th of May to enter the challenge 

using said zombie image.

More RSD images are up for grabs to the three winners, 

so why not play along? You'll find the place to add your entry 

along the top of the blog, marked May 2013 Freebie Contest.

   

Death's Head Hawk Moth and some Xmas left overs

Can I just say how happy I am for 2012 to end?

This year started out rather tragically, so the rest of the year was

spent trying to deal with losses and find my way back to reality.

I did manage to get my mojo back with the help of some wonderful

artists and their design teams. 

I joined the Dilly Beans DT, the Sparkle and Glitter DT,

and Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge DT this year. I made new friends, and picked up some new techniques and perspectives as well.

This year was a painful one, but I have come out stronger for it.

Now, let's see what 2013 has in store for me.

Today, I have made an ATC for the WW ATC challenge of 

"skulls and skeletons".

This is a Death's Head Hawk Moth.

Isn't he lovely?

I used this wonderful image from this week's sponsor,

 Delicious Doodles.

Teri draws the most amazing and unique images!! Love that artsy wench!

I used some Distress Inks for the back ground, and then spritzed it with 

water to give it a washed look with water spots. I used a vector stamp from Stamper's Best to complete the look.

I wish I had left the skull white, or colored it in with a gel pen to make it pop.

Next time.

Now for some Xmas left overs.

I made some gift tags with Rick St. Dennis' wonderful Christmas images.

So fun and easy to color! They made perfect tags!

This one is my favorite. It is belatedly on it's way to it's

intended recipient, so just a peek for now. 

Now I have some gifts I'd like to boast about (c'mon, let's be real here).

I have relieved my husband of his gift buying duties and I think we are both much happier for it.

We've been together over 25 years, and you'd think we had just met by the gifts he has given me in the past. Don't get me wrong, he is a wonderful man who buys me flowers at least once a month for as long as we've been married (16 years). He ROCKS, and I am lucky to have him. Very lucky.

But I buy myself awesome schtuff with his money. 

He doesn't have to shop for me,

and I get exactly what want. 

Win, win!!

I love me some Frank Kozik. I love the Smorkin' Labbit graphic, so I had

to have this: 

This is what I saw first. I knew I wanted it!!!! Tee hee!

Then, I saw it was a Labbit!!!!

A 'Labbitus tigris rotundii' to be exact.

Oh yeah!!! A moustache!!! 

It was love, no matter the cost!!!  

I also purchased these (rather large) Hello Kitty head salt and pepper shakers.

Very cute, and quite substantial. Husband has banned them from the kitchen.

The toaster was a well fought battle. I love my toast with Kitty's face on it. 

This was a pleasant surprise from the father in law. Also a habitually bad gift giver in years past.

Not this year!! You really can't go wrong at the BevMo!! Nicely done, sir. Nicely done. 

I have to admit it was nice to spend the holiday with family. It was great to see all the kids growing into young adults, or just beginning elementary school. It was touching to see my Uncle Jim moving on with his

life after losing his wife earlier this year to brain cancer. He is also a brain cancer survivor. It was also difficult to witness our family patriarchs aging and becoming so small and fragile. Gotta cherish those moments though.

That's not to say that I "wasn't feelin' it" before we got there, but once the chaos began, I felt right at home.  

 The older I get, the more I cherish family. Life is short. 

Don't waste the time we have left on petty shit. 

Love them, despite them. 

Scary New Year!!

Wake me up before you ... nevermind.

It's hump day and you know what that means!

I'm showing off my project for this week's

Macabre Monday Music Mayhem

challenge.

Mine is kind of a stretch, but I really wanted to use this image

from Delicious Doodles.

Her name is Steampunk Sally,

but for my purposes her new name is ...

"Whole Lotta Neon Rosie"

inspired by AC/DC's "Whole Lotta Rosie". 

I also had "Paint it Black" by The Stones as an option as well.

I had all these new neon glitters that were just screaming to

be played with, and then this fabulous image has been just daring me

to give it some life. I even used some of my fluorescent Copics.

I now know why I need fluorescent orange and yellow.

I am kinda on a neon kick. I'm not even gonna try and deny it.

I have always had a penchant for black light posters and I think

that this may explain my recent neon obsession. I'm not over it yet.

You have been warned. 

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

Oozak - bright colors

Crafts and Me - ribbon and a bow

Divas by Design - Anything Goes

Paper Pretties - bling it on

The Paper Shelter - Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly - all things girly

Macabre Monday "Alone in the Dark" challenge

Just popping in between Zombie posts

and showing you what I did for this week's

Macabre Monday - "Alone in the Dark" challenge
at Haunted Design House.

This week is sponsored by our very own Minion,

Teri from Delicious Doodles!

The very first image I ever purchased from Teri was

The Grotesque Gargoyle.

It was fun to color him in, although I did have

a bit of a time with the shading since I chose

to follow along with the dot technique for most of it.

I like the effect it lends to the gargoyle and it's not 

my normal way of shading so I like the new look to

my coloring.  

I have a fondness for gargoyles (yes, another collection)

and I don't find this guy grotesque at all.

Just wanted to put that out there.

Now for a little show and tell.

This is "Drago", named after Billy Drago.

Gargoyle shelf, awesome Pinky Toast framed print

and Haunted Mansion mini replica placard (I have the vulture one also).

Cat gargoyles on an arch, various other 'goyles

and my beloved "Cosmos". 

Thumb sucking cherub gargoyle, mini Gryphon 'goyle,

and fat butt Gargoyle (and "Mos").

And now, back to our regularly scheduled post.

I ended up fussy cutting this Guardian of the Graveyard,

and sticking him in the foreground of a very dark scene

that I found online.

Please join us this week at HDH for our

"Alone in the Dark" challenge

using black or an eerily dark background (c'mon, how easy is that?!)

sponsored by  Delicious Doodles!!

You have until 10:00PM CST Sunday to play.

First Birthday Freebies

Teri, at Delicious Doodles is having a  first birthday bash

to celebrate her DD digital image store.

Every day from August  15th thru the 21st she will be giving away a free image on her site.

She has some beautiful flower images and some really cute animals too.

I even found (via Lynx) a killer gargoyle and headstone that she drew!

Check out her site and grab a free image while you are there.