My soft underbelly is hanging out...

In keeping with my attempt to use previously unused

images from my stash, I have come to the slightly

embarrassing conclusion that I have amassed quite

a collection of cute and sweet images. It's no wonder I haven't

had a chance to play with them. What with my dark side

almost always in the creative driver's seat. 

Today's project uses a sweet, yet slightly maniacal image.

With Valentine's Day on the horizon I figured I'd play with

pinks and grays for a soft and girly Valentine look. 

Seemed like a good time to use some Martha Stewart punches.

The bat fence, and the skulls and crossbones are a couple of

my absolute favorite MS punches. I think I use the drippy goo

punch the most, though.

This image is called, "Buttons", from Make It Crafty.

She's super cute! I've had her for quite long time.

I'm glad I finally colored her up.

I kinda have a crap-ton of this sickly sweet sheer rose ribbon.

I chopped off a couple of buds, and then rubbed some gray ink

over the tops of them to grunge them up a bit. That pink was

just too bright for me in the beginning.

I'm on a frantage kick lately, and since I have some in pink that never

gets used, I figured, "why not?". I also dropped some color fragments in black, 

white, and gray into the frantage, but it barely shows. Well, actually it showed 

too much, so I added more frantage over the top to help it blend in a bit.

I also broke out my envelope punch board to make the tab that says, "loved".   

Hope I didn't lose any of my darker fiends who stop by to see my

creepier concoctions. Have no fear!

I'll be back next Monday with the antithesis of this card. 

What is the opposite of loved? 

I have a feeling you've guessed it already. 

Thank you to everyone who left me a message on my last post.

I didn't mean to sound quite so pathetic, like "No one ever stops

by to see me anymore! Boo hoo". It just seems that with the popularity

of face book and other social media sites, the traffic from blogger has really

slowed down quite a bit. I'm glad to to know you're still out there

like a silent stalker. Watching...

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

Craft Hoarders Anonymous - Choose your challenge

*ink, ribbon, punching, heat embossing/ frantage, and bling* 

Monday Morning Challenge - Anything Goes

The Pink Elephant Monday Card Challenge - Anything Goes

Through the Purple Haze - Love is in the Air

That Craft Place - Love/Valentine

Kit and Clowder Ning Group - January Anything Goes 

Simon Says Wednesday challenge - Have a Heart

Check out some of my schtuff Day 27

Welcome to the final week of the Halloween Countdown blog hops.

Today, I'd like to share a tiny bit of my humble abode and some of

my holiday decorating. 

Artsy shot of my mantle. I love that mercury glass pumpkin.

It is one of my new additions this year.

I love color! Bright, bold color. If it's sparkly, even better!

Kudos to my husband for picking this up for me this weekend.

He rocks and so does this wicked ram's skull!

It's just a resin replica, but it's still super cool. 

These are a couple of jars I made a few years ago.

I added bbq ashes to the 'Corpse Dust' bottle, and the other

bottle is a Maker's Mark bottle which comes with the melted red wax (?).

Oh! And here is my ATC for today's crafty project.

I used this sweet little Frank from Make it Crafty.

He is from the Mini Monzta Boys set of digis.

Since his bolts are rather large, it left little room to do much

else, but I did add some MS washi tape to the bottom.

And now we resume our tour...

One of my favorite candle holders is this glass cauldron. 

It came as a set from Partylite years ago, but I just got 

some 'Hocus Pocus' votives for them the other day.

When the wax melts it turns into a wicked toxic yellow liquid.

I love these candles.

Another favorite from Michael's. Such a nice thrill to catch something

like this on clearance after the holiday.  

Here is another vignette on the left side of the mantle.

I am all about collecting cloches for my captured treasures. 

And the right side of the mantle. Another Michael's clearance jar with the purple

ribbon, alongside my new snow globe of the headless dude. I did score a mercury

glass cloche from a wonderful shop called, Insomniac's Attic. It's keeping my

bunny eared Stitchling in check. He likes to poke the kittehs with his pointy

stick if I don't lock him up at night.

Okay, folks. Thanks for stopping by today.

I'll be back tomorrow with the names of the giveaway winners.

Be sure to check out all the wonderful work and interesting posts

being offered on these glorious month long Halloween hops.

 31 Days of Halloween 

Countdown to Halloween  

Kick Start Your Art Day 5

The week long art journal challenge at 

Smeared and Smudged

is almost over, and I'm going to miss the daily process.

I'd like to think I can keep it up on my own, but the reality is that

I probably won't. Hopefully, I can keep up on my blogging at least.

Today's prompt for Day 5 is

SCRAP BACKGROUND.

Use up some of my scraps you say? Sounds like a plan!

I started off by choosing various scraps of paper and some washi tape.

I glued everything down and then proceeded to jack it up with a bunch

of black gesso and TH crackle paints. I really thought I had ruined the entire

page. Not a happy camper at this point, but I kept on adding schtuff until it

started to look right again. 

I added some MS bat fence border, and a Spellbinders die cut.

That gave me a chance to cover up the offending blotches and have a base

for my central pieces to rest on.  

I paired a headstone from Rick St. Dennis, with a cute

Mini Morticia from Make it Crafty. Popped them up on 

dimensional foam for a bit of layering and interest.

A close-up of what I had hoped all of the crackle would look like.

Not the case, so I covered a bunch of it up with MS paper tape.

I got lucky and managed to salvage this train wreck before it ran completely

off the rails. I am rather pleased with how it turned out in the end.

See you tomorrow for Day 6!!

Another scene and some Zombie info

I have tapped into my "Mojo Vein",

and am having a blast creating with the new

"Mini Monztas" from Make it Crafty.

The challenge over at Haunted Design House

this week is to make a Hallowe'en scene. 

This week's sponsor at HDH is Make it Crafty,

and since I was already on a roll with the little cuties

(Yes!  I did just say that!) I decided to make yet another

Hallowe'en scene.

I used the Frankenstein, the Bride of Frankie,

and the Headless Horseyman for this framed scene.

I used the graveyard scene for the background,

also from Make it Crafty.

I used a re purposed frame from the thrift shop, painted it black,

and then added metallic silver and purple paint with my finger

to the raised details. I really like how it turned out. 

I also left Frankie outside of the frame since he covered too much

of the background with is giant bolts.

It kinda looks like he's been replaced by the Headless Horseman.

Those reanimated brides can be so fickle!

I have to admit that I originally colored the Bride as a ghost.

I never caught on to her being the Bride until I was putting her

into the frame.  Duh!

I colored the background in cool grays and then added some  

V000, V01,V12 and a little RV000. Then I Stickled the bejeezus

out of all the edges where sparkly moonlight may fall.

That's alot of sparkle. 

Lastly, I drew in a huge moon and colored it in with

more of the same Violet Copics.  I'm not real sure that

it translates well here, but it does look pretty cool in real life.

Now I said something about Zombies didn't I?

Well this Friday is the Virtual Day of the Dead if you will.  

 

        This Friday you can zombie walk with those of us who love

and admire the ZOMBIE, from the comfort of your own home. 

What a great way to kick off the coming season!!

All of the participant bloggers are spotlighting some sort

of Zombie themed project, artwork, story, make-up application,

recipe, etc... to fill your appetite for the undead.
I have been soo busy working on some killer pieces for this event.
I am so excited to show my new Zombified creations!!
Please drop by tomorrow and see what I have been up to.
I'll have a list of all the blogs participating and you can hop
along at your own risk, I mean, leisure!
Nom! Nom!  

Wretched Wednesday HDH108 You're Making a Scene!!!

Horrific Hump Day Haunters!!!

Can you feel the crispness in the air yet?

I can't. We're still flirting with the 90's here in California,

but I am getting a bit giddy with all of the Hallowe'en decorations

out in the stores.

A little retail therapy really helped my mojo this week.

I kinda went cwazy on this challenge.

HDH are challenging you to make a Hallowe'en inspired scene

for this week's Macabre Monday. 

We are very fortunate to be sponsored by

Make it Crafty.

Since I am to lazy too make a step card, I decided to make a really

a labor intensive project instead. Using a thrift store frame,
lots of card board, some MS punches, lots of glitter and Spica pens,

and some awesome MIC digis, I have created a great scene!!

Okay, first I painted the thrift store frame with black, silver, and 

purple acrylic paints. I used black as the base coat and then

used a dry brush technique to apply the silver and purple paints.

While that was drying, I colored in the Mini Monztas from MIC

using Copics.  After fussy cutting the images I used a Spica pen to

go around the outside of the images for some Vampiric sparkle.

Now let's not forget that Haunted House! That detailed baby was

quite a work out! LOTS of details!!!!

I had to get out the magnifying specs for that one!

I layered in some QuicKutz and Martha Stewart graveyard

punches togive more depth to the scene.

I even managed to pop in a teeny tiny skull on one of the headstones!  

I popped everything up on corrugated cardboard in varying thicknesses.   

I topped off both of my Vampyres with Glossy Accents.

It makes them a bit more sturdy, especially the little

lady since she is outside of the glass.

I love this house image!!!

I Stickled the windows to make them sparkle,

and outlined the entire house in Sakura Stardust pen.

I also added some rhinestones. More sparkles!

I think this will make a nice addition to my Hallowe'en

decorations this year.

There is still time to play along with HDH this week.

If you like these images, they (and others) are up for grabs as this

week's prize schwag. But ya gotta play!  

Victorian Steampunk Fusion

Have you heard about this yet?

                                               

I am so excited to see the full range of new, and very

compatible digi images from the creative minds of

Tiddly Inks and Make it Crafty!

You had me at Steampunk!

I think these new images will be a perfect compliment to my

"sTeaMpUNkinS".

I am seeing them on "Thank you for purchasing my art" cards.

I can't wait!!!!