I prefer the term fortune teller

I'm back again with a new Spesh Ink project

using the Gypsy image available here. 

Pop on over to Spesh Ink for all the links and details.

Hey Sailor!

I'm back today with an art journal page I made using

the Sailor image from Spesh Ink.

Pop on over to Spesh Ink 

and check out the details of my project. 

  

What's my favorite quote(s)?

The new theme at SCD is to use your favorite quote. 

It is nearly impossible to narrow down my favorite quote

to just one, but I did manage to get the list knocked down to just two.

And surprisingly they are from the same person. And maybe even more

odd, they are from Maya Angelou. I know, right? 

Most may have guessed Edgar Allan Poe or Alfred Hitchcock, 

or Vincent Price ("I never met a monster I didn't like", is one of my very favorites.),

but Maya's words have always spoken to me on such a personal and fundamental 

level. I first heard her on an episode of Oprah and was struck by how 

beautifully she used her words to speak the truth. I love her.

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I have repeated this quote

to myself and to anyone who will listen. It is pure truth.

And has saved me from getting burned more than once by the same person. 

I used Twinkie #6103 and Topher #6198 to bring this journal page to life.

They are such weirdos and I love them so very much.

I also used some circles from the Circles Cube #6184 to add more interest.

Topher, always the silly weirdo.

And then there is this lovely lady with her "pearls of wisdom".

Perl #6071 is one of my most used stamps, only second to Karin. 

This quote speaks to me because I have always tried to be

anything but normal. And look at me now!! 

Abby Normal is my constant way of being. 

And I have been known to be pretty amazing at times.

I managed to sneak in some lovely girly-ness using some of the

gorgeous blooms from the Flower Cube 1 #5851. I even heat embossed them in gold.

I have quite a bit of neglected gold powders since I rarely use them. I really love how 

they give a feeling of beauty and fanciness here.

That's it for me today. Be sure to drop by the Stampotique Designer's Challenge

and see what everyone else has cooked up for this fun challenge theme. 

Debbie Downer

Mother's Day just isn't what it used to be since my Mother died.

It's been three years and I felt like I was going to okay, but I wasn't.

I spent time making Mother's Day cards and gifts for the wonderful and loving

women in my life, but when Sunday morning came around, I found myself

to be melancholy, foul tempered, and even inconsolable at one point. 

Man, I hate that. I hate being such a Debbie Downer. It's really not my style.

But it happened, and it will probably happen again next year.

So I decided to drown my sorrows in my art journal.

I began with two Stampotique stamps I have yet to ink up yet,

'Tetewea and L'il Tatawea'.  

They remind me of a mother and daughter, so I felt they were fitting.

And my Mom and I are rather dark and weird, so it works.

I colored Tetewea in sepia/YR Copic tones to give the feeling of 

an image from the past. I used a frame die cut and doodled on it using

 a Sakura Stardust Gelly Roll pen.  

Then I did a bit of journaling. Nothing too deep,

but it gets the point across that I miss my mom. A lot.

I gave L'il Tatawea red hair like mine, and colored her to match those

hideous background papers I was trying to use up. I actually like the way

they all work together now in this layout.

Lastly, I stamped out 'Daniel's Hearts', colored them using

red and black Copics, and then fussy cut them all out to scatter

around the layout to covey all the love that is still there between us.   

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

Stampotique Designer's Challenge -SDC243 Motherly Love

The Dark Attic Challenges - Anything Goes

Craft Your Passion challenges - 311 Anything Goes

Left of Center - Witches or LOC (mine is more LOC)

Polkadoodle - Things with Wings

  

"Damn your eyes! Too late."

As soon as I saw the new challenge at Stampotique ,

I immediately knew what movie I was going to choose.

My all time favorite film is 'Young Frankenstein'.

I have seen it over one hundred times in it's entirety, and even 

more in pieces. I know nearly all of the lines by heart and still 

laugh out loud like I'm watching it for the very first time.

It's timeless, in my opinion. Even though I was only four years old

when it was released in 1974, and I am generally not a big black and white

movie fan, this is my very favorite film ever.   

I decided to immortalize it my small Dyan Reaveley art journal.

But it needed a two page spread. There was no way I could fit

all of this awesomeness on only one page.

I used "Jammin'" to perfectly represent The Monster. 

I added the top hat from the hat cube, and added a satin black bow tie

and a hand drawn cane to mimic the iconic "Puttin' on the Ritz" scene.  

I found a cool movie poster on google and chopped it in half

to go on either side of that awesome YF quote artwork.

I stamped some brains to create a border of sorts and heat embossed them

to make 'em all shiny and for a fun texture.   

I chose "Gonno" to represent Doctor Frankenstein, pronounced, "Fronkensteen". 

It was his crazy mad scientist hair that cemented this choice.

He also received a top hat and bow tie to complete his dapper look.  

I'd like to enter this project in the following challenges:
Stampotique Designer's Challenge - SDC241 TV Show/Movie inspired 

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - E is for Embossing (see my brains)

Dream in Darkness - Anything Creepy/Dark/Weird/Odd Goes

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  

Let's smear some ink!

Here is my Smeared Ink project for the week.

I am only a few pages short of completing my very first art journal (thanks, Suzie!),

and I thought this would make a neat page.

I used the digital versions of the empty specimen jar, specimen label,

and the elephant from the Circus Procession set. 

I turned them into png images using Gimp, meaning I made the 

backgrounds transparent so that I could layer them into one complete image.

I covered the jar with Glossy Accents, but apparently the medium wasn't

completely dry, which I learned after putting a heavy object on top

of it to make it lay flat. When I pulled up the object, part of the elephant

was stuck to the bottom. I added more accents to the ruined spots and

let it dry overnight. 

I used the same process for this little bear, and even

used the no-lines coloring technique on him as well.

I was hoping it would make him look more realistic.

 No Glossy Accents on this one. I didn't want to take a

chance on ruining this one once it was colored.

Same technique here as well, using the Death Cab Hearse #1 image, 

and some of my favorite medium, Crackle Accents from Inkssentials.

I made the background using Dylusions Spray Inks, and a couple of 

Tim Holtz stencils, and a stamp. I used the water spritz technique to remove some color,

and I drew on a little spider web, and attached teeny, punched spiders all over. 

That's it for me.

I have three Mother's day cards to make today.

Not feelin' it, but that's not their fault. I miss my Mom worse

this year than I did last year. Been plagued by random tears yesterday

and today. Weird how the subconscious works....  

Buzz Buzz

I finally got a chance to work in my (almost complete) art journal.

I've been working on it for over a year now, and it's finally

nearing the finished stages. So cool to have a bound compendium of

my work to flip through and enjoy in the future.

I made a colorful background using Dylusion spray inks, and a

honeycomb stencil from The Crafter's Workshop. I used both modeling

paste, and Distress Inks with the stencil for dimension and interest. 

The actual stars of the show here, are the awesome bee images I have used.

They are available through Smeared Ink in their Queen digi set, or as singles. 

So many possibilities with this set of images. 

I printed the bees out on Paper Trey Ink paper (I use it exclusively),

and then used (gasp!) Distress Inks to color them with a water pen.  

I figured the less vibrant the bees were, the better the contrast on the vivid background.

I fussy cut everyone out, and added some kaleidoscope embossing powder 

to every bee's wings. Lastly, I added some letter tiles from Tim Holtz.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Make sure to come back tomorrow, as I will have more

eye candy for you to check out, plus a little blog hop, too!    

Final Kick Start Your Art journal page Day 7

Today's final theme for the Smeared and Smudged 

art journal challenge is

Easy Water Blotting Background.

Since I love using my Dylusion Inks, this was a really fun and easy challenge.

I started off with red, yellow, and orange spray inks. 

I tried using a flame stencil with water to remove the inks,

but I guess the stencil was too detailed to show up very well.

Since the flames didn't really pan out, I just sprayed some 

water in my hand and then flicked it on the page.

After I flicked water, I used a roll of paper towels to blot up the excess

and remove the inks.

This is "Gobsmack" from Sweet November Stamps.

I LOVE this little guy!!! 

My son is currently dying a slow death in his Algebra class,

so I thought this was both, timely and fitting.

Well, that's it for me and my art journal this week.

Thanks for dropping by.

Keep it creepy!!!    

Kick Start Your Art Day 6

Today's Smeared and Smudged Kick Start Your Art theme is:

TEXTURE.

I may have gone a little overboard here....

Not terribly cohesive, but it is highly textural.

I used Dylusions on the background, along with a few stencils that are

no longer visible. I finally used modeling paste and a stencil. I have been meaning

to try this technique, and now I love it! 

The poison ticket has been dipped in extra thick embossing powder for a slick finish.

Used this specimen tag left over from another project. 

More modeling paste and TH shattered stencil.

I attached some tulle to the back of the tag and then melted it

a bit with a heat gun. 

Attached a wooden key, and then splattered black, brown, and white

Dylusions inks everywhere to try and pull it all together. 

Added some TH tinsel twine for more texture and interest.

And finally, I attached a scrap of burlap to the bottom for one last blast of 

TEXTURE!!!

Tomorrow is the final day of this really fun, yet challenging art journal challenge.

I have really enjoyed myself, and feel as though my art journaling skills have been

stretched and improved through this process.

Thank you for stopping by, and see you tomorrow!  

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!!