Always ODD

I managed to find my way back to my blog!

And I made some cool schtuff, too!

I've been dying to play along in some swaps and challenges.

I miss participating in themed challenges. I find the prompts so helpful

when I don't know which way to go when crafting.

I finally played along with one of my favorite challenges at

Oddball Art Stamps. 

The theme this month is 

Goblins, Fairies, and Ghouls, Oh My! 

I love Lizzy's artistic take on fairies and zombies.

She has such a cute and adorable way of drawing weird shit.

I love it. 

This little rotting lass is called, Fiona Feary. 

I matched her up with a fun sentiment stamp from 

Viva Las Vegas stamps.

I'm always trying to use up paper scraps and projects left for dead.

This card base has been in a stack for months if not years.

I know, kinda gross that I have schtuff lying around for years, but

in my defense, it was chaotically organized and I always knew of it's presence.    

I added some die cut elements that were in keeping with her

color scheme. I love me some BG and BV Copic markers.

 Kept it really simple by cutting a black doilie in half,

and then cutting one of the halves in half. I layered it all

and glued them in three spots for a nice background.

My new thing is Nuvo drops. I just wish they dried faster.

I added a bunch for that sparkle element that I can't seem to

ever leave out of any fairy project. Dead or not, she's gotta have bling.  

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

Oddball Art Stamps - Goblins, Fairies, and Ghouls, Oh My!

Color Crazy Challenge - Anything Goes

Cardz 4 Galz - Mythical of Fantasy

Crafty Gals Corner Challenges - Anything Goes

Artistic Inspirations Challenges - Anything Goes 

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 

Aurora Wings Challenge Blog - Anything With Wings.

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

from Aurora Wings.

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:

Simply Papercraft Challenges - Anything Goes
Crafts Galore - Use a stamp or digi
Petal Lu - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - I Scream for...
(I Scream for INSIGHTFUL!)
Left of Center - Three of a Kind
(Three strips of paper as my background, and three flowers)

A real oddball spring

It's the middle of April and it's 90 degrees out today.

Very odd. And pretty scary considering we're in the fourth

year of a drought here in California. Fire season is gonna suck.

And it's already begun two months early. Yikes.

Since odd seems to be the word of the day, I thought 

I'd color up this pretty little Oddball Art Stamps fairy

and play along with the current challenge at Oddball Art Stamp Co.,

Spring. 

I get tired of making cards all of the time, and since I have

quite a collection of tags I use to mop up my leftover distress inks,

I thought a tag was a good idea.

This is 'Sweet Sai'. Isn't she a cutie?

And, as is my usual M.O. I have colored her with

unconventional skin tones and hair color. Fairies are 

magical creatures, and should be colored accordingly. 

I sprayed a small clothespin with Dylusions spray in Cherry Pie to match

my project. The clothespin already had the hole in it, so it was super

simple to add that dragonfly charm. I stamped out a fairy sentiment 

from Kraftin' Kimmie. I am a big fan of the Kraftin Kimmie sentiments.

When I hear the word spring, I think of flowers.

And I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I have a shit ton of old

flowers in my stash. I layered up five flowers of varying oldness

and even added an equally dated leaf. I like how it turned out,

and am glad to have used a few of my ancient fleurs.  

I used a diamond patterned stencil and some crackle paste to

add some texture and interest to the tag. I think my crackle is old

as it didn't real crackle much. I ended up rubbing some of it off with my

fingers to give it an aged appearance. I also dusted the diamonds with 

Stickles for a nice sparkle. I dug even deeper into my stash and found some

chipboard glittered flourishes and dew drops. Nice touches.

  I had fun making this tag. Gave me a chance to use

up some stash and make something pretty with it.

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

Oddball Art Stamp Co. - Spring     

613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes/Diamonds  

Corrosive Challenges - Floral Fantasy 

Mixed Media World - Use bright colors

Left of Center - Tag or ATC (mine's a tag) 

4 Crafty Chicks - Fairies

Creative Knockouts - Texture

Scary Fairy

The current challenge over at HDH is

Frightening Fairies.

Pick a fairy, and make it creepy. Simple enough, right?

I was thinking a rogue Tooth Fairy who starts

pulling kid's teeth herself. With some rusty pliers.

But that didn't pan out, so I went a simpler route.

This is my "Death's Touch Fairy".

Whatever flora he touches, dies in seconds.

Kind of a harbinger of death for the flowers.

I started off with a cheesy plastic skeleton from Mike's.

I roughly painted him black, and heated his joints to make them pliable so 

I could bend them into a sitting position. I fashioned raggedy wings from

kraft glassine, distressed them, and attached them to the fairy's back. 

I colored a paper rose using the same colors of Dylusions sprays that I used

on the TH Tattered Flower, sitting atop some sphagnum moss in the bottom of

this recycled candle jar. Lastly, I added some crushed glass glitter to the center

of the Tattered Flower for some sparkle.   

That's my scary fairy.

Now show me yours!!!

Enter your Frightening Fairy over at HDH, here.

  

A Day for Daisies - Anything Goes

Yup, you read that right. I said, "daisies".

Now, I know it's not my usual dark cup of tea, but I adore

the images at ADFD, and wanted to play along with

one of the adorable images I have collected.

I fell in love with this Ladybug and Me image.

They are just the sweetest things.

It would make a beautiful little tattoo.

I made this card for one of my MILs for Mother's Day.

I have been blessed with TWO fabulous MILs.

I don't know where I'd be without them both!

Close up of the sparkles. So pretty.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenge(s):

A Day for Daisies - Anything Goes #70  

First day of Spring?

We have had the most beautiful weather here, in Northern California lately.

Temps in the mid to low 70's, sun, everything is blooming. Just gorgeous!

Today? Not so much. Rain (which we do need) can suck it.

So, to brighten your day (and mine), 

I have a Spring Fever challenge for you, from

Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge.

We are sponsored by DigiDarla Designs this week.   

I have used the Fashion Fairy image from DigiDarla's shop.

Very fun to color and create with this image. 

Just wanted to show off the dimension and the Stickled sparkle 

from this angle. So glad I thought to use those fleurs. 

I have had them in my stash for years!  

Nice close up of the fleurs, beautifully accented by that adorable, 

teeny, ladybugg!! My dear friend, Jenn gifted me a few of those precious ladybuggs, and I had to add one to this ATC. It was the perfect touch!

Okay, let's get in the mood for Spring and play along with us at 

Wicked Wednesday ATC challenges!!!  

Fairy Clarabelle Birthday Wish

One of my favorite artists is

Annie Rodrigue,

who creates for Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps.

This is "Clarabelle" from Annie's line of faeries,

released earlier this year at Kraftin Kimmie Stamps.

I wanted to keep a very summery feel to this card.

I used some green and pink distressing inks to 

distress my card in a bright, less vintage way. I also used the

same inks to paint the background around the fairy. 

I destashed with this cool, epoxy clip which I have had way too long.

Looks good and adds that much needed sentiment.

I used my scissors and a sanding block to rip and distress all of the

edges on each of the layers.

Lastly, I destashed a bit more and used these flocked

brads. Adds nice texture and interest to the card. 

I would like to enter this card in the current challenges at

Kraftin' Kimmie - Distressed!!

Card Makin' Mamas - birthday card

Birthday Sundaes - birthday

Just add Ink - distressing/ripping



Fairy Inspired

Wow! That is all I could say when I first set eyes on this new set of digis from The Greeting Farm. I first saw them on Wicked Pixie's blog and frankly anything that girl colors is awesome, so I wasn't sure if I could do them the same justice. Well, I am so impressed with myself.

   

At first glance, this was my favorite fairy, but now that I have colored and created with each one, I find it very hard to choose a favorite.