Macabre Monday #21 "Eerie Elegance

It has been quite a while since I have played along with Barb at Haunted Design House's Macabre Monday Challenge. I totally missed playing, but my world has been rather chaotic as of late and this is the first chance I have had to get back in the craft room and create!

The challenge was eerie elegance. I'm all about the eerie, but the elegant part had me stumped. I finally decided to forego the stamped image altogether and just keep it tres simple, with the jeweled spider brad and some cool raggedy ribbon I just got from

Gorey Details, paired with my favorite violet ribbon.

Taa daa!

Monkey Business

Is this the cutest darn monkey ever?!

I love monkey images and have seen some really cute ones (I am really a big fan of Dustin Pike's monkeys), but this one is too bleepin' cute for words!

I got it as a free image at http://www.bugaboostamps.com/. It seems that every Friday they release a new freebie image to try. I love free stuff, and free monkey stuff is really all a girl wants anyway right?

  

So much fun to color. The lines are nice and thick so it is easy to stay within the lines, which is hard for me sometimes. Coloring at 3AM can lead to sloppy coloring among other things.

I think this will be my husband's "ValentiMe's Day" card, unless I come up with something better before February 14th!

BTW, that typo for "ValentiMe's" was intentional. Don't want folks to think I'm spelling impaired. I do miss the spell check option for the blog posts though. I keep my dictionary handy just in case I get stuck on a four dollar word.

The Lost Art of Handwritten Correspondence

I am a big fan of thank you cards and handwritten correspondence in general. It seems like less and less people take the time to hand write a personal note or even bother to send a thank you card to show their appreciation for something  or someone. I guess I am a bit biased since I tend to have cards for all occasions at my fingertips, but I did take the time and effort and thought to make these cards so they are at the ready as needed.

  

I am trying to pass on this lost "art" of sending thank you notes to my son who is 10 years old. Never too young to start in my opinion. He has been making cards and writing thank you notes since he could write his name (2 or 3 years old?) and I know that those little notes and cards really meant alot to the people he sent them to.

Let me step down from my high horse and say that this image from The Greeting Farm looks spot on like my son. No joke! I need to pose him like the stamp and take a picture for a side by side comparison. I figured that this image would be a fantastic focal point for all of his thank you cards for a while until he gets all tall and gangly, and looks nothing like the stamp or just refuses to indulge me in this antiquated way of corresponding.

Either way, I love the image and am quite happy with these cards. 

Hogs and Sketches January 2010 Challenge part deux

Here is my second submission for the Hambo Hogs and Sketches challenge this month.

I have to admit that I am quite "smitten" with Monica and Tim over at Hambo. I love the challenges and their images are so much fun to color and create with.

I used the snail image and the sentiment both from Hambo, which would seem to make it easier for me, right? No, this card and it's loose elements have been sitting on my work table for the past  two weeks. I just kept tweaking it and nothing came together right until last night.

Finally, we have something worth posting!

I just got a bunch of rubber in the mail from Monica today, so I am off to mount 'em, and ink 'em up!

MIA

Okay, I am finally back, and have renewed my vow to blog more regularly. For the past few months my husband and I have been trying to buy the house where we currently live. First we were told of the foreclosure, then we attempted to purchase the house as a short sale, then the house went to public auction where the bank bought it back from itself(?), and then, due to the hard work and diligence of an old friend from junior high, we signed the paper work on the house Friday and everything should record tomorrow!

What a wild and crazy ride that was! Not so much fun either. I can't say that I have enjoyed any of the process at all. Now I am looking forward to finally, completely moving in and unpacking all of my stuff that I haven't seen in three years!

With all of the excitement going on lately, I did manage to make a few cards for some special folks going through some tough times of their own.

My FIL had knee replacement surgery just before Christmas and I thought he might get a kick out of this image from Dustin Pike (who by the way, is coming out with a line of RUBBER stamps).

Dustin's images ROCK! They are so much fun to color.

My Aunt had some surgery to remove something ("It was the size of a softball", was all I heard before I blocked out the rest of the conversation), and I chose the same image from Dustin Pike, but I colored it in differently.

Aunt Laurie loved the card and was "tres impressed" with my skills.

I'm off to hang some more shelves in MY house so I can be more organized in MY craft room! When I am all finished with my craft room I will be sure to post some photos so you can see where the madness dwells.  

Hogs and Sketches January 2010 Challenge

I have been a fan of quotes for some time now. This Ward Cleaver gem happens to be one of my favorite. When I saw it in a SU catalog a while back I knew I had to have it. This quote and the one from Frankenstein ("Friend. Good.") is brilliant!

I really needed a quirky sentiment to go with these silly birds I received as a FREE digi from Hambo Stamps.

How did I get a free digital image from Hambo you ask?

Well, I just made a cute card using a Hambo image or sentiment, and followed their really helpful sketch (guest designed this month by my dear and uber-talented friend, MacKenzie). Then Tim and Monica pick 2 winners (NOT randomly I might add) who win either a digital image or some rubbah of their choosing!!

  

Well, here is my FIRST entry this month. Did I forget to mention that you can enter as often as you see fit for the entire month?!

I had a lot of fun making this card. I LOVE the silly birds and I think the sketch was easy enough for a beginner like me, and still has so many possibilities for someone with more layering and embellishment vision.

Finally, ... 2010!!!!

Finally, it's time to press restart and begin anew! 2009 was not a kind year for me and my family. We lost Grandpa in October, got word of our rental falling into foreclosure in August, starting losing my hair as a result of the stress of trying to buy the house (which is still in real estate limbo - more like purgatory), and the list goes on.

2010 has got to be a better year.

So, here is a new challenge to go along with the new year and I get to use my new stamp from Kraftin' Kimmie named "Drucilla". Isn't she to die for? I finally got to use my sentiment from Hambo stamps which goes perfectly with the image.

This is for the brand new challenge over at Fancy and Fussy Friday Challenge blog. I don't think I have ever participated in a challenge so quickly after it was posted before. I just happened to have made this card today and it fit into the theme of something "new".

Hope you like it. I do!