Sunday 31 July 2011

Splat!!

I copied this direction direct from Haunted Design House as this project was made specifically with this in mind
"Out! Out, damn spot!"
You are to create a dark, Gothic, or Halloween-based art piece
that is covered in spatter, splatter, drips or drops.
It doesn't have to be bloody. There are plenty of other creepy,
drippy, gooey, and oozing things that can go SPLAT!

Well, as luck would have it, I got my grab bag from a win over at Smeared Ink's forum, Smeared and Smudged. In it was this great splatter stamp. It so took the hard work out of creating a splatter in the short time I've had this weekend. I have been put in charge of the "Dark Art Forum" over at Stampin' Dymonz' Scrap Shack and I have used this as this weeks piece.
For this project I inked up some glossy card stock with bright red ink and darkened one side with black for a contrast. Covered it all with candle soot and then used the splatter stamp on both colours. Set with hairspray in the absence of silicon spray. (for full details see Splitcoast Stampers). When this was dry, the edges were given an MS makeover with the drippy goo punch. Then came the heat embossed images from Cherry Pie.


Stuck into my art journal after more heat embossing of a few words written by me
A few closeups...

















I am entering this into the challenge over at
Haunted Design House - Out Damned Spot #99 - Their challenge inspired this

Saturday 23 July 2011

Nutmeg with a pear tree

Over at The Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack we have a little group that is trying to get ahead with the rush of making cards for the winter holiday season. This week I followed the sketch over at the My Time Made Easy blog.

A simple stamped image (from a friends stash so of unknown origin) onto bronzed cs. Nutmeg in a pear tree - had to be nutmeg kind of colours for me. the base is black cs onto which is layered glossy, leather look black and bronzed purpley brown and hand made mustard papers to co-ordinate with the basic grey spotted paper. More of that glossy black to layer with. The ribbon has a gold thread onto which is a small tag attached with 3 chain links and a small bronze leaf charm. The sentiment is already preprinted onto the ribbon that again has gold threaded edges.

I am entering this into the following challenges
My Time Made Easy - Their sketch
The Rubber Cafe - Christmas in July
Tuesday Throwdown - Something metallic

Thursday 21 July 2011

July Smeared 'n' Smudged Blog Hop

That time again when loads of us go running around blogland visiting each others blogs. This month over on the Smeared and Smudged Forum, the challenge was to "Alter Something". 3-d is the name of this game. Normal rules still applied in that there has to be some stamping (digi or rubber) somewhere on the project. I have both rubber and digi, so that aspect is covered.
This is my project this month.

It started off life as a "Barbie Chest of Drawers". All pink (and clear) plastic. Loads of Barbie stickers stuck all over by the previous owner and screaming at me for a make-over.
I started off by removing the handles and soaking it all to remove the stickers and sanding down all the pink plastic with some fine wet and dry sandpaper to provide a "key" for the next stage - some primer to cover that Barbie pink. Then came the acrylic paint, a couple of coats of purple.
Next, using a couple of pages from an old book (the book was already damaged beyond reading). These were treated to some colour using distress inks. Torn into strips and mod podged to a few places.
The top needed some thing to adorn it as well. For this I used the paper that was inspired by our GDT for the month - Steph. The challenge there was to create a BP using waxed paper, in my case, a bread wrapper. No waxed paper to be found in the UK it would seem, so improvisation had to be used. Similar to embossed resist method but using wax instead. Ironing some creased waxed paper onto glossy CS and then inking. The wax providing the resist. Onto this I stamped, masked and stamped some more. Using green stazon and one of my skull stamps. All edge punched with MS drippy goo punch and stuck down with more mod podge.
More fun comes on the front. I needed some new handles having discarded the pink ones. For these, I threaded some wire through some skulls in my stash and painted with glow in the dark modpodge (great stuff, love it). When dry threaded the wire through the preformed holes in the drawers securing on the inside. The digi is from Smeared Ink in honour of the skull appreciation day hop. These were coloured with promarkers and fussy cut out before adhering with more glow in the dark modpodge.

All five sections were then given a final coat to varnish and protect. The runners for the drawers were rubbed over with a bit of candle wax to ensure free movement then all sections put back together.

I have still to work out a method of attaching the feet I wanted to put on. A small drill bit will be required I think but haven't managed to lay my hands on one yet.

I left the drawers clear so that I can see at a glance what little bits are in each drawer and will now be used to store some of the small items I tend to hoard.

Now you've sat through that, please carry on and visit Ike who is next on the list.

Here's the full list, and if you've just happened upon this hop, please start at Terra's blog and take a wander round blogland with us. There's sure to be some awesome creations to be discovered.

Terra

Alex

Black Dragon

Kapree

Jane

Steph

Heather

Madeleine

Helen - that's me

Ike

Fiona

Lady Brayton

I'd like to enter this into one or two challenges
Stamp Insanity - Going Goth
Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog - Alter it
Clear It Out Challenge - Anything Goes

Saturday 16 July 2011

Pop-up Butterflies

Over at Stampin' Dymonz' Scrap Shack - The Village, we have a little group that explores a different type of fold for cards each week. This week is the turn of a pop-up card. There are a few different types of pop-up card showcased over at Splitcoast Stampers.
This is the card that I made. It features a load of butterflies, both on the stamp used (unknown origin) and the MS punched variety. This is also being one of 3 I am making for work collegues' birthdays coming up soon.
The stamped image was coloured using a mixture of DI and promarkers.
The BP is just plain cs that was dry embossed with a sizzix plate and a gold ink pad rubbed over it.
Ribbons are from stash. The bow is held in place by a home made ribbon rose. The sketch over at Sweet Sketch Wednesday was followed to produce this.

Inside
The plain pale green was stamped using some foliage stamps from Lavinia Stamps. The pop-up mechanism has some sizzix die leaves adhered to it and some MS punched butterfles. These have been given a light brush over with the same gold pad as the front.

















I am entering this into the following challenge
Sweet Sketch Wednesday 110-32 - Their Sketch
By The Cute and Girly - July challenge - things with Wings

continuation of meander mini - chains that bind

Loathsome Lotharios is the challenge over at Haunted Design House this week. The idea of continuing last week's 3" meander mini album with subsequent challenge entries appealed to me. Thankyou Susan.
So using some of the dark images from Tellen's Place Designs, we have a little tableau of some adoring females under the spell of Creeth.

The papers are from Crafty Chaos and Moonlight Journey.
Behind the page with CreethNSumi is written "Nothing is more binding than LOVE, Nor as BLINDING"


and Shera standing behind having shaken those chains




















I am entering this into the challenges over at
Haunted Design House #94 - Loathsome Lotharios
Tellen's Place Designs - Anything Goes (with a TPD image)

Sunday 10 July 2011

Xtremely Xhaustive

Make a something with something that goes ooooonnnnnn and oooooonnnnnn.
The original idea was from Barb over at Haunted Design House with a little mini book kit that was in a blog win last year. This is the full sized version of the meander mini. A full 12" sheet of CS made into a 3" square mini.


Trust me to start something on saturday and have to go to work on sunday. These pics are as far as I got before time dictated I should blog it.






Cover is from papers at Crafty Chaos.
Chain, eyelets, charms all from stash. The 2mm pearls from Pizzaz Aplenty.

The little roses are homemade from ribbon.















Inside this, some more chain and two images masked and stamped. I know the elf lady is Third Coast but unsure on the man behind the screen. These were both coloured with promarkers.

Inside back cover is a couple of images from Delicious Doodles, coloured with DIs


The spiders' web paper will be continued to the other pages as this is yet another thing in nature that is "very, very long". Plus it will fit in with my theme of "binding chains"

I am entering this incomplete (for the moment) item into the challenge over at
Haunted Design House #96 - Xtremely Xhaustive

Saturday 2 July 2011

A bit of bling

Over at Stampin' Dymonz' Scrap Shack we have a weekly "Christmas Card Club". Trying to stay ahead of the game when it comes to making cards for that time of year. This week the task is to use acetate. I thought I might as well incorporate some of the challenges over here in blogland so, following the sketch over at Midnight Madness #110, this is my card.
.
The acetate is a panel inserted to make the card square. I used matching vellum on the other side. (HunkyDory) Mounted onto pearlised black CS. Ribbon from stash has "with love at Christmas" peeloffs added. The ends are covered with card candy. The image is from Delicious Doodles, coloured with promarkers and glossy accents on the flame. Edge distressed with Barn Door and Black soot DI. Layered onto dark red and pearlised black. The tiny pearls from Pizzaz aplenty... thanks Terry



This shows the speckled green CS base I used and some gorgeous 2 tone ribbon with gold threaded swirls. If you look at the front it looks green.

The back of the image covered, both to neaten and provide a writing surface for a greeting


You can see the pearls better here and see I added a bit more dimension to the ivy.



A couple of challenges I am entering this into
Midnight Madness - #110 - their sketch
Delicious Doodles - Flourishes and Bling
Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge - Dark colours / trees
Crafty Purple Frog - Pearls and swirls

Friday 1 July 2011

Beyond The Door

I made a little video featuring the mini book made for the opening day of the Dark Arts Forum over at Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack, but after waiting over 6hrs for it to upload to blogger I'm going to post the pics here instead.
All the images are from Tellen's Place Designs, coloured using distress inks. The backgrounds of the ATC sized pictures are from Moonlight Journey. Additional papers from my scrap box are from Crafty Chaos and The Angel Company.
The pages are made from toilet tissue inners, painted black.
Various ribbons from stash. Hand made lace flower.































I am entering this into a couple of challenges
Haunted Design House #95 - From the Bone Pile - Use your Scraps
Shopping Our Stash - Use scraps/recycle - did both