Gothic Fairy with Delicious Doodles

It's that Friday and my turn (amid very talented ladies) to make something for the Delicious Doodles Challenges.
Well my first attempt, which I will show you at the bottom of this post, went slightly awry. I wrote down the wrong recipe, doohhhhhh. So had to go back to the craft table and make another project. Better late than never? You choose

So - take two - A recipe of 1 x Image, 2 x Different Embellishments, 3 x Designer Papers

A birthday card featuring that lovely Gothic fairy. The papers used include on of the luscious Rose and Thistle papers available in the shop as well. The other two are a digi from Crafty Chaos and one from the DCWV Immortal Love stack.

I used the sketch over at Stamp With Fun as the source of inspiration. I'm not used to using so many patterned papers. The sentiment stamped in white on brown and a spellbinders die used to cut out. The lace and skull from stash.
The fairy, I decided to get out my water colours for a change with some gorgeous translucent metallic copper  paint for her wings

My first attempt was just an ATC - meant as a quick stop gap before making this. I had printed the images at the same time.

See - wrong recipe - 2 papers and 3 embellishments lol
This is using the new Lotus Silhouette that is in the shop now.

OK guys and gals - your turn to get those papers and embellishments out and show us what you can do.

I would like to enter the card into the challenge at
Stamp With Fun - Their sketch was my inspiration

Make It Colourful with Smudgy Antics

Are you ready to get messy again? This week's challenge over at Smudgy Antics is all about adding colour to your project - without using pens or pencils, and still include stamping (digi or rubber - we don't care).
Adding colour can be done in so many ways, inks, paint, perfect pearls there are oodles of ways!! Too many to list here and I'd probably forget one or two anyway.
I chose to add colour with paper, paint and distress inks.
This is just one of the faces of an exploding box I made

All four sides were given the same treatment after using the same embossed image on them all; but they all look slightly different due to the random daubing of the washes used. I've used the faux heated and aged copper technique as detailed by Andy Skinner in his "Timeworn" classes. A variety of paints and distress embossing powder were used.
The lid is covered with DP from MME Halloween stack with the TH die cut "Iron Gate" surrounding it.
The inside -  more of that DP to cover the inside of the outer panels. The inside box panels were covered on both sides with images from the Danse Macabre set from Smeared Ink.

The images were first masked off then distress inks brushed over the panels. So we have white skeletons dancing in a sea of colour. These were matted onto some pearlised black/copper paper from stash.
Two panels are kept in place with beads and jewellery wires and a jointed skeleton from an old piece of jewellery suspended between so he can dance to his own tune, should he so wish.

That's my make for the challenge - what are you going to show us? The the gang have made some fabulous projects this week and there will be more eye candy next week from the remaining members so worth making weekly trips at the very least to see what we've all been up to. Head on over to the Smeared & Smudged forum as well while you're there. We'd love to see you join in the monthly challenges there as well.

Also - if you belong to a DT team - check out the DT Throwdown that's going on - a challenge for DT teams to show their A game and the forum members get to vote on their favourite projects from the different design teams around blogland that choose to participate. It's great fun!

I'd like to enter this into the challenge over at
Left of Centre Challenges - LOC and/or Punch it out
Paper Makeup Stamps/digi Makeover - Fancy folds
My All Crafts Challenge - No Cards or LO
Crafty-Emblies - Anything Goes

Dante's Circles with HDH

OK guys and gals - it's the midway point for getting those projects made and posted to Haunted Design House. This fortnight's challenge is all about those circles of Hell as depicted by Dante.

These ones to those not in the know. For a full synopsis go read the blurb on the HDH blog written my fellow minion Mark.
For my project - the cover of a journal that I intend to add to.
Firstly the BP - I was lucky to get a gelli plate for my birthday recently. Although I haven't had much chance to play with it, this was one sheet that I was happy enough with to use for the cover. Just using paint and some home made masks and bubble wrap. The lace addition is actually a stazon stamped image of unknown origin. The journalling is hand written in a spiral to signify that downward path that some could get trapped in, if they're not careful.

The image - well she's one of the new additions to Rick St Dennis' collection of digi images. That woman of great infamy - Lucretzia Borgia. She, together with her father and brother, were the unholy terrors of the 15th century in the Renaissance Papacy epitomizing the ruthless Machiavellian politics and sexual corruption of the time. 
Here coloured with a mixture of promarkers and pencils.

Your turn to get those "Circles of Hell" projects linked up. Can't wait to see those entries. The rest of the minions have worked their magic and come up with some fabulous projects to inspire you. Worth every second - going and having a look at the fantastic eye candy.

Hope to see you soon.

I'd like to enter the following challenge with my journal cover

Pause, Dream,Enjoy - Anything Goes

613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes
Challenges 4 Everybody - Anything Goes

Angels - with Delicious Doodles

It's Team A's turn to tempt and (hopefully) inspire you all to join in the fun at Delicious Doodles' challenges this week. The theme is, as you probably guessed from the title is "Angels". The difference, pictorially,  between an Angel and a fairy is said to be Angels have bird type wings and fairies have butterfly type wings. Now you know, lol.
My project started life as a simple ATC. A couple of layers of La Llarona with The freebie drawn by Teri last year Weeping Angel. Still available on her blog.

 here at a slight angle - the depth can be seen better. Images have been coloured with distress inks for that subtle look

Not enough for me.
What do I do with it? Frame? too late to go altering one because I didn't have one handy the right size. A good old alternative - alter a CD - so I got one of those from the "scrap pile" and got to work.
First covered with one of the papers from the Rose and Thistle range from Delicious Doodles. Next some black lace and ribbon. Some feathers, flowers, angel wing charms, black diamanté pins and a black pearl spray all fell into place around the image to produce this.....

Yep that's enough I thought. Don't want to overpower the image.
Your turn to show us YOUR angels over at the Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog.

I'd like to enter this altered CD
into the following challenges
Hotshot Crafts - Anything But a Card
Through The Craft room Door - Anything Goes

Drop Dead Gorgeous at HDH

Week 2 of the challenge over at Haunted Design House and the rest of my fellow minions have been showing some gorgeous makes, Drop Dead Gorgeous that is. I am part of "team B". The team that reminds you to get a move on because you only have another 6 days to get your entry into the challenge. Well - what are you waiting for?
My project? - A fat book page from me - and a good excuse for me to get my Stampotique stamps out of the drawer they reside in.

Two mermaids. I realised, after talking with my son that the duo can be viewed in at least two ways. I saw them as a live one cradling the head of her dead companion, my son saw it as her throttling the life out of her. Both scenarios fit the theme. Do you see something different?
The mermaids were stamped then coloured with promarkers before fussy cutting out and joining. Then the couple were brushed with rock candy and set aside to dry while I made the base. This gives the slightly scaly look to them.
Some aluminium tape was trimmed to a wavy edge before sticking onto the 4" x 4"card base. Some glimmer mists type spray in green, lilac and midnight silver on the card and alcohol inks on the tape before running through with a crackle embossing folder. Some green flocking on some of the raised crackle to give the impression of seaweed. Some green mesh ribbon and we're ready for our stars. The green "air bubbles" are a mixture of green patina stickles and blue distress stickles - slightly less glitz was wanted.

Your turn - as I said - you have 6 days more to get those "Drop Dead Gorgeous"  projects linked into the challenge over at Haunted Design House.

I am entering this fat book page into the challenge over at
Stampotique Designers Challenge - Song Inspiration - Drop Dead Gorgeous (Aerosmith)

Anything BUT A Card for Smudgy Antics

The start of another 2 weeks for the challenge over at Smudgy Antics. Yet another fairly simple one to hopefully get you all to join in. We do so love seeing all your makes.

ANYTHING BUT A CARD.

You can't get much easier than that!Just make anything other than a card and remember to include a stamped image (real or digi) and follow the rules posted in the left sidebar of the blog which includes being a follower of the Smudgy Antics Blog. The more creative, the better. We love it when you guys and gals think outside of the box. Get your mojo in gear and get ready to get inky.

I went for a simple tag
It does include a couple of different techniques. Masking, heat embossing and, of course, inking.

The image, The Teacher from the Femdom set was first stamped and heat embossed in black. She is available in digi, along with her sisters, from the Smeared Ink shop but also in rubber when you become a member of the Smeared Ink Rubber Club.  Check it out and say I sent you.
Now then, I mentioned masking, not the masks you see down the left of the tag, They are also found in the set. The digi set has the one, because you can re-size digis, the rubber set comes with 3 different sizes. I digress, masking..... I wanted our femme fatale to have lily white skin and the tag to be coloured. Fussy cutting those stool legs and cane then sticking the image on top was not an option in my head. Hence the cutting of a matching image from thin paper and covering her before dusting distress inks over the tag graduating from yellow through to red.
The sentiment is also only available in the set, rubber or digi.
Next, the extra embellishment. The chain was taken from an old, broken piece of costume jewellery, wound round through holes punched and the little nicks cut in the side to keep the chain in place. A length of waxed cotton cord (looks like leather) for the tie and a single black gem.
Your turn - come show us your makes. As long as it's not a card - we would love to see it. Try keeping the cutesy stuff for the mainstream challenge blogs though. We like things a bit more edgy over at Smudgy Antics.

DT Throw Down with Smeared & Smudged

Terra and Tori, the owners of Smeared Ink and The Smudgy Antics Ning Forum have dreamt up this fabulous idea of getting any DT teams (that want to take part) to play against each other. To see who shines out in the challenges that are to be set. If there are any other teams willing to get stuck in, the full details are here, on the forum. The first challenge, to get the ball rolling, was set by themselves. The DT never got a whiff of course until the challenge was posted. The winning team of that round gets to choose the theme for the following challenge, and so on.
So the scene has been set

CHALLENGE #1

PAINT and SPLATTER

Your project must contain an element of paint and an element of something splattered. You can combine the two elements if you choose. 

Now, for my part was, what to do?
I hope you're sitting comfortably, this might take a while
Delving into my box of bits, generously donated by a dear friend, I came across this.

A little set of furniture for a dolls house or in my case - Garden Furniture

That's a centimetre board the bits are laid out on to give you some idea on the scale.
Paint next. Two coats of green acrylic paint on every thing

Now to really get mucky lol. PVA glue and watered down acid green acrylic paint goes on each piece to give a crackle effect. This is going to be garden furniture after all.

The stamps used are from the Killer Bo-Peep Build a Garden. I'm lucky to have this in rubber but there is a digi set here. The spiders, skulls and flowers were all stamped onto tissue paper and stuck down. The spiders web is from a discontinued SI rubber set (Candy Is Dandy - digi version here) and was stamped straight onto the furniture using stazon.
Plenty of Vintage Paper DI
Some wooden embellishments from Crafty Emblies. These were daubed with Forest moss DI and some of the acid green paint wash.
Tiny white paper rosebuds
Trug is home made from a small scrap of copper.

Here it is

The splatter part of the challenge.... that's the white. made from equal parts white acrylic paint and PVA glue, slightly watered to give a splat without loosing too much depth. Then, when dry, dotted the top with black. Well - it is garden furniture!

Any other DT out there wanting to join in the fun and games? A fabulous blog badge for the winning team. All details are on the forum as I previously said.

I am entering this into the challenges
DT Showdown - Paint and Splatter
Crafty-Emblies - Altered Art with Wings - two birds are eyeing up those spiders for lunch
The Smeared and Smudged FaceBook Challenge - Green
The Smeared & Smudged GDT challenge - Alter Something
Anything But A Card - Green

It's B'day Time for a Friend

It's the birthday of a dear friend tomorrow. A card had to be made. She's not into the grungy type so I had to come up with something on the pretty end of the scale. It just so happens that the image I chose was drawn for Creepmas but coloured differently she takes on a whole new look.
I bring you The Dark Angel Lady from the Etsy shop of Rick St Dennis.

Doesn't look very dark now, does she?
Coloured with promarkers with some stardust stickles on her wings and halo, she takes on a whole new life.
The card layout follows the sketch over at Sunday Sketch & Stamp.

The fancy die cut is one from Die'sire and the one behind, a nestie. The flourishes are cut using my cricut. Both the bottom panel and the bottom die cut mat have been dry embossed using craft concepts "budding vine" folder. Ribbon from stash with the bow secured with a blingy brad. The sentiment has been heat embossed with sparkly duck egg blue on coffee ink. Three gems to finish in the corner and we're done.

I would like to enter this card into the challenges at
Sunday Sketch & Stamp - Their sketch
CDAC Inspiration Group - Colour palette set
613Avenue Create - Tic Tac Toe - just about covered all except the green lines

It's GDT time at DICC here

Over at Desert Islands Crafts Challenge there's a new itinerary to work with.

1.Spring

2.Flowers

3.Fluffy Animals

4.Pastel Colours

5.For Mom

6.Ribbon and Bows

7.Chocolate

8.A Shaped Card (not square or rectangle)

9. Fancy Edges

10. Brads or Eyelets

This challenge is being sponsored by Rick St Dennis and the lucky winner gets their pick of some images from his Etsy Store.

I chose #'s 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 & 10 along with the Lady St John Smythe. Coloured with promarkers.

Autumnal colours for those mums among us in their autunm years and a little bit off the norm from your run of the mill mothers' day cards.

The DP is from MME sparkly halloween papers, chocolate brown with cream and orange spots, which just goes to show Halloween can be all year round!

Our mum here has been fussy cut out and attached to a piece of core-dinations cs after running through a Darice embossing folder and inking with wild honey DI.

You might just make out the glamour dust dotted around in appropriate places. Well she is going shopping at Harrods!

The ribbon, bows and flowers and chocolate glitter card layered on blue

The sentiment

The letters stamps individually with copper on burnt orange cs then highlighted with fine liner to add depth, the die cut secured with brads. 

I know the regular DT over at Desert Island Crafters have worked their magic and are just waiting for those entries into the challenge to come flooding in.

I'd like to enter this into the challenge over at
The Cupboard Trilogy - A Mother's Love
Sincerely Yours - Mother's Day
Crafty Ribbons - Anything Goes with Ribbons

Crumble It with Smudgy Antics

Here I sit thinking I have got most of what I need to do almost up-to-date and I realised I didn't blog my make for Smudgy Antics this week. Dddduuuuhhhh me!
So - a few days late.....

CRUMBLE IT.

Here is the definition of crumble (verb):

1. disintegrate, collapse, break up, deteriorate, decay, fall apart, perish, degenerate, decompose, tumble down, go to pieces
2. crush, fragment, crumb, pulverize, pound, grind, powder, granulate, go to wrack and ruin, break down
3. I realize other countries have different terms for the word crumble so I'm adding Crumple and Crinkle to the list as well.

That's the blurb from the blog to help with my description.

This was going to be a fatbook page but it's a bit big @ 6"x 6", it kind of took on a life of it's own and grew.
The crumbled/crinkled part is my BP as you can see. Started off life as a piece of plain red paper. After rolling into a tight ball then smoothing out slightly, the black DI pad was rubbed over. When this was dry, more scrunching and the fired brick added.
Now what to add to this?
I followed the Feb Sketchy in the Smeared and Smudged forum and the Quoth the Raven Tic-Tac-Poe diagonal elements of

Metal, Raven and die-cut. There's a few more as well, Red, flowers and sentiment.
The DP is from the All Hallows Eve stack from BazzillBasics. The stamps used here are all from the Smeared Ink Quoth The Raven stamp set. The rubber was available last month as a member of the Smeared Ink Rubber club, but the digi version is here. The sentiment has been heat embossed in black on red card. The black "smudges" under the senti are black flocking daubed on (both from WOW)- a real touchy feely bit and to keep in with the sketch. The raven just stamped onto white and fussy cut out. The die cuts with matching embossing folder are cut from red card and copper - yes real copper!. The tiny flowers down the side are metal as well. Then - just for fun - a pair of eyes peering out at you from the top corner.

So there's still over a week to get scrunching and crumbling and joining us at Smudgy Antics, what are you waiting for?

I would like to enter this into the challenges at
Smeared and Smudged - Feb sketchy challenge
Quoth the Raven - Tic-Tac-Poe
WOW! embossing challenge - Anything Goes