Ho Ho Poe with Quoth the Raven

This post is brought to you with mixed feelings. I will be moving in the new year sometime and have had to put the majority of my craft room stash into storage. Boo Hoo! So this might well be one of the last posts for a while.
I have taken leave of absence from my other DT positions until I am in a place to start creating again.

In the meantime, as GDT for Quoth the Raven, I have this triptych made with ATC sized stampbord pieces. It features rubber stamps from Smeared Ink "Quoth the Raven" and "Gothic Christmas" on the inside and crafters' companion on the outside. Much use was made of my pan pastels, in fact the only thing that was not was the actual tree, Poe, pressies and Raven stamping.

 The ivy leaves are a Sheena Douglass die cut from black card and given a lick of gilding waxes in silver, empire and renaissance golds.
We'd all love to see your Poe inspired Christmas Projects - so get cracking!

I am entering this into the challenge at
Smudgy Antics - Anything Goes with a touch of Creepmas

Ho Ho Poe

On a recent visit to see my dear friend and "sister from another mother", Blackdragon,  I was asked to do a few guest spots for the blog "Quoth the Raven"
The first of my projects is an acrylic multi-layered tag. We had great fun on one of the days using up some of Blackdragon's ancient stash and a "couple of bits" came to Scotland with me. It seemed fitting therefore to use this in my first project.

Decoart media paint with paint stamped snowflakes

Poe from De Stempelwinkel writers plate #20

The poem was printed onto acetate 

The bells are a royalty-free image

These four layers, all came together, with the added tinsely ribbon from stash ..........so.............

I hope you think my tag is found worthy of a place on the QTR wall.

I feel some more of these multi-layered tags will feature in the future.

Thank you BlackDragon and Ike for inviting me to GDT for QTR.

Progressive Challenge December with RSD

Good morning,
A bit late and I apologise, but only just been able to sign into blogger again.
Rick's Sparkle & Glitter blog is holding yet another progressive challenge and this is part two. The part when a project using the image supplied has to be used. This moth it's a little animated prezzie who really can't make up his mind whether it's Christmas yet or if he's still to be in Hallowe'en mode. His name is Take Yer Pick and, if you didn't get him free by entering the first part, he can be purchased from the Zibbet store.

I decided to put him on a tag

Some torn Christmas papers top and bottom and hallowe'en paper sandwiched in the middle.
The sentiment stamps are from a variety of companies. "Happy Halloween" is from Artistic Outpost "Haunted Halloween and the "Merry Christmas" and "Seasons Greetings" were freebies in a couple of mags. Some of the trees were glittered up. The black/silver twigs are a die cut. Edged with green ink and added ribbon from stash. 

Progressive Challenge for November and RSD

Post #2 and still keeping in with the the darker side of crafting..............

This time it's for the Sparkle and Glitter Blog of Rick St Dennis and the first month of the Progressive Challenge............ Anything Goes with an RSD image.

Not much in the way of sparkle and glitter in my make for today though.......

.With Deathly Pallor on a canvas painted with Decoart paints and stencils

The difference between a photo and a scan and the way the light hits the object!!!

I really enjoyed colouring this image with my Caran D'ache pencils and decided to use a blending pencil instead of paper stumps. Some colours were easier to blend than others so still in the "trial and error stage" here

Now to try get my head in gear for a "Traditional Christmas" and a new baby coming to the family very soon.

See you soon

It's All About Teeth - with Delicious Doodles

November 1st............. Where has the year gone?
That fabulous celebration last night with Hallowe'en done and dusted for another year. That doesn't mean we're leaving that genre behind............ at least not in my Cubbyhole.
I have two projects to share with you all today. The first is for

Delicious Doodles' challenges

"Take Your Teeth Out" is the theme chosen by fellow teamie, Vicky.

Use an image that depicts TEETH. 

I chose "Creepy Christmas Tree" and "The Creepy Alphas" from Teri's Etsy store to make a card for today. One of my first Christmas/Creepmas cards of the year.

A square "kraft" card base with leather look bronze card mat.

The ivy leaves are a  die cut from Sheena Douglass. Black cardstock and gilding waxes in copper gold and silver

The images are coloured with promarkers before matting on those traditional red and green mats. 

A few black gems and done. 

Quick and easy

Now your turn ......

Get those toothy makes linked up at the challenge at Delicious Doodles for a chance to win some awesome images of your choice.  

31 days of Hallowe'en

Hi everyone
It's my turn again to bring a project for today's 31 Days of Hallowe'en for the Airless Chambers team
.
I used the Rick St Dennis image Bad Science. It fit the image and notion in my head of a spell-caster in "plain clothes". Having pondered over his spell book, off to the dungeon lab to concoct the potion to serve whatever purpose he saw fit. Then, oops, that momentary lack of concentration that befalls so many. Not the paint brush in the tea instead of the water pot like most I know but something a little more dire ...... that spell has destined him to life as a vegetable. Serves him right for wishing ill on someone.

then to add a little extra

the Book of Spells I was talking about....

31 days of Halloween with Airless Chambers and RSD

It's that time again for Airless Chambers Crew to join in the creepiest bloghop of the year, the 31 days of Halloween. Organized by Smeared Ink. The AC crew will be using Rick's awesome Halloween digi and / or rubber collection. You can find the digi at his Etsy or Zibbet shop. Rubber only at I Brake For Stamps

Blogroll is in the side bar in Airless Chambers enjoy the hop, if you dare.

Hi everyone. Helen/Croms here with my project for the hop.

Using Willaworm Witchypoo, Hester Hoopgarten and Busted Down Witch on a plywood base that has been sitting waiting for a coat of paint for a while.
Decoart paints/products were used on the base.
Getting a picture without glare - not easy, sorry. So a piccy with and without flash.

and a close up of the little bit of writing .. well I'm sure a lot of you have experienced those mornings after the night before and can relate to how "Busted Witch" looks and is probably feeling.

The background was created by stamping with purple paint onto the green base using one of the stamps that Smeared Ink sold designed by Rick... from the Morte set.

September Progressive Challenge with Rick St Dennis

September already!!??!!  Where's our summer?? Looks like we, in Scotland, lucked out again this year. There have been too many days in August that the heating had to be turned on it's been that cold. I just hope this doesn't herald an arctic winter. I guess we'll find out in due course.
In the meantime............
What have I been making in my crafty corner?
Well one of the projects was this wall hanging..............for the Progressive challenge over at the Sparkle and Glitter with Rick St Dennis blog

Using the image Ghost of Versailles.

The image was coloured with promarkers and graph-it markers before cutting out with additional mats of red and 2 different blacks. Plenty of vintage paper distress ink, some black lace and little red and black flowers teamed with some black pearl sprays and a couple of home made pins.

Glossy accents added to the "emeralds" completed the project.

Go Dark - with Delicious Doodles

Good morning peeps
Today is the first of September and therefore heralds in the start of a new challenge over at the Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog.  This month the challenge was chosen by Avril on behalf of myself - DARK! Be that dark colours or theme is down to interpretation. I went with both and made a little mini book.
Picture heavy so hope you'll last out until the end.
I used images from Teri's Etsy shop, of course......... The Skully Chess Set and The Tombstones.

The front of the book - hand stitched from scratch using black cardstock - features faux leather as demonstrated by Sheena Douglass.

The corners are black card, die cut and rubbed over with gilding wax.

The inside covers are papers from Teri as well

Journaling/photo mats on the reverse of the tombstones.

The other papers are all from the BoBunny Enchanted range with the exception of the checkerboard which is from DCWV Immortal love stack.

We hope you can find the time to join our challenge.
Thanks for looking

Lost in Music

WOW has it been that long since I posted here?  I must admit I've been suffering from a serious lack of mojo in recent weeks and that is, no doubt, something the majority of you out there can identify with.  I did, however, get my finger out and put together this wooden desk tidy that was picked up at one of the craft fairs I was lucky to attend earlier this year. It's been sitting there, in a bag, waiting patiently for a few weeks. Finally it's voice was heard and I set to. needing to get it out on the desk.
It's a three box tidy, different sizes.  First the MDF needed to be sealed and a mixture of PVA glue and black paint achieved this. When this base coat was dry, each of the four sides were treated to a different design. I would then be able to ring the changes occasionally by turning them round in the base tray.
I apologise in advance about the picture quality - I lost my camera and needed to use that on my mobile phone.

The first side
Inspired by Pantera's "Cemetery Gates" and being my DT piece for Haunted Design House this month. "Lost in Music" - any project inspired by a piece of music.

 This is how all the sides, when assembled, fit together. For the post, the sides were photographed as I went along.

The music score BG is a stamp from Visible Image. Stamped using a silver pigment ink and dusted with silver pan pastel. Sealed with DecoArt Decoupage. The inchy stampbord panels were joined in sets of 4, coloured with distress inks before stamping with some inchy stamps from Inkadinkadoo. The little panels then edged with silver embossing powder before adhering to the sides with glossy accents.
The second side

These are decorated using the rubber versions of "Haunted Places 1" that were available from Smeared Ink and now available in digi format from the Zibbet shop of Rick St Dennis.
The third side

these sides have been stenciled firstly using silver DecoArt metallic paint. then the big skull from the skull sheet of Rick St Dennis was printed out a number of times in 3 different sizes. These were decoupaged  before dipping in UTEE.
The fourth side

Heat embossed using a stamp in my collection of unknown origin and silver embossing powder.

We're BAAAAAAA-CK

Well it is true, Delicious Doodles are back, Yeah! 

The DT are bringing you a special Blog Hop, to start off the new Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog.  So a bit of a tease to begin with!  You have to visit all the DT this month to see all the projects made and our Nikki starts off the Hop.

The idea of the Blog Hop is to visit every DT Member's blog and leave a comment.  Go back to the Challenge Blog and let us know what you thought of our blog hop.  Then enter our Challenge - which for the Month of June is Anything Goes - "simples".

The prize for winning the Blog Hop is the choice of 6 images from the Delicious Doodles Etsy Shop.

Our DT has worked incredibly hard to bring the Blog Hop, and I hope you all enjoy.

Below is the order that our Blog Hop is taking:-

Nikki Bryne

Helen Angel-Cullum aka Croms - that's me

Kay Dalton

Vicky Fortier

Marleen Gallagher

Shelley Knight

Jo Lovering

Pascale Mitchell

Susan Salyer

Pamela Smith

Lozzy Tickner

Kym Upshaw

Avril Watson

My make this month uses a few of the butterflies from the shop.

The butterflies sticking out were printed onto acetate and for two, the layers were stuck together with stickles and the other two I used glossy accents and mica powders.
The butterflies at the back were printed onto plain white card and brushos were used to add colour.

Don't forget to go back, comment then enter our challenge to be in with a chance to Win...Good Luck and Have FUN!

Numbers

I'm feeling quite proud of myself today. Two DT projects completed - you'll get to see those in the next few days and still found time to play at De Stempelwinkel Challenges.
The challenge this fortnight is "Numbers".
I know it's only an ATC but still, fun.can be had on a small scale as well.
The base is cut from a larger piece of paper that started off life last week when visiting a very dear friend and we got the brushos out to play with. This bit is cut from the "olive green bit".
The figure - well I think it is an old, dis-continued, DSW stamp. Still in it's original packaging B723.
The "8-ball" stamp is definitely from the store. The little stamp was stamped 3 times to be able to decoupage the balls up, before coating with glossy accents.

The letters are just die-cuts stuck on.
The saying just appealed to my sense of humour as there are a few people that consider me to be the strange one.

Thanks for looking

I'd like to enter my ATC into the challenge at
De Stempelwinkel Challenges - Numbers

RSD Progressive challenge, part 2

A bit late posting this, sorry. It's on the right day at least. Getting ready to go on a small holiday and to visit a dear friend. I hope you'll forgive me my tardiness.

Any way,

The reminder post for the Rick St Dennis' Sparkle & Glitter Progressive Challenge went live today.

Some awesome makes from my fellow EDT. I know I'm on Team A and already posted my make but I couldn't resist a second bite at the cherry.

This time using Justine. She has been used to make a birthday card for the daughter of another friend of mine.

I couldn't resist colouring those locks in a "strange" colour, hence the deep pink. All using promarkers

And here she is mounted onto metallic jade and pearlised black card. Some die cuts and a punched border with a couple of gems and done. Sorry about the glare. Something about mica that the lights here don't like.

We'd love for you to come and join us in the fun with out Anything Goes with an RSD image.

Thanks for looking

Time for a Bit Of SteamPunk

Good evening people.
I just had to make this. My imagination was flying away with me.
I had the good fortune to visit the Sincerely Yours Craft fair yesterday. One of the traders there was The MDFMan. If only I had more pennies!! So many gorgeous MDF items for sale! I plumped for a clock with various cogs. As well as a couple of skull sets that needed a good home.

What did I get excited about?
Well this is my version..........

............and the story of how it came to be.

Out came the Decoart paints etc and everything was given a coat of black gesso to seal.
As the large face was dry first - that got the first treatment. A thin coat of deco-page and a sheet of paper from the Prima "Time Traveller's Memories" pad. Well stuck down before cutting down and then sanding. Finishing the edges with a brushing of "vintage paper" distress ink. Then with the Decoart stencil "Timeless Treasures" and some copper "Dazzling Metallics", added the numbers for the clock, off-setting the primary numerals. The image of the timepiece and wings is using 3 of the stamps from the Visible Image "Time After Time" set.

Next up the larger cogs that came with the collection
They were daubed with a few colours of the Decoart Americana paints. Antique Rose, Antique Teal Pansy Lavender and Traditional Raw Sienna. When dry a thin layer of Decoart Media Raw Umber Antiquing cream rubbed on before over stamping with an IndigoBlu crackle stamp.using stazon.

The small cogs were coated with Decoart Americana burnt umber mixed with Decoart texturizing medium. Then dry brushed with butterscotch and a bit more copper.

some glossy accents, brads, a length of chain. It's beginning to come together.
Needed something else..........
Those Visible Image stamps again. This time several wings, left and right, stamped onto kraft card and cut out decoupage fashion and layered up. Stuck together with silicon glue before triple heat embossing. My melting pot is no where to be seen tonight. The clock face stamped onto dark brown and heat embossed with white. Applied to the clock with more silicon glue.

I had to be careful all along the way, ensuring that minute hand was not going to be impeded on it's journey around the face and several times had to change the placement of those cogs before finally sticking down. The joys of practicality!

Thanks for looking and hope I haven't bored you with all the details

I'd like to enter my clock into the challenge at
Love2Create - Anything Creative / Mixed Media / anything goes
That's Crafty - SteamPunk Surprise

May We Have A Quick Word - with HDH

Well according to the calendar it's the month of May. According to the weather ...... seems more like March! Begins with the same letter so I suppose there's some similarity. Cold, windy and wet in this corner, but we did see an hour or two of the sun, so blessings must be counted.

Being the first Monday in the month means it's the start of a new challenge over at Haunted Design House. This month the challenge is entitled

May We Have A Quick Word

This month we'd like you to either use some text somewhere on your creation OR make it a quick make - less than a day from start to finish. One stipulation it must be a twisted, dark, macabre or Gothic creation. No sweet and fluffy makes will be included in the voting. There are enough mainstream challenges to enter those projects in.

My make took less than a day to create and has one word on it. Another altered domino - one of the travel variety that are a bit smaller than the norm, being only 3 x 1.5cm.

 Just to prove it is a domino - the back view

 A close up of the central feature. A bead wrapped domino with the word "Nevermore" and grid pattern from the Smeared Ink "Quoth the Raven" set and a tiny raven from the Holy City set 1

Stamped onto paper and applied to the domino with and coated with glossy accents.

While this was drying, I started on the beadwork to surround the domino using another as a gauge for size. For those interested - the main body of peyote stitch using size 11 hex beads in a black AB colour. The curve inwards created by using smaller beads (size 11 delica) for a couple of rows before switching to size 15 seed bead for 1 row. The loop created used ladder stitch.

Attaching the pendants of bird skulls and domino - just simple bead loops.

To stop the skulls moving towards the centre - some simple thread whipping round the leather thong.

A simple hook and eye clasp glued to the thong ends. Finished. Drying time of the domino meant this project took longer than the hour it took to create everything else.

There we have it, a simple necklace with a difference.

I'd like to enter this necklace into the challenge at 

Dream In Darkness - Anything Goes
Smudgy Antics - Anything Goes

Progressive Challenge with Rick St Dennis

Good morning peeps
I hope the weather where you are is treating you better than in my corner of the world. We have seen several seasons in an hour lately let alone 4 seasons in one day. Weather ranging from warm sunshine all the way through to snow, rain and hailstones, and you should have heard the thunderclap Wednesday night! Oh my, I thought the roof was going to cave in! We are still here though, hanging on.
Enough of my prattle and on with the main reason for this post.

The first of every month sees the start of another episode to the Progressive Challenge being held over on the Sparkle and Glitter blog of Rick St Dennis. May is the start of a new 2 month stint where Anything Goes, as long as it has a Rick St Dennis image from either of the Zibbet or Etsy stores.
As part of Team A it's our turn to host the first installment.
My project uses the images Jocasta and Jarrod

Both coloured with promarkers then scanned into my computer so that I could shrink down to the size I needed them. ie about 2.5 x 1.5 cm. No way could I colour them that small without a microscope.
Why so small? To fit onto a couple of travel dominoes measuring 3 x 1.5cm.

 The dominoes were first covered with scraps of DP from prima "The Archivist" pad. Then the images, after fussy cutting out, applied with a touch of glossy accents before covering all with a good coat of glossy accents. Set aside and leave to dry.
Whilst they were put aside I could concentrate on the base.
A wooden watch shape frome Indigo Blu. Painted first with Decoart Black paint front and back. Then for the back, a layer of  Decoart "weathered wood" then dazzling metallic in copper.

The front was covered in more of that paper from Prima and ink distressed with brushed corduroy.
Some metal charms and chain attached with more glossy accents and those altered dominoes secured with yet more of this amazing multi purpose medium. A couple of pearls added to the dominoes - just because!

The chain that was used can also double up as a means of hanging this small decoration.

Thanks for stopping by.
Looking forward to seeing your projects over on the Sparkle and Glitter blog.

I'd like to enter this little whimsy into the challenge at
Dream in Darkness - Anything goes (as long as it's not cute)
Create and Inspire - Anything Goes
Crafting From The Heart - Anything Goes