Playing with Inks

Seems so long since I got rally inky! It's not really but it seems like it. These are my fingers after several washes so it might be a few more days before flesh colours return.

So much fun though and not that unusual in my crafting endeavours.
What caused them to be this delicate shade of blue?
Inks - dye based, of course, and glossy cardstock. Playing and making an ATC.

Using Haunted Places 1 and Killer Bo-Peep rubber from Smeared Ink. 

The sad news that Smeared Ink is closing the shop as of May 5th was like a body blow. They have been around longer than I have been crafting with stamps and it was a happy couple of years that I spent on their DT. The Smeared & Smudged community lives on in Facebook, thank goodness, under the watchful gaze of a couple of friends - Black Dragon and Shelley Knight. If you like the edginess of Smeared Ink - you better get in quick!

I'd like to enter this ATC into the challenge at
Smudgy Antics - Anything Goes with SI stamps

An "Irish" box card

Hi everyone.
This is a card that I put together ..... then realised it openes up "the wrong way". Oh well.... good for a left handed friend,  hahaha.
I used an image called Carmen from Rick St Dennis.

Coloured with promarkers, her hair was an experiment in Aubergine and dark blues. Love how it came out.
Then to use her for a card.
I used a box card format. This enabled me to use some of the many 3-d flowers that have been sitting in my stash for eons.
Many die-cuts in gold card to decorate the frame

 Some embossed black card rubbed over with gilding wax, More embossed card in a peachy colour, some black lace, a scrap of DP (Noir et Chic) some black pearl sprays and roses in dark peach and red with some die cut dark green leaves

 All mounted onto a bronze/golden base
The box card houses all this comfortably.
Then it dawned on me........... OOOppsssss

Yes - It opens the wrong way!! Too late now - it's just like the last pages of a book instead of the front.  I hope the recipient doesn't mind.
The front cover - The same bronze/gold  as the base of the card with the negatives of one of the diecuts and gilding wax. Sorry about the glare but you get the gist

That's it from me for  today.
Thanks for looking

I'd like to enter this card into the challenge at
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - Use a diecut
Passion for Promarkers - Spring Blooms - use flowers

A Jacobs Ladder with De Stempelwinkel

Play time, for a change, in the Cubbyhole today. De Stempelwinkel have a (fairly new) challenge blog now and I keep meaning to join in. Time then runs away and before I know it the next challenge has started. Ooops. Anyway - a few hours was mine today and this is what emerged after the inking, gluing etc.
Several De Stempelwinkel stamps used. Nearly the entire plate of Animal Skeletons (plate 33) as well as some from Dark Night (plate 42) and also some odd ones I have in my collection.
A Jacobs Ladder ....

Picture heavy, sorry.

front cover made by "tiling" some DP with trees and two inside tiles. The first using gilding flakes the second with pan pastels

 more inside plates. The first two with gilding flakes the last with pan pastels

  Last 3 stamped inside plates and more gilding flakes

a LONG project to see in it's entirety but I hope you get the idea. Extra plates made from tiled DP paper.
Play time over, I hope you like this. Already my son(26) has spent longer playing with it than he thought he should. **little giggle**

I'd like to enter this into the challenge at
De Stempelwinkel Stamps challenges 8 - Nature

Going Green - with HDH

Haunted Design House has a new challenge starting today and with all the greenery that spring brings as well as the thought of new life got twisted about as only the Minions can do......
The theme then turns into

Turn Green (with envy)

So with the thoughts, maybe, on bringing new life into an old and battered piece of "junk" or a project that has mainly the colour green in it or ......... you get the idea. 
Susan has more ideas over on the blog. Her narrative is inspiring!!

My project ....
the upcycling of an old coffee tin
from this

 Then a piece of glossy thick paper daubed with different distress inks in shades of green.
This was then coated with the soot of a cheap candle

 Various stamps from the "Fringe" collection from Smeared Ink were then stamped into the soot.
After a couple of coatings of cheap hairspray to set.....

the paper was cut to size and wrapped around the tin,
The top and bottom coloured with alcohol ink (promarker)
then the final touch - a circle of grunged up paper with yet another element of the stamp set used and stuck down to the lid

A scrap of ribbon to neaten and that coffee tin now feels at home on my craft desk.

Your turn now
Go visit the HDH blog for more inspiration on upcycling etc and show us what you come up with