A Inky Mess - November

Sorry for being tardy on this - I was away from home and forgot to schedule - my bad

It's my piece made for the November challenge for "A Inky Mess" Challenge blog.

A small canvas using stamps and stencils from France Papillon. The Horses are from the "1800" stamp set, coloured with Caran D'Ache pencils.  The stencils are a mixture of her newest ones.

The words also are from France - "How Shall I Put It"

There are various paints and mediums used - all Decoart mostly from the media range including some interference paints.
The wooden stand is from stash

Please come along and show us your mixed media makes over at the Challenge blog and don't forget to leave my gorgeous teamies some love

I'd like to enter this into the challenge over at
Bleeding Art - Anything mixed media

Card for a Friend

Morning all
Yes I am still making bits and pieces, cards, tags, altering a few things etc. I just forget sometimes I must use more than Facebook to show that I'm still around. I'd just rather be crafting than typing sometimes but it has occurred to me that these early mornings, waking up at stupid o'clock, is the ideal time to update this blog. So here goes...........

  I recently had the good fortune to "meet" a lovely lady via facebook and it turns out that her birthday had passed a few days prior. She hadn't had much acknowledgement of it from others so I made her a belated card as a way of thanking her to pass the time very pleasantly while away a few hours chatting away like old friends. Turns out we had quite a lot in common.
The card I made used Chocolate Baroque stamps from the Steampunk Butterfly Plate and a few die cuts.

One of those fold flat pop up cards that were all the rage a while ago but I still like

Back veiw

Close up of the centre

And side views

Fussy cutting the butterflies and adding wire for the antenna.

 As a little extra I also included a little 4x4in canvas that I decorated for her

Using decoart crackle paste, embedded various bits in my stash, decoart paints to colourise it and a couple of words stamped onto vellum from the Chocolate Baroque, Illusionary artist range (France Papillon and Andy Skinner collaboration) "Perfect Words". 

I'm happy to say my new friend loved her little parcel so now I can show people what came out of this little cubbyhole of a craftroom

Thanks for looking

I'd like to enter the canvas into the challenge at
Aud Sentiments - Anything Goes - with a sentiment
A Inky Mess - Anything Mixed media goes
Altered Eclectics - Mixed Media anything goes

Texture with Smudgy Antics

Today marks the start of the next two week challenge over at Smudgy Antics. This challenge is all about

TEXTURE

We would like to see those textural pieces that everyone loves to touch and feel. As well as look at. We would prefer the non-cute of course..... this is Smudgy Antics after all. There are so many main stream blogs that cater for the cute and we like to be different.

I made a canvas. It is 8"square and was able to pick up a few for very few pennies the other day, lucky me.

All bedecked in green and gold with a touch of brown and purple.
The main image and text are from the Smeared Ink Nymphs Set. They are available in digi here although this is from the rubber set that I am lucky to own. The bg to the tree Nymph is the bark stamp from the Urban Decay rubber stamp set that was featured last month in the rubber club. Still some available just make enquiries here at the Smeared Ink website.
The canvas was first covered with a thin layer of gesso and the stamped image of the bark on paper was added. I did try to get the image to stamp the texture on the canvas but with no luck. I did however get the fabby stippled effect. The whole canvas was then washed with layers of decoart blue/green, gold and transparent yellow acrylic paints. The "butterflies" are created using grunge paste and an Andy Skinner mask. Plenty of old gold rubbing wax all over before attaching our gal and the embellishments. Some twisted wire for the antenna under some pearls, all held together with sepia accents. Some die cut leaves and some golden skeleton leaves. Then comes our leading lady, stamped onto cream card and coloured with promarkers.

I hope you all have a chance to come and show us your TEXTURE over at Smudgy Antics and visit the other DT blogs that make up the Smeared Ink DT team.

It's Skull-a-bration day tomorrow and there is a massive blog hop scheduled. The list is over on my LHS side bar. Loads of skully gorgeousness and inspiration, as if you need it. Please come and support us that love our craniums.

Rose Madder

Hi everyone, are you still in the mood for some Haunted Design House fun? We're into our second Stephen King nightmare fortnight. The other minions have produced some fantastic depictions of some of the scarier Stephen King stories and are well worth a third and fourth look. The blog links are all on the HDH blog posts for the last two weeks.
I thought long and hard trying to decide which of the many tales to depict. There are loads!!!
I finally went along with "Rose Madder". While this might not be the scariest book in his collection, the story line does depict a very scary situation for many unfortunate women. It is about a woman, Rose, who finally escapes from a very abusive marriage. She then goes on to be stalked by her psychopathic policeman husband. Her redemption comes in the form of a painting picked up from a local antique store.
It is because the story line is bound by a picture that I have chosen to use a canvas as my base.

The canvas was first coated with gesso and while still wet, I layered on a stamped image of the gothic archway. by Sheena Douglas This was stamped onto printer paper so that the paper could be removed when all dry.
ok, when the gesso was dry, the paper was dampened and a finger used to rub it off. Then some Andy Skinner masks and black embossing paste to decorate the corners and the skull representing death. Of whom? You'll have to read the story.
The main image is by Rick St Dennis and is called Drusilla, the Covent Garden Ghost.

I've coloured her with promarkers, fussy cut her out and layered onto silver card, to add a bit more of that ghostly feel. This is because Rose herself felt she was fading away. The die cut fencing to represent that caged in feeling she experienced.  The home made roses, feather and bunches of tulle to reflect the accessories she's wearing here.
Finally the entire canvas was surrounded by grey lace and a metal look embossed diecut  from stash. This was purely because every picture needs a frame.
Get those thinking caps on peeps, choose your SK tale and come show us at HDH what emerges from your crafty space.

A more detailed method on making this canvas can be found on the Rick St Dennis blog "Airless Chambers"

I'd like to enter my canvas into the following challenge
Craft your Passion - Floral Delights
Craft My Life - Any Non card projects
Stamping Sensations - Any kind of embossing + texture - here is stencil + paste
Crafting Musketeers - Anything Goes
Left of Centre - Use a digi image

TIC-TAC-TOE 3 IN A ROW

Monday comes around so fast, doesn't it!  The new challenge over at Smudgy Antics this week is a "bingo card" type challenge.
Three in a row, across, down or diagonally from this little lot.

What did I do?
I always have a problem with choosing which row to work with. This one was no exception and by the time I's finished decorating my little 7cm square canvas and counted it all up I found I'd used them all LOL.

The canvas has been painted in grey (with some texture medium added) and a retired Smeared Ink spider web rubber stamp was heat embossed using silver with some silver glitter added to the powder to give a sparkly yet distressed look/feel to it. The gravestone is a cuttlebug die cut then dry embossed (comes as a set). This was also painted with texture medium added to the base paint, some dry brushing and a wash added to give more definition. Some web fabric behind this gives more texture. The little skull charm was eyeless so I stuck some little red gems into the sockets. This is surrounded by some little home-made ribbon roses. Then comes the main image....... One of the Calaveras Sugar Skulls. This was coloured with promarkers with a touch of gold gel pen and fussy cut out before attaching to the canvas with silicon glue.

Ok, I hope you've been to see the projects made by my fellow DT members and welcome to Shell as our GDT this month.
Looking forward to seeing your choice of elements this week.

I'd like to enter this into the challenge at
Anything But A Card - Anything Goes