Delicious Doodles Day - First the Challenge

Yep - today in the Cubbyhole is the turn of Delicious Doodles to be featured.
First up is my piece made for the ANYTHING BUT A CARD challenge that starts today.
I altered a note book. One of those cheap and cheerful, bought for a pound, spiral bound notebooks. Maybe I should have thought about this and taken a "before" piccy, but I didn't. Oh well..........
This the "after" though.....

featuring the Delicious Doodles images "Steampunk Mermaid" and "Steampunk Heart"

Coloured using graph-it pens

The "NOTES" using a stencil and distress ink

The side

back

and inside did not go unadorned

here you can see the spiral binding 

I used the technique for faux leather as per Sheena Douglass. 

Three different embossing folders for the different areas.

Satin ribbon to tie it all together.

Job done

I'd like to enter this altered notebook into the challenge at
Crafty Ribbons - Anything Goes - with ribbon

Day 31 of 31 Days of Hallowe'en

For full deets on this Freaking fangtastic Blog hop organised by Smeared Ink and The Smeared and Smudged forum, please hop on over to Terra's blog. All the info on the days sponsors are there as well as any other info you think you might need.  The blog hop roll is there in my side bar.

Good morning folks. How are we all? Are you all ready for tonight?  THE day when zombies, ghosts, skeletons as well as a motley crew of other creepies will wander the streets and no one will bat an eye lid. Tales of Horror will be broadcast on the TVs, almost throughout the world, to help bring those in their homes into the celebrations.
Well I made it - all the way to the finish line. Over 31 different projects made, photographed and blogged (a couple of days had more than one piece). A mammoth task and there were a few times I nearly gave up. You Horrifying Hoppers kept me going and for this I thank you.
My last project is a tag. I realised yesterday that I had not made a single reference to the Master of the Classic Gothic Horror. That fantastic author that so many of us love and who brings joy to our lives through the power of the written word. I speak, of course, of Edgar Allan Poe. I felt his poem "The Raven" had to be the one for my last day piece, just because.

The Raven stamped image is from Lost Coast. Stamped with versamark onto pale grey card and black PanPastel applied with a sponge before tearing out.

The word "Nevermore" was compiled by stamping, onto the same grey card, three sizes of feathers (Sheena Douglas) at various angles. The (memory box) die cut tree was stamped with a crackle stamp (more Sheena Douglas). Black feathers (with a greenish tinge) from stash.

All these elements were laid over a tag that had first been painted with black gesso and some scrunched up tissue applied and left to dry.

Well that's it from me folks. Phewwwwwwww. I'm glad to report that my craft room looks almost back to normal after a massive tidy up yesterday.
What will tomorrow bring?

I'd like to enter this tag into the challenge at
Premium Craft Brands - Shades of Grey

2013 Skull-a-bration Day

I can hardly believe a whole year has passed since the massive bloghop of 2012 celebrating the beauty of the cranium. This little (???) party has been organised by the gals over at Smeared Ink/Smeared & Smudged forum and is only a small part of the world wide tribute to that bony shell that contains our brain. For more info on the world wide event, the Skull-A-Day Blog and for the Smeared & Smudged participation, follow the links.

If you are following the hop order then you will have arrived, and still be reeling, from the amazing Bombshell Girls creations. If you have arrived here just on the off chance, then may I suggest that you start up at Terra's blog and see the whole wonderful array from start to finish? If you're just lost - well the whole blog hop order is there on the left hand side bar of my blog.

I have two projects to show today.
The first features just one of the images that are to be only available through the Smeared Ink Rubber Club for June. This project was created using a digital version. As a member of the DT, I was lucky enough to be able to use this as a preview. The set is called MORTE and created using the fabulous artistry of Rick St Dennis who has now joined the Smeared Ink's awesome collection of artists. You really need to check this collection out!!

If you are a lover of Rick's fabulous work and can't wait for the rubber set then why not head on over to his Etsy shop and have a look at the selection of Skull images there.

An altered cigar box.

different aspects here of the entire box, showing the dimension of the decoupaged front and the stencilled sides and back (Andy Skinner). The image was coloured with promarkers on both top and front. Because of the limitations of the light available here in Scotland, I scanned the image before attaching to give a better idea of the colour. That's distress ink you see colouring the white card base.

The paper covering and lining the box was purchased from Crafty Chaos, who sadly are no longer trading. The "wrought iron" on the corners are from a Sheena Douglas set of rubber stamps.

The second project is an altered key cabinet

This is lined with papers from the same Crafty Chaos papers. The whole box was washed with acrylic paint before the addition of gold metallic rubbing wax on the edges. Various rubber stamped images from Smeared Ink's Quoth The Raven, Lost Coast and Tim Holtz were then adhered. The side edges covered with a copper coloured ribbon and punched paper using MS drippy goo. The hooks that came with this salvaged piece need to be replaced. The white plastic covered ones really do not "go".

Thank you all for taking the time to visit my little corner of bloggy world and hope you enjoy the rest of the amazing projects. Again, if you get lost, the left hand side bar here contains all the blog addresses of the other artists that have dedicated their time and join with me in this Skull-a-bration blog hop.

Both my projects fit the bill of the challenge at Craft My Life - a re-launch of the challenge blog where anything but a card is the norm
They also fit the challenge at Created with Love - Anything Goes. Who doesn't just love their noggin?
The challenge over at Simon Says Stamp is to use the letter S in projects, well I have loads of SKULLS here so would like to enter into this challenge as well.
The Hobby House challenges have an Anything Goes challenge this month as their first ever challenge

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