Catchup time again

WOW. Where has the time gone?
Before I know it, 2 weeks have flown by and I've not been here. I've not been idle and have crafted a few things. Mostly in my role as a DT member of The Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack.
I have made things I never knew I could, a few cards but above all, loved every minute.

Tomorrow we're having a DT hop, so thought I'd better have a minute or two here and show one or two things that we're doing over at The Village.

The first thing I want to show is the cover of the Art Journal I've finally gotten round to putting together. Instead of slipping the pages into an old scrap book, I have made a purpose built album.
Covered with black jersey fabric with thin chip board pieces that have all been triple heat embossed.
All the lettering has been cut free-hand. The sign and carrier are a TH die cut. The flower, voile, another TH die, Tattered Florals, pinned together loads of layers and heat gun played over it to seal the edges.
Here's a closeup of the sign, The chain, beads and charms from stash.

















Last thing I made was because I was challenged to.
The mixed media group were challenged to decorate a letter. Now most have access to a crafty type shop that sell ready made letters. Be they wood, chipboard or paper mache. Not so here in this corner of Scotland. Next opportunity to go buy one would be in a couple of weeks. Make from scratch was my challenge. So I did.
"C" cut from 3mm chipboard, 3 times. sticking the layers together and again, making my own stencil.
and the reverse.....the other side of me...

All the items on the front were from stash, the larger flower at the bottom was hand made.
The images on the back are from a collection of inchie stamps.

Skull Appreciation Day Blog Hop

Today's the day.
The idea started over at the Skulladay blog. To have a day set aside to be an official international day of cranial love!
Smeared and Smudged, in time honoured fashion rose to the challenge and have organised a massive blog hop, to include not only S&S members but any artist that wants to join us.
There're some amazing prizes up for grabs as well. For full details go here.

I have got so many projects started. I have skulls all over my crafty room. Unfortunately, only one got finished, and this was a rush at the end. So sorry.
It's a fridge magnet. Even this was painted and repainted because I wasn't happy with my first attempt. It's been that kind of week.



Made from plywood. sealed with watered down PVA then painted with acrylic paints. Sealed with glow in the dark mod podge.
Edged with ink. A few of the small flowers from TH Tattered Florals die cut from voile and heated to seal and crinkle.

This is the list for the Smeared and Smudged Blog Hop

Terra

Tori

Alison

Kelli

Jane

Alex

Judi

Kathi

Steph

Lisa

Feddie

Heather

Kapree

Susan

Dianne

Barb Foster

JenniLynne

Teri

Cyndi

Pamela

Prissy

Trisha

Dawn

Lady Brayton

Donna

Black Dragon

Paulette

Creepy Glowbugg

Susan’s Crafty Chaos

Andrea

Helen - that's me

Kate

Fiona

Sugar

Linda

Dragonfly Jane

Debbie

Get on over to these blogs for some seriously amazing artwork.
Thanks for popping by

25th Wedding Anniversary

I was asked to make a 25th Wedding Anniversary card. Something special for a special couple.
I followed my oval stepper card idea - with a bit of a difference.


The oval was replaced by a heart shape.

The theme was silver and purple for the party so went with these colours.

The image is purple as well but surrounded by all the silver, refused to come out true to colour.

Using Delicious Doodles' The Lovers image, digitally altered to the correct purple colour, printed twice. The top layer was relieved of the white lines and stuck to the other image that had the white lines coloured silver. A small gem placed in where the earring was. This was in turn layered onto silver then more purple heart shapes.

The base card is a stepper card but with a difference. The tutorial for this can be found at Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack. This was made with pearlised silver card stock.

The left hand panels were stamped with heart images in silver.
Some silver peel offs to add that extra little something.

The right hand side
One of the homemade roses from purple and silver paper and the 25 from silver peel offs and the same border peel off round the edges.

The bottom, some more purple paper and peel offs but this time also a silvery white lace. Another of the silver and purple roses I made.





Then the box. Can't have a card without the box.
Pearlised white card stock this time. More of the lace from the card and some more of the paper roses.


The card nestles in silver tissue paper and a suitably mushy verse was stuck into the lid.

I am entering this into the challenges over at
Delicious Doodles - Lovely Lace
Claudia & Co - Fancy Folds
Party Time Tuesdays - Anything Goes
The Cheerful Stamp Pad - Cards For a Special Reason

Altered CD with SweetPea

I had another go at altering a CD as per the challenge over at Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack. Making the holes on this one was easier. I used my leather puncher and eyelet setter as I don't own a cropodile.

The backing is made from foil covered with gesso, kitchen towel, more gesso then painted with acrylics and rubbed over with metalic paste as illustrated by Terra over at the Smeared and Smudged forum. Edging is satin seam binding. SweetPea image, coloured with pencils, blended with mineral oil then fussy cut out. Lace stuck on to bottom (with a touch of glitter through the lace holes) and to hang it with. Holes have copper eyelets set and pearls and fibres threaded onto nylon cord with some ribbon tied on. Pearls stuck round the edge as well.



I am entering this into the challenge over at
Sweet Pea Stampers - Lace and Pearls
Crafty Purple Frog - Mono Moments (nearly all in different shades of green)
Clear It Out Tuesday - Use different colouring mediums.
Craft Your Passion - Have something hanging over the edge.
The Emerald Faerie Garden 1st challenge - Anything Goes
Polka Doodles - Anything but a card

Tellen's Place at Stampin' Dymonz

While I'm getting this blog upto date, I wanted to share this with whoever's reading.
Over at Stampin' Dymonz Creative Space there's a challenge going on using a specific Tellen's Place Design image. It's given free so no excuses.
rules are
You are to create an A2 sized card (4.25 x 5.5 inches) using this digi from Tellen's Place Designs.

1. The digi is to be hand colored using markers -- Copics, SU! Stampin' Write Markers, ProMarkers -- any marker sets you have/use.
2. Your card needs to be made using the following cardstock colors: Purple, Fuchsia/Magenta, and Black.
3. As part of the use of this image, it must be matted using all 3 cardstock colors.
4. You must also use cream colored lace ribbon on your project.

This is my take on it
The image reminded me so much of my grandmother, I likened it on her.

The image was coloured with promarkers with a touch of gold gel pen for the specs. The ink distressing done with tattered rose, milled lavender, dusty concord and black soot distress inks. This was then layered onto the required coloured C.S. Corner punched in opposite corners. "Happy Birthday" stamped all over the base pink c.s. which was layered onto more black.

The lace element of the recipe, well I cheated a bit here. The cream lace I have is too wide for this card so I coloured some white with my ivory promarker, decided it was too dark so lightened with alcohol ink blending solution. Gathered up to make a flower with a purple button for the centre, sewn onto the pink and black layers. The "21" are gel stickers and the letters "again" started off as red, coloured with black promarker.

This was then attached to the purple card base.

Simple and quick basic card.

Anything Goes !!

Anything goes time at a new challenge over at Tellen's Place Designs. They supply a freebie as well so following the rule that a TPD image must be used isn't hard to do. I had a quick scoot through the other entries to see what I was up against. Wow. Only 3 people out of 12 so far can read. Oh well. More chance for me, hehehe. joking.
I wanted to play along and love the dark images as my followers should know. It took me a couple of days before this project popped into the brain cell. Then there was no stopping me. Apart from the drying time needed before the final cutting.

Using 5 of the female dark images. Divas in their own way and it's the Divas that are being showcased this week. All coloured with promarkers

All made into small jigsaws.

The base is a couple of sheets of thin mount board, stuck together, dried under a weight to ensure no warping before glueing the girls on. Again keeping weighted flat until dry.

The images were then cut as seen using a die and my bigshot.


Yes, before you ask, they do come apart. My son had great fun mixing them up. (As old as he is).














I am entering this into the challenge at
Tellen's Place Designs - Anything Goes using a TPD image
My Time To Craft - Use a Die Cut
Digi Design House - Anything but a card
2 Sisters Challenges - Use a digi

Off The Page @ Stampin' Dymonz

This is a group set up for mixed media and altered art over at the Scrap Shack. Well I'm a real newbie at this, I've only dabbled in it all so far. The theme this week is to alter a CD/DVD.
To say I had a bit of bother with punching the holes I wanted is an understatement. I ended up with a warped CD so will be revisiting this one.
My first effort though looks ok. I really must invest in a cropodile. The other girls say they had no trouble at all!!! pppfftttt.





I stamped the image from Wild Frog onto pearlised white cs with stazon and used distress inks to paint it. The frogs were coloured with alcohol ink additive and threaded onto tigertail wire with crimp beads. A few bits of ribbon and done.