Here comes the bride!

...of Frankenstein.  This is my DT piece for the latest challenge at Left of Center, sponsored by Sassy Studios, and the theme is - ribbon and/or flowers. 

I've gone more left of centre - which is defined as anything gothic, horror, steampunk, manga etc  - rather than sticking to the theme this time, although there is a bit of braid at the top of the tag.  It doesn't really show in the photo, but I did a bit of decoupage on the digi of the Bride (who is very sassy indeed!).  Otherwise, this is a very straightforward tag, with a bit of colouring-in and sticking onto a tag, as my Mojo has apparently gone on holiday without me this week. 

We'd love to see what you can do with the challenge at LOC.  There's a prize from our sponsor up for grabs - why not hop over to the challenge blog  and share your project with us?  See you there!

Crafty hugs,

Keren

PS We have a Facebook group too - we'd love you to join!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/366516863488820/?bookmark_t=group

Backwards and in high heels!

My turn to contribute a project to the LOC Blogiversary celebrations, and I've chosen a digi from Ike’s Art. 

This is one of a series of real killer heel shoes – my feet ache just looking at them, but my word, aren't they pretty?  And what else should you do with a shoe but make a shoebox ?  The sentiment is one I made myself with my Imagepac, the quote is credited to Bob Thaves, about Fred  Astaire – “Sure he was great, but don't forget Ginger Rogers did everything he did backwards...and in high heels!”

These folding box cards are very popular right now.  They are similar to the version that Rob Addams has on his CD's, but Rob's cards are powered by elastic and pop up into place.   This kind doesn't do that but there are lots of examples to follow if you want to make one.

I covered my box in Hunkydory card that I've had around for ages.  I do like black or white with tiny silver poka dots.  And it seemed to be just right for a card about one of the great dancers of the Hollywood heyday. So I hope you like it, too.

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Dreaming is free

All right, I admit it - I haven't contributed a link to Hels Sheridan's blog for a while.  I've visited every week; Sunday Stampers was one of the first blogs that got me joining in with challenges, and there was a time when I rarely missed a week.  However - as I joined in more and more challenges, and then began contributing to a DT or two,  it got harder and harder to keep up with everything, and what had to give was the weekly challenges.  (It takes me a week to think of an idea!)  Nevertheless,  I still follow Hels's blog and was lucky enough to get to one of her workshops recently.  So - as it's the 300th edition of Sunday Stampers,  I've made a special effort and put into practice what I learned from Hels -

The stamps are from a number of sources - Indigoblu and the Artistic Stamper among others - I just went digging through my collection until I found some I liked.  I used Timber Brown Staz-On ink onto tissue (this time it was the Kleeex kind, not the the crunchy kind I normally use) and beeswaxed it onto the painted canvas.  Apart from at the workshop, this is the first time I've used beeswax in my Melt Pot.

  I added a screw eye to the bottom of the smaller canvas and hung my little pendant from it (it's one I made using Pebeo Fantasy paints - I have a box full of them and hardly ever wear jewellery!) 

 I stuck the key (and the jewel) and the little dragonfly charm in place with Cosmic Shimmer glue.  What else is there?  Oh, yes, the roses are made from cold porcelain ( I'm still in love with it!) 

So there we are.  I hope you like it - and if you get a chance to attend a workshop run by Hels, just jump at it.  You won't regret it.

Crafty hugs,

Keren

Spring at Ikesworld

Spring is springing up everywhere!  I thought the daffodils had been washed away in the torrential storms we’ve had over the past few months, but they made it through the winter and now they’re everywhere.  Over at Ikesworld  challenges we’re celebrating the spring as well.  Here’s my project:

I used two of Ike’s digis, the Arch and Finch on pine.  Pine didn’t seem to be very spring-like to me to when I printed out the digi I cut the bird away from the branch.  Now, I am not an ornithologist;  in fact, I have a bit of bird phobia.  I react to birds the way some people react to spiders (I’m fine with spiders, by the way) so, having avoided the creatures for all these years, I had no idea what colour a finch might be.  I had to turn to my friend Mr Google.  What a revelation – they come in all sorts of colours, not just brown.  I had no idea that finches were so brightly-coloured!    Who’d have thought it?

I picked a bird that was a pretty shade of blue as my model and coloured in my digi to match.  Because I’d chopped the bird away from the branch, I put him to perch in some die-cut foliage, in front of a nice blue sky background - I stencilled a bit of Stormy Sky DI through a That Special Touch mask to give it a bit of interest. He was a bit lonely, so I gave him a friend - another good thing about digis, if I want my birdie facing left instead of right I can, very easily.  

I printed the arch onto card first of all, cut it out, and gave it a coat of light Terra paint.  This is textured and opaque, so to get the detail back I printed it out again (without altering the size) onto tissue paper.  I added a bit of shading with alcohol markers (shades of warn grey) on the back and applied it to the previously-prepared arch with Mod Podge.  (I could have used gel medium, but the Mod Podge was handy on my desk).  I let it dry before fussy-cutting the arch – it’s not easy to handle soggy tissue paper, and by not cutting it too closely I had something to hold onto while I was wrestling it into place. 

I assembled the project using cardboard tabs to support the 3d elements  And there are my birdies.  Thanks for visiting - I do hope you liked them!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Tim's 12 Tags - March

Time for Tim Holtz's tag for March. And after making Tim's list last month (you should have seen the happy dance I did!) and what with being in a state of shock,  I almost didn't do this one!  I really struggled with it.  The smudge stamping techniques was fun, and playing with the spritzer was cool as well, but the results weren't what I was hoping for.  I've mentioned elsewhere that I have a real phobia about birds (my husband has been known to rush home from a night out because the cat's caught a bird and I have barricaded myself in the bedroom and am sending increasingly panicky texts.)

I could have chosen another image but I couldn't think of anything spring-like enough in my stash.  I pressed on regardless and, do you know, once it was finished I quite liked it!  The photo doesn't quite do it justice - the colours are a bit more vibrant in real life.  Anyway, I'm still keeping up - now to see what April brings!

xxx

Keren

Left of Center Challenge- My favourite book

There’s lots going on at Left of Center at the moment – as well as the latest challenge, we are celebrating our first year as a challenge blog by sharing a project every day for the month and introducing the new sponsors who have generously agreed to offer a prize for future challenges.  Keep visiting LOC to make sure you’re up-to-date with the latest news.Today, though, our challenge is sponsored by one of our favourites – Delicious Doodles – and our theme is “Favourite Book”.  I’m using “La Rosa Muerta” to illustrate J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s story “Carmilla”. 

If you haven’t read “Carmilla”, it’s a real Gothic vampire story, full of mystery and imagination;  it was written before “Dracula” and may have given Bram Stoker some inspiration. I’ve coloured the digi with alcohol markers (Spectrum Noirs this time) in shades of brown and gold to try to mimic the look of old, faded colours, and mounted it on the cover of a mini-album, constructed out of chipboard and covered with brown card.  I’ve tried to mimic the look of leather by brayering PVA over the card.  I’ve tried this technique with a number of media - gel medium keeps its texture well as it dries; PVA flattens out a bit but the end result is like a fine-grained leather (if you try this, make sure you have a bowl of water handy to clean the brayer immediately, or be prepared to spend some time picking dried PVA off the roller.)  I embossed the card after I cut the oval for the picture out of it, and rubbed a tiny bit of gold wax over the surface to pick up the texture.

Inside, I covered the book with marbled paper which I’ve had in my stash for a long time – it was from Joanna Sheen but I don’t think she sells it any more (sad face) and added pages using Laura Denison’s “Stack the Deck” method.  Now all I have to do is decorate the pages ...

I do hope you like the mini album – and we’d love to see your projects.  There’s a prize from our sponsor up for grabs at LOC, and joining in the fun is easy.  See you there!

Crafty hugs,

Movie Madness at Ikesworld

I used to be a werewolf - but I'm all right NOOOOWWW!  Week two of the Movie Madness challenge at Ikesworld Challenge blog, and it's team B's turn to take the stage.  I'm using  Wolf 1 in "The Curse of the Werewolf"

Another pocket slider card, this time- you know me, when I get an idea I do tend to flog it to death!  I created the background in Photoshop and coloured the wolfman in digitally.  I couldn't get the colour right..so I decided that, as it was an old movie, black & white might work...and it did.  When I was laying out the images for printing, I added a couple of extra werewolf heads so that I could layer them up for a 3D effect.

Hope you like it!  Hope you'll visit Ikesworld Challenge Blog and share your project - there's a free digi and an opportunity to win some Ikesart digis if you use one of Ike's designs in your project!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren