31 Days of Halloween - Day 12

Hello folks, and it’s day 12 of the Smeared and Smudged 31 days of Halloween Blog Hop.  All you have to do to take part is to hop through each of the Wicked Blogs that are participating and leave a comment on each project.  All Horrifying Hoppers will receive a Survival Button at the end of the month to proudly post on their blog.

If you’re following the blog hop in order, you’ve arrived here from Teresa’s blog.    If you’ve arrived from elsewhere and you’d like to work your way through all the participating blogs, the blog roll is in the sidebar – just start at the beginning or wherever suits you best.

I altered this bottle and the plastic skull on the stopper using techniques I learned from the Andy Skinner Evil Elixir Mixer workshop and  Timeworn Techniques workshop.   I'm a big fan of Andy's and if you're like this kind of antiqued, grungy look it's worthwhile investigating his online workshops - they are well worth the modest cost.  The bottle itself originally contained a soft drink.  I wasn't wild about the drink but I liked the shape of the bottle.  The skull is a stamp from De Stempelwinkel, stamped onto tissue paper painted on the back with acrylic paint to make it opaque.   I stuck it onto the bottle with clear floor polish (Pledge Multi Surface wax- that stuff is amazingly useful!) In fact, I covered the bottle with it as it gives a nice soft sheen and is not sticky when it's dry.  The label (Doctor Skully's Bone Tonic) I created on the computer and printed onto Safmat.  

I'm entering this into The Mirror Crack'd blog challenge for this month.

Hope you are enjoying the hop.  Don't forget that Scavenger Items will be hidden randomly on the Wicked Blogs, and are not guaranteed to be available every day. You will have to visit blogs to find them. If you find one, you will email and let us know exactly where it was and your name will go into that scavenger item's drawing. Each person who finds the "hidden" picture will get one entry. The drawing for each scavenger prize will be the day after it was posted and winners will be chosen by random number based on who emailed. you for visiting.  Now, if you’re working your way through the roll, it’s on to Renee.  Bye now!

Tim's 12 Tags and a catch up

Hi folks!  It's been too long since I blogged, so this is going to be a bit of a mixed bag - I thought I'd better state that right up front.

First off, my version of Tim Holtz's tag for July -

I LOVED making this one.  I've been waiting for the  seaside dies to become available since CHA, and the faux sand technique is just genius.  I live beside the sea (I can see the beach from my living room window) and this looks like the real thing.  My husband had a hard time believing it wasn't.

Speaking of my husband, he's part of the reason why I've been a bit quiet of late.  He's recently got back into cosplay (look it up on wikipedia!) and for London ComicCon he wanted to go as Dr Strange (again. wikipedia is probably your friend here).  So I've been busy with the sewing machine.  Here's the scrapbook page I created.

(I also put together a slideshow if you want to see some of the fantastic work of the cosplayers who attended. )

I have to say it was very, very hot at Earl's Court and the queue was so long that it could have had its own postcode.  I only went for the preview session on Friday evening (to carry bags, mostly, but Lady Ermintrude did get herself a rather spiffing top hat and a set of goggles for when she's gadding about the Steampunk world).

For the rest of the weekend I headed for the museums (and spotted Barbara Grey of Clarity Stamps in the V&A).

Anyway, back to Tim's tags - which is where we came in - and I'm still playing catchup, because August will be here soon and I still haven't finished June's tag (which I will do, for the sake of completeness).  So I'd better crack on.

See you soon,

Crafty hugs,

Keren

Eerie does it

Hello bloggers! The minions at Haunted Design House have challenged us to make something creepy, Gothic, or Halloweeny this time, so I've taken the opportunity to share something I've been playing with for a while.

I'm not sue what to call it - but I think it fits the bill for gothic!  It's made from chipboard which has been given the Andy Skinner weathered wood treatment (and you will need to sign up for Andy's Timeworn Techniques course to find out how it's done) which I've cut into the arch shapes - love that Alterations die, it's one of my favourites.  Another one of my go-to dies is the Spellbinders birdcage, and I've used it here on the three sides of the arches-

The rest of it's just a cotton reel with some texture paint and a small skull from a Hallowe'en decoration with some acrylic paint (another Andy technique).  Last of all I hot-glued the black lucite rose bead.  I still don't know what the final article is, but I hope you like it - and that you come back again some time!

Thanks for coming,

Crafty hugs,

Keren

Bowing out

My last DT piece for Left of Center, at least for the time being.  I need to take a break and relieve the pressure a bit, so I'm stepping down.  It's been the most enormous fun and my teamies are a very talented bunch, so do hop over there and see what they've created.

This week's theme (yes, LOC challenges are now weekly!) is "Fairies", sponsored by Delicious Doodles.  I've used Steampunk fairy - I love the look on her face!  She's been printed on tissue (no, I'm still not tired of the technique) coloured on the reverse with alcohol markers (Promarkers in this case) and then glued onto a painted wooden coaster with Mod Podge.  I gave her a coat of Crackle paint but wasn't thrilled with the look so I put gloss Mod Podge over the top - and got this rather interesting texture.  Happy accident time!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my projects for LOC and that you'll continue playing.  I'll still be around blogland - so if you see me, say hi, OK?

xxx 

Keren

Light a Candle..

It's Christmas!  All right, it's not, not really - but it's now nearer to next Christmas than last, and over at Ikesworld Challenges we believe in getting ready early! I've used "Holly"  and applied it to this candle, printing onto tissue paper and then using my heat gun to embed it into the wax.

We're taking a summer break so this will be the last Ikesworld challenge until September, so please do join in with us!  If you use one of Ike's digis you could win a gift voucher for Ike's shop, where there are lots of yummy digital stamps to choose from - so come on, show us your projects.  We really want to see them.

Bye for now,

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Lady Ermintrude's Aetheric Speaking Tube

I am so proud to have been asked to be July's Guest Designer over at SanDee & Amelie's Steampunk Challenge Blog.  Steampunk is just about my favourite style and I've had huge amounts of fun with this project.

Of course, when creating in the Steampunk genre, I channel Lady Ermintrude.  Inspired by Warehouse 13, Lady E has commissioned the Aetheric Speaking Tube (Steampunk mobile phone to you!)    Here's what it looks like inside -

And here's the exterior -

Here's what I started with- a tin of peppermints, some gold foil paper and some sealer.  First I ate the peppermints, and then I covered the tin and the foil paper in the sealer.

Then I gave the tin a couple of coats of black gesso and another coat or two of sealer.  I die-cut some fancy corners (the die is from Marianne) out of the gold foil paper.  Giving it a coat of sealer gives it more body and makes it look aged.

I cut a dial shape out of shrink plastic and painted it gold (after I'd shrunk it).  The other items in the picture are a circle of brown funky foam, a brass curtain ring, and a piece of mesh cut from a splatter guard (you know, the kind you use when frying sausages - well, cooking's not my strong point anyway!)  and coloured with alcohol pens.

I stuck the dial and the die-cuts on the front cover of the tin, cut a circle of card to fir the centre of the dial with a "telephone number" on it.  Then it was time to get on with the internal workings.  I cut a piece of card to fit inside,  covered in in some of the gold foil paper that I'd embossed and aged with a wash of black paint.  I cut a hole which will be for the screen and glued a curtain ring to make a frame, punched two holes and set grommets in them with the Crop-o-dile.  The speaker is was assembled by putting the mesh on top of the funky foam and sticking a curtain ring on top -

The black things you can see in the picture are stoppers from sample bottles of perfume, dipped in sealer first and allowed to dry, then dipped into gesso.  I cut the stems off and stuck them throughout the holes in the grommets.  Finally,  I cut another piece of card, stuck a large glass Glintz cabochon to it and assembled the panel.  The inside of the lid is a piece of copper foil, embossed and distressed.

And here's how it turned out again.

Thank you for visiting.  I hope you're going to play at Sandee's & Amelie's this month!  

Crafty hugs,

Keren

Robotics 101

Oops, almost forgot to post this one!  But - almost isn't quite.  So this is my DT contribution for LOC's latest challenge - Something metal.  We're sponsored by Rick St Denis and I've used Robotics 101 for my project.

 The robot was printed onto tissue (still not out of love with this technique) and lightly coloured on the back with alcohol markers.  I stuck it onto gold foil paper and cut it out - then I stuck the cut-out onto acetate to stiffen it.

I made the box card (these are so popular at the moment!) and used an embossing folder on the flaps. A bit of gilding wax made the embossing stand out.  Finally, I cut the gears with Spellbinders Sprightly Sprockets.  And there you are, job down.

Thank you for stopping by, hope you enjoyed.  Now go and see what the DT at LOC have come up with, and perhaps share what you've done!  We'd love too see it.

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Monochrome

Team B's turn at Ikesworld Challenge blogs and the theme is Monchrome.

I've gone for straightforward black and white with this card, using Candle Poe and the Poe Paper Freebie.

The card is basically a variation on a stand-up fold card and the pattern is here - simples!  

Spider, Spider

This is my contribution to the Haunted Design House blog challenge - to use black, green, purple, metal and a flourish.  Oh, and make it spooky/creepy.

I'm still playing with sticking kitchen foil to a substrate (in this case, a tag), wiping a bit of surgical spirit over it, and then dropping alcohol inks (purple and green)  onto it.  It spreads out into lovely big spots and looks amazing!  Apart from that, the rest of this tag is just a metallic paper flourish cut with a Tattered Lace die and a spider covered in black Distress Glitter.  It was a lot harder to photograph than to make, as a matter of fact.  And I hope you like it.

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Toodle-uma-luma....

The latest challenge from Ikesworld is a song/movie title.

This series of digs just reminds me so much of myself and my sister when we were children, I've chosen My Umbrella to illustrate a very old song "The Umbrella Man".  My mother used to sing it to me - we all sang

Curiously Challenged...with added Poe

This time Linda Ledbetter and her talented DT have challenged us to create something using the tea roses as demonstrated in Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities Volume III.  Now, I enjoy making little flowers to add to my projects and I've loved this technique ever since Tim first showed it to us, so I went a bit tea-rose mad.  I made them out of burlap, coloured with all sorts of inks and sprays (mostly Dylusions).  (If you want to know how they're made, you really should get the book!)

As luck would have it, the Minions of the Master at Quoth The Raven have decreed that this month's offering to the mighty Poe shall include flowers, so the tea roses came in very handy.   I also used a little frame, a peacock feather and a couple of Rick St Denis digi stamps.  You can't really see the underlying tag in the picture - it's basically foil which has been coloured with alcohol inks and embossed and is really rather gorgeous.  Here's a picture -

Hope you like it.  And thank you for visiting - please do come back!  

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

My favourite movie?

Oh dear, I'm still playing catch up!  It's been weeks since I changed my computer and  I should have been sorted by now...In my defence, I should say that sewing has been taking up a fair old bit of my time of late, as the OH's costume for Comicon in London has been put together.  (I think he must have been a Georgian dandy in a previous life and is in danger of being renamed Captain Pickypants!)

At any rate, I've managed to resolve my printing problems just in time for the latest LOC challenge, which this time is "My Favourite Movie".  We're sponsored by The Stamping Chef and I've used Broomstick Bella here to illustrate Practical Magic, - or Harry Potter - or  The Witches...all coloured in digitally (just in case I couldn't print and had to turn it into a digital scrapbook embellishment or something...)  and decoupaged up into a birthday card.

Anyway, that's me back up to date!  Hope you'll join in the fun at Left of Center - we'd love to see your work!

Ti'm's 12 Tags - May

May already?  (Actually, almost June by the time i'm posting this).  I'm still keeping up with Tim Holtz's 12 tags of 2014.  This month's was fun to do.  I really like the letterpress word embossing folders-  I chose " Fabulous" for my tag.  

It's all a bit random, really.  Most the items are just oddments from my stash.  The little pendant in the top right is one that I made with Pebeo Vitrail and Prisme paints and I've been looking for a home for it ever since - nice to find a use for it at last.  

I've had a few technical issues lately - the latest being that my Mac sometimes refuses to talk to the wireless printer, which makes life awkward when you're on the DT for challenges that are sponsored by Digital Stamp designers - and my other half has decided to go to Comicon in London in costume,  which, of course, I have to make - so a lot of my time has been taken up in cutting and sewing, with a fair bit of swearing when setting in sleeves.  However, job is done, so I should be back to getting painty and inky again, (hooray!) and eventually scrapbooking the event.  

Anyway, thank you for stopping by  - call again sometime!  

Crafty hugs,

Keren

Colour Inspiration at Ikesworld

Hi folks!  Time for Team B to take the spotlight at Ikesworld Challenges, and this time we've been given a colour palette to inspire us.

As Ike has also produced some beautiful new images as well, I wanted to use one of those.  The digi's featuring the little girl reminded me so mush of my sister and myself when we were children...

I chose "My New Shoes" for my project.  I coloured it in digitally using the colours in the inspiration image to use as an embellishment in a digital scrapbook page

I used Serif's Digital Craft Artist software to put the page together.  The baby in the photo is me, at about 18 months old.

Curiously Challenged - Challenge 2

Oh dear, just when I think I've got caught up,  stuff happens and I fall behind again.  This time the Love Of My Life has been asking, very loudly, when exactly I was going to finish the costume he wants to wear to Comicon in July, so I had to put some work in ( although, now it's almost finished, I have to say it is looking GOOD!  Not saying what he's going as, but will post pics on here after the event!) .   Then there was the aftermath of our dance exam ( our first ever - Cha Cha Cha in case you're interested, and it went OK) - I didn't realised until afterwards just how nervous I was!  So anyway, no more excuses, let's get back on track with my project for Linda Ledbetter's   challenge, based on Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities volume 3.  This time we are playing  with  Distress Glitter. and I've used the Globe Alterations die.

Apart from the technique as explained in Tim's book (which you'll just have to get hold of if you want to know How It Was Done)  I used Sheena Douglass's Faux Leather technique on the lid of this box, embossed with one of her embossing folders.  If you haven't come across the Faux leather technique, I recommend taking a look at the tutorial.

OK, that's all of now.  Hope I'll see you again soon!

Crafty hugs,

Keren

Curiously Challenged

Hi folks!  The blog's been a bit quiet lately, mainly because I have been moving computers.   After years of PC's and Windows, I am now in the wonderful world of the Mac and Mac OS, while running Windows on a Virtual Machine (get me!).  I've invested a lot of money in Windows software over the years and didn't want to lose it all, so I've migrated all my old stuff over, which took a long time - especially when the machines lost connection halfway into the first attempt and I had to redo from the beginning... all done now and I am back!

I'm so glad that it all got finished in time for me to join in Linda Ledbetter's Compendium of Curiosities challenge.  I came in half-way through C of C Volume 2, and I've been hoping that Linda would run a new challenge when Tim Holtz brought out Volume 3.  The first technique we're playing with is on page 43.

I used the technique on a page for my little heart album I'm putting together (I'll punch the holes for the binding later), stamped a flourish with Flitterglu (which is great stuff but really EVIL if you get it on your hands!) and added the gilding flakes.  some stamping with Archival ink and job was done.  I made a tag in the same way,

and a third tag I just stamped and glued on a couple of gears left over from another project.

So I may have been quiet, but I haven't been idle!  Thank you for visitng, and see you soon!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

LOC Spring Fling

Spring is in the air and it's time for a new challenge at Left of Center.  Our theme is "Spring Fling" and we are sponsored by Delicious Doodles.  I'm using Rosie.  I've coloured the digi using Photoshop and cropped it into an oval shape before printing onto tissue.  While I was at it, I printed out a small size oval as well (and a few spares in both sizes - I may make more projects later!)
Applying the image to the candle by heating with a heat gun (using baking paper to keep it in place ) is so quick and easy.  Hope you like it.


Crafty hugs,

Keren

Tickled Pink at Ikesworld

Oops, I almost forgot to blog my DT piece for the Ikesworld Challenge blog!  I am a bit computer-challenged at the moment, being in the process of moving in to a new machine, and between that and the public holiday on Easter Monday, plus a week off work (which I spent sewing, believe it or not!) I've sort of lost track of things.  I also had a senior moment where I thought I was deleting pictures from my phone, but it turned out they were from my blog...so if you've visited older posts and are wondering where the pictures have gone, it's all my fault...

Anyway, one I didn't delete was this week's project.  I've used Mother & Baby to make a clean and simple card.  No grunge, no inky bits, and  - it's PINK.  I don't do pink as a rule, having been forced to wear it as a child.  (My sister got outfilts to match mine, but in blue. We've both been scarred for life by the experience.   Fortunately, I have two sons- I don't know how I'd have reacted to a request for a Barbie castle!).  I've used this image a few times because I really, really love it;  I think this would be a good card for a new baby girl. 

Anyway. I'm still moving into my new computer and learning a new operating system (from Windows to Mac OS) so it mat be a bit interesting for a while.  Bear with me, won't you?

Crafty hugs,

Keren

Box-ology

I love pretty boxes. I don't really know why, I just do.  I also love living by the seaside - I'm looking out of my living room window at the beach as I write this (and yes, I do appreciate how very, very lucky I am).  So Graphic 45's By the Sea collection was a must-have, and the first thing I've done with it is to decorate a little (4 inch square) box .

As well as the G45 8 x 8 papers  and stickers I used a Spellbinders die to cut out some core'dinations card which I heat-embossed with Chinese Red Antiquities powder, some ric-rac braid (normal and jumbo sized)  a bit of piping cord left over from another project (I soaked it in tea to make it off-white) and some embellies that I had in my stash.  The frame was originally silver - I painted it off-white.  The picture is glazed with glossy accents.  Side view - 

And inside -

All I need to do now is to decide what to keep in it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Crafty hugs,

Keren

Limited Runs at Left of Center

It's new challenge time at Left of Center.  Last month was just so much fun, with the anniversary challenge running alongside the usual fortnightly themes, but it was a wee bit hectic.  Back to normal with the latest theme, which is - Dark.

I'm working with a digi from our sponsor, Limited Runs, The Count.  These little pop-up box cards are very popular at the moment and very easy to make.

I dug into my Halloween stash for the paper and punched the flaps of the box with my EK Success border punch (cutting off the spider that normally sits on the web).  The message?  Well, it just so happens that my birthday was yesterday, so this is my card to myself.

PS I had a GREAT day!