Eternal Love

Immortal or Eternal oh well.
It's week three of the challenges over at Through The Purple Haze Challenge Blog. The current week's challenge is about using favourite colours and is being sponsored by Simply Betty but the big prize that's up for grabs is completing all the challenges leading up to the 16th December.

My favourite colours? That's a toughy. Black/grey, brown, dark reds, dark greens, purples all feature in my normal "go-to" colours normally. So that's where I went on this little romantic card.

The image is, of course Simply Betty, from her Steampunk range, Amaranth and Archie.

Coloured with promarkers before masking and distress inks applied. Matted onto black cs.

The base paper is from DCWV, Heritage collection and has been stamped with the words "Immortal Love" from Visible Image. 

Matted onto more black cs.

Red organza ribbon overlaid with black lace then black satin ribbon added. The ends of the bow secured after twisting them. A couple of charms added to the centre with a jump ring.

I would like to enter this card into the challenge over at

Through The Purple Haze - Favourite Colours

Simply Challenged - Heavy on the Embellishments

Craft-Dee BowZ - must have a bow on it
Ooh-La-La Creations Challenges - For the one you love
Rhedd and Rosie - Time (I chose timelessness)

Getting Fussy

Morning gorgeous people.
I hope you are having better weather than we are. Solid torrential rain for 3 days now!! So much for summer. Although it has to be said - two weeks sunshine previously has far exceeded that of last year.
Anyway, back to the reason for today's post.
The challenges over at Smudgy Antics are starting the next 2 week cycle. This next challenge is all about

FUSSY CUTTING

What ever stamp you use, or maybe you are into cutting out intricate shapes by knife/scissors, we need to see some fussy cutting somewhere as well (as the obligatory stamp somewhere).
For my project this week I have cut my own base from 3mm chipboard and used two of the images from the rubber stamp set Morte and one from the As Death set from Smeared Ink. Available only through the Rubber Club.

A memo keeper - with a bit of a difference. Another way of using those lolly sticks.
As already mentioned, the base was cut, then painted with copper acrylic paint. Black stazon ink and the image from the As Death set at the head. This was masked off before applying texture paste down the sides. Various colour washes later and it's ready for the peg clips.
Lolly sticks, painted copper as well and some laundry pegs attached with eyelets. The lolly sticks were then attached to the bottom of the coffin lid base.
The Pile of Sculls were stamped four times and each layer fussy cut out reducing the number of rows each time. As some of the rows "overhang" a slit was made to accommodate this for the next layer. Different distress inks were brushed over to graduating the colour from dark to light.

To be able to hang this, I have used chain, punching holes on yet more painted lolly sticks and attaching with jump rings. The top lolly stick has "remember" stamped on it and the bottom has the other image I mentioned. This was created with just three layers - again fussy cut out.

Just for good measure, we have a little skully charm as well.

The other girls in the team have made some awesome pieces and really need to be viewed both this week and there'll be more fabulous inspiration next week. So start off at the Smudgy Antics blog, visit those of the girls, then go back to enter your fussy cut project into mrLinky. Please.

I'd also like to enter this memo board into the challenge at
Addicted to Stamps - Lots of Layers
Challenges For Everybody - Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything Goes

Creepmas....... In July

Well a lot of  the blog challenges seem to be centred on "Christmas in July" at the moment, I am happy to announce to all you "Alternatives" out there.......Creepmas in July is also out there. Oh happy me!!!
A good excuse to start the dreaded C card making. So out comes just one of my favourite Creepmas images from Rick St Dennis and still available in his Etsy Shop...... Fah-Lah-La- this Carolers.

I used the sketch from "Try Stampin' On Tuesday" for my inspiration to make this....

Some TH Christmas paper teamed with some music score paper in stash all matted onto pearlised bronze.
Plenty of vintage paper DI. The sentiment is stamped using individual letters onto the reverse of a scrap of the main DP.

These little fellas have been coloured using promarkers. Then masked and, using espresso ink, a treebark background stamp from the rubber set "Urban Decay" from Smeared Ink applied.
Some tiny punched snowflakes and a few gems. This is the top corner detail - gems in the shape of music notation.

I'd like to enter this card into the challenges at
Left Of Centre - LOC / Creepmas
Try Stampin' on Tuesday - their Sketch

Gone All Flowery

OOpps nearly didn't make this weeks project for Through The Purple Haze in time. Busy doing other things, but I want to be in with a chance of that fabulous prize at the end of the year so I had to squeeze something in. Anything with flowers is the challenge this week. I'm on a personal mission of using as many of my rarely used stamps at the moment, flowers do not feature much in my collection but I do have these gorgeous Paper Artsy ones. I made a tag following the requirements of Dragon's Dream - Tag It On of stencils and/or masks, paint and ribbon.

The tag base is made from some kraft coloured card in my stash. First, using a flowery stencil, some rusty hinge DI, then moved the stencil just a bit and stippled some copper paint through it. Some more distress inks in orange marmalade, wild honey and squeezed lemonade were sponged on. The flowers were stamped onto yellow card using adirondack "latte" before fussy cutting out and more distress inking.
Some ribbon "stalks" added before attaching to the tag. Some of the swirl detail was picked up with more copper paint.

 The words are from the "Time" set from Visible Image. Stamped onto more of the yellow card, sponged with DI and torn out.

A few tiny gems and a matching ribbon tie (it is a tag after all)

Finished - with just a couple of hours to spare.

Thanks for visiting









I'd like to enter my tag into the challenges at
Through the Purple Haze - Flowers
Dragon's Dream - Tag It On - stencils and/or masks, paint and ribbon
Rhedd and Rosie - Anything Goes
Crafting When We Can - Floral

Dark Angel

I fell in love with this image when I first saw her. Only now am I getting round to colouring and mounting to a card. Tut tut me. The push I needed was the new challenge blog that is Chromatic Craze. An unusual choice of colours but they work so well together.

The image, well that is Dark Angel Sauvage by Rick St Dennis.

A joy to colour.
The pink card stock behind her has been stamped with several sizes of feathers, a stamp set by Sheena Douglas. The sentiment is from the same set. Aly's Inky Fingers supplied the little watch stamp.

The main DP is from the DCWV Heritage collection. MS punched pink paper mounted onto deep pink  Some satin ribbon, some lace and some fibres as well as this lovely purple feather.

The card layout itself is inspired by the sketch over at the "Designed To Color" challenge blog.

A few pearls and finished.


I'd like to enter this card into the challenges at
Chromatic Craze - Colour inspiration
Designed To Color - Card Sketch

ATC gone Chunky

OK - so what is a chunky ATC? The term "ATC" gives part of the answer away - a little bit of art all on a 2.5" x 3.5" substrate. The chunky adjective - well that's because the whole thing is 3-D - the general consensus is that it should be 1.5" deep. So that is what we have here..... a project that measures 2.5" x 3.5" x 1.5". Plus I have attached mine to a "stand".
Picture heavy because, as with all 3-D items, one photo can not capture all the aspects.

This is a duel post for Haunted Design House. Not only have we got a new challenge starting today - produce/make/decorate a chunky ATC but also as part of the team entering the Smeared and Smudged Design Team Throwdown. The challenge/event organised by the clever girls, Terra and Tori, of Smeared Ink.  A challenge that was rocked by Glo and Donna last month, beating S&S after a tie breaker, so HDH got to choose the theme for this throwdown. For more info on the Throwdown - get along to the Smeared & Smudged forum. If you are a member of a DT and think you've got what it takes to beat other Design Teams - this is the place to be showing everyone what you can do.

I started off making a box the appropriate size out of thick chipboard. Well five of the six sides were joined, the sixth was to be a door.

Covered all the surfaces with embossed card and started painting. The Andy Skinner "box of secrets" techniques were used to the max here.

A hole was made through the "front" to accommodate the spindle that was essential to make this work.
Various embellishments, charms, chain from an old necklace then glued in place. Some were coloured with alcohol ink because I only had them in silver not a bronze colour.
The back of the door was stamped with a couple of Indigo Blu stamps in my collection and the card sleeve of the cotton reel stand with another clock face stamp. That was coloured with wild honey distress ink before attaching to the cotton reel then painted with rock candy, letting that dry before vintage paper DI was rubbed in.
TH hinges at the ready, coloured with a promarker, a little knob for the door made from watch parts. Nearly there. My biggest failing is impatience waiting for each stage to dry before going on to the next. I'm sure many of you will identify with this.
Are you ready to see where I went with this?  OK

Yes it does work and keeps good time.

Your turn.

I'd like to enter this chaunky ATC into the challenge at
Natalie and Amy - Trash to Treasure (old cotton reel and old watch parts and chain)
Inspire Me Fridays - Anything Goes

A Card For a Friend

Well I thought long and hard on this one. What image to use? Something for a bloke who has a lot of style and is a fabulous artist. Had to be this one...... in my opinion. Captain McSteeme from Rick St Dennis' Etsy shop.
A scan of the image always picks up the colour better than a photo - the light here is just so temperamental.

Coloured with promarkers with just a hint here and there of metallic paint. I masked off the image and brushed vintage paper distress ink all around.
I was in such a rush to get this card into the post, I didn't realise how distorted the colours were in the photos. Oh well

Papers - Some DCWV, heirloom stack (the dark brown) and some BoBunny, et cetera collection (the yellow) matted onto pearlised copper and a stripy base layer (Southfield Paper) all mounted onto the card base,


Some diecut swirls and cog wheels,some brown and copper pearls and last but by no means least - a screw brad.
The stamped sentiment is inside.
I hope the quality of the pics won't be held against me.

I'd like to enter this card into the challenge at
Here Come The Boys - Anything Goes
Colour Me Creative - Anything Goes
Brown Sugar Challenge - Anything Goes

VooDoo with Smeared Ink and Rick St Dennis

I'm one of a handful of lucky people that have been able to play with new images drawn by Rick St Dennis exclusively for the Smeared Ink Rubber Club. They won't ever be available as digi but as a DT member of Smeared Ink, I get to sample in this format - just to give you all a preview.

The set in question......

aren't they just fabulous!!!  You KNOW you NEED these,  mmwwwaahahaha. Pop along to the shop and tell them Croms sent you.

This is the fatbook page I made using just one of them.

Printed out 4 times, coloured with promarkers and bits fussy cut out to give some dimension.

The feathered edge to the image was done using black distress ink and a paint brush. The FB page background is using one of the papers from Crafty Chaos. There's a stencilled Andy Skinner skull peeking out, Some black diamonte pins, white and black feathers and a knotted  bit of orange cord to finish it.

Have I whetted your appetite? I hope so. Be on the look out for more samples from the team. Come along and join us on facebook at Smeared and Smudged and the Smeared Ink Rubber Club. Also Rick St Dennis has a facebook group where there is always new and exciting news about more of his images. There's always the Smeared and Smudged forum as well.  There - spoilt for choice? Join in on all of them!

I's like to enter my fat book page into the challenge at

I Love Promarkers - Anything goes

Black on Black

Yep, all about the black this week over at Delicious Doodles. So many challenges call for white on white, in fact we had such a challenge a few weeks ago, we've decided to really challenge you. To see how black you can go, hehe. There are so many colour "blacks", it shouldn't be too hard. Textures of course have their unique way of adding the colour variation as well. Let's see what you make of this.....

My gatefold card employs diecuts, from different types of card as well as texture.
So here we have it. I have used Teri's new and Delicious "Angel of Death" image.

There is here, a plain black card base with crackle embossed pearlised card attached.

That diecut gate and fence has been cut from glossy black card (yes it opens).

The tree behind has been cut from two different black card stock in stash. Also the little tags with my hand written sentiment, written with white gel pen and attached with black brads. The silver bat was given a lick of black alcohol ink from my promarker.

The sentiment - well that's my little attempt at humour.

and fully open you can see the third tag. Those inside panels have been covered with a leather type textured paper.

A sentiment on another die cut and a square to write a message on.
The flowers are home made from lace. Black, of course, with a stick pin that had some extra black beads added by me together with the little charms.

You can see some of the dimension I added to this gorgeous image here.

In more detail...........

That's about it from me folks, except to say, we're looking forward to seeing your BLACK creations over at the Delicious Doodles challenge blog

I'd like to enter my card into the challenge at
Left Of Centre - LOC theme and/or spots and/or stripes
Patties Creations - Monochromatic
Totally Papercrafts - Make your own Flowers
Penny's Paper-Crafty - Use Black

Beautiful Lady

A good excuse to break out some stamps that are sitting in my collection but rarely used because of DT commitments and that is the fabulous challenge over at the new challenge blog of "Through The Purple Haze". Not only have they got Indigo Blu sponsoring the first challenge but there's an AWESOME prize at the end of the year if a person gets an entry into each of the challenges between 15th July and 16th December. You really need to check this out!!

Anyway, my card.

I started off by applying gilding flakes to the image (Ella Bella) stamped with glue onto black card. Fussy cut out parts so that a die cut could be used without losing any of the gorgeous curls and swirls. Then matted onto old gold coloured pearlised card.

The BP is from a Bo-Bunny stack, Weekend Market Collection. Using brown ink, I stamped round the outside with the lace stamp from the Indigo Blue set, Mr Darcy. The dark cream lace is from stash and attached all the way round before attaching to the deep red card base. The same collection yielded the sentiment as well. This was stamped with stazon onto pearlised deep red card, diecut out and matted onto the same old gold as before.
The filigree "flower" is a memory box die, cutting from the same deep red and old gold and layering up. Tiny gems in deep red and golden yellow were attached at various places.

Well that's my card folks. Hope you like it as much as I had fun making it. Thank you for taking the time to look.

I'd like to enter this card into the challenge at
Through the Purple Haze - challenge #1 Anything Goes with Indigo Blu
Indigo Blu Challenges - Summer  [golden days and red skin (for some) sum up summer for me]
C is for Challenge - Summer [see above]

Freakers Free-For-All

That's "Anything Goes" in normal blog-speak but at Haunted Design House we like to do things slightly different, as if you didn't know by now. So

FREAKERS' FREE FOR ALL

it is.


I was lucky enough to come across this awesome "little" craft shop whilst on facebook and, as luck would have it, not far from where I live. McOyster Paper and Crafts is fast becoming a favourite place. I love browsing round, stroking papers, eyeing up the new things that might find themselves a new home **grin**. Whilst there is "normal shtuff" there, there's also much more. I'm saying all this because I'd not heard of Prickly Pear stamps before and  Adrian had some hanging up. There, hiding in the nearly cute bit, I found this set. Ok they're cuter than some but.....

I have a little ATC for you this week, made using the set I had to rehouse.

I bring you "The Happy Couple"

 A total of 15 stamps on this little offering. Much masking done but I got there. The BG stamp is one from Sheena Douglas btw.
After all the stamping, a splash of colour on the bride's headdress, a touch of lace, some 1/4" ribbon with symbolic knots and some tiny metal flowers from stash.

A little flower at the top of the ribbon arch as well.

Looking forward to seeing your art displayed at Haunted Design House for us to come and admire.

I'd like to enter this ATC into the challenge at
Creative Corner - Anything Goes
Inky Chicks - Masking
Created With Love - Anything goes
Scraps of Darkness - Anything Goes

Me(n?)tal Monday

Morning peeps.

It's time for a new challenge over at Smudgy Antics again. This fortnight it's all about showing us your METAL.

Thinking outside the box has been a bit of a problem here in the cubbyhole in the last few weeks. Sorry. The other girls in the team have done wonders though with their Metal Mojo in full swing.

I have only a journal page for you this week. I did have fun though and isn't that the main thing?

I started off with a gelli plate print made using metallic paints - hence the glare.

Then started stamping. Here with the lips and footprints from the rubber prints set and the cog heart from the heart wings set. All Smeared Ink of course. Follow my link if you need these stamps and please say I sent you.
The edges of my journal page were inked using an embossing dauber, then this covered with red frantage embossing enamel. Love the metallic elements in this! This also meant that some of the "lips" stamped images were given a bit of a distressed look.

That image of one of the Angels is from a discontinued set in rubber but still available in digi -the symbology of angels-guide angel

This was stamped on using stazon and the wings painted using silver perfect pearls. A necklace picked up in a clearance sale last year was dismantled and the metal findings holdings the feathers were attached with a brad.

The green writing - that's c/o the sentiments in the Heart Wings set. These were applied with "perfect medium" and dusted with patina perfect pearls. (Mica is metallic). When I got to the stage where I was happy, I attached the sheet to a thicker card stock page in my journal and reinforced  the holes with metal eyelets.

Your turn to surprise us over at Smudgy Antics with your metal creations. See you there. We all appreciate it when you come and show us some love, just as you do, so please go look at my fellow DT members creations. You won't be sorry.

I'd like to enter this AJ page into the challenge at
Creative Corner - Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door - Anything Goes