Day 29 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? Nearly at the finish line. Just two more days to go. Oh my, am I going to have to spend some time sorting through the mess of papers, stamps and other paraphernalia that is now my craft room. I have been trying to tidy as I go but fighting a losing battle some days. The weekend is soon enough says that little demon in my head.
Anyway. What have we here today? A pair of shoes? Not just any shoes though. A pair of witches shoes. Because of the stamping rule of this hop, I have opted for a gaudy pair of orange shoes - party shoes?
If you want to make some - the template I used can be found at the blog Skip To My Lou.

 I added a strip of black paper, cut to a point and curled up at the toes.

Just plain orange cardstock for the main shoe and paper from MME Halloween Sparkles for the lining.

The stamps used are from Inkadinkadoo - Gemstone Halloween.

I haven't added embellishments as these are destined to be sweetie filled for young children. I don't want any choking hazards in young hands.

Another quick and simple project added to the pile of treats for the local children.

Again, thank you to those loyal hoppers that have been leaving their fabulous comments throughout the month.
Now to think on what I can make for tomorrow lol
See you then

I'd like to enter my witch shoes into the challenge at
Tuesday Throwdown - Witches and/or Candy

Day 10 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.
Well after yesterday's labour intensive and picture heavy post, I thought I'd go easy on us all and show just a simple ATC.

Using stamps from Prickly Pear and De Stempelwinkel. A pinch of heat embossing, a smidgen of orange promarkers and a dollop of distress inks.

Tomorrow is coming with Smeared Ink Day
Thanks for looking and for all your wonderful comments so far.
See you all tomorrow.

another ATC for fun

I have been trying to work out a way to depict a theme for an up and coming DT piece. I'm not saying what yet of course, but in the course of experimenting I have done another ATC. This time the style is an adaptation of the magic card as shown in Splitcoast Stampers.
It just so happens that one of my fellow Minions in the Haunted Design House Dungeons, Mark, is a member of the talented DT over at Fun with ATCs, and I thought I'd come an show some support. The subject/theme of the ATC this week is "FLOWERS"
My ATC is made using one of the flower stamps from the Smeared Ink (discontinued) rubber set but the digi format can be obtained HERE. (Any small image can be used of course for this method, I  just went with the theme.)
My ATC

Black and yellow glossy card can be seen better below. (The ruler to prove the size.)

That little tab bit...... well that's how the magic is played out

I added some little gems in the shape of flowers as well, just for fun.
The flowery die cut added for contrast.

I'd like to enter this into the challenge at
Fun with ATC's - flowers

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

A Grumpy Box

Haha, the box has Grumpies on it, the box might be grumpy - I didn't take time out to ask it.
"Alter a box" is the challenge over at Smudgy Antics this fortnight. This is the second week of the challenge run, you therefore have just under a week to get those altered boxes finished and linked into the challenge so that we can ooooooo and aahhhhhhhh over it.
I had this small collection of old cigar boxes and it's one of these that got the feel of paper and paint this week.

The surface was covered with card that had been well crumpled then given a coat of blue paint. When dry, was dry brushed with orange which gives the box the older and well handled appearance.
Some orange and blue ribbon came next.
Then there are Grumpies stamped onto circles of shrink plastic stuck to the front with two of the sentiments that come with the set. The Grumpies are from a rubber set previously available from Smeared Ink. The digi format is available here.

The rubber set comes with two different sizes of our cute little friends and it is the smaller version of the set that was used on the handle. Stamped ans coloured up with distress ink before adhering to a TH facet with glossy accents. When dry, a small length of chain and a screw in eyelet attaches it to the lid of the box.
Round the sides, here we have the full sized version of the image. Again stamped, die cut and coloured with distress inks. The eyes have been given a comic treatment in to form of some large "googly eyes".

For the top - more die cuts. This time, some "label holders". These were heat embossed with frantage embossing powder before sticking over the labels.

The sentiments are the same as those used on the shrink plastic discs. Some screw effect brads had their feet cut off and glued down as well.
The inside of the box did not get over-looked.
This was covered with one of a set of papers from a shop that is, unfortunately, not still operational. Crafty Chaos' "Creature Feature". Printed out and stuck inside.

There we have it folks. A simple box that I know one large person is itching to get their hands on.

Get those boxes linked in as I suggested to the challenge. That prize could be used towards any of the sets available as a member of the Rubber Club - tell them Croms sent you - or towards any of the many digis in the Smeared Ink Shop.

I'd like to enter my box into the challenge over at
Craft My Life - Non Card Projects
Fashionable Stamping - Anything Goes
Quirky Crafts - Myth and Magic - must use paint. (I know the Grumpies are magical, they can make most people smile)
That Craft Place - Makes for Men

Quoth The Raven

I hardly know where to start on this post, except to say this little fat page book with ATCs as the main focus is dedicated to, what must be, one of the most well known poem of Mr E.A.Poe.

What was my project going to be for the challenge blog Quoth The Raven?
Choose 3 things from a list.....

RAVEN 

RIBBON

EDGAR ALLAN POE

LACE

SCARLET

METAL

STITCHING

FLOWERS

FEATHERS

SKULLS

CATS

THEN Rick St Dennis came out with these new digis!!  Mr Poe himself and a trio of ravens.
A light bulb came on. That was at some stupid o'clock when I was trying to sleep, always the way with me. A quick note to self, in case I forgot. Fast forward to the next day when I could get all my bits together. Stamps, colouring tools, card etc.
Are you sitting comfy? This post is picture heavy but I think you'll see why eventually.

The only items from the list that are still missing are the stitching and cats. There is room for them when made.

The cover of my little book was made up of a "tiled" image of the plain raven from Rick St Dennis. Available from his blog.

Printed onto white card but yellow, orange and red distress inks brushed on to colour.
This was folded in half and some black ribbon added as the closure.

The quote is taken from one of the other versions of the raven. Edgar is the other digi available in Rick's shop. Promarkers used to colour.

Inside we have 5 pages plus inside covers
Inside front

Candle Poe from Ike'sArt 

page 1

Raven, Poe and Skull with Roses from Rick St Dennis

Page 2

Quoth the Raven rubber from Smeared Ink

Link to digi set there but is available in rubber as part of the "Rubber Club"

Page 3

Free Your Imagination from Visible Image

Page 4

Quoth the Raven rubber from Smeared Ink

Link to digi set there but is available in rubber as part of the "Rubber Club"

Page 5

Writers Plate#20 from Cherry Pie Art Stamps

Inside back cover

A raven from Ike's Art

can't find this one in the shop but there are more to choose from.

I'd like to enter this little book into the challenge over at 

Quoth The Raven - Choose from a list (as above)

Tic Tac Toe with Smudgy Antics

A new challenge has begun over at Smudgy Antics today. A really easy one as well, I think. The only difficulty is deciding which of the three elements in a line to choose.

I chose two lines in the end. Ribbon, paint and cardboard running down the grid and flowers, glass and cardboard going diagonally.

This is a 6" x 6" piece of card. The insert packaging actually from some new bed linen bought this week.

The images used are all from one of the new sets brought out by Smeared Ink in the last few days. This set is called Specimen Jar. There are more gorgeous images in the set which will get used soon but today just the male image, the set of jars. the butterfly in a jar and the three individual butterflies were used. 

The bottles were digitally overlaid onto the male image before printing. All the images were coloured with promarkers initially. These specimen jars were then given a coat of glossy or sepia or crackle accents as seen to give a glass effect. When dry the whole thing was brushed with old paper distress ink. the butterfly in jar was cut out and layered up. The three individual butterflies each printed out four times were used as a frame. These were threaded onto ribbon after spritzing with coloured inks with added mica. 

The base itself is some re-purposed packaging as previously mentioned. Did you know the the inner corrugated card can be exposed easier if you dampen down one side of the outside first? This dampened layer peels off really easily. Just a blast of the heat gun to dry any unwanted dampness away before the next stage. In my case a layer of blue/green acrylic paint. When this first layer was dry, a layer of orange was dry brushed on. Then the attaching of all the elements using silicon glue. The butterflies and flowers  attached first with some "glass" dewdrops in the flowers. 

Then the main image. A TH fragment (glass) was first adhered using more glossy accents over the eye area.

Then finally attached to the main frame with more silicon to ensure the depth. Finished.

Don't forget to go look at the projects from the other girls, the links, as always, are on the Smudgy Antics Blog as well as my side bar. Only half the team are playing this week. There'll be more from the other DT next week to inspire.

I'd like to enter this into the challenge at
Mema's Crafts - April Anything Goes
Digi Sketch - butterflies and/or Roses and/or Sketch

DT Throw Down with Smeared & Smudged

Terra and Tori, the owners of Smeared Ink and The Smudgy Antics Ning Forum have dreamt up this fabulous idea of getting any DT teams (that want to take part) to play against each other. To see who shines out in the challenges that are to be set. If there are any other teams willing to get stuck in, the full details are here, on the forum. The first challenge, to get the ball rolling, was set by themselves. The DT never got a whiff of course until the challenge was posted. The winning team of that round gets to choose the theme for the following challenge, and so on.
So the scene has been set

CHALLENGE #1

PAINT and SPLATTER

Your project must contain an element of paint and an element of something splattered. You can combine the two elements if you choose. 

Now, for my part was, what to do?
I hope you're sitting comfortably, this might take a while
Delving into my box of bits, generously donated by a dear friend, I came across this.

A little set of furniture for a dolls house or in my case - Garden Furniture

That's a centimetre board the bits are laid out on to give you some idea on the scale.
Paint next. Two coats of green acrylic paint on every thing

Now to really get mucky lol. PVA glue and watered down acid green acrylic paint goes on each piece to give a crackle effect. This is going to be garden furniture after all.

The stamps used are from the Killer Bo-Peep Build a Garden. I'm lucky to have this in rubber but there is a digi set here. The spiders, skulls and flowers were all stamped onto tissue paper and stuck down. The spiders web is from a discontinued SI rubber set (Candy Is Dandy - digi version here) and was stamped straight onto the furniture using stazon.
Plenty of Vintage Paper DI
Some wooden embellishments from Crafty Emblies. These were daubed with Forest moss DI and some of the acid green paint wash.
Tiny white paper rosebuds
Trug is home made from a small scrap of copper.

Here it is

The splatter part of the challenge.... that's the white. made from equal parts white acrylic paint and PVA glue, slightly watered to give a splat without loosing too much depth. Then, when dry, dotted the top with black. Well - it is garden furniture!

Any other DT out there wanting to join in the fun and games? A fabulous blog badge for the winning team. All details are on the forum as I previously said.

I am entering this into the challenges
DT Showdown - Paint and Splatter
Crafty-Emblies - Altered Art with Wings - two birds are eyeing up those spiders for lunch
The Smeared and Smudged FaceBook Challenge - Green
The Smeared & Smudged GDT challenge - Alter Something
Anything But A Card - Green

Just squeaked in there

Wouldn't you know it! All month to play and I leave it to the last minute. This is becoming a habit lately here in the cubbyhole. I must get more organised. I suppose I better explain myself.
Over in the Smeared and Smudged Group over on Facebook, we have started up a monthly challenge. Each month is to be set by one of the DT members in turn. January was Shell's turn. SOMETHING NEW.  What "new" was I to use?
I went with one of the new images that have just come into the shop over at Smeared Ink. This new set is Valentine inspired and I was hard pushed to choose which to play with. Eventually I chose Look of Love There are four others to choose from. Such a hard decision.
I made a tag for the challenge.
I printed the face first onto red paper then onto white so that I could colour then paper piece the eyes.

Coloured in the eyebrows on the red. Then cut out a heart shape containing the image. A cream tag was first stamped with a text back ground stamp from Paper Artsy using red then an Andy Skinner stamp was heat embossed with black.
To finish the tag off

Some black tulle added. Secured at the top with the deep red and black tie ribbons and at the bottom with some red lace. A red flower with black bow and a spray of black pearls.

This tag was entered into the Jan face book challenge on the Smeared and Smudged Group