Smeared and Smudged Monday - Oh The Horror Challenge!!

Hello Everyone and Happy Smeared Ink Monday!!

Today I took my creation cues from the awesome Oh The Horror challenge that our ever fabulous Terra has set forth:

Welcome to Oh, The Horror!! Every month I will be posting a new challenge. Use the horror movie listed as inspiration for your project, and then share your project in a comment.

THE RULES: Use the movie poster or the actual movie as inspiration for your project. When you're done, upload a picture to this discussion or link to your project on your blog. Be sure to title your post "Smeared and Smudged Oh! The Horror October Challenge".

Here is what I came up with!!!

I used a card base of shimmery ivory measuring at 6 x 5.75.  I then used some tattered/grungy Fancy Pants DP, stitched twice around the edges.

I used my Cricut to cut out a variety of spiders from black designer paper that I had JUST used in a previous project.  I added different colored brads to their eyes to make them pop. The biggest one is adhered with a pop dot and the rest are added with mini-glue dots.

 I created a decorative strip using the same shimmery ivory, zig zag stitched with black thread.

I used both Smeared Ink's Chicks Dig Guns and Killer Bo Peep sets for my gorgeous gun toting hottie, cross hairs, and the tarantulas.

Everything is colored with my Copics, trimmed or punched out and placed just so.  I truly love how this came out!!!

I hope you enjoy and are inspired!!

Please come play along!!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Smeared Ink Monday - Fabulous October Challenge!!!!

Good Monday Morning!!!

I'm so thrilled to be here with you to be bringing you an AWESOME challenge from Barb on the Smeared Ink Forum!! 

Here is the challenge info:

I challenge you to create a project
paying homage to one of the Goddesses of Harvest.
You may only use warm, Fall colors and you must also have at least one rubber-stamped image (this is Smeared & Smudged after all!).

So...I decided that rather than using one of my actual Goddess stamps or Nymph stamps which is where I thought to go with it in the first place, I'd use one of the GORGEOUS Angels from the Symbology of Angels set to pay homage to Mother Nature.

I started with choosing my angel.  I loved his pose as I knew I'd be using nature elements that he could be gesturing to.  All of the angels are simply DELICIOUS and just gorgeous eye candy but are also very graceful and powerful.

 

My chocolate brown card base is 5.5 squared.  I then used ivory cardstock as my next layer, followed by a super cool, orange sparkly strip of DP that I had on my desk, followed by this beautiful tree paper that I have.

I then chose a stack of orange paper Primas (from Gauche Alchemy) , nestled them together with a black brad to make it look like a Black Eyed Susan.  I sprayed it with Log Cabin smooch spritz to make it more lifelike.  I then took a chipboard flower, covered it in Tim Holtz Wild Honey distressing ink, coated it with clear embossing powder and heat set it.  I also added a black brad to keep that consistency with the Black Eyed Susan.

My angel is stamped in a combination of the Tim Holtz Wild Honey and SU! Chocolate Chip ink.  I colored him very simply with my Copics leaving his wings sparse.  I trimmed him out and then used yellow, chocolate and gold glitter to color in his wings.  

I adhered him down leaving his wings free and I stamped the word PRAISE on a marigold colored DP scrap popping it up on the upper right hand side.

I LOVE how this turned out and I can't thank Barb enough for the fabulous inspiration!!!

I hope you enjoy and have been inspired!!!  Please come check out all of the deliciousness at the shop!!!!  And PLEASE come play at our amazing forum!!!

Crafty Hugs!

Meredith

Just for Ewe - Smeared Ink Sassy Pants

One of my assignments this month for the rockin' Smeared Ink Design Team was to create a sassy or semi-snarky card. I mentioned in a previous post that I've been trying to color my images in ahead of time. Not necessarily knowing what I'll be using them for but it's so nice to have them as a jumping off point when I'm ready to create...they are ready for me.

I'd colored one of Killer Bo Peep's sheep with my Copic markers and added white flock mixed with clearish/iridescent sparkles to the tiny tufts of wool. I then hit the image with my Smooch Spritz in Log Cabin and set it aside to dry.
My card base is PTI chocolate. My next layer is holographic paper in shiny silver which I love because it peeks out around the edges picking up the sparkle from the tufts of "wool".

The next layer is a grey sort of muted flowery layer that I misted with the Smooch Spritz to tone down the "flowery-ness" of it.
I stamped my snarky sentiment Just For Ewe 4 times and trimmed it out. I backed my sheep with the same red cardstock from The Paper Source. As you can see I edge distressed all but the sheep and my card base. I added my striped ribbon after I misted it a bit to darken it up a little bit.

I placed my image and sentiments down and voila! My super snarky sassy pants card!!

Come hang with us at the Smeared Ink forum!!!

XOXO-
Meredith

Smeared Ink Sponsor - Simply Betty Stamps!

Greetings!!! And welcome to a FANTASTIC day for hopping!!! Today Smeared Ink paired up with fantastic sponsor Simply Betty Stamps!! Simply Betty is one of our fabulous sponsors for the month of July!

Our very lucky Design Team even got to play with the awesome My Kids Emo World stamps! Betty herself challenged us to "Get Grungy with Simply Betty Stamps!"

Today's challenge was to use grunge and metal on our creations. I was lucky enough to get to use Miller!! He's super cool with just enough attitude. I am using this card for my darling childhood girlfriend's son's upcoming 12th b-day. He is one of my favorite people in this world and I simply "get" him. He's kind, caring, exuberant, passionate about his likes and interests, he's engaging and simply awesome. He's so cool with my little ones and his own little sisters. He's just all around a fantastic boy.
My card base is PTI chocolate cardstock, followed by SU! Summer Sun cardstock. I took the Summer Sun cardstock and wet the edges and just messed them up a bit with my fingers. I then took Tim Holtz's Broken China and Vintage Photo inks and rubbed them on the wet cardstock which then created a sort of tye dye effect which came out really cool.
My next layer is the green, science layer which I LOVE and must get more of...I *think* I got it at Michaels. As you can see, I've used it on the top 2/3rds of my card and then used the manila colored lined paper as the bottom half.

I left a "flap" door if you will on the top half because I stamped Miller twice. Once for the cover and once for the interior. On the exterior half of the flap I used the Chalk Board style DP which was meant to be distressed and I did..heavily!! =)
The flap is closed with a binder clip that has a piece of hearty twine tied to it for added grunginess.

Miller is colored with my Copics. On the outside cover he's got brown hair but when you open the flap up it reveals Miller's super rad punky green hair! So fun!! I had a BLAST creating the two different Millers!
My external sentiment is U Rock stamped in Royal Blue craft ink and heat set. Punched out with my 1 1/2" SU! circle punch and adhered with 3-D foam adhesive. I added a jumbo safety pin around the foam.
My internal sentiment says Just Be U. Which all teens need to know that they should always just be themselves!!!
I had a blast and cannot WAIT to get my hands on future Betty Stamps!!! Please hop along as the list of our fantastic SI team as well as Betty and a member of her awesome team are listed below!

Please leave lots O love!!

Terra

Tori

Alison

Kelli

Jean

Sarah

Danielle

Black Dragon

Lady Brayton

Meredith

Kim

Kathi

Debbie

Betty (will be posted later!)

Thanks for hopping today!

XOXO
Meredith

Smeared Ink Watercolor Challenge - Bustin' Out Mixed Media

I've been DYING to work with my Nymphs set again as well as a few new goodies that I received from Gauche Alchemy!! I also wanted to combine a creation with the Smeared and Smudged guest designer Jennifer's water coloring technique challenge.
One of my favorite, and most challenging, things to do as an artist is mixed media. I love doing it, but for some reason, most times when I attempt a creation it rarely comes out as I see it in my head.
So for this creation, I didn't set myself up. I simply started.

The first thing I did was trim a piece of the dressmaker paper from GA and using Mod Podge, I adhered it to my Kraft background from PTI. (it's the paper with the ticking lines in the background)

As I let that dry, I stamped my Water Nymph in Black Momento Ink. As an aside, I had stamped the aged compass from QKD on a scrap of white PTI cardstock.
I used my watercolor crayons and using a light and royal blue to color the compass. I then using a small brush and water painted the image in watching my crayon marks change to brush strokes. The effect was really cool. I then added a tag from my husband's dry cleaning as it sort of reminded me of longitude and latitude as on a map. I placed this piece in the upper right hand corner.

I then moved onto coloring my Nymph. I used the same watercolor crayons using ,mainly white, orange, brown and red. I then took my brush and again, watched my crayon marks turn to watercolor paint. I love how the Nymph turned out. I knew I wanted to use my Cinnamon Stickles on her "waves" but I waited until the end. I used a super bright blue paint marker and went over most of her gorgeous waves in the brilliant color and added it as her eye color as well.
I've been dying to use the silver holey ribbony goodness from GA so I laid that down partially on the bottom left of my creation. And I just sat there holding it, moving it, trying to figure out how I wanted it to 'be'. Finally after fiddling with it, it sort of turned into an arrow of sorts. And I liked how it looked with the dressmaker paper so I grabbed my stapler that is loaded with chocolate brown staples and made it permanent! It looked great...a little too...obvious but I figured I'd come back to it if I still found it too glaring later on.

I had a hangtag from something that I recently purchased at Lululemon Athletica. I love their logo so I used my 1 1/4" punch and popped out the logo piece. I adhered it down and then took my GA lace and stitched it all down as a border across the bottom of my piece.

I then busted out my Amuse fence stamp and stamped it roughly in my Tim Holtz distressing ink in Tea Dye. (I think that's what it's called).

I wanted a sentiment of some kind so I went to my sticker/embellishment drawer and pulled out these grey/black/white letters that I've had FOREVER! 'this way' was the sentiment that popped out immediately. The two little birds were part of the sticker set and just seemed to need to be placed where I placed them.
I then sat back and realized that my silver arrow was too glaring. So I grabbed the scrap of the pattern paper (the dress making paper) and formed a messy flower in the center of which I placed a vintage, silver rose button that was in my Great-Grandmother's sewing basket. I nested it inside of the paper flower with a couple of serious glue-dots and added it to the entire piece using more glue dots.
For the first time ever, that day, I purchased Smooch Spray on a whim in the color Log Cabin. As a last (and rather bold touch) I decided to bust it out and go at my piece with it. I was beyond thrilled with how it all came out.

Lastly, I added my Cinnamon Stickles to my Nymph's waves that I hadn't colored in blue. I set this aside to dry.
When I came back to it in the am I decided to matte it on some new grey Core cardstock that I'd purchased. I lightly sanded the edges of the grey paper and adhered my entire piece. It was the last (and more sturdy) touch that my creation needed.

I hope you enjoy and are inspired!!

XOXO-
Meredith

Smeared Ink - Nymphs

I've been loving this set since I first laid eyes on it!! It's the Nymphs set from Smeared Ink and I am SO excited to bring you my first creation with it. I worked on MANY yesterday as I simply found myself lost in the entire set...moving from one creation to another to another and then another!! For some reason this set and I just...groove. More so than any other set I've worked with thus far. And believe me, I have many rockin' sets from Smeared Ink and I LOVE them all but this one...just hits me. From an earth perspective, from an art perspective and from a beauty perspective.
My first creation with the Nymphs set is with the Tree Nymph. Have I mentioned how amazing these ink up? I trimmed my stamp out, set it on my acrylic block, coated it with my Momento Tuxedo Black ink and voila. One try and it came out....that's because the rubber and the etching in these stamps is simply divine.
I stamped the Tree Nymph on white PTI cardstock and colored her in with my Copic markers. I then stamped my sentiment in the blank space behind her which fit perfectly.
I matted my main image with chocolate cardstock and then a light green baroque paper from Creative Imaginations. The entire card is based on a light blue cardstock measuring at 6 x 5.5.
I stitched my 3 main layers together using a wide, wavy stitch in a thicker tan thread. Which is actually vintage as it was my Great-Grandmother's thread. I found it in her sewing basket - which I'm SO lucky to have! Lots of amazing vintage bits and bobs floating around in there!

I've recently gotten more into the crimson, maroon, teal family which I've always shied away from...but they've been catching my eye recently. So I sliced a space in the crease of the card in order to thread my ribbon through and behind my layers. I purposefully left about and inch and a half of extra room on the right hand side so that my bow didn't fall onto my image and distract. I tied the teal grosgrain ribbon (Michael's) in a simple bow with a yellow, leaf stickpin through the center. I was debating on the pin but it somehow felt necessary.
I recently purchased some 'hardware' at my LSS to add to my "collagey" and "vintagey" creations. It was the last perfect embellishment IMO. =)

My very last step was to apply crystal glaze to her body. I'm SO glad I did as it came out exactly as it did in my head. You know how sometimes that doesn't happen (more often than I'd like to admit) but it does! Not this time! This time it came out just right. I love how it highlights her gorgeous beauty.

Don't forget to check out the entire line of fantastic, original and different styles of stamps at SI!!!

XOXO-

Not For The Timid

Good Morning Y'all!!! Now...if it's early for you...be forwarned...this is NOT FOR THE TIMID ;) Here's another card that I've created for our awesome team at Smeared Ink!!
I've used the Carnies set - using the fantastically detailed Mermaid image. I started with an envelope from The Paper Source that has a little half moon cut out at the top. The texture of the paper is kind of a creamy, shimmery ivory. I stamped my first stamp "Freak Show" on the front...warning the reader of what's inside!! ;) It is stamped in VersaMagic Night Sky and heat set.
I did a postcard style card for this. My first layer is a scrap of DP that I had leftover from a retired SU! set. My next layer is Kraft cardstock followed by Navy blue cardstock. All seriously edge distressed and stitched together with a funky stitch that reminds me of the heart monitoring machine. Beep, beep, beep...beeeeeepppppp...you get my drift ;) (remember...this is a dark creation here people!)
I then took a piece of PTI white cardstock weighing in at 110 lbs. You need this weight paper to do what I was about to do. I took my Archival Multi-surface chalk VersaMagic Ink pad in Night sky and smooshed it all around...heavily. Everything was VERY inky. I then used my Melt Art Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel in clear and coated everything TWICE. I then heat set it and watched the melty goodness display before me!!! So cool!!!
I then stamped my Carny Mermaid. I carefully colored her with my Copic markers and glittered up her tail with Doodlebug Sugar Coating Blue Jean Glitter. I made a band with the NOT FOR THE TIMID stamp that goes along with the set on Kraft cardstock and wrapped it around the main layer.
The back was so pretty and useful that I couldn't NOT embellish a bit!! I used a cool strip of DP that I had laying around for the bottom and used another stamp from the Carnies set "Friends Forever" punched out and matted with the next size circle punch.

I hope you've enjoyed my Not For The Timid Creation today!!!

Thanks as always for visiting!!!

XOXO-
Meredith

Feeling Grumpy??

Good gray and rainy morning here in the Northeast!! I am VERY proud to be posting my first card from Smeared Ink as a Design Team member!!

I made this simple card for a dear friend of mine who is suffering a loss of a loved one right now. So this is my version of a sympathy card for her. If you knew her, you'd know that it's PERFECT for her. I was thrilled that she loved it.

I used the Lil' Grumpies set from Smeared Ink (you MUST own this set! - so versatile). I kept it simple as my friend's style is such.

I inked my adorable grumpy in Versamark Boysenberry ink on PTI white cardstock and heat set the image with clear embossing power. I then colored it in with my Copics. The sentiment "leave me alone" is also from the Lil' Grumpies Set and was inked in Brilliance Lightening Black and heat set as well.

My card base is simple Kraft cardstock from Martha Stewart. The sentiment on the inside simply said "thinking of you".
I hope you enjoy this lovely Friday and have a fantastically crafty weekend!!