Black Dagger Brotherhood Challenge ~ Zsadist, the Lover Awakened

It’s time for Fandom Friday again at Twilight Tuesday! This week we get to focus on Zsadist, the scary/cool Brother! There will be spoilers! Here’s what Beth wrote over at TTIC:

Zsadist’s story is told in the third Black Dagger Brotherhood book, Lover Awakened. Z is easily the most hardened of the Black Dagger Brothers. After being kidnapped from his crib, and his family (including his twin brother Phury) as an infant and sold into blood slavery, his life was irretrievably altered and his soul seemingly damaged beyond repair. Enter Bella. This is an incredibly intense story ~ and one that will run your emotions through the full spectrum.

Craft Portion: Create a project that captures the dichotomy that is Zsadist. Sociopathic killer, or damaged sensitive soul? Choose your canvas and run with it…

Comment Portion: Do you see Z as the soulless killer, or the redeemable antihero? He certainly invokes varied emotions from those around him – what do you feel when you read his story? Compare what you know of him after Awakened to the Brother we first meet in Dark Lover. Expand on this as much as you choose.

For my project, I actually came up with an idea pretty quickly. No need to go to the BDB fan site or anything!

First off, Zsadist is scarred. Pretty badly. He thinks he looks horrifying. He had an absolutely tragic life from the time he was abducted as an infant. So, there are plenty of emotional scars too. But, as his story gets told, we find that there is good inside. Not just a little either, but a lot. Bella, his shellan, brings that out in him. So does Nala later on…

I wanted this card to be masculine of course so I went with some discontinued Basic Grey and 7 Gypsies paper. I wanted the phrase to have a couple of emotions in it. “Beauty” is done with the “Twilight” font (no! I’m not kidding!) from Inkadinkado. “is on…” is from Time Flies, and it has a rougher feel to it. I used a golden color as my inspiration because Zsadist’s eyes are that color. Oh, and all the ink is from Color Box.

I loved reading Zadist’s story. I think he went through Hell and managed to come back from it. The change in him from book 1 to his own is incredible. The other Brothers seemed to fear him in Dark Lover. Whereas in Lover Awakened, they are now able to accept him and care about him. I could really go on for hours on these books so instead, why not hop over to Beth’s blog to see what awesome project she came up with! Then it’s your turn!

Who’s With Me???

Can you believe it??? It’s almost time for the release of New Moon!!! I cannot wait for this movie to come out! And, to add to the celebration, Twilight Tuesday is having a blog hop!!! So??? Who’s with me???

Go to Twilight Tuesday now!!!

TTIC#54 The Raven

Happy Tuesday! It’s time for another Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge. I am SO in love with this challenge… if I have time, I may have to make some other cards to go along with it. So what’s it about this week? It’s Rebecca’s turn and here is what she wrote:

Hey Twerds and Twihards! Its me {Rebecca} bringing you this week’s challenge!

In New Moon, we really get to know more about the “pack” and some of the Quileute traditions. In Quileute legend, the Raven is the trickster figure in Quileute Indian culture. His name is pronounced similar to bah-yuck in Quileute. (I found that tidbit somewhere on the internet!)

Raven is a shapechanger, who could assume any form – human or animal. The Raven is a clever and generally benign figure who sometimes helps humankind, but he also has many character traits that are viewed negatively in Quileute culture (greed, laziness, arrogance, deceitfulness, and rudeness) and many traditional legends have to do with Raven misbehaving and getting into trouble because of it. The tricks sometimes backfire, but in the manner of great fables – they offered life lessons for the young and old.

Your challenge: make a project that celebrates the Raven or any other Quileute legend (google it if you need some ideas!)

Comment section: Tell me your favorite fable or about the “trickster” in your life!

I LOVE ravens. I love crows too. Love them. I love that they’re a little creepy. I love that they caw instead of having a pretty song like most birds. I love the superstitions attached to them. My favorite movie is The Crow!!! No. It really is! C’mon! You shouldn’t be surprised about that!!!

Back when we did the Northwest Challenge, I actually used the Raven as my inspiration. Click HERE for my first attempt (which I really wasn’t fond of) and HERE for my second (which I did like a lot). But on to this week’s project!

No, I didn’t give it a Native American feel (although if I have time to do another, that one will), I made it more goth. Creepy. More, well, me! The tree (Inkadinkado) and moon (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) are embossed in platinum. The crows (Inkadinkado) are stamped in black and popped dotted. I of course inked the edges of the card in Black Soot (Ranger).

These are some of my favorite stamps (do I say that a lot?). There are just fantastic! The detail is amazing.

As far as a trickster in my life? I would say that would have been my Dad, although I never saw that side of him. My mom has told me many a story about the trouble he would cause. Like… throwing a cinderblock over a bridge on to a boat. Yeah. He was like 14 at the time I think. He often played pranks on his friends. My mom said he was so sneaky. And, lucky for him, he was friends with a lot of cops…. so he never got into any trouble! My favorite fable is about Kokopelli, the flute player (which I am too!). I, for many years, stamped a Kokopelli on the backs of all my cards. I don't use him much anymore simply because I like to add my name... but I think I'll eventually get a custom stamp made with my name and my Kokopelli on it!

Now head on over to the other DT’s blogs to see what they’ve come up with!

Dani ~ Eve ~ Jen ~ Julie ~ Margie ~ Rebecca

*Donna will be sitting out this week’s challenge!

My Anniversary Gift to Gene

I had pondered for quite some time trying to figure out what in the world to make Gene for our Anniversary. I even started a thread with my beloved Twi-Girls about it! They were such a huge help! Now, I am armed with some really great gift ideas! But, I decided in the end to make him a layout from our Wedding. I used two of my favorite pictures.

Gene and I had a Handfasting Ceremony. Know the phrase “tying the knot?” Well, this is where it comes from! See how our hands are bound? Click on the photo to make it bigger! It symbolizes the union of two people. It is supposed to remain tied forever. Our knot is now in a shadowbox with our Wedding certificate. So that’s where the title comes from. The other photo of us I love too. It’s just pretty and romantic. Plus, I have on my gorgeous cape!

These ribbons are actually from the Wedding! I had some leftover (ok, a lot leftover!) from the bouquets that we made (yup, my Mom and I made ALL of the flower arrangements!), so I thought it would be really cool to use them. But, I didn’t want to just wrap the page with them. I needed more drama! So I made those huge swirls with them, and glued the in to place with Glue Dots. I also added some Prima studs for a bit more glitz.

Here we are that night at dinner. We wne to this AMAZING BBQ joint called Smokin’ Al’s. We LOVE it there!!! Mmmm, wish I could go there right now! But yeah, a BBQ joint isn’t exactly romantic… so my “long lost sister” Tia suggested I add some ambiance.

And there you can see a little purple votive holder with a battery operated candle! He was so surprised when I pulled that out of my bag! I thought it was an awesome idea!!! Look at HOW MUCH food we have!!!!

A toast! To my amazing husband. The next 5 years will be just as magical. As will the next, the next, and the next after that…

My 100th Post!!! Plus, an Autumn Card

Wow! I can hardly believe that I have actually gotten to 100 posts! I didn’t even want a blog a few short months ago… now, I’m so happy I have one! I love being able to share my creations, my kids, my thoughts…all of these things with you! Here’s to the next 100!!!

So I have been wanting to make this card for a certain someone for weeks now. Really. Weeks. I just didn’t want to do it in October, as I was focusing more one Halloween. I thought that this card would be better suited for November, as I am very thankful for this person. Plus, she’s not really in to the Halloween thing, so I wanted to make sure I gave this to her well after the Holiday. Plus, it just so happens to fit right in to TWO challenges that I’ve seen this week!

The first challenge was with The Pink Elephant Challenge #39. The challenge was to use Brown, Yellow, Neutral and Color of your choice. Cool. I’m in. The second was with Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge(FTTC40). You needed to use a colored in image, texture and neutrals. Perfect! This is exactly what I wanted to use for this card!

Ok, so I do have more than one added color in the wreath, which may not be perfectly in line with The Pink Elephant challenge, but I think it still works. I LOVE this stamp. It’s from Inkadinkado.

I colored the wreath in with my fantastic Berol colored pencils. I embossed the image, adds a little texture and makes coloring the image a bit easier too!

I used the “Fabric” texture plate from Fiskars on my Prism cardstock. It reminds me of burlap, which I love for the Fall.

And of course I needed to add some fun and fabulous fiber! I love using eyelash yarn. It adds so much dimension, but keeps things soft and wispy.

Now, I’m off to write out the inside and send it to the recipient. I’ll let you know who it’s for once she gets it! Have a beautiful, and inspired day!

TTIC# 53: The Transformation

It’s Tuesday again! And this isn’t just any Tuesday… it’s the Tuesday that I get to pick the next Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge!!! Do you have any idea how excited I am?!?!?! Here is my challenge…

I am so excited to be bringing you my second challenge! This one is a little different, because you get the opportunity to make yourself the subject! Spoiler alert! Don't continue reading if you haven't finished the Twilight Saga!!!
In Breaking Dawn, Bella transforms from human to vampire. In life, we all go through changes...though not as severe as Bella's! What kind of changes have you physically gone through? Cut off all your hair? Dye it blue (like me?)? Nose job? Pregnancy? Lost a lot of weight? We just celebrated Halloween... did you or someone you know wear a costume that transformed them to being unrecognizable?
Craft Challenge: Create something that narrates a physical change you've gone through
Comment Challenge: Tell us about your change, or a change that you wish you could go through!

It’s no secret that I like to change my image pretty frequently. Most of you have seen the different incarnations of my hair! Well, it goes beyond just my locks… When I am of “normal Alison” size (i.e. my boobs aren’t heavy and swollen with milk, and my belly isn’t soft from being stretched by my unborn babies), I like to change my style all the time. Like daily. I mean, I have tried and true looks, but they’re just varied. I like to switch things up for myself a bit. I like to think it keeps me interesting. I think this started in the beginning of High School… I’ve gone from Goth (my fave look that don the most, ‘cause that’s the “real” me!), to Raver (which is such a fun look!), to more of what you’d see an artist living in Arizona wearing (if that makes any sense at all!). It’s fun for me. Yeah, maybe I look a little costume-y to some people… but it’s a way I can express myself. I like to have fun with clothes, and hair, and shoes… why not have fun? Why not stand out? Ok, off the soap box Alison… on to my project. One of the biggest changes I went through happened last year…

Yup! When I was pregnant with Baby Rhiannon! Click on the picture to see just how huge my belly was!!!

All I can say is holy cow!!!

So I used cardstock from Tinkering Ink and Prism. The TI paper has such fantastic patterns! I don’t usually work from just one collection at a time, I like to mix it up (big surprise, I know!), but this set of patterns was exactly what I was looking for with this page! I added stickers from Scenic Route, a brad, a couple of arrows and voila!

Here’s a spread I did back when I first started scrapping… I never even finished it! But, it was quite a transformation!

Again, click on any picture to see it bigger.

Ummm, I think that qualifies for a pretty big change huh? I think it was a pretty ballsey move. And I never tell people when I’m chopping off my hair. I love to see the shock on people’s faces! ;}

If I could change anything about myself…..??? Let’s just go with the extreme fantasy here huh? I would want to be like Bella. Yup, I’d want to be a vampire. Call me crazy, fine. I’ve always been fascinated with the vamps. I’d love to be one of them. Though I’ve gotta say, I’d def. be the vegetarian kind!

Ok, it’s your turn! Show me what you’ve done!!! And, make sure you check out the rest of the fantastic TTIC Design Team!!!

Dani ~ Erica ~ Eve ~ Margie ~ Rebecca~ Donna

It’s Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween my Pretties! It is I, the Queen of Hearts! What could be better than Halloween on a Saturday?!?! We’ve been out trick or treating a bit, but the kiddies needed a nap, so I thought I would share a couple of photos with you.

Here’s a layout from 2002. I loved this costume. I was Barbie. A blonde and in baby pink lace. SOOOOO not me! But that’s one of the things that Halloween is about right? Being something your not? At least in my world it is! Gene was a pirate… and a darn good one I might add!

That wig is ridiculous. Really.

So, I will of course have lots more to share with you over the next few days. We are already having a wonderful day! Hope you are too! Happy Halloweenie!!!