TTIC Color Challenge #3: Bella & Edward’s Wedding Flowers

I am happy to be bringing you the 3rd Twilight Tuesday Color Challenge today! These are pretty different from the normal Twi-colors of red, black and white, so I am really excited about this challenge! Here’s what I wrote on the TTIC Blog:

Here are the Bella and Edward’s Wedding Flowers! We’ve got Lilac, Orange Blossom (yes, for those of you with green thumbs out there, orange blossoms are actually white…but just work with me here ok? ) and finally, Rose. It’s a very soft palate. And I hate the winter… so I needed a pick me up with these colors! These are the lovely flowers Alice picked out for the Wedding. What a pretty combo of flowers don’tcha think? So create something soft and beautiful for this challenge. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Like I said, different right? So here’s what I came up with:

Now, I’m still sick with this awful cold… so the card is missing a little pizzazz… but at 9PM when I was working on this card last night, the pizzazz-making part of my brain just wasn’t working. That being said, I do think it’s a really pretty card.

I used one of my Sweet Pea Stamps from ching-chou kuik’s Fantasy Art Collection. Yeah, I know… those are all fairies right? Well, so was she… I cut off her wings. I asked her permission first, I promise! I just thought that she made a beautiful bride. A bit more daring then Bella, but if Bella were in to back-bearing couture, maybe this is what she would have looked like!

Here’s a close-up of my bride. Please click on any of the photos to see the bigger. I used colored pencils for her, with a touch of Stickles for her jewelry.

I just happened across the paper with the roses… perfect for this challenge! And I loved the silver foiling on it too! So elegant, right? This whole card is made from just scraps I had laying around. Oh! The sentiment is from Technique Tuesday by the way.

I currently have a very squirmy Rhi on my lap as I type this… so here’s where I sign off. But, please make sure you visit TTIC on Thursday for our last Color Challenge. No, I’m not happy about it, but I promise, it’s a great one!

In the meantime, our Design Team has fantastic projects to display for this weeks challenge – please go and check them out!

Alison ~ Dani ~ Donna ~ Erica ~ Jen

Jodi ~ Rebecca ~ Tonya

Fairy of the Night: Version #1 for Macabre Monday #24

I am sick. My kids and I have nasty colds. My husband was sick, and now it’s our turn. So, sadly this will be another quickie post.

I made this card featuring another amazing Sweet Pea Stamps image- Fairy of the Night from Plate 29. The Design Team Members of Smeared and Smudged have been asked to create cards and things with some of ching-chou kuik’s fantasy images. How lucky we are!!! So I decided to tie this image in with Macabre Monday’s latest challenge: Purple Haze.

Please click on any image to see it bigger.

I was so excited about this challenge because purple is one of my favorite colors. My other favorite color is teal, so I jumped at the chance to use them together! I think it is such a striking combination.

I used Twinkle H20’s, colored pencils and chalk once again for the fairy. I just love using those 3 mediums together! I also used Staz-On in teal to stamp the background of the card. Added a couple of flowers for some more dimension too.

I hope you can see all the shine. It’s really very pretty in person. Well, that’s all for me. I'm sorry this is so short... My head is in a fog. Enjoy your day!

Newborn Layout

Hey everybody! This is going to be a quickie post, as I’ve got 2 kids with runny noses and icky coughs.

I wanted to share one of my favorite newborn layouts I’ve ever made. And it’s not even for my family!!!

Here’s the deal. Hospital lighting sucks. Doesn’t matter how beautiful your skin is. If you are a visitor or the patient. You’re gonna look kinda sick in a hospital. It’s that nasty yellow-ish lighting. So, pictures just come out looking, well, yellow.

I know that people try to go with the pristine blues and pinks for a newbornn page… but it’s just not going to look good with that gross lighting. So, don’t fight it! Go with muted down hues of pink or blue (if you’re even in to the traditional baby colors-I am not.). Go for papers with an ivory hue to them instead of a stark white. Here I used papers from MME and Cosmo Cricket.

So, the moral of the story is. Don’t fight the yellow! Work with it to make a beautiful page. Yeah, it may not be “traditional” baby, but it sure will look fabulous! Like I said, this is one of my favorite baby pages I’ve ever made. And it’s because I worked with the colors in the photos and didn’t try to fight them with the idea of what is normally used for baby. Have a great Friday!

Midnight Waiting Version 1

Hello! I have one of my latest Sweet Pea Stamps creations for you today. This image is called Midnight Waiting and it is from ching- chou kuik’s Fantasy Art Collection, Plate #29. I was really inspired by one of the Sweet Pea design team members, Randi Wall. She posted an awesome tutorial, click HERE to see it. Now, I don’t use Copics as you all know by now, so I adapted the look to fit the coloring tools that I do use.

I used chalks, colored pencils, a dash of Stickles and a dab of Stardust pens. You’ll see that I gave the fairy a gray wash, sort of like Randi’s. Here’s a close up:

I wanted the fairy to be very soft. He dress is bold, but her skin, her hair, her wings… soft. Please click on the pictures to see them bigger. Although my version is obviously quite different from Rand'i’s, you can see that the inspiration came from her. I love the look she came up with so I needed to make my own version!

You can see the sparkle a bit better here. So there you have it! Now I am off to make some more cards!

Hey! By the way, did you know that Smeared and Smudged now has a store? You can go there and buy some crazy cool stamps designed by our leader Terra and her sis Tori! Go and check them out by clicking HERE!!!

Twilight Tuesday Challenge :#61 – A Touchy Feely Vampire Valentine

Yay! Its Tuesday! Time for another fab Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge! This week our challenge comes from the brilliant and super talented mind of my friend Donna. Here is what she wrote:

With Valentines day fast approaching and everybody in a lovey dovey, touchy feely kinda mood, I thought the most obvious thing I could challenge you all to is to create a Valentine’s day card for your favorite Twilight Saga character *sigh*…Rob…I mean…Edward….What?? A girl can dream can’t she??!! …But then I thought….Nar, too easy!

So this is what I would like you to do….

Craft Portion: Make a VALENTINE’S card/project for your favorite character or for your valentine… but…. with texture!! That’s right I want you to add things like lace, raised embossing, distressed edges, fuzzy fibers, metal, cloth, cracked glass, leather, flower soft, sandpaper, anything that adds texture!

Comment Portion: Tell us your favorite Valentine’s story…Or if you haven’t got one, Tell us who you would like to snuggle up on Valentine’s day with from the Twilight Saga…

For TTIC #60, Laura blogged about this awesome heart template she downloaded at Cheeky Magpie. Let’s just say I became a little obsessed with the idea of making cards in the shape of actual hearts!!! I have been diligently working on 3 of them, all at once, waiting for the right time to show them to you. Well, now is the time to show you the first one!!!

I love how this card turned out. There’s a lot going on here… a lot to see and a lot to touch!

Please click on any of the pictures to see them bigger! So first, I cut out the heart. Colored in the edges with black marker. Used Stickles in Fruit Punch around the edges. For more Glitz, I used Cherub Pink and Silver Glimmer Mists along with a Glimmer Screen. Made my sentiment (font is from Time Flies), and detailed it with more black. Added wings (yes, they flutter!), glittered and embossed ‘em, some felt swirls inside, a hint of ribbon, tiny pearls and a pre-fabbed sentiment from Sweet Pea.

You can really see the dimension and sparkle from this angle!

Here is the inside. The brads allow the wings to move. I really love this card. I thought about adding more to it… but I don’t think it needs anything else, except maybe some loving words for my husband!

When I first read the deets about this challenge, I immediately thought of making one of these hearts for it. But, I was going to use some sandpaper… Why? Because as I was rereading Butch’s story from the Black Dagger Brotherhood (Lover Revealed), I read this awesome description that I just loved. It’s about how Vishous feels about Butch.

“The rough bastard somehow smoothed the edges of his life, probably because he was like sandpaper, a scratchy, persistent, wrong-way rub that left everything more even.” pg. 60

How awesome is that??? But, I didn’t have any sandpaper I was willing to give up for the card, and I really wanted to post this one. But, maybe I just gave you some more inspiration???

That about does it for me. I actually really don’t like V-Day. I think you should ALWAYS be telling the ones you love how much you love them. And chocolate should be given all year long! So, I don’t really do much for the 14th…

Now go! Go and see the rest of the DT’s awesome work! But… leave me some love first please!

Dani ~ Donna ~Jen ~ Jodi

Erica ~ Margie ~ Rebecca~ Tonya

Twilight Tuesday Sketch #19

Hello! Today I am sharing the latest Twilight Tuesday Sketch Challenge with you. Here’s the original sketch created by Dani:

I really wanted to make this into a layout, so here’s what I came up with!

Please click on the photos to see them bigger. I’m so loving how this turned out. First, this is one of my absolute favorite pictures of Rhiannon (Did you all hear Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks singing “Rhiannon” at the Grammy’s yesterday??? I was SO happy!!!). She looks so pretty here. Second, I really like how graphic the page came out. The soft pink behind the panels of black. And of course, I love the little bit of glitz too!

The rhinestones are from Prima, and the title was written with one of my Sakura Stardust pens. It’s infused with glitter, so of course I love to use them!

Now, please head on over to Twilight Tuesday to see what some of the other Design Team members came up with!

Black Dagger Brotherhood Challenge: Vishous

It’s time for Fandom Friday over at Twilight Tuesday! This week Beth brings us a challenge about Vishous, one of my fave Brothers. I loved his book. I think he’s just awesome. Love his relationship with Butch, his brilliance, his curse, his Mommy! Woah! Didn’t see that coming when you read his book did ya???

Here’s what my Book Buddy Beth wrote on TTIC:

Vishous is amazingly complex character – he is brilliant. A technical genius who speaks 16 languages. He is tortured. Life was never easy, largely unbearable, for him before the Brotherhood, and not simple since. He is a warrior, with a battler’s soul – no weakness in himself is ever acceptable. Much like Rhage, he is physically cursed, though his cross to bear isn’t managed by a soothing shellan like Hollywood’s is. And V is just plain hard-nosed and not at all warm and fuzzy. Then the unthinkable happens…

Comment: V is a polarizing character – what is your opinion of him, and why?

Craft: Create a project that captures some facet of Vishous, and tell us about it.

So I gotta be honest… I made a quickie project. I. Am. Beat. The Girl just started walkin’, so I am chasing her everywhere…she’s still not sleeping through the night, and I have kind have been on card overload this week, what with the Greeting Farm relay, getting my new Sweet Pea Stamps, etc… Wow, long sentence… So I made a card that I like, but it didn’t take me a long time like some of my other cards do… which I guess is ok, so long as I’m happy with the result right? Well, I’m happy with it.

Originally, I was going to go down the “Nurse Vishous” route, bit I couldn’t think of anything clever enough. So, I remembered I had this sick stamp from Stampers Anonymous which I thought was perfect for V. So, he knows the future. He can read minds. He’s got that crazy-ass glowing hand of his that does more destruction than a bomb. See? This stamp is perfect!

See the eyes? The hand on the clock? All these things totally symbolize V’s gift/curse depending on how you view it. I colored the hand in with a white chalk marker… since his hand glows.  Used mostly chalk for the rest, a little bit of colored pencil, but not much. I just wanted to have colors that blended well, while focusing on purple, which symbolizes clairvoyance and spirituality. Again, I thought that fit Vishous to a “T.”

So there you have it. Quickie card, but filled with a ton of symbolism. Enjoy your day, I am off to enjoy mine!