21st Century Pillow Book

Greetings and salutations! I am thrilled to say that I am the “Challenge Picker” (my own phrase) for the latest Artful INKables Think Ink Challenge. As if the interview from August 20th wasn’t exciting enough! So what did I pick??? Well, for those of you that know me, I love to distress pretty much everything. So my challenge is called: “Distressed out!” Tear it, ink it, sand it…anything and everything to distress your project. Wanna see mine??? Of course, these are Artful INKables stamps! And, if you decide to play along and you use AI stamps, you get an extra entry!!! I really hope you do join in! Now, about my card… I used only ONE piece of cardstock here! I just did different things to the 3 pieces I cut! First, of course is the centerpiece. This awesome Chess Piece is from the Into the Moonlight set. I colored it with my EK Success Watercolor markers. Only 3 shades of brown/tan, actually! Then I inked it with Antique Linen Distress Ink and edged it with Walnut Ink Distress

Hello! It’s a beautiful day in New York and I am feeling pretty excited! I have a couple of things to tell you about, and I’m pretty sure that you’ll be stoked too! 1. Tomorrow! Join ME as I challenge YOU on the Artful INKables blog! That’s right! I have my very own challenge up tomorrow at AI and I can’t wait for you to play along!!! And, if you missed my little interview with AI, it’d be a great time for you to read all about yours truly! 2. Wednesday! An amazing and HUGE stamp release from Smeared Ink ! There will be 10, yes 10 brand spankin’ new sets released done in true Smeared Ink fashion. Creeptastic! We will have a very special Smeared & Smudged Design Team Blog Hop filled with some of the rad new images that will be available for purchase! You will definitely want to check this out!!! 3. Thursday! Another awesome stamp release from StampInsanity ! StampInsanity is turning 1!!! And to celebrate, there are some awesome new images, and fabulous surprises! Make sure

This week’s Macabre Monday challenge totally inspired me. My little family of 4 got our pictures taken a couple weeks back and I had purchased those cheapo $1 frames from Michaels so that I could create some cool gifts for the Grandparents. Well, this week’s challenge over at HDH asked us to use pink in a sinister way. Well, take a peek at Rhiannon’s snazzy duds and what I did to funkyify my frame. The Girl refused to smile for even one picture…but I gotta say, she’s pretty damn cute anyway! So I painted the wood frame fuchsia and then dug out this teeny skull and crossbones (Lost Coast Design) Dani had given me a while back and stamped it all over with Pigment Ink. I also added the “Hey Pumpkin” sentiment from Cosmo Cricket. I embossed all of that in clear. Then, I dry brushed some metallic white acrylic paint over the whole thing to glam it up a bit. But it needed something else… I looked up from my workspace and noticed a jar of misc. buttons. And in it was this crazy skull! PERF

Yay! It’s time for another StampInsanity Challenge!!! This time around Beth says, “We need to see some real or faux stitching and add some lace! We want to that girly girl side to shine!” Hmmm…girly girl? I guess I could give it a try! So admittedly, I am not a lace person…I’ll wear it when the time is right, but I don’t have bits of lace like I do with ribbon. However, since I came across the awesome packs of lace doilies at my Mom’s I have been using them a lot. They’re fab. I spritzed mine with Cherub Pink Glimmer Mist. Here’s Pierette…my fave StampInsanity image. I just love her, as I’m sure you know since I use her all the time! I colored her in with my colored pencils, relying quite a bit on that Crayola Multicultural set I mentioned yesterday. I also used my Design Spectracolors. For my stitching, I grabbed some rub-ons from American Crafts and added it to my sentiment which is from K & Co. (so is my paper). But take another look at the top photos again (you can click on a

Greetings fellow Bombshell fanatics! It’s the last Wednesday of the month, so it’s time for another Hump Day Hop! The hop is combined with the ladies over at Gauche Alchemy , so you’re in for a real treat! For my card, I combined not only the Hop Challenge, but the sketch and GDT challenge as well! We got a 3-fer here! Gotta love multi-tasking! So here’s the breakdown… 1. The Hop: Some Like it Hot, Hot, Hot! Inspiration possibilities: the movie "Some like it Hot" and the song "Hot, Hot, Hot" Summer themes Flames on the Hot Rod stamps …and of course Summer colors 2. The Sketch: 3. The Guest Bombshell Challenge: Courtesy BoHo Rose: Burlesque ! Put simply, burlesque means "in an upside down style". Burlesque turns social norms head over heels. Burlesque, performers often create elaborate sets with lush, colorful costumes, mood-appropriate music, and dramatic lighting, and may even include novelty acts, such as fire breathing or contortionists, to enhance t

I say it all the time, but the following card was so not what I was going to do for the latest Macabre Monday challenge! But, it does fit…so I will submit it…and if I have time, I will create a more sinister project. Truth be told, I have been kind of “unplugged” for most of the week. I pop in every once in a while to some places for a moment, but I have been spending loads of fabulous quality time with my family. We have been quite busy lately doing loads of awesome things. And I may not have time tomorrow… But enough of me rambling… I created this card using 3 stamps from The Smeared Ink Nymphs set. This is the Naiad Nymph…a water nymph. I just love the swirls around her. She was so much fun to color in and embellish! I used some Stickles and teeny pearls to add some umph to what I had already done with colored pencils. How fab is this frame? Yup! It comes in the Nymph stamp set! I embossed the frame in Verdigris embossing powder. The colors in the powder were just

I have the latest StampInsanity Challenge to share with you today! For this challenge, you have to use buttons! Buttons! and more Buttons! And, use a 'butter-y' color too! Here’s my card: I broke out Nicholette once again, since she’s one of my favorite images from StampInsanity! I dolled her up in shades of yellow with a touch of pink. And I colored her umbrella in some fun coordinating colors. Here’s a close up. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t find paper to go with my color choices, but low and behold! I found a couple that were just perfect! I will admit, that I feel like I need something else on this card. I tried some bows…some ribbons…it just didn’t seem to work. I was looking to add something above and below the image of Nicholette…I just think that there’s to much of the polka dot pattern. So, perhaps I will just remove some of it so that more of the flower pattern shows. What say you? I did add some Stickles below her, as if she were on a super s

I once again found time to play along with the creeptastic Macabre Mondays of Haunted Design House . You should all know by know how much I love these challenges…and I am always so sad when I can’t play. But, there was no way I was going to pass this one up! The challenge this week is Netherworld Nymphs. “Images of feminine nature spirits from the darkside.   Goddesses, sprites, mermaids, pixies, fairies or fay... as long as they look slightly sinister ;)” Umm hello??? Can you say right up my “Ali???” I used a stamp that I had actually one for a Macabre Monday Challenge. Did ya know that I have won TWICE now??? Go me! Anywho…this ultra fab image is from Stamp It Crazy . I just love her. Senti is from Technique Tuesday. I made this card for my BF Lisa. Her Birthday was yesterday and she just moved from Michigan to Illinois, so she’s got a lot going on. I have truly been thinking about her a lot lately. She is colored in with my Watercolor Markers (no colored pencils this time

It’s a sad day…It’s time to say goodbye to Friends Having Fun . I don’t know about you, but I had a blast during these 5 short months we’ve had. I loved coming up with the Color Challenges and playing along with the other groups. But as a farewell, here is a sketch challenge created by the super talented Dani… I created a layout that I think is quite appropriate… It’s called Moving Forward. As you can see, I flipped the sketch counter clockwise. Isn’t it appropriate for what is happening right now? Here’s the original photo: Check out that main of hair Rhiannon has!!! It reads: “I love you in this picture. I love the wind in your hair. I love seeing you in motion. You’re such a big girl. Moving forward.” I took a doily and chalked it with some brown to pick up some of the pretty details on it. I used a punch from EK Success that reminds me of water, and some of my fave Daisiy D’s paper. In addition, I used some a Crafter’s Workshop stencil for my journaling, a couple of rhinestones,

Hello! It’s Thursday, so that means it’s time for another awesome StampInsanity challenge! This week, we’ve got a sketch with a twist…distressing! One of my most favorite things to do! Let’s take a look at the sketch first. And here is my card: I used Pierette, one of my most favorite StampInsanity images. I wanted to do a sepia-ish toned image, but I found these fabulous rusty corals and coppers and knew it was the way to go. I was going for the aged look, but with using more modern tones. I was a little worried about finding the right paper though, as I always color in my images before I scope out the rest of my supplies… But I think I found the perfect paper! The tones are spot on! Here’s a close up of my coloring and the fab copper colored metallic paper (DCWV) I used. The stiped and polka dotted paper is also DCWV, and the brocade is Basic Grey. I realized as I was looking through my embellies, that I haven’t used eyelets since who knows when…and I love my eye