21st Century Pillow Book

Greetings! I am thrilled to bring you my very first post as a Burtonesque Doll ! I am totally honored to be a part of this awesome team. And what’s even cooler is that my sister Pam (you know her from Strange Skin ) is on the team too!!! Isn’t that rad?!?! On to the party! Here’s the challenge: “Monsters have taken of the chocolate factory! Today we challenge you to take your inspiration from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, but  Monster-ize it! Maybe a new chocolate can be made? Or use colors inspired by the movie and apply it to a gruesome image and make it fun, funky and all Burton!” Strange Skin just happens to be the sponsor this week. So I just had to use one of the Cameos. They are my favorite collection from Strange Skin. I chose to work with the Witch. ‘Cause she’s awesome! I think she’s pretty Wonka-fied, no? I colored her up with my pencils, and verrrry carefully cut her out. Then I used a wacky combination of papers and cut them out for the background. It t

The StampInsanity Design Team thought it would be fun to have a blog hop. So, most of us Groovy Gurlz got together to make an "Anything Goes” hop for your Sunday enjoyment. This blog hop begins TODAY, Sunday May 29th at 7:00 AM (EST) and will end on Tuesday, May 31st at noon (EST)...so don't miss out on the fun and prizes! The Winner will be announced on the Stamp Insanity blog . ..so be sure to check back to see if you're a winner! For the prize, TWO lucky winner will receive one digi of their choice....Now isn't that just groovy?!! So please be sure you leave a comment on EVERY blog hop stop along the way and finish to the end for your chance to win! I’m the first stop on the hop. :) Here’s the card I made. I made this card for my friend Laura. She is always lending me her books (mostly Dark Hunters…yum!), so I wanted to just give her a little token of my appreciation. I had never used this version of Morgan, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to give he

Greetings! It’s Friday, so that means it’s time for another Smeared Ink creation. Today I have a scrapbook page! I know, I know! Two in one week! I’m on fire! Truth be told, I am itching to scrapbook more…it’s just “easier” to make a card. Anywho…here’s my layout, featuring some of the stamps from Inky Dreams. This picture of my little Rhiannon was taken last July. She was playing with my sister’s X-Box controller…looking as if she really was playing a game. A couple of pics were taken…but this one is by far, the funniest. So as you can see, I used the cool splotches and blobs from Ink Dreams all over my background. I inked them up with several shades of green watercolor marker. A lot of the blobs have more than one shade of marker on them. You can click on any picture for a closer look. Phoenix helped me with the background. He had a great time picking out the next green(s) I should use and what stamp should go where. We had an awesome time! I also used the “play” from the “artist

Hello Everyone! It is with great pleasure that I bring you my very first Bombshell Stamps Hump Day Blog Hop Challenge! I thought that I would kick things off in a way that was very...me. So for those of you that know me, this particular challenge won't be much of a surprise. It's time to... Goth up your Bombshells!!! Yup! Let's break out the heavy eyeliner, dark, edgy clothes and let's turn those beautiful pinups into creatures of the night! Don't forget to draw some tats and chokers on to your girls too! We're going to dress 'em up Alison style! Here’s my creation using Pirate’s Life : Doesn’t she look cool? I am so diggin’ her threads…and wish I had ‘em! She is colored in with colored pencils except for her fishnets and tats of course! Here’s a closer look. You can click on any of my pictures to see them bigger. Don’tcha think she looks great with purple hair? Hmmm…it’s been a while since my hair was that color. ;) Her skull tat is also from the Pirate’s

I was very apprehensive to send Phoenix to school this year. I wasn’t really sure if it was necessary….I didn’t want him to be afraid….he’s honestly already really smart… But my husband and I thought it would be good so that he could develop his social skills, where he is lacking a bit. We hoped that his teacher would be kind, gentle and inspirational. Well, Phoenix wound up with a teacher is that is all that and SO much more… It is traditional that the teachers receive photo albums or scrapbooks from their class each year. Well, this year…we kinda went all out. This is one of the pages I had the privilidge of making. We just adore this woman, Mrs. Hellige, so very much. She is the perfect teacher in every way. I couldn’t have asked for anyone better. I thought this was such a fabulous picture! Phoenix is just so happy and comfortable with her. I hope they have forged a relationship that will last a very long time…(I think they did!). I used Patina and Walnut Gold Glimmer Mist all

Are you a scrapbooker? Do you want to be on a Design Team? For Simply Betty??? How could you not want to!!! Well, visit this post to find out all of the deets!!! It sounds like it's going to be a blast! Aaannndddd...don't forget that Monday is the last day to sign up for this month's Bombshell Stamps Hump Day Hop! This month's challenge is to Goth up Your Bombshells! So hurry up and make something! :)

Greetings and salutations! ‘Tis Friday again (yay!) and that means it’s time for another Smeared Ink creation. Today I bring you Bo Peep. But she’s mad. At you. I don’t know what you did to her….but this chick is not happy! You should really apologize! Look at her. Poor Bo Peep. Did you steal her sheep??? I colored Ms. Peep in with my watercolor markers. She is of course from the Killer Bo Peep’s Build a Garden set. The sentiment is from Li’l Grumpies. The fabulous fence is a Martha Stewart punch, which I highlighted with sliver marker. I kept it simple for this card. Straight to the point. So really, whatever you did to her…just fix it. Those things hanging from her cane make me nervous. On a different topic…I am thrilled to announce that I am now one of The Burtonesque Dolls !!! I was asked by Betty Boo herself the other night! And not only that, but my awesome-tastic sister Pam is too! You know Pam because she is one of the owners/artists of Strange Skin . But now, w

It’s Ward 2’s turn over at the Asylum of StampInsanity ! This week we are challenging you to create a Fancy Fold card! I created what was supposed to be a swing Card…but somehow I royally f’ed it up! So, it still sorta swings…but it stands too. I’ll just let you take a look! Here it is, standing on it’s own. Which, I think is nifty…especially since it looks like it’s levitating! Which totally works with the image I put on the other side!!! The Naughty or Nice senti is of course from a Holiday set…but I think it works rather well here! I used Lilith for the other side. I just ADORE this image. She is just SO cool! And see? She’s floating! I had thought about adding some 3D stuff to the “inside” of the card…but then it wouldn’t lay right when it was flipped. So I opted to keep it simple. I wanna be as cool as Lilith! She’s so pretty and mysterious! And check out her eyes! They are so rad! I colored her in with my watercolor markers from EK Success. If you click on this (or any other)

There is a very special blog hop today! Simply Betty is one of our fabulous sponsors over at Smeared & Smudged this month. And Betty was kind enough to offer the DT a zombie digi for each of us. And the best way to show off her awesome digis, and out talent, is with one fabulous hop! We’ve even got some of Simply Betty’s rad DT with us today! So let’s get this party started, huh? I chose to work with Zombie Christian. Did you see my Summer Zombie Christian card from the other day? You can view it in this post HERE . I think Christian is awesome, and I hafta say…I had a BLAST making this card! I paired his image with the Build a Zombie alphabet from Smeared Ink . I wasn’t sure how I wanted to color him…this is actually the second version. The first had bolder colors, and I just wasn’t feelin’ it at the time. So I went with a more muted palate and I think it worked out great! I used my watercolor markers for Christian and the “Leg.” isn’t this a hilarious image? I came up with t

I hope you are sitting down. You may be a little surprised by my latest card. I am crazy about another digi stamp company. I stumbled upon them a couple of months ago, and I have been itching to play along with some of their challenges. I just haven’t had time. I even colored up a few of their images…but I just couldn’t finish any projects with all of the other things I’ve been doing. Who is it? A Day for Daisies . I. Love. Them. Some of the sweetest (without being obnoxiously cute) images I have ever seen. I want SO many of their digis. So many. I love vintage things. The innocence. The sweetness. They style. So when I saw this freebie on their site I knew I needed to use it. And, it worked beautifully with this Deconstructed Sketch (by my friend Jen Schults ) that was on their blog . Here is my creation: Isn’t she pretty? It’s such a lovely image. And I really like Jen’s sketch a lot. I used my watercolor markers for this. My husband thought I had printed it out in color! I guess t

It’s the 15th of May which means it’s time for another Desert Islands Crafters Challenge . This time around, I decided to combine it with this month’s Oh! The Horror! from Smeared & Smudged . One of S&S’s fabulous sponsors this month is Simply Betty . So I chose to use Summer Zombie Christian. But let me give you the low down on both challenges before I show you my card. Cabio's Itinerary 1. pattern paper 2. pearl 3. glitter/bling 4. ribbon/lace trim 5. image (stamp or digi) 6. punch/die cuts 7. embossing (wet or dry) 8. square card (any size) 9. flower 10. button For my card, I used #1, 2, 5, 6, and 7. Here’s this month’s Oh! The Horror poster: And here’s my card: You can see that I dry embossed the blue paper with a wave pattern (I highlighted it with a bit of silver). I used Platinum Liquid Pearls, my patterned paper is from Prima, and you can see the fab zombie image from Simply Betty! You can see that I used a very loose interpretation of the Repo poster… I put my fo

Hmmm…perhaps I should have saved that title for something else, as it conjures up a lot of very interesting things… Maybe I’ll just make a 2.0 version. But enough of me babbling! Today I am bringing you a card using Misty Benson’s Tarot Set 1: Death, only available from Smeared Ink . I used some very cheery colors in only a couple of key areas of the image. Don’t these skellies look like they are having a great time? Do you see the teeny tiny ones falling in the rain? Click on any of the photos to get a bigger view. I didn’t want the rest of the card to take away from this image, but I wanted to use more of those bright colors. So, rather then using papers, I broke out my Smeared Ink Urban Decay set and used the wood grain image. I stamped it all around the edge of my card with Versa Mark ink. Then, I colored the border in with my chalks. Hmmm…this would have been a great technique for yesterday’s blog hop, huh? I just haphazardly rubbed the colors on. Then I glued the Death image on

Greetings! I am playing along with a Tiddly Inks Blog Hop today. You can find out all of the details HERE . Last month over at Smeared & Smudged, Tiddly Inks was one of our fabulous sponsors. And I was lucky enough to be the winner of the TI prize! So I got to choose some digis for myself. For the card I am sharing with you today, I used Always the Flower Girl, an image I have been coveting for quite some time! I made this card for my Mom for Mother’s Day. Isn’t she sweet? I love her. And her wilting dandelions! My kids are always bringing me dandelions, so I knew I had to use her for my Mom. She loves this image too! :) I used my watercolor markers to color her in. And I have to say, I really like her hair. I made her roots a medium purple, and faded it out to white, which I think is pretty cool. Hmmm…could be something I try when I go grey! ;) The “m” is acylic and is from Go West. I inked it with pigment ink. The '”m” stands for not only Mom, but Mary as well. It

Surprise! It’s a blog hop with the Smeared Ink Design Team! Today, 2 new digi sets are being released Would you like to see them? This set is Von Bayros. This is Stitchy Situation. I was given one of the Von Bayros images to work with, and this is what I came up with. If you click on the image, you will see it bigger. There is actually a really creepy guy checkin’ out the sleeping lady. Pretty freaky, if you ask me! So, I decided to use “I need a restraining order” from the Love Grumpies set. The focal image is so busy, I wanted to keep my background pretty clean, so I only used a few pieces of torn paper. I colored this in with my pencils. I actually think the curtain is the best part f this image. It reminded me of peacock feathers, so I colored it accordingly. For today (5/9/11) only, Smeared Ink is having a special: Buy 2 digi sets, get 1 free. Here is the rest of the Smeared Ink DT, please be sure to show them some love! Thanks for stopping by, and have an