21st Century Pillow Book

Happy Halloween/Samhain! I can't believe it's here! Halloween 2011. I am so sad to say goodbye to this wonderful month. I am having some serious technical difficulties today, what with my main computer crapping our on us. Plus, the laptop I'm typing on could very well explode at any given moment. ;) Add to that the lack of heat in my house today, and, well...things aren't exactly going quite right at the moment. Originally, I was going to make a layout of me in my costume, since I wore it to Phoenix's school the other day. But I couldn't print b/c of the whole computer issue. But on to what I did make for the last day of the Smeared & Smudged 31 Days of Halloween. I figured I would make one more of those clean and simple cards (which I just learned was what CAS meant- I didn't have a clue what it stood for!). Plus, today I am sharing my Simply Betty Stamps Secret Pumpkin gift. If you haven't been following the story on what that is, click HERE . Bu...

Greetings! What a whirlwind of a day we had yesterday! As you know, it was my Anniversary (thank you so much for all of the well-wishes!), but what you may not know is that here in the North East, we had some pretty awful weather. Snow for one thing! In October? Unheard of! Many, many people without power and heat. We lost power twice yesterday. As a result, our main computer has frtized, and I'm not sure if it will work again. In addition, our oil burner isn't working. Thankfully, it should be fairly warm today. So I'm typing this up on our laptop, with no watermark (yikes!), and without Live Writer ( I hate typing directly into Blogger). Because yesterday was so busy, I had to scurry and make a quickie card. I made it in a similar fashion to one I had shown you mid-month, because I loved how it turned out. And you all seemed to like it as well! I put a smear of Ripe Persimmon Distress Ink where tyhe pumpkin would be, then stamped the image (Inkadinkado) on top with Sta...

It’s my 7 Year Anniversary!!! It’s been wonderful…and has gone by so fast. I’m thinking we may need to watch our wedding video with the kidlings later. It’s pretty awesome. A few posts ago, I shared a Beatrix the Witch card from Simply Betty Stamps . I mentioned it was for my Secret Sister in a gift exchange. Today I am going to show you the gift I made her. I made this pendant by using a fancy Halloween corner stamp from Inkadinkado, and pressing it into translucent clay by Sculpy. After baking, I colored it with Alcohol Inks. I added a cool star and some pretty beads, and then created the necklace. See the spider in the upper middle of the pendant? I like how it came out. It’s definitely an unusual piece…but I prefer that, of course! Happily, my Secret Sister loved it! These are so much fun to make, I really encourage you to give these clay pendants a go. I am off to celebrate my Anniversary now! I promised a couple of pics…here they are. Then and now. I miss t...

I’ve done it! I’ve done Smeared Ink projects every Friday this month! It’s just like I’m back on the DT! ;) I have another Creepy Little Grumpie card to share with you today. This guy cracks me up. “Not your typical tighty whites” for sure! Check this guy out! He’s ready to save the world! I colored this handsome fella in with my watercolor markers. I made him bright and bold…just as a superhero should be. :) The background was simple…albeit looking a little washed out in my photos. I inked the edges in red, then blue…and I chalked the center in green. Last, I drew in some little “hairs” like those coming on the Grumpie. Tomorrow is my 7 year Wedding Anniversary! I am very excited! Would you like to see some photos??? But while you wait with baited breath for them…please be sure to visit the rest of the Wicked Bloggers…all listed in my side bar. Thanks for stopping by. Have a spook-tacular day!

It’s the end of October…Officially. I am so miserable about it. I just love this month so much, and I never get to do half the things I hope to…but there’s always next October! There’s been a bajillion things going on in my life right now…nothing bad, but it’s been tough to handle it all. I won’t bore you with the details. With that, I goofed on today’s Simply Betty Stamps 12 Days of Halloween. Today’s challenge is “11 Casks a-leaning.” I was thinking cask ets . Yeah. I was wrong. Here is the definition of a cask. cask |kask|nouna large barrellike container made of wood, metal, or plastic, used for storing liquids, typically alcoholic drinks.• the quantity of liquid held in such a container : a cask of cider. Needless to say, my project was already made (wrong), and I just didn’t have the time to redo it. Hopefully, Betty won’t hang me. Maybe she’ll just get a good laugh at me being a dweeb. On the bright side…I like the card! This is Franken Scott. He’s from the Teen Scene...

It’s time for the latest Bombshell Stamps Hump Day Hop! And, it fits right in to the Smeared & Smudged 31 Days of Halloween. My challenge for the Bombshell fans this month (since I am the official “Hump Day Hottie!”), was a “Very Skellie Halloween…or Day of the Dead.” I wanted everyone to use a skeleton, a skull, or bones in their Halloween or Day of the Dead project. Preferably making a decoration as opposed to a card. for the S&S 31 Days, you are allowed to make Day of the Dead projects, so again, this theme works for both! We are starting a new tradition in my family. We are going to start having Day of the Dead celebrations on November 1st. Sadly, we lost my beloved Mother in law last year on Halloween, and my Father in Law on December 20th…just 6 weeks later. A few weeks after that, on January 17th, we had to put our dog, Oliver, to sleep. It was a rough couple of months for us, to say the least. On top of this, my Dad passed away 10 years ago this past March. We have l...

It’s release day for the new Coquettes collection from Simply Betty Stamps ! Have I mentioned that I came up with the name of this collection? ;) Today I will be showing you 2 of the last 3 images. Time has just completely escaped, so I only got to 2. The first is Lulu. I had colored her a while back, then I had gotten the  Ltd. Ed. Distress Inks from Kelli , and she coordinated so well! I sponged the inks on and then sprayed it all down with some water, to let the colors bleed a bit. Then I inked on the webbing and title (Basic grey) with StazOn. I added the pretty glitter, and of course Lulu. I colored her with my watercolor markers. I love the shape of her eyes… And now I have Priscilla to show you. For this card, I went along with the SBS 12 Days of Halloween. Today’s challenge is “9 Ghosts a Booing.” I must say, I love how I colored Priscilla. The colors blended so well, the shading was just right, and I think I have an interesting color combo. Do you see my g...

Greetings my fang-tastic friends! It’s time for another preview for Simply Betty Stamps ! I will be showing you 2 cards today, both featuring new images from The Coquettes Collection. One card is Halloweenie, and works not only for the Smeared & Smudged 31 Days of Halloween, but also for the Simply Betty Stamps 12 Days of Halloween. The other card….is…c-u-t-e! I know, right? Me? Do cute??? This is Nicholas, and he is of course, today’s Halloween card. Today, as I mentioned is Day 8. 8 Monsters Shrieking, to be exact. Well, instead of focusing on the monsters, I’m focusing on the number 8. I have 8 stripes on my card. I colored Nicholas with my pencils, and I shaded around him with Pumice Stone Distress Inks. Isn’t he handsome? And I made sure to give him cherry red Doc Martens, just like the ones I own! :) And this is the cute one! Really though…with these girls, it’s hard not to make a cute card! This is Cosette and Lolli…and they are just sweet as pie! I...

Hello! How did you like the hop from yesterday? Good luck to all of you that hopped and have the chance at winning those great prizes! One of the Facebook groups I’m in decided to have a Secret Sister Halloween/Fall Swap. We were to make or alter something for our Secret Sister in either the theme of Halloween or Fall. My SS chose Halloween, which was great with me! I made her a card using Beatrix the Witch from Simply Betty Stamps (and a pendant which you will see another day). Beatrix is one of my all time favorite SBS images, as she is part of the Steampunk Halloween collection (which you have all read me rave about). Today is Day 7 of the SBS 12 Days of Halloween ..the theme is “7 Pumpkins Glowing.” Beatrix’s pumpkins certainly are glowing! I colored her with my pencils, keeping her colors pale and soft. She just doesn't “look” (in my mind’s eye) like she should be wearing black or some other dark color. Though I do plan on giving it a go one of these days. My Secret ...

Greetings guys and ghouls! In addition to doing the Smeared & Smudged 31 Days of Halloween, I am also in a nice, big, spooky blog hop with a group I am in on Facebook. There are a lot of hoppers, but you will certainly want to visit them all, as there are lots of wonderful prizes out there to be won! If you are here specifically for the blog hop, I encourage you to take a look at the Wicked Bloggers, all listed in my side bar. We have been posting Halloween projects every single day in the month of October. There are a ton of amazing creations! Here is the full list for the Halloween Hop. Cyndi Bundy Pam Hornschu Suzi McKenzie Jingle Krissy Fossmeyer Alison Heikkila  (me!) Wendy Price Wendy Jordan Berenice Rendon Lynn Mercurio Maria Levine Lee Kellogg Stampendous! Blog Sandie Dunn Tanya Johnson Beth Raney-Thomas Mary Collins Lea Kimmel Angelique Nederpel Betty Roberts Taylor Usry AND we have TONS of fabulous Halloween prizes from our wonderful sponsors! Stampendous!...

Only 10 days left of October?! Really??? Ugh. That makes me sad. But, I don’t ant to dwell on that.  Since it’s Friday, I have an all Smeared Ink project to share with you. I used another from the Creepy Lil Grumpies collection. This is, of course, the witch. She is colored with my beloved pencils. I kept the card simple, because I love the image, and the background paper. All I did was add the sentiment, which is from the same set. See how pretty the paper is? Those little dots are pearlized. When it hits the light right, it just shines! I’m keeping this one short today. But I would like to mention, that I have a Crazy A** Stamp Sale going on. I have updated the original post and taken out all of the items that have sold. Please take a look, as ALL of the stamps listed are at 50% off retail. All the deets are in the post. Thanks for looking. Be sure to hop over to the rest of the Wicked Bloggers. They’re all listed in my sidebar. Thanks for stopping by. Have a s...

That’s a lot of numbers in my title! Today I have 2 projects for you. The first is the latest StampInsanity Challenge, and the second is a combo for the Smeared & Smudged 31 Days of Halloween and the Simply Betty Stamps 12 Days of Halloween. The StampInsanity Challenge is Halloween Treats. More specifically…how do you trick out a treat? Here’s what I came up with. I used Witch Morgan, and made her a decoration for a lollypop! I colored her in with my watercolor markers, and cut her our in a circle, to mimic the lollypop. I attached straps to the back using scraps of paper, and slid on the pop. Easy peasy and totally cute! For the 4th Day of SBS’ 12 Days of Halloween, we are to use 4 skeletons. I chose to work with Draco the Ghost Gentleman (who looks like a skeleton), and the dancing skeletons from my Bombshell Stamps Retro Cowgirl set. Look ma! No kitties! ;) I colored Draco in with my pencils. I like that I kept the whole card in the gray family. ...