21st Century Pillow Book

It's release day for the Wickidz! This is the newest (and one of the darker) collections by Simply B Stamps. The Beyond the Burtonesque Dolls not only have 3 more Wickidz images to share with you, but we also have a set of 12 coordinating sentiments to go along with them! And, these sentiments will be great not only for this set, but for many, many other images you probably already own! Today, I am sharing Winnie with you. How great is she?! I wonder what she's concocting...Do you think it's something good...or naughty? From the look on her face...I'm thinkin' naughty! I colored Winnie in with my own concoction of watercolor markers and Copics. I added a cool image of a potion bottle from Inkadinkado and a whole lotta beautiful, gunmetal colored glitter. Of course, this was also begging for my Martha Stewart Drippy Goo punch, which I did with colors that looked like the candle wax drips in Winnie's background. And how great is that paper with her?

I have something very special for you today! It's a preview for the new Simply B Stamps Collection, the Wickidz. Which I am proud to say that I came up with their title!  The Beyond the Burtonesque Dolls will be working with the darker side of SBS . So the creepier images, the darker stuff, will be released through us. There are 6 new images. We Dolls are previewing 3 today, and then 3 more tomorrow for release day, along with a collection of sentiments! Today, I am previewing Malice and Petunia for you. Let's start with Malice. Isn't she creepy? All of the Wickidz have really cool backgrounds. It's fun to color them in! Featured with Malice is one of the new sentiments that will be available for purchase starting tomorrow. I used watercolor markers and Copics for both Malice and Petunia. I did Malice's hair a wee bit differently from what I normally do. I used a pale blue in her hair  instead of a light gray. I thought it would look cool with her bl

It's time for another Halloween challenge, Simply B style! It's never the wrong time for Halloween, so I am excited to share a new challenge with you. By the way, if you are looking for today's Bombshell Stamps Hump Day Hop, please click HERE . Today's SBS challenge is to use fabric and stitching. Truth be told. I didn't stitch... but I did use some pretty cool Halloween fabric! I should have taken a pic of a large piece of the fabric...so you could see where I got my inspiration. But it's all 50's style drawings, in black, cream, grays and orange. It's very hip. So, I decided to color in Witchy Wednesday in the same fashion. I hope you can see all of the shading. It was hard for me to get a good photo, because my grays are so light.I used all Copics for Wednesday, except for the black. That's a watercolor marker. The "Boo" is paper, by the way. From a Martha Stewart paper pad. This was a fun challenge. To give you a little

Greetings and Salutations! It's time for the March Bombshell Stamps Hump Day Hop! If you are looking for the latest SBS challenge, please click HERE . For the Hump Day Hop, I was in the mood for a color challenge...so I found a beautiful palette from http://design-seeds.com/ that I think you will enjoy. Aren't these colors pretty? I thought it was perfect for those that wanted to go the St. Patrick's Day route, but not so green that the hoppers couldn't do something else.  The participants were to use at least 3 of the colors in the palette. But I was hoping they would go for the "gold" and try to use all five! They had to try to keep their colors as close as possible to those shown above.  Color challenges are great, because you can make anything you want, any theme.  I used every color! Go me! I really love these colors together, I went for a more subtle Bombshell route for this card. I used the big skull from Sugar Skulls , but I a

I am going to share something with you today that may surprise you, if you are one of my regular visitors. There is a digi stamp company that I absolutely adore. Seriously. And it’s so not what you would typically expect me to foam over. But I do. And I love everything they have. I need to expand my collection. Who is it? A Day For Daisies . Such sweet, simple line drawings…but something about each and every one of their images is magical. Something about them reminds me of my mom… Anyway, their latest challenge is “Shades of Blue.” I have had today’s image colored up for a couple of weeks. But I didn’t have time to use it. I knew that I need to get a card made for this challenge though. I hope you’re sitting down…watch me do something sweet … I love the way the lines are drawn…all of their images look like this. Not perfect…just a wee bit sketchy…and all very sweet. The kind of images that tug at your heartstrings. Yes, it’s still Alison. Am I scaring you yet? I colored

I have heard that many of you out there in bloggy land are loving the new Simply B Stamps Alice Chibis preview so far. We have another sweet image to share with you now. It's time for you to meet Alice, and her sweet little rabbit. I really love the rabbit! For this card I used the newest Deconstructed Sketch . I really liked the layout of it. I used some random scraps of paper, and 2 Prima flowers. I colored Alice with my watercolor markers and my Copics. I did her hair a little differently from how I normally do hair. What do you think? Please be sure to visit the rest of the SBS gals to see their creations featuring Alice. Tomorrow there will be a blog hop featuring the last image from this collection. And, they will all be available for purchase then, as well! Aren't you excited? Thanks for stopping by. Have an inspiring day!

Good evening! I am definitely happy this day is almost over. If you've read my previous post, you'd understand why. It's time for another preview from the new Simply B Stamps Alice Chibis collection. Tonight, we are sharing the Red Queen with you. I knew I needed to use this image because she is holding one of her croquet "hammers." A flamingo! As I am pretty nuts about flamingos, this was a Chibi I had to color up. I made an ATC for my Red Queen. I tried coloring her her in a new way, and I'm still not sure if I like it or not. I think the idea is good...but I may not have done it well enough. I do like her eye makeup though! I have worn mine like this many a time. How cute is that little hedgehog? I just wanna pick him up and give him a hug! That mean Red Queen! Someone should use her as a tennis racket! The "play" is from Smeared Ink, by the way. I'd love to chat more, but I am wiped out. This has been a very long day, and I need to

Hello! It’s been a very busy week here at my Pillow Book, and it will continue to be so throughout the week. Right now, I am sharing with you my latest Bombshell Stamps card, that I made for March’s Pin-Up challenge. This month, the lucky lady is my dear friend Alex . And she came up with a great challenge for us. “I want you to add texture to your Bombshell creations. Use embossing, elements, pastes, fabrics, lace/ribbon, flock, textured papers, anything you want to make your creations beg to be touched.” I decided to make a card for my Dad. Today, 11 years ago, he passed away. I hate this day with a passion. All I want to do is lock myself in my Mom’s house with her and my sisters and do nothing but cry. But, that’s not going to happen today. I’ve got a busy day with the kidlings, so I suppose that’s a good thing. It may keep my mind off of this awful 24 hours for a little while. I already had a car from the Speed Shop set colored, and I used Alaine’s awesome coloring on bla

Good evening! I have another preview from the newest Simply B Stamps collection, Alice Chibis. Tonight we are sharing the smiling Cheshire Cat. He was always one of my favorite characters from Alice in Wonderland. And for this new collection, I am still feeling the same way. Here he is in all his grinning glory. I colored him with my watercolor markers, and used a couple of Copics on the branch. I wanted to build on the color story I used for the image, so I used some turquoise cardstock and magenta ink for the main part of the card. I used a Tim Holtz mask for the clock, as I think that clocks always work for Alice projects.I inked it with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. I hope you can see the pretty pearlized embossing powder I used. It has a lovely purple iridescent sheen to it. My sentiment is from K & Co. I really liked playing with this image. And my kids want to color him too. So you may just see some of their versions of the Cheshire Cat soon! Thank you for all

Hello! I am super excited for this post! Why? Well, I am stoked to announce that yours truly is now the "Bad Ass Coordinator" (title given by Betty Boo) for the Beyond the Burtonesque Dolls ! I am so excited! We Dolls have some fun, new things happening, so you should definitely check out the BTBD Blog today for more info. Let me tell you about our newest challenge...this is another reason why I am so excited. I LOVE this challenge! And for the record, this challenge was picked before I got my fabulous new title. ;) We Dolls are challenging you to Goth up a cute image. But! It's gotta be an altered project when all is said and done. So no cards or scrapbook pages. Ya gotta alter something . And go from cute, to goth. Ooooooh! Here's the best part! I hope you like my "project!" I chose to Goth up MY cutie!!!!! I dressed my little Rhiannon up as Wednesday Addams! And I let her borrow Ice Bat, one of my Ugly Dolls. Wait! Here are some more photos!!!

Hello! Did you see that Simply B Stamps started previewing a new Alice collection yesterday? I will be joining in for 4 of the 6 images that are in this new line. And tonight is The White Queen. I love her teeny mouse! I used my colors very sparingly. I used some pale blues, pinks and turquoises in addition to her skin colors. I think she came out pretty! I stuck with icy colors for my paper choices and for the rhinestones, which I applied haphazardly on the card. Tomorrow morning, I will have a new Beyond the Burtonesque Dolls challenge to share with you! And then, tomorrow night, I will have the next of these new Alice Chibis to show you as well. It's going to be a busy week! Be sure to visit not only the SBS Blog , but also the BTBD Blog . Thanks for stopping by. Have an inspiring day! 

Greetings! It’s time for another Desert Islands Crafters Challenge ! I’m gonna warn you, this is a toughie! I, myself struggled quite a bit with this one. So I decided to enlist Phoenix to help me out. Truthfully, I’m not loving the end result. I may need a re-do. Phoenix likes it, but I think we’ve had better collaborative cards just this week alone. So bare with me, this is a learning experience for all of us. Jingle’s Itinerary: 1. Squirrel 2. Raccoon 3. Monkey 4. Moustache 5. Gnome 6. Orange 7. Grass 8. Paper Piecing 9. Colored Pencil Coloring 10. Rainbow (interpret as you will) I used #’s 3, 6, 7, 10. I don’t own a lot of things listed in this itinerary. But I really liked this monkey, and the idea of incorporating a rainbow….but I didn’t know how to do it. So Phoenix and I decided it would be cool to stamp my sentiment as a rainbow, and have the monkey purple. By the way, I used the latest Scrappy Chick Sketch for this card. I changed it slightly, bu

Hello! I am here today to share with you the latest challenge from Simply B Stamps . Celebrations! Any celebration! Birthday, baby shower, wedding, holiday.. anything goes just pick a celebration! Here are the rules as per Betty: Challenge Rules: 1) You may use ANY image you like, but SBS images will receive 2 entries in our random draw! 2) Your project must be new, no backlinking to older projects! 3) You have 21 days to complete and link up your project. 4) Prizes are absolutely NON NEGOTIABLE! If you don't like the prize, please don't play for it. 5) You may enter up to 3 separate projects per challenge. 6) There must be a minimum of 10 players (not entries) in order for there to be a prize awarded. I haven’t gotten to use Witchy Betty yet, so I thought this was the perfect time! Because, as I’m sure you already know, in my opinion there is no better day than Halloween! I used the latest Deconstructed Sketch for this card. I really love the layout, an

I’ve got the latest Bombshell Sketch Challenge to share with you today. Tomorrow it will be up on the Bombshell blog, but since I have another project due tomorrow, I wanted to give each card it’s own time to shine.   Here’s my version of the sketch. I actually kept it really close to  the sketch this time. I only added an additional band at the bottom of the card that I thought my version needed. I used Rise and Shine for this card. I am really digging this set. I have a few ideas for her, now I just need to find the time to execute them! I colored the image with watercolor markrs and Copics. And I should also mention that Phoenix gave me a lot of help with the color palette. He really loves to choose colors for me, and I think he did a great job! I like to use red and green for things other than Christmas. My papers are all from a DCWV Christmas Stack. But I don’t think the card looks Holiday at all. Phoenix loves how the card turned out, and I am really happy

I decided that I enjoyed the Clean and Simple Challenge from Dreamweavers Stencils , so much that I decided to have at it again. This one, I admit…I am itching to do more to, though! HERE is the card I made last week. I felt that it was finished. It didn’t need anything more. I feel the same way about today’s card, however, I can see that it could have more. I may need to make a non-CAS version! You be the judge. I adore this damask stencil! It’s so intricate and beautiful. Which, I suppose, doesn’t really work for CAS, but I really wanted to use it. I used my Dreamweavers stencil brush to apply Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I think it looks so pretty. I have a few ideas on how to change it up, so hopefully I’ll be able to share that with you soon. I double stamped “cherish” from Heidi Swapp in Tattered Rose and Vintage photo Distress Ink. And (I couldn’t help myself) I used some Antique Linen to bring out the texture of the pretty pink (I know! I never, ever use baby pink!!! Cr