21st Century Pillow Book

It has been what feels like forever since I have had a chance to play with Haunted Design House . This week, the Macabre Monday challenge is Eerie Elegance . And I just knew I needed to use a Simply B Stamps image for it. But there are so many to choose from!!! I eventually decided to go with The Alchemist's Wife Nightmares . Seriously, how fabulous is this image? I used the Spotlight Technique to color my image, but with a bit of a twist. I printed the image twice, and cut out my spotlight from the colored version so that I could pop-dot it to the second. I used colored pencils, watercolor markers and Copics to color this in. I aged the background image with Antique Linen Distress Inks. I also used a cream colored card, instead of white, and I sprayed it with a coffee colored spray from Tsukineko. I recently became a Pampered Chef consultant (links on the side of my blog!). And I did pretty well my first month out, so I decided to give myself a little congratulatory gift...

I am so excited to share my post with you today! As most of you know, Friday is my day to share a Smeared Ink Creation with all of you. I broke out 2 of my favorite sets this week for one card. But in addition to that, I am proud to share with you a new release from Sweet November! I am honored to share Capricorn with you…two very different versions, actually! So, let’s get started! I was thrilled when I heard from I stayed true to the earthy colors of Capricorn. Our colors range from black to grey to brown to green and blue. So I used a little of everything here! I also took notes from Amy’s cards from the week (I hope you have seen them…they are ALL stunning!). She has this lovely way of scattering her rhinestones on her cards…I mimicked that look because I fell in love with it. Isn’t she pretty? I colored her in with my beloved colored pencils. Aren’t her horns fab? I have horns similar to these (though they are a bone color) that I wear to the Ren Faire every year (yes…and times ...

I LOVE ravens. Love them. They are my second favorite bird (it’s a very close second behind flamingoes). So, in seeing that this week’s Macabre Monday challenge is about Ravens, and I just got the Quoth the Raven stamp set from Smeared Ink (ADORE!!!)…how could I not play along? Actually, if things go my way…I may be submitting more then once, since my favorite movie of all time is The Crow…so the options for me this week are endless! But on to my card…which I hafta say, it really jingles my bells (just tryin’ to get in the Holiday Spirit here, folks!). I used 6 -yes 6- stamps on this card! And all of them are from the Quoth the Raven set except for the frame…which is from Smeared Ink’s Nymphs set. And, I only used 1 piece of cardstock for everything. No mixing and matching. I had one piece that I knew would do the job, and lo and behold…I was right! The top photo is a little too yellow…where as this one is kinda washed out…put them together and you’ll know what color this card i...

To check out my StampInsanity post for today (and you really should!) please click HERE . Thanks! Now on to the hop! Today Smeared & Smudged has a member wide blog hop going on, and they always prove to be creep-tastic! Our theme this time around is Orange! Not a color I tend to work with too often, but I really went for it this time! So much so, that I am also entering it into Macabre Monday’s Monochrome Monstrosities challenge as well! How’s that for Orange??? Even the cardstock I stamped on is called Iced Orange (Prism)! I broke out my Smeared Ink Lil Grumpies set, because I haven’t played with them for a while and they were starting to get mad at me. He’s stamped in Chestnut Roan (Color Box) and colored with my Spectracolor Design and Prisma pencils. I think he turned out fabulous! Coloring these guys is just so much fun! I added a wee bit of dimension with some leftover paper that I had embossed a while ago with those fabulous swirls. A little more ink, a lotta glue, and ...

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...

I have a card to share with you that I am entering into 3 challenges. That’s a lot for me! First, The Burtonesque Dolls Challenge #11, which is to create in Black and White…Ed Wood style! The second is for the Simply Betty Sketch. Yup, I just did a card for that last week (when Miss Rio was green), but you’re allowed to enter more than once, so I figured, why not? The third is for Macabre Monday over at Haunted Design House . It’s a free for all from Barb this week. And while this card isn’t as creepy as some of the other things that I make, it is a little spooky! I have to say, I loved coloring Rio in black and white! I really like how her hair came out and the gradation of grays I used in her skirt. Here’s a close up. She’s boo-tiful, no? I took a bit of creative license with the sketch this time around, and I am quite pleased with the finished card. I made the sentiment using my Sunset Sizzix font (yup, just used that in my Pirate layout! Did ya see it????). added a rhinestone t...

Welcome to the very first Smeared and Smudged Blog Hop! We have some amazing talent throughout this entire hop, so please try to take a peek at everyone’s rad creations! My wonderful friend Donna sent me a couple stamped images from the Kraftin’ Kimmie collection that she knows I covet. I know! It was so sweet of her! This is Drucilla. I had the best time coloring this crazy chic in! Take a looksy! I so love her! Her voodoo doll reminded me of Lilo’s doll Smudge from Lilo and Stitch. So I had to color this doll using similar colors. I colored the rest of the image after I used the doll as a jumping off point. Here’s a close-up.: I colored the whole image using colored pencils and then I chalked the edges. Lotsa “smudging” goin’ on here! Ain’t she crazy and cute? Please click on the pics to see them bigger. I tried to add a lot of dimension with the colors I chose. Look at her eyes! I used some blue in them to make them rounder and look whiter! Here’s the inside. Nothing crazy. The...

I couldn’t resist. I was inspired! And as any artist should know, you can’t ignore inspiration, you have to indulge it! Otherwise, your muses will get pissed off and go elsewhere to give out their amazing ideas! So I couldn’t help myself but to make a second card for this week’s Macabre Mondays from Haunted Design House . The challenge is Gothic Asian Persuasion. I saw this amazing drawing from THIS blog that my friend Alex (fellow Smeared and Smudger ) recommended for digi images. I love kites…but this one was just begging to be hidden. I immediately saw a skull floating in the air, but alas, the skulls I have just didn’t work. Then I came across these fab bats that I love so much and thought that they were perfect! As you can see, I pop dotted them. I also used that funky black patterned paper that I had in my card from yesterday. Figured I’d tie the 2 cards together! I feel so much better now! I had been wanting to make this card all week. Itching to do it really… So I am so plea...

Hello! It is a very white Friday on Long Island. My husband stayed home, (which was great!) and I finally got to do my Macabre Monday card! This week’s challenge from Haunted Design House was “Gothic Asian Persuasion. What a fantastic challenge! I love that combination! I got to use two of my (seriously) all-time faves. What ‘till you get a load of these stamps! I needed to take a pic of the stamps themselves because they are just so amazing. Both are from Inkadinkado. I have always loved Asian-styled art. Especially Japanese. The simplistic brush strokes, the exquisite beauty they capture in everything… I could really go on and on about it. I even took a course in college about Japanese Lit because not only is their art amazing, so is their literature. Case in point; my blog name is taken from Japanese lit. You can learn about Pillow Books in my intro box above! But on to my card! So I repeated the bamboo several times in black, then in white. I made the white more subtle then the...

It is snowing outside. A lot. I think we may actually have a blizzard going on here on Long Island! Thankfully, my family is home and the kids are actually napping soundly- at the same time!!! Remember a couple of weeks back when I made my Fallen Angel card for Haunted Design Houses’s Fallen Angel Challenge? Well, I wanted to share the first card I made with the awesome-tastic stamp I won from Stamp It Crazy! But first, I really want you to click HERE to see Barb’s creation- which I am totally obsessed with and wish I could have as my own. ;} And here is mine: I’ll be honest… I just couldn’t get Barb’s card out of my head, so I had a tough time trying to do something different. I loved the idea of making her a zombie! But, since I own the stamp now, I can make her a zillion different ways!!! I love how her coloring came out. I think she’s beautiful… in a creepy sort of way! See her wings? I used fabric paint for them! I wanted them to look nice and globby (is that a word), to enhanc...

It’s Friday! Busy day for me today… running to the Motorcycle Show in the city with the Husband and Boy. The Girl will be hangin’ with Grandmama. So, this will be a quickie post (I often say that, and it’s never true!) Anyway, some of the chics over at Smeared and Smudged have mentioned Macabre Mondays . Macabre Mondays? Why have I not heard of this before??? Why am I not participating??? Well, I clicked on over to find out that it is just my type of challenge blog! I am so stoked that I know about it! Halloween all the time? Uh, a big Hell yeah to that, thank you very much! Yeah… this post is already getting long! So this week’s challenge is Fallen Angel. Cool. Should be pretty easy for me right? Wrong! I have some pretty awesome wings… but no “body” good enough to put them on! Then I remembered this sick stamp I have from Stampers Anonymous, that looks pretty at first, but al I usually see is creepy and gothic… I love this stamp. So many ideas for it… I used a few types of markers ...