21st Century Pillow Book

Hello Guys and Ghouls! I am so stoked for today's Smeared Ink Reunion Blog Hop. Smeared & Smudged (as the group was called) was one of the reasons I made so many online friends, inspired me to make many of my dark and creepy projects, and was the 2nd DT I was ever on. So many stamps....so many memories. Terra, owner and founder decided it was high time for a reunion hop, so I absolutely had to play along. I'll be honest, my crafting time really diminished in the past couple of weeks, and my delusions of grandeur were shattered. So my project isn't over the top, but it is very Smeared. I decided that since this hop is a little virtual party, I decided to use one of the fabulous little Grumpies. This guy with the party hat is too funny. I started off by  stamping him with VersaFine Ink and coloring him in with Memento Markers, both from Imagine on a piece of Smooth Bristol cardstock. I inked around the image and distressed the edges a bit. Originally this guy was ...

Hello! It's time for Day 27 of the Smeared & Smudged 31 Days of Halloween. Where has this month gone??? Today I made a project for the latest challenge from A Day for Daisies . The theme is Anything Halloween , and  used their Ravens Waiting digi. I LOVE this company. It's certainly one of my favorites. Isn't this a fantastic image??? I colored the image itself with Spectrum Noir markers, and the background was done with watercolors. You don't need many colors for this image...but I look forward to experimenting a bit with it with some unusual colors. I used my favorite punch (Drippy Goo), and 2 dies from Dreamweaver Stencils, called Nesting Frames.  My sentiment is from Smeared Ink 's Quoth the Raven set. Please be sure to visit the rest of the Wicked Bloggers, all listed in my sidebar. Thanks for stopping by. Have a creep-tastic day!

Can you tell that sometimes Dream Team's "Fearless Leader", Pam Hornschu, has a hard time deciding on monthly challenges? Since the team will be taking turns all month with the Smeared and Smudged 31 Days of Halloween, and we did a Christmas collaboration with Stampendous and Core'dinations the 13th - 17th, the confusion should be understandable. Therefore...happy HallowThanksMas! As usual, we'd love for you to play along with the challenge and link your creations to the Inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog. Just in case you are wondering...NO, YOU DO NOT NEED TO POST SOMETHING WITH ALL THREE HOLIDAYS ON IT! However, you get bonus points for actually using  Dreamweaver  stencils and product on your creations! And bonus points might actually earn you an extra stencil as our monthly winner...just sayin'! Many people think of crows when they think of Halloween. The supposed harbingers of death, their strange "caw," the movies, like The Crow...which t...

Yup...I'm late. Stupid late. Like, it's almost tomorrow! But,, these past 2 weeks have been insanely busy. Pampered Chef meetings, Pampered Chef Shows (need anything??? ;) ), school meetings, regular errands....so my apologies for posting so...late..... I used the Jack O Lantern stencil from Dreamweaver Stencils. First, I applied alcohol inks to one side of the stencil, much like I did with the spider web stencil on my Hedwig card. But this time I used textured cardstock and 2 colors of ink, so the look is totally different. Because of this, I felt my Jacks didn't stand  out enough, so I cleaned off my stencil and inked them. So I used the most stunning gold ink that I've ever seen. Delicata Golden Glitz from Imagine Crafts . Love the shimmer, and in person it's even more beautiful. I outlined everything with a marker, and then added my sentiment from Cosmo Cricket. Ta-da! Better late than never, right? Please be sure to visit the rest of the Wicked Blogger...

Do you have a sweet tooth? I sure do! And that's the basis of my card for today. I used the adorable bear from Smeared Ink 's Candy is Dandy set. I don't think it's available anymore. I had this great little "candy" stamp from Inkadinkado that I thought was perfect for this guy. I used a couple of the Radiant Neon inks around the border, and for my Trick or Treat sentiment which is also a Smeared Ink image. I used a fabulous Kaleidoscope embossing powder all over the candies. I think it added a cool effect to the card. Here's another shot. See the rainbow? Looks cooler in person. It's so hard to photograph glitter! Thanks for visiting me today. Please be sure to check out the rest of the Wicked Bloggers, all listed in my sidebar. Have a spooktacular day!

Can you tell that sometimes Dream Team's "Fearless Leader", Pam Hornschu, has a hard time deciding on monthly challenges? Since the team will be taking turns all month with the Smeared and Smudged 31 Days of Halloween, and we are doing a Christmas collaboration with Stampendous and Core'dinations the 13th - 17th, the confusion should be understandable. Therefore...happy HallowThanksMas! As usual, we'd love for you to play along with the challenge and link your creations to the Inlinkz tool on the Dream It Up! blog. Just in case you are wondering...NO, YOU DO NOT NEED TO POST SOMETHING WITH ALL THREE HOLIDAYS ON IT! However, you get bonus points for actually using Dreamweaver stencils and product on your creations! And bonus points might actually earn you an extra stencil as our monthly winner...just sayin'! For me, I'm all about Halloween, of course...so I will be saving Christmas for the hop next week.  This was FUN! I started off with Dreamweaver...

Hello! It's time for Day 6 of the Smeared & Smudged 31 Days of Halloween! Today I have a card that came together pretty quickly. I started off with a Tim Holtz cat stamp that I got in my prize pack from last year's 31 Days. Then, I found a cool stamp I had forgotten about. A toile stamp that has been creepified. So there's witches, skulls, tombstones. I tell ya, if I found this in fabric form, I would totally be making some new curtains! Or a skirt...or something. If you click on the photo to see it bigger, you'll see all of the little details. This stamp is from Recollections, which is Michaels' brand. My background paper is from K & Company, I love the leaves on it. My sentiment is from Tiddly Inks.  I almost forgot about my washi tape! Also from Recollections. Love those crows. I hope you've liked my piece for today. I hope to have some non paper crafts up soon. If time allows it! Please be sure to visit the rest of the Wicked Bloggers, a...

Greetings and Salutations! It's Day 5 of the Smeared & Smudged 31 Days of Halloween. Today, I am double posting with the Dreamweaver Stencils Blog, so I decided to use the same stencil, 2 different ways. I used the regal Owl on Oak stencil. I made this in a pretty traditional way...with a stencil brush and some great inks. I used Versa Mark inks from Imagine Crafts (Tsukineko). But another important element to making this ATC was the Picasso Stencil . The Picasso is an absolute must if you want to get involved with stenciling. It's a brilliant little tool that masks, makes shapes, and I persoanlly use mine more than half the time that I stencil. See my clouds? Made with the Picasso. See how the colors of the branches didn't bleed into the owl and vice versa? Picasso. You need it! I used a clear embossing powder on the owl and the branches before I made my clouds. The embossing powder acts s a resist, so the cloud coloring doesn't go onto those pre-colored ...

Welcome to Day 3 of the Smeared & Smudged 31 Days of Halloween! Today, I bring you an ATC using a cool pumpkin stamp from Inkadinkado. I colored the image with alcohol markers and used a cool fabric tape on the bottom. Then, I added Queen's Gold Embossing powder from Ranger around the edge. Super simple ATC, but I dig it. I hope you do too. Please be sure to check out all the rules for 31 Days on Terra's Blog . And check out the rest of the Wicked Bloggers, all listed in my sidebar. Thanks for stopping by. Have a fangtastic day!

Greetings! As many of you know, I was the VERY lucky winner of the Smeared & Smudged 31 Days of Halloween last year. And boy did I get a lot of fabulous treats! I plan on sharing a bunch of projects this year using some of my winnings, and today is one of those days. I received 2 awesome Tim Holtz stamp sets, and this is one of them. I stamped the image and sentiment using Chestnut Roan ink from Color Box. This is my absolute favorite brown ink. I just love the color and the smoothness of the pad. Then, I added some color using 3 alcohol markers to the skull. I used some pink, which I thought was a funky choice, but I love the end result. I used some Distress Ink around the edges as well as more Chestnut Roan ink. The sentiment needed a little bit more of something, so I spritzed it with Imagine Crafts' irRESISTables spray (have you seen the new NEON colors?!). It adds great texture and a funky sheen. See the spritzing? Cool, right? So as you can probably tell, I am...

It's time to celebrate!!! It's finally October, and that means it's time for the Smeared & Smudged 31 Days of Halloween! My absolute favorite time of the year. I'm super excited because I won last year, and I can't wait to show you some things I made with my winnings. Plus, I am representing Dreamweaver Stencils on certain days (like today), and I am thrilled to show you what an exciting company they are! So here's my first piece..... I used Dreamweaver's Jack o Lanterns (LL 531) stencil for this card. And I had a lot of fun with them! I used the Molten Metal technique. I started with Glossy Black Embossing Paste  and applied it with a palette knife over the stencil. I removed the stencil, and while the paste was still wet, I sprinkled on 3 colors of Metallic F/X Powders . I used Pewter, Eye of the Tiger and Gold Dust. I then heated the Jacks with my embossing gun and watched them bubble! That was fun. Then I dusted off the excess powder. Simp...

I love paint chips. From an artist's perspective...I just love to look at colors...figure out what colors and tones are used to make them, and checking out which combos look good together. And from a crafter's perspective, I love to use them in fun ways around the house and on my projects. So, for both of my projects for today, I have used a paint chip. Let's start with A Step in the Dark . We are sponsored by Smeared Ink and the challenge is Anything Goes. Nice and simple! I used the lovely Luna for my card. I colored her with alcohol markers. Can you spot the paint chip? It's the pretty textured metallic piece behind Luna. It's a Martha Stewart chip, and I thought it was lovely. It has a great sheen. My Goddess sentiment is a rubber stamp, also from Smeared Ink. This is an ATC for the new Wicked Wednesday challenge. The theme is Something Sweet and we are sponsored by Sami Stamps. The paint chip is a little more obvious here, I think. It's 2 ve...

Blog Land! Today, I give to you (almost by the skin of my teeth) a project made for the latest challenge (the Number of the Beast) of Haunted Design House . I know, I know...it's been ages and ages since I have played along. Not because I didn't want to, of course. But time just didn't allow me. Well, this time, I HAD to play. 666 was always a big number in my house...no really! My Dad had always found 666 to be a recurring number in his life. Weird, but true. His parking spot at work, it was on his license plate, and other unusual situations.  None of these things were sought out. In fact, when he had asked his job about the parking spot, they apologized and said they would change it. He insisted that they didn't. So I was excited to see this theme...though ironically, I paid no heed to the number factor of the challenge, only the "beast/devil" aspect of it..    I worked with As Death from Smeared Ink . I haven't use this set in a while, and I though...

Hello there! I have a new Art Journal page for the 3rd prompt in Smeared & Smudged's Kickstart Your Art. The prompt is "Found Objects," and I went with Laura's fab tutorial to make my page. Plus, we are celebrating a Wacky Holiday over at the Bombshell Blog . It's Inspire Your Heart with Art. I have all the details about this cool day on the Bombshell Blog . I should have probably gone with some deeper tones, but I was working only with Glimmer Mists...so they tend to be a bit translucent. I really need to get some of those Dylusions sprays. I used some buttons, paper clips, and a couple of other things all over the page and sprayed the heck out of them. After the page dried, I stamped some pretty flowers from Bombshell Stamps ' 'Till Death set. So as I was looking at the page...thinking about the prompt and wacky holiday, I realized that even the ordinary can be extraordinary. Nothing is mundane....everything can hold even a little bit of mag...

Hello and welcome! It's the last Wednesday of the month so it's time for the first Bombshell Stamps Hump Day Hop of 2014! Also, since it's Wednesday, I have a new Wicked Wednesday ATC to share, PLUS it's Day 2 of Kickstart your Art with Smeared & Smudged. I combined the S&S piece with my Bombshell project. This month's Bombshell Hop theme was Animal Instincts. I wanted the participants to use at least one of the many animals Bombshell has to offer, or one of our animal patterns. There are many sets that could have been used this month! As you can see, I used the animal prints from Bombshell Patterns . Those patterns plus the prompt from Kickstart was my inspiration. The prompt was "Hearts." So I decided to combine the two ideas....love is primal to me. I am deeply in love with my husband, and I totally can feel the animal instincts kicking in with him sometimes. ;) In addition to the Bombshell Patterns set, I also used Madonna Woodcut (th...

Hiya! Here's something I haven't been able to participate in for quite a while...the Smeared & Smudged Member Blog Hop! It's one of my goals this year to start participating in some of the hops and challenges that I used to love being a part of. Last year, many of those things got away from me. I hope to change that this year. This month, the challenge was "Anything Goes," so I had no excuse not to play along. I received my amazing winnings from the 31 Days of Halloween a few weeks ago, and I wanted to play with some of my new stamps. So I broke out the Occasions Grumpies and decided to use the spa Grumpie. Though it was a tough choice...I love so many of them! I colored my Grumpie with alcohol markers, and my background was done with watercolors. The phrases are handwritten and from the Occasions Grumpies set. I don't know if you have resolutions for 2014, but after relaxing with my family at home for 2 weeks...doing very little of anything besid...

Greetings! Welcome to Day 12 of the Smeared and Smudged 12 Days of Creepmas! Can you believe that this is it? Well, I won't keep you waiting...here's my project. I had been wanting to do some sort of Santa Poe throughout this whole celebration....so I saved him for last! I used Poe from Smeared Ink's Quoth the Raven (one of my all time favorite sets from SI), as well as the fantastic wings. The hat I drew myself (rather quickly)...and shoot! I meant to add a bell or a pom pom, and I forgot. I embossed the wings with a really pretty glitter embossing powder. Wanted Mr. Poe to look a wee bit angelic. ;) I only glued the portion behind Poe, so that the wings would be raised off of the card. Here you can see the glitter better. My sentiment I made from an alphabet stamp from....guess who? Yup. Martha freakin' Stewart. I love this set. And the snowflake I had laying around....Check out his scarf? I know he always wears an ascot, but he wanted to be a bit more fes...