21st Century Pillow Book

Hello! It's the grand finale for the Tando Creative and Stampendous collaboration. You are in for a real treat today. If you are only just joining the party, please head on over to the Stampendous Blog to see what the scoop is, and to find out how to win one of 3 prize packs. Now, on to my project. I know you've seen a lot of this guy all through the week, but come on... He's just SO cool! He's called Steam Pumpkin , and this is one of my favorite images released in the new July catalog. I broke out my alcohol markers, which I really haven't done lately....but I needed really great blending, and honestly, my (very very small) Copic collection, as well as my Prismacolors just needed to be used. This was my first attempt at making something look like it's actually metal, rust and all...and I have to say I'm pretty happy with it. Especially considering my limited color supply. As I was working on coloring the Steam Pumpkin, I was putting layer after ...

Hello! Welcome to a fun filled week of mixed media with the Stampendous team! We are super excited to be hopping along with Tando and their fantastic chipboard products, perfect for altering and combining with stamps, stencils, etc. There are of course, great prizes! To win, comment (with where you live) on all of the blogs listed, to have a shot at 3 prize packages. Full details are on the Stampendous Blog. Would you like to see what I made? I worked with Tando's Mini Printer Tray and Stampendous' Cling Winter Tweets stamps and Die sets. Plus lots of Deco Art paints and mediums, as well as inks from Imagine. I painted a few layers (including a crackle layer) on to the cover of the tray. I used a random piece of cardboard and Fitted Frame "V" for my tag, along with lots more layers of paint and sprays, including turquoise Shimmer Mister from Deco Art. It matches my hair perfectly! If you visit my Instagram , you'll get to see what I mean. Anyway, af...

The Stampendous team has been having fun all week playing with the Deflecto team and some of their great products. Deflecto was kind enough to send the Stampendous team some awesome items, one of which I am sharing with you today. There are some awesome prizes up for grabs, and you can learn all about them at the Stampendous and Deflecto blogs. I used 2 stencils for this frame. Cathedral Windows Small and Large . For the small, I used Copper Embossing Paste, and for the Large, I used Pearlescent. I sprinkled Lavender Glass Glitter over the wet paste, as will as a little Silver Micro Glitter . I went for imperfect, slightly random patterns. I wanted it to go past the black edge a bit. I needed to allow dry time between sections, so as to not smudge what I had already laid down. I used a fairly neutral palette, so that I can swap out the photo easily and it it will still coordinate. I'll have another project to share tomorrow, and I can't wait for you to see...

Hello! Welcome to the second stop of the Bombshell Stamps Hump Day Hop! The theme I chose for this month was "Let's Hear it for the Boys." The theme could have been interpreted any way the hoppers chose. I decided to go with a gifty item for a guy. Something he could perhaps have in his game room, or on his bar. I made a set of 4 coasters using the Homeward Bound set and Travertine Tiles. That's the complete set. You may recall I made another one of these tiles a couple weeks ago, but that one wasn't a coaster, as it had a big, awesome hole in it. Check it out HERE . I used the same technique for these, but I added a piece of cork to the back with E6000. I think this one is my favorite. But it' a tough choice! I made sure to make each one pretty different from the next. Each image is colored with Copics, on tissue paper. I have become so hooked (pun intended) on making these tiles. This set will be in my Etsy shop shortly. And I plan t...

Hello! It's the 3rd Tuesday of the month, so it's time for another Altered Challenge for the Beyond the Burtonesque Dolls ! This time around, I wanted to challenge everyone to create Pandora's Box. Well, ok. You don't have to go and read any Greek mythology (though there is a bit posted on the Dolls' Blog), but I want you to make or alter a box. And creep it out. You know the drill! So I have a bunch of coffins that I snagged super cheap, and I had yet to use one. So, I figured this was as good an opportunity as any! Here's what I did. It was pretty simple, but just creepy enough. I painted it all black, then I attacked it with Marigold Distress Crackle paint. After it dried and got nice and crackly, I went over it with Gathered Twig and Vintage Photo Distress Ink to age it further and dull down the color. Then, I took some beautiful spiderweb stamps from Basic Grey and embossed them in a Platinum color. Silver would have been way to bright. The platinu...

Halloween greetings! Today the Halloween Crew of Simply B Stamps is asking you to show us your treat bags!  Any hand made Halloween treat bag, trick or treat bag, cupcake holder, anything Halloween that would hold any special treats! Here’s what I made. I used Halloween Zombie Miller for this little treat holder I made. I started off with making the box using a Coluzzle template. How silly is Miller? I think he’s on a bit of a sugar high, don’t you? I used my watercolor markers to color this image in. I also used an EK Success jack o’ lantern border punch for the bottom of the box. Also, some super cool spider web stamps from Basic Grey. Won’t you play along? There are prizes to be won! Please visit the Simply B Stamp Blog for more cool projects and to check out all of the deets on entering your trick or treat box project. Thanks for stopping by. Have an inspiring day!

Seasons Greetings! It is time for the very last Bombshell Stamps Hump Day Hop for 2011! I can't believe the year is just about over. I had a great time with the theme for the hop. This month, the theme is "Give it to Me, Baby!" What's that mean? You had to make a gift for someone using your Bombshell Stamps . Even if that someone is you! This also meant no cards. Unless of course, you are making a super snazzy gift card holder, but I wanted the participants to it the old college try and try to make something else. I'm talking jewlery, altered art, mini canvases...anything that you could give to someone as a gift. The possibilites were endless! I combined this theme with Ms. December's (Torrey) challenge, which was Hot and Steamy. Quite interesting challenge titles we had this month, no? ;) Torrey's challenge was steampunk...which is so very Alison! Here's what I made.... I used one of those inexpensive wooden frames from Michaels. I started off wit...

It’s Friday! This has been quite a busy week. Fun…but busy. And because of all the busy, my project is not quite finished. I need to embellish it a bit more. I’m hoping I can do it today…But we’ll see. For now, it looks pretty cool. Just not complete. I used a plain wooden box and painted it green, then crackle painted it, and Distress Inked it. And the top has, as you can see, an image from Smeared Ink’s Holy City. The box was purchased for this very image. I colored the image with my colored pencils and Mod Podged it to the top. I just love this image. I plan on adding some things to the top. I’m not exactly sure what yet…I need to look through my stash to see what I can find. But I definitely need some more texture. Some lumpy, bumpy goodness. Here’s a close up of the crackling. I purposely did not apply an even layer of it. I really wanted the green to show through. I’ll be sure to post photos when the box is done. But what do you think of it so far??? Have an inspiring day!

It’s December 1st! Which means it is Day one of the Smeared & Smudged 12 Days of Christmas! Plus, I have a very special project I have been working on to share with you. Both creations feature fabulous Bombshell Stamps ! This is going to be a long post, but totally worth it, I promise!!! So let’s get started with the 12 Days… What is the S&S 12 Days of Christmas? Well, if you’ve been with me since October, you are already familiar with the concept, as it follows the same basic rules as the 31 Days of Halloween. You’ve gotta use at least 1 stamp on the project, rubber, clear, or digital, and it needs to be Holiday or Winter themed. Or, if you are making a gift to give someone over the holidays, as long as it’s been stamped, you can use that too. There’s a whole mess of Jolly Bloggers for you to visit each day, the list is below and on my sidebar. For those of you not creating projects, there is still a way for you to join in for the chance of winning a free Smeared Ink stamp se...

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...

How’d ya like my title??? Let me start off by saying, I had NO idea how to correctly photograph this project. And it’s a shame…because it’s pretty damn cool. My sis who’s a photography pro wasn’t around to aid me in this…so I’m gonna try and snag her to retake these dreadful photos. Now that that’s out of the way…I started to play with my Nymphs stamp set from Smeared Ink . And I cam up with what I thought was a fabulous (and funny!) idea. You can let me know what you think… So I painted this little box. I used some branches from the Tree Nymph and a few dabs of Distress Stickles in Peeled Paint…you’ll see a detail shot in a minute. But wait? What’s that blotch on top of the glass??? Why, it’s the dress the Tree Nymph is wearing! And look…there she is down at the bottom of the box! Hello down there!!! I guess she’s feeling a little self conscious…wait a second…maybe not… Gasp! She’s taking off her dress!!! The glass panel in the box slides out so you can put your treasures inside. ...