Sneaky Peek and Brand New Challenge From Ike!

The fabulous Ike has a brand new place to play at called "Show Us Your Pussies" dedicated to cats and only cats!  I just happened to have a brand new stamp to go with the brand new challenge! My domino ornament only shows part of one of the new "Cracked" animal stamps at Lost Coast Design but soon you will be seeing all of him and lots of other fab new stamps or you can run over there now and look at the new section..no waiting required!  So to follow the theme of  "Krimbo" challenge number one on its second week, here is the Cracked Party Cat!

 Come show some cat love to Ike and be part of history! 

And don't forget to check out the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity for our last day of Carmen's Christmas Event and our 2nd Facebook Challenge is going on AND our monthly challenge has 5 more days so lots of time to enter a stamped project themed "Altered Game Board Piece" so lots to do and lots to win! 

Lost Coast Portal to Creativity

Carmen's Veranda

Lost Coast Designs 
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Entering at "Show Us Your Pussies" Challenge #1 "Krimbo"

New Facebook Challenge at Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda!

Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda's 

                       *** FACEBOOK CHALLENGE - #2 WINTER HOLIDAYS ***
                                         starts Dec 1 though to Jan 15, 2016 
and I just had to have some more play with these awesome stamps!  Since I had to cut off some legs to make my ATC block, I had to show you the rest of the lovely "Reindeer Doll" and "Elf with Star", legs and all!

 '

I am not a tag maker for some reason probably because like cards I seem to miss the mark on most of the ones I make but these two I really love.  Gelatos and Inktense blocks with some Chameleon pens used like water colors in some places and some stenciled snowflakes with some bling and they were done!

Make sure to enter our challenge for December which is "Make a Game Board Piece" and also enter the Carmen's Christmas event!  All the goodies can be found at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity so look at those side bars and click away to find loads of fun!

Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda!

Like our Facebook Page we have challenges there, too!

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and 

here!

Mail Art Challenge at Lost Coast Designs

  Our challenge this month at Lost Coast Designs is to make some mail art.  So find some envelopes you have laying  around to pay bills with and make them fun to send your money off in!  Here is my companion envelope to the one I made for the start of the challenge.

This shows the envelope flap as I try to carry the design to the back as well.  I used the "Sun and Moon" stamps from Lost Coast Designs.  I also used parts of the "Grunge Window Wall" stamp for an added layer.  Some watercolor pencils, gelatos, and a baby wipe! and some stenciling and added layers did the job.

Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda!

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She Soars Canvas

Once again I am here with another whimsy girl, this time a little variation thanks to RitaMarie on YouTube for lots of inspiration!  The canvas is a chipboard piece from an album kit I bought on sale somewhere.  I added lots of gelatos metallic and regular and if I must be honest, and I must, it was started for a image of Poe and Lenore on their wedding day.  Got my brain crossed and here she landed instead so ravens in the background and darker colors....yeah you see where I was headed?  But this is the first girl I have drawn directly on the canvas, I have been far too chicken but I must say I am liking her a lot!  Her face is acrylics and then gelatos ruled the hair and wings with some Staaedtler watercolor crayons added in for outlining and some depth.

Two photo views...not a photographer at all!

Now she is free to fly away and find her fairy friends as the dragonflies have been telling her stories of a party planned for after Halloween!  Good luck to her on her travels! 

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:

Altered Eclectics Anything Goes Altered/Mixed Media

 Eclectic Ellapu Purple Team Altered Art

That Craft Place Anything Goes Mixed Media 

Conutry View Challenges Make it Blue

Love Hurts Canvas for Rhedd's Creative Spirit

I love cardboard and painting on it, making houses and chests out of it, I just plain love it!  This piece was a wonky cut and I thought about not using it but then thought it could be a wonky canvas.  The girl is mine and she is put on a mixed media background of paints and stamps and papers and stencils....the kitchen sink maybe hiding in there!

Yep, love hurts sometimes but we all fall in love even with a chance of it happening.  So here's to hoping she finds love very soon to heal her broken heart!

Come join us at Rhedd's Creative Spirit this month and bring you altered art and mixed media but no paper cards, Atc's, etc. just have a glance at the rules if you are not sure ;)

May I enter this at:
Altered Eclectics Anything Goes Mixed Media 

Eclectic Ellapu Purple Team Altered Art 

That Craft Place Anything Goes Mixed Media

Time to Get My Snark On

The Sisterhood of the Snarky Stampers is one of the most fun places to play ever!  This time the challenge theme is "Pink Halloween" how refreshing and also remember even though we end the month of breast cancer awareness, YOU don't end your vigilance in taking care of your ta tas!  So here is my take on a pink Halloween.

She is made on a canvas of a back of product packaging.  I used gesso, gelatos, some watercolor crayons, stencils with watercolor and Distress Inks.  I drew my whimsy girl some time ago and her dress is stamped with the "Grunge Tree" from Lost Coast Designs then cut out and glued to her body.  I added a pink witches hat with white added from my Pitt pen.  

I am heading on over to leave this one just by the deadline at the Sisterhood of the Snarky Stampers Challenge SOSS #45 Pink Halloween.

Remember Check Yourself to Protect Yourself!! 

September/October Progressive Challenge at Sparkle and Glitter

Running sooo late getting this blogged but hoping to beat the deadline.  This month's freebie image from Rick St. Dennis was "Alice".  She is such a beauty!  I decided to go with a journal page and a l"ne from a song and also used the "Wonderland Elements Set Two" and "Wonderland Elements Set One" to add to the pastel chalk background which has a rose and leaves.

Colored with Prisma colored pencils.

The next round starts at Sparkle and Glitter Rick's blog in November.  You will use any RSD image you already have for the first round and then in December you will get a free image to create with easy and fun!  So come join the fun!  

Remember, Rick has adult coloring books available signed at Zibbet and they are also available at Amazon US and UK.  Follow the Sparkle and Glitter Blog link for more info on these fabulous coloring books! Or just click HERE and it will take you right to the awesome info and you can see all the lovely books Rick has had published for us to color away!

Alone ATC

Still playing with my little folk girls but punked this one up a bit.  The challenge at Wicked Wednesday ATC this week is "Funky Hair" so here is some funky hair!

Check out the fun and I am entering her, of course, at

Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge "Funky Hair"

Vera Lane Freebie Postcard

Do you love whimsical and quirky like I do?  Then come join the party at Vera Lane Studio at Etsy and join and like them on Facebook!  This free postcard image comes in a set named "Girl and a Cat with Hats" sounds about right to me!  Colored with Prisma colored pencils and a little doodled edge.

Check out these awesome digis and join the fun on Facebook!  Love the odd and quirky so much!

Witch's Time Out ATC

I am so enjoying drawing these little folk type girls!  And they make perfect witches so perfect in every way it seems.  This little witch of mine, named Cleo, is taking a little time out behind a fence with a gorgeous pumpkin and her hat resting on a post.  The image is from Paola's Papers Etsy shop found here from a fabulous win at My Whimsical Little World Challenge which is always Anything Goes and is a wonderful place to play.  Colored with Prisma colored pencils and background in pastel chalks.

 Entering at Wicked Wednesday's ATC Challenge
 My Whimsical Little World Challenge October Anything Goes

Autumn Colors Challenge at Ike's World Challenge

I love fall colors...down South we don't have those lovely changes in color but I have seen them and do love them!  This image from Ike's Art is "Shoes - a Set of 4" and I have wanted to try it and when I saw one had flowers all over it my mind was made up!  I love this quote by Jane Austin to go with this awesome shoe!

Still time for you to enter at Ike's World Challenge #48  for the chance to win some fabulous digital images and as always, there is a super great freebie on the link to week one of this challenge!  

Create Hope Canvas

I am having the most fun with these little girls..folk girls..I don't know the actual title but they are so fun and whimsical to play with, almost like paper dolls!  This was done about an hour ago..I came home from Mom having a bone scan to see if the dreaded  "C" has reared its ugly head again and also taking flowers to the cemetery for my late husband who passed away 11 years ago today.  So needless to say sooo many emotions just overflowing that I went into my horribly messy craft room and didn't come out until this cardboard canvas was where I wanted it to be.

She is hanging upside down as I feel rather upside down myself!  Background  of gesso, papers, color washes, corrugated cardboard pieces, bottle caps and a cool square thingy, melted crayons around edges and pieces of cardboard, and some washi tape and some markers.  I drew her on the canvas instead of fussy cutting her as I have been...got brave for a moment.  So I am holding on to the words to create hope...stamped in paint from Lost Coast Designs "Doodle Words" in acrylic paint and then doodled of course!

Hang in there even if upside down keep on hanging in there! 

Entering at:

STAMPlorations Mixed Media October 

Altered Eclectics October Anything Goes

 Country View Challenge "Add Texture" added texture with cardboard and texture paste, and melted crayons

Dragons Lair Designs Challenge for October "Halloween"

Such a fun theme this month at Dragons Lair Designs!  Halloween and I chose a kit that is fabulously batty!  I made the little frame hold the sentiment "It's a Scream!" and decoupaged my little right side up bats wings and my little upside down bat and added a flat backed glass bauble to him to enlarge him a bit..such lovely blues in this kit!

This is the Batty Mini Kit found at the Dragons Lair Designs Store and it is soooo fun to play with digitally and a hybrid like this one is. 

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Dead Fairy Artist's Garden at Rhedd's Creative Spirit this Month

Fairy gardens are the rage right now and I love them!  I do have a tendency to like to creep things up a bit so of course I had to make my fairy garden just a bit different.  She is an artist who loves to paint outside in nature and is the lovely wife of Harold, her nondead zombie husband.  Harold works all day long to come home to his beautiful bride standing in the yard painting on her easel.  Their house does need a little work, but Harold has promised to add that gargoyle as soon as possible!  

Oh, I forgot about their pet ghost or rather Aunt Jane!

 

Know all those expensive paints and brushes we have to buy?  Not our dead fairy artist!  A dying flower each day and the dew and air make her paintings simply glow!

 

Don't judge Harold by that scowl on his face.  He has it hard trying to keep it together at his insurance office, literally keeping arms and body parts from falling off!   He will be smiling wildly soon as he "unwinds" a bit with his lady love!

Please join us at Rhedd's Creative Spirit Mixed Media/Altered Art Challenge this month! 

Entering:
Altered Eclectics October Anything Goes

Fall is in the Air

At Ike's World Challenge this fortnight we have free reign to create an ATC, with the theme "Anything Goes".  I chose an image I just love from Ike's Art called "Leaf Pooch" and colored the leaf he brought to show his happy owner in autumn colors.  It is fall technically but here in the South in the U.S. you can't quiet tell it is except for some occasional breezy mornings and some very brown leaves falling!  But I have seen those awesome colors from farther north and love them so I decided to go with them, after all a plain brown leaf would have been pretty boring!  He has a heart charm on his collar because who couldn't love this adorable pooch?

He clearly thinks this awesome new thing falling through the air is special enough to deliver it right to your feet with a smile.  He is just too stinking cute!  So come join us you still have time and show us your anything goes ATC and get a chance to win some awesome images from Ike's Art and catch this challenges new freebie!  See you there!

Hello Blood Moon

I was sitting here starting to try a folk girl's face and was surprised to see her turning out pretty well. I was only going to practice faces but her body appeared and I doodled a background and as I colored the blue sky over her head, the blood moon pics and posts on Facebook came to mind.  So, my newly drawn girl became a blood moon tribute.  

Thanks to those sharing their talents on YouTube!  It is fun to try something new and totally out of my comfort zone!

Mixed Media Play

I got this wonderful stamp from Lost Coast Designs "Spread Your Wings and Fly" just for a mixed media make.  I used a cardboard canvas again but got it way to wet so it warped a bit on me.  I started with a layer of tissue paper so the inks could drain along the creases. I also added a stamped image from there called  "Silhouette Lady with Umbrella" because it reminds me of Mary Poppins who could fly, too!  

I used a stencil from the Artist's Cellar from the "Cathedral Series" I believe.  I was so lucky to win 5 full 12 x 12 sets of their awesome stencils when I ordered from there this summer...so fab!  So some stenciling and some cardstock die cut wings and lots of DecoArt and Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays with some gold acrylic rubbed over to highlight then shading around the two stamped images and the edges of the canvas.  Last thing was to splatter some white and blue fluid acrylics on wiping them off the main image which has some Prisma colored pencils on her dress and the butterflies.  Also added a bit of a piece of old jewelry butterfly with the colors of my canvas exactly on it!

I would like to enter this in STAMPlorations Mixed Media Challenge for September and use a stencil.

STAMPlorations Mixed Media Challenge

 

Anything Goes for September Sparkle and Glitter Challenge

The progressive challenge at Sparkle and Glitter for September is to use any Rick St. Dennis image you have and play along.  If you enter this month, you will be able to email and get a free image for the October part of the challenge!  So come play and get to see what image Rick gives us for next month to play with, it is always fun to see what we get to use!  

I went for a tag because I had this lovely dress form "Buttons and Bows Dress Form"  colored waiting for a home and that fit the bill!  I used some sprays on the tag and added and element from a practice sheet of Rick's on coloring folds which I am still working very hard at as you can see!  Then some pretty threads and a pair of scissors with a stamped sentiment and it was done.

Check out the Sparkle and Glitter Blog where the Elite Design Team post their lovely makes and you can have a link to Rick's videos and his brand new absolutely fabulous adult coloring books of which there are 3 now!  One to fit your taste...all 3 fit mine!  So please stop by and see what is going on and while you are there, add that project using one of Rick St. Dennis's images that you have and get a free one in October!  Good deal I think ;)

It'a Christmas Already!

No, don't panic!  It is not Christmas just yet, but we are showcasing some of our wonderful Christmas kits and images at Dragons Lair Designs this month.  And there are some very lovely ones to revisit and take a look at, too!  Here is a wonderful kit called " Victorian Christmas " and a happy card I made from it!

This kit contains so many elements for the hands on crafter to the digital crafter and those who like to use a little of both.  There is holly, berries, flowers, ribbon, more ornaments, lovely papers, oh my, just too much to list!  but you won't be disappointed, that is for sure!

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Dear Me, Watson!

Our challenge at Ike's World Challenge this fortnight is "One for the Men".  The awesome Ike gave away a fabulous image of Sherlock Holmes and I have wanted to use him for ages!  Finding a sentiment for a man's card had me stumped until I had the idea of making Sherlock the criminal all along and Watson finding him out but it was waay to wordy.  So a lovely gave me the idea of just using "Watson?"  as Sherlock stands by a cauldron with poor Watson's skull and legs cooking away!

 Using "Sherlock"  from Ike's Art.

Still time to enter so go get busy and let us see your manly entries!

Look! It's a Flying Monkey!

I absolutely love this stamp!  From Carmen's Veranda "Flying Monkey" is so much fun!  And of course, the "Flying Monkeys Background" stamp is equally fantastic!  I made this postcard sized on some paper I made with shimmer sprays and added some Distress markers to color him up.

This is my post for today on the Lost Coaster's Review Design Team  Blog and it is also up on the Lost Coast Facebook page.  Please like us and visit the Reviewers Blog every other day for some inspiration by some awesome teamies

I added the word "Believe" from the word stamp "Doodle Words" from Lost Coast Designs because you really have to believe in flying monkeys for it to be fun!  Hope to see you at our Lost Coast Portal to Creativity for all our challenge and event news!  Some fabulous events coming up but shhh! I didn't leak it!

Remember, our challenge this month is "One Layer or Single Layer" so come play and get a chance at some fabulous rubber from Lost Coast Designs!

Lost Coast Portal to Creativity

Carmen's Veranda

Lost Coast Designs

September's Challenge at Lost Coast Designs Portal to Creativity

Time for the new challenge "One Layer" at Lost Coast Designs!  Remember, you can use any stamps but you get added in twice if you use one of ours!  This challenge was a real challenge...one layer, the concept kind of escaped me for a bit.  I know, how simple, but I tend to make simple things complicated!  So after much consultation with my trusted confidants I think I might have gotten the concept!  The stamp did all the work.  Chloe Collage is such a beauty!

I made my paper with Lindy's Stamp Gang Shimmer spray and a girls profile stencil with a lighter pink mixed color to sponge it with.  The sparkle is fabulous!  This pink piece means more than just any make because it is one month until Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.  The word "Hope" means so much to so many who have been touched by this disease.  So please do your part to protect yourself and your loved ones.  Encourage those mammos, self-checks, and do what you can to be safe.  So Chloe embodies to me the face of hope and the day we can say we have all beaten breast cancer once and for all!

Make sure you visit the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity for all the news and add your entry to this months challenge!  Also, have a good look see at Lost Coasts Designs and Carmen's Veranda's stamps stores, I promise you will be making a wish list waaay long!  Links are added below to make it easy to click and enjoy!

Lost Coast Portal to Creativity

Carmen's Veranda

Lost Coast Designs 

It's Pet Time at ICW

I loved this little bird given as a freebie at Ike's World Challenge from the first moment I saw it!  I also saw a tutorial on how to color with ball point pens, yes, ball point pens.  So off to the dollar tree I hop to buy some cheap pens and started to work on this little wren.  Loved the effect it gave of feathers.  Then of course he needed a home so a handy dandy cardboard box just screamed to be his cage.  I altered the box and added some wire for the front, used a nest from my mom's stash, and added some embellies to brighten up his new home and I now have my own little wren in my craftroom to keep me company!

 Image "Wren" found at Ike's Art

Please join us in our new challenge this Tuesday and see what fabulous freebie the generous Ike will be giving us!

Ike's World Challenge

 

Fun Canvas

This was inspired by an article in Somerset Studios magazine.  I loved the detailed instructions with photos and finally let go and just painted!  It is a repurposed 11 x 14 inch canvas that had lived a short life as a very unattractive attempt at something!  

It is a new month at Rhedd's Creative Spirit for mixed media/altered art and we look forward to seeing your makes this month!  Hope to see you there!

Mixed Media and Stamping Fun with VivaLasVegas Stamps

Royalty! Ah, the glamor, the mystery all draw us into a world we think we would love to live in!  Well, I am most sure I will never be a part of any royalty so it shall remain a lovely mystery to me!  But at VivaLasVegas Stamps Card Swap they are giving me a chance to create my own brand of royalty!  Now most folks would go with the regal king and queen and their amazing court. Most folks.  Alas, you know I fall no where near that category!  My ideal royal court consists of freaks!  Yes, freaks.  As I contemplated an idea for the sway that must consist of a King, Queen, Jack, and Ace; I remembered this awesome sheet of rubber I had bought from VivaLasVegas stamps called, you guessed it, Freaks.  So I grabbed my notebook with my stamp references (thanks, Anne!) I found my queen first, quickly followed by my king, jack and ace.  Hurray! My biggest hurdle conquered! Remember we are talking about royalty so my language may reflect that.

Next came the issue of a background fit for my freak royal court.  Mixed media is a growing passion of mine that I am trying to learn as much about as I can sooo an Andy Skinner YouTube video gave me such inspiration that I wanted to try it right then and there.  So to summarize rather quickly, I glued on scraps of an old encyclopedia pages, painted the edges purple fluid acrylic, used vasoline to mask the parts of the pages I wanted to show and painted over the whole cardstock with red fluid acrylics. Then a baby wipe when dry to wipe off the masking leaving my lovely pages showing.  Another layer of masking and some orange painted over that and same process with baby wipes. Another layer this time using gold acrylic paint and a stencil of a crown and a key from a mini set of stencils from Red Lead using gesso and  I had what I thought was an amazing background. 

The fun part: stamped my freaks on white cardstock, colored with distress markers, fussy cut, glued down, added some bits of air dry clay painted with watercolor paints ( dollar set from dollar store), stamped some words from the sheet to make the sentiments my royalty wanted to express, inking them with pastel colors topped with a bit of gold ink pad, and placed everything where I wanted it to go.  Then for extra strength for the paint and the clay, I gave them a good 2 coats of matte medium by DecoArt, oops! after stamping their letters on their cards with black embossing powder.

Love these little freaks and now the whole crew has a Queen, King, Jack, and Ace! I am sure this will help the kingdom run more smoothly! 

Happy Crafting!

+ 

Holiday Time!

It is the second part of Rick St. Dennis's Progressive Challenge at the Sparkle and Glitter Blog!  For the second part we were given the image "Helen's Mice August".  She can be found at Rick's Zibbet Store along with soooo very many awesome images!  I colored her with Prisma colored pencils with some Distress Markers for some added touches and then she was layered on some shocking pink paper and a lovely blue. Then a back layer of a map as she is off for a holiday!  I stamped the sentiment and added a homemade melted bauble with a pink flamingo and some flowers from a broken earring.  I added a hanging paper bead thingy to give her that added bling she obviously adores!

Join us for the next challenge starting in September, you use your own image for September and then in October you receive a free image to create with!  How fun is that?  See you at Sparkle and Glitter in a few days!

High Fashion Time at Ike's World Challenge

F is for fashion and freebie!  Both are parts of my make for Ike's World Challenge this fortnight. I used two of her amazing freebie images given each challenge one named "Hello Kitteh" and the other "Birthday Fashionista" for the challenge "F is for Fashion".  I put them on her lovely Greek scene found in the "Greek Bundle" at her store  Ike's Art.  Also added a little arrow from Dragon's Lair Designs to put my sentiment on.  

 

Come on over and show us your take on fashion!  As you can see it can be very different for each of us!  Have fun and make some cat walk material for us!

Remembering Lily

Today we are remembering Lily Chilvers a truly beautiful artist and soul taken from us too soon.

To honour Lily we are sharing projects we have made in her memory using the wonderful, whimsical and wacky art she shared with us all.

Blog Hop List

The Octopode Factory

Suzi McKenzie

Alison Heikkila

Hazel Thomson

Teresa Morgan

Susan Renshaw

Maureen Scott

Leadonna Fritts

Sharon Rogers

Erin Stewart

Susan Salyer

Black Dragon

Julia Vazquez

Kristina Deyette

Kelli Green

Kim Rippere

Gloria Palmer-Steiger

Donna Mundinger

Miranda Van Den Bosch

Fiona Randall

Elaine Hughes

Kezzy Art

Nan Bourdeu

Sue EisenHauer

Janet Klein

Deborah Johnson

Tit Belsoeur

Jenn Borjeson

Wendy Waldorf

Stephanie

Sandra Botham

Tabbatha Ljungberg

Trish Latimer

Arielle Gordon

Carol Plume

Anne Marie Healey

Serena Bee
Leigh

Thanks for the color, the joy, the laughter your wonderful images gave us.

Love from us all to you. 

It's Christmas in August

Another fabulous image by Rick St. Dennis found at his Zibbet mega store, one of a series of outhouses. Yes, outhouses! Nostalgic, wonderful images and I had to have the one called "2012 Noel Outhouse" as it has my daughter's name at the top! Not sure how she will react when I make the one to frame for the livingroom but I love it!  Bear with me this is a card, and I do not make cards...ever.  But as a nontraditional card it needed to be made!

                    So early Merry Christmas, baby girl! You will always be my Christmas miracle!

Happy crafting! 

May I enter here:
Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge 2

A Special Remembrance

I have been searching for an image to make a project to honor the memory of my late husband.  Rick St. Dennis of course had the perfect image and the title "October Morning Glory" made it even more perfect, if possible.  I lost my husband the first week of October, 2004, and this time of year is a very hard month for me and my family. So I was inspired to create a love letter to him by a project in a magazine with a stamp of love sentiments as a journal page but I wrote my thoughts about love with a blue pen and covered it with blue water color wash.  I had colored her with Prisma colored pencils in blue for morning glories and his favorite color for me to wear was blue.  I attached her to the writing and then to a chipboard base with lots of brown for my eyes which he always thought pretty.  

 This is in memory of a loving, caring husband, father and son-in-law who will be missed forevermore.  

May I share this at 
My Whimsical Little World
Blogger's Challenge Blue Challenge 
Crafts4Eternity Anything Goes 

Creative Craft Cottage "For the Girls"
The ABC Challenge "Anything Goes"

It's August It's Hot and It's Time for Our "Three of a Kind" Challenge at Dragons Lair Designs Challenge Blog

Wow! is it hot or what?  Well, maybe not for a lot of you but here in South Mississippi it is sweltering!  I know some of my friends are having winter right now!  Such a wonderful world we live in!  The theme for Dragons Lair Designs Challenge Blog this month is "Three of a Kind" and while looking for images new to me at the Dragon's Lair Designs Store for a game on our Fan Group Facebook page I found a lovely digital stamp "Family Photo".  It was a lovely family of Janette's precious dragons!  What better image for three of a kind!  I also found a bright, wonderful "Rainbow Kit" of papers to use with this image and the summer theme we are using at Dragons Lair Designs Inspiration Blog.

 

I made two cute flowers by taking two strips of the striped paper and cutting along one edge "fringing" it and then rolling on a pencil to make a flower.  I slide it off the pencil and glued the end then pushed the petals down and shaped them up.  Beads were glued in the centers.  The green rose shaped flower was a spiral cut from some green paper from the kit and rolled up on a pencil.  I colored the edges and undersides with a green distress marker.  A green bead formed its center, also.  Other embellishments were some flower stickers, a three heart applique, purple plastic bead, and the sentiment tag.  I made it by cutting a square out of yellow paper to place like a diamond shape.  I took stickers from Tim Holtz's Chitchat pad and layered onto the striped paper.  After gluing them to the diamond I added 2 small flower stickers to each side. Then I attached it to the corner of the "family" photo.  And that was it!  So many things to do with the awesome paper kits from our store!

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It's August at Rhedd's Creative Spirit and Finnabair Style Time Again

From a tiny steampunk house back to my much beloved Finnabair sytle!  This set of wine bottle and glasses has been in various stages of being finished for over a month now.  I never quiet liked the end results and out the paint would come and more layers added to only be covered up again ending with something very similar to the beginning one!  Frustration reigned and I must say still does!  I love most of the finished piece now but still didn't get the light areas I wanted in the right way.  But there comes a point when it is time to put the sprays and paints down and say enough! 

I was lucky enough to be given a bag of old watches and decided I wanted this heart shaped one as the focal piece of my wine bottle.

The bits and pieces used on all three pieces are mostly air dried clay, metal pieces from the desk caddy, and some metal steampunk pieces.  All were adhered with hot glue.

So now it has a place of honor if for nothing else but the sheer number of layers! in my china cabinet!  I love this wonderful technique created by Anna Dabrowska who you can find here and explore tons of Finnabair style makes! 

I hope you can join us this month at Rhedd's Creative Spirit Challenge blog and enter your altered/mixed art!  We see so many inspiring projects each month and it would be nice to be inspired by you!  

Happy Crafting! 

May I enter this at:
Altered Eclectics August

Mermaid Time in My Oz

I just bought a lovely new mermaid image by Rick St. Dennis from his Zibbet Store which is has a huge selection of digital images!  I also received the same week a fabulous grand prize winning of 5 complete sets of stencils from the Artists Cellar!  So I took a piece of cardboard and made a canvas from it!

The image is "Undersea Ballet" by Rick St. Dennis colored with Prisma colored pencils.  The cardboard was covered with gesso. I let that dry and then traced around the mermaid with a light blue Distress marker to keep from adding texture under her I used the water set of stencils and the bubble stencil from it to apply DecoArt modeling paste which dries transparent. I sprayed with glimmer mists from Lindy's Gang Sprays and DecoArt shimmer sprays.  Blues and green on the bottom and pinks, oranges, and golds on top.

Then glued her down with Tim Holtz's media matte medium.  I stamped the sentiment in black at the top "Dance Deep into the abyss" by Smeared Ink.

She was made for me! No challenges although I may enter her into some but I wanted this for myself!  And I love how she turned out!  Not perfect, I smeared the sentiment and thought it was fixed until I took a photograph, but I still enjoy looking at her!

Happy Crafting! 

May I please enter the following challenges?

Craft Stamper "Add a Stamp" (my sentiment) 
My Whimsical Little World "Anything Goes" July 

http://stamplorations.blogspot.com/2015/07/stencil-sunday-july-5.html 

Playing with a Face Sketch

I was reading a magazine and saw a face sketch challenge.  The challenge was on old one and you were supposed to take a photo of yourself and sketch it digitally or with charcoal pencil.  I took another direction with it instead of making a journal page with it; I decided to go for a collage effect.  It was fun and my knowledge of Photoshop is very limited so the colors did not cooperate with me but I kind of liked it.

This was eye opening as in some filters every line and wrinkle popped right out at me!  I do not like seeing  myself in photos, never have, but I made myself play with the images and decided it was okay.  My next one is using a filter that makes me look so old and wrinkled that it will make a fabulous dark make!  So be prepared it will not be pleasant to look at! :)

Happy Crafting and take a picture and have some fun playing!