Smeared Ink Monday - Skelly Chic!

Good Morning All!!  I hope everyone's had a great weekend!!

I was busy crafting and organizing all day yesterday.  So relaxing!  My card today uses a true mish mash of goodies that I found hanging around my craft table.  I used Smeared Ink's 'As Death' set, combined with a rustic color palette of chocolate and light browns, greens, blues and assorted neutrals.

I used my Cricut to cut oval in order to add extra dimension to my focal image of the skeleton.  I bundled a collection of vintagey chic yet messy grouping of pearls, rhinestones, stamped images, felt stickers and ribbon on the left hand side to compliment and balance my bold and large focal image. 

I hope you have enjoyed and been inspired by my creation today.  I really love the combination of the dark image yet the light and elegant balance of the clustered embellishments!


Thanks for popping by today!!  Come hang out with us on the SI forum!!  There is always something fabulous going on there!
 

Entering into the following challenges:


DYSU!  Challenge #8 Anything Goes
Southern Girls Challenge - Bling!

Simply Betty Challenge Friday!

Hi Everyone!!  Happy Friday from a FABULOUSLY snowy day here in the great state of Maine!!  Today's awesome Simply Betty Challenge is as follows:  Your creation can be ANYTHING but must use an Emo Christian image... Christmas, Everyday, Halloweenie, anything Christian! Pretty simple!

Betty is offering up an AMAZING prize to the winner of this week's challenge!  One lucky winner, will be chosen to help us release our next line! The winner will be the very first aside from Betty and the Design Team, of course, to see the new line.  You will get to choose two digital images from the new line to help us debut them on March 15th! It is an "Egg"-citing one! You won't be disappointed! So pull out those Christians and get to creating!

Good luck, have fun and please make sure link your creation here by March 3rd at 10pm PST. 

 

Here is my Christian creation for today!!  I printed Back To School Christian and colored him with my Copics and Prisma markers.  I kept my card design simple and in boyish hues of green, blues and browns.  I used my Tim Holtz notebook paper embossing folder for my blue cardstock that I then edged in TH Vintage Photo ink.  

I used my Nesties in Label 1 for my PTI sentiment.  I used brown and blue striped ribbon and a piece of gold flecked gimp tied in a knot for my simple embellishments.  

I hope you have enjoyed and been inspired to join our challenge!!!

 

Crafty Hugs!!
Meredith

Fabulous Friday with Tiddly Inks!!

Happy Friday Everyone!!  I'm so enjoying time off with my family and our wonderful friends.  It's been a wonderful February break vacation week!!  

I made my Fabulous Inky Friday card with my Father In Law in mind.  His birthday just passed and hopefully this card has been in his hand for a few days now!  =) 

I made a long card as I wanted to encompass the Harmony at Home image as well as the new What's up (or Down) image.  I was originally going to keep the balloons on the What's Up image but for layout purposes I snipped them off. 

My cardbase is 9.25"x4".  I chose SU!'s Close To Cocoa.  I followed it up with My Mind's Eye brand cardstock, which is red on one side with the complimenting side showing in white flowers with a rustic feel to them.  

I colored the houses in the Harmony image with my Prisma pencils and Copic markers.  I kept my pencil coloring intentionally 'scruffy', if you will, so that I could have a watercolor"ish" look going on.  I used my paper blender and Burt's Bees Apricot Oil to blend my pencil.  It looks so pretty and smells DELICIOUS!  =)  

I created a scalloped border to snug in along the bottom right under my sentiment strip.  I used PTI's Mixed Mega Messages to create this.  I started in the middle with my first stamp and worked my way going left then right all the way out to the edges.  This way I was ensuring that my placement would be even and clean and not end up with more or less space between each image.  

Using my Nesties and Big Shot, I cut out two decorative labels.  I adhered them together, ran edging of faux stitching around them with a great drawing pen and finished that section off with two Martha Stewart wintery felt stickers.

As a final touch, I added the sweet What's Up puppy.  My In-Laws are Scottie people.  I knew that I had to incorporate him somehow!!  I tried adding him with the balloons as noted above but it just didn't fit right.  So I snipped them off, colored the puppy in black, coated him with Diamond Glaze and set him aside overnight.  I colored a second puppy that I'd printed out and trimmed his head off.  

When I came back in the morning, I added a pop dot to the back of puppy two and added him to my now dried and glazed up pooch.  I'm sorry but he's SO cute, if I do say so myself!!  LOL!

I hope you have enjoyed and been inspired today!!!  Please don't forget to swing by the TI Challenge Blog to check out the fabulous inspiration that is up on display!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Guest Designing for Gauche Alchemy!!

Hello Lovely Gauchites!!

I'm here with you with my last project as Guest Designer for the month of February!!  I want to thank all of the fabulous designers at GA for being so supportive and encouraging.

As my last project with the theme "Things I Love", I decided to use my hands.  I've always loved my hands.  Whether I'm rockin' my short, artist nails or long acrylic nails (back in the day!) I love them.  I love them because they are my best tool when creating, I love them because they fit perfectly into my Husband's hands, I love them because they care for and nurture our two darling children, I love them because they help me express myself, and I love them because they are my Mother's hands.  It's been five years since she passed and just about every time I look at my hands, I see my Mom's hands.  And I smile.

So with all of that said, here is my GA creation for today!!

One night while I was creating, my Husband took some shots of me.  My markers, my pencils, and my hands.  I printed out a few of my hands, finding this one to have the most visual interest.  (Since this picture was taken I have had the infinity symbol tattooed on my wedding ring finger - it looks pretty cool!)..but I digress.  I matted this photo and then decided to alter the photo using my Copic, Prismacolor and Pantone markers and my Deco Art paint pens.

I free hand doodled over the entire photo except on my hands.  I love the way the ink takes to the photo paper.  It really stands out!

After finishing my photo, I started on my layout.  Using all of my fabulous vintage papers from my GA Acme Kit, as well as my Green Envy kit, I went to work!  

My layout measures 8x8" on Kraft cardstock from SU!.  My matting paper with the swirly background is actually wallpaper!!  The swirls are actually microbeads!!  SO cool!!  I loved how the swirls mimicked the doodling that I had done!  (I didn't know I was using the wallpaper ahead of time so the swirls were a total coincidence).  I used some other vintage book pages to cut up and create my title "My Hands" in ransom  note fashion!  (LOL!)

For my GA embellishments, starting on the left hand side of my layout, I have a ticket strip that I turned into a strip of scallop edging, the gorgeous gold, lace ribbon that I've used in my other two projects, the green flower and gold coin, the green pom pom trim on the right hand side as well as the green mesh on the top right.

The gold shimmery cardstock that my title is displayed on is actually the back side of a GA business card!!  Gorgeous color, huh?  Love it.  The blue flowery bracket was cut using my Cricut.  

 

I used a strip of SU! 5/8" Grosgrain ribbon in Early Espresso and a snippet of ivory, crocheted ribbon to compliment the green pom poms.  

I do hope you have enjoyed my creations over the last 3 weeks and have been inspired to rock it out with all of the fantastic goodies that GA offers!!!

Masculine Birthday

Good Morning!!  Just a quick little creation for a friend's hubby for his birthday!  We happened to be heading over on the day of his birthday so I whipped up some cookies and this 4.5" x 4" card. 

I started with a base of SU! Kraft, followed by a slice of green, leafy G45 paper.  My next layer is a piece from an old Rand McNally map (thanks Lisa!!). 

I used a scrap of SU! DP (blueberry crisp?) as my stamping base.  I used one of their newer sets called Always.  I loved the flourish.  It's a pre-trimmed rubber stamp that mounts to an acrylic block.  Totally awesome.  And it inks up beautifully.  I colored it in here and there just to add a bit of dimension. 

I backed this panel with the flipside in the darker blue.  I stitched all of my layers and began to adhere.  I grabbed a raw chipboard bracket, coated it in my Colorbox Harbor Blue ink, thick embossing powder and heat set.  I used a smidge of twine to tie around the bracket and there you have it.  

A simple and elegant yet masculine card.

I hope you have enjoyed and been inspired!

Crafty Hugs!

Meredith

Tiddly Tuesday!!! Challenge #39 - Teach Me! Shaker Card Tutorial

Hello Everyone!!  Happy Tuesday Y'all! 

"Soapbox Thought Of The Day" -  While sometimes I think we have way too much connectivity, too much technology, too many ways to be connected and worrying SO much about what other people are do versus being present, aware and letting yourself get blissfully lost in your own world rather than someone else's.  There ARE times, such as now, as I sit in the car with my family, kiddies resting, hubby and I listening to good music while heading for an hour plus ride to go visit my Grandmother for her 80th birthday that I love technology.  I have writing to do and lots more creating to do later.  I'd much rather dedicate my time to creating later and am using my time while locked in a vacancy now to catch up and get ahead of my blogging!!  Gotta love wireless technology.  And so far no motion sickness feeling...so that's an added plus. Climbing down now...

I loved this week's project.  It was the Valentine that I gave to my better half last Monday! 

Shaker cards used to scare the heck out of me.  I'd see them on blogs and think...wow...WOW.  How did they do that?  I finally busted out of my comfort zone enough to try!!

And here's the tutorial that I wrote:

Shaker Card Tutorial

I chose to use a 5.5 x 5.5 card. It's a 'go-to' size for me....I just love it!

I used my Basic Grey magnetic mat (I use it for every project I make!!).

I measured in 1" on each side making sure to use light pencil marks on the inside of the front of my card.  This way there are no pencil marks showing on the outside of your card.

You then need to connect the dots to make a square. I then used my craft knife to CAREFULLY follow my ruler to trim out the square.  This is the frame of your card.

 I then measured the acetate that you need as the "glass" in your frame. You don't need to be as precise with this as the inside cover is covered in the end.  You’ll see down below that I’ve demonstrated two different techniques when using acrylic.

For this example, I used traditional "red liner" tape to adhere the acetate to the inside of the frame.  

I then brought out my stamps, ink, images and embellishments to decorate both inside and out.

You can use either foam squares as I did here, making absolutely sure that you place them directly next to each other so that the glitter doesn’t sneak out of the edges OR you can use 3-D foam runner tape (it comes on a spool...as opposed to 3-D squares or dots). 

I have done two different techniques.  My first technique is using a single piece of acrylic as shown here:

I adhered the top of my picture first to make sure that my alignment was correct. I then shook in about...a tablespoon or so of chunky, silver art glitter.

My second example uses an acrylic pre-folded card.  I stitched the edges together, dropped in a red cardstock heart that I stamped and heat embossed.  I sprinkled my glitter inside and taped up the top.  I adhered it in the same manner as the single acrylic sheet.  It lends itself to a bit more of a three dimensional look.

But either way you’ll have a fabulous shaker card in the end!   I then peeled the backing off of the other 3 sides of the 3-D tape and pressed my image firmly down. I shook any excess glitter off and.....

Voila!!  You have your shaker card!!

I hope you have enjoyed and been inspired to bust out of your creative snuggly crafty security blanket and try something new!!  I promise...it won't be as scary as you think!!  =)

Come on....we're right here!!  

Crafty Hugs!

Meredith

SBS steampunk Valentine's day hop

Hello Everyone!!  I do hope that you have been enjoying the newest Steampunk images from Simply Betty!!  I found such tranquility and calm while coloring these gorgeous images.

But first, you should be coming here from my darling friend Leila's blog.  I know she had something just divine for you to feast your eyes on!!!

May I introduce you to the GORGEOUS new Steampunk line from Simply Betty!!

Today I worked with Gwen.  She is just lovely!!  I printed Gwen and colored her with my Copics.  I trimmed her out and set her aside.

My backround paper is new SU! Blueberry Crisp.  I used my Cricut to cut three ovals that are layered in the center.  I sponged my frontmost layer with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Ink. 

I have a jumbo scallop and a small scallop layered under my 5/8" Grosgrain ribbon that I heat set and melted slightly to give it a bit of a harder texture.  I tied a piece of crocheted ribbon as an accent piece and a large chipboard bracket that I coated in jumbo chunky glitter. 

And when you are done visiting me you will be heading to sweet Tracey's blog to check out her fantastic creation!!



A Snuggly Smeared Ink Monday

Good Morning!!  It's snowy again here in the Northeast and while I am DEFINITELY enjoying the winter, the snuggly weather, the "permission" to hunker down and be inside cooking, creating, organizing, whatnot, I am finding that my thoughts are starting to drift towards spring.  Green grass, buds on the trees and bushes, chirping birds and that smell.  You know that springy smell.

So in my creation today I was channeling the upcoming spring by using all greens.  I LOVE the Heart Wings digi set from Smeared Ink.  Super versatile and so fun.  Dark when you need it to be but it can be lively and light as well!!  Hence, it's versatility!!

I kept my card crisp and clean today.  Something I struggle with as I ALWAYS want to add more and more!! 

As you can see, I printed my image (twice) on the larger side, colored it with my Prisma pencils, blended with my Burt's Bees Apricot Baby Oil and paper blender.  I used a variety of greens to make this image pop.

I colored and trimmed the wings out of my second printed image, ran them through my Xyron (image side down) so that the front would be all sticky.  I then sprinkled my glitter on the wings and VOILA!  

I added the wings with a single glue dot where the heart and wings connect.  My sentiment "Absolutely Fabulous" is from PTIs Mixed Mega Messages set.  LOVE IT!! 

I hope you have enjoyed and been brought thoughts of Spring!!  

Simply Betty - Help For Katie

Greetings!  I'm here with you today for a very special cause.  Our darling Betty was asked to design a stamp to add to the beautiful pack of stamps to help support Katie.  You can click on her name to read the full story.  There are two stamp packs available and both are MORE than worth the nominal cost. 

Here is the image that Betty designed:

And here is what I did with it:

I colored Katie with a mix of my Copic markers and Prisma pencils.  I purposefully kept my pencil coloring rough-ish, blending them with my Burt's Bees Apricot Baby Oil to give them a water colored appearance.  And yes, I purposefully smudged them outside of the lines ; ) 

I chose pink as my overall color with the exception of the base.  I used my Core cardstock which is black on the outside and purple on the inside.  I distressed the edges so the purple would peek out.  I pulled a slice of PTI star paper along with a piece of SU! cardstock.  I used my Cuttlebug script embossing folder for the piece of SU! which I then rubbed with pink craft ink, thick embossing powder and heat set it.

I used my Big Shot to cut the oval tags out - stamped with a sentiment from PTI.  I used a ribbon threaded button and chipboard for cute embellishments right next to my sentiment. 

There are two fabulous digi stamp sets in support of Katie.  Here are the links to them.

Set 1

Set 2

 Thanks so much for popping in today!!  Please stop by the SBSC blog to check out my fellow Design Team gals gorgeous works with this fabulous image!!

Wplus9 Design Studio Color Challenge

Happy Friday!!!  I have taken the "day off" around here.  I've been trying to take my Friday's as a chill day.  I don't deal with the laundry, cleaning, major projects, etc.  I do what I want to do.  If I feel like organizing...so be it.  If I feel like puttering around...so be it.  But I'm working on taking my Friday and just enjoying.  Which is what I did this morning while my kids were at school.

A darling friend came over and crafted with me.  I was SO inspired by Sarah's post here that I had to jump into the Wplus9 color challenge. 

I LOVE the soft and quiet colors of kraft, lilac, turquoise and white together.  So beautiful. I needed a birthday card for my Grandmother's upcoming 80th birthday and this was the perfect inspiration that I needed.

I started with my new PTI Stamp Set - Lily Of The Valley.  (well it's not NEW but it's new to me - never yet inked up!!) I was thrilled to have a chance to bring it out.

I stamped my flower in PTI's hybrid palette ink in Water Lily Green.   I used my Copic markers and Prisma pencils to color my image in.  I wanted to lend my image a watercolor vibe to it so I first colored the bottom of my bells in an aquaish Prisma  pencil.  I went over it with E30 - Bisque to bring the color forward a bit and to tone it down.  I colored the inside of my flower bell with a lilac colored pencil and did the same technique with my E30.

I then colored the leaves in BG11 - Moon White - one of my favorite Copic colors.  I went back in with my E30 and traced the leaves a bit for some contrast and colored the stems loosely with E55 - Light Caramel.

Using my Nesties (ya...I'm new to them and am LOVING them!) I cut my main image to use it as a focal point.  I nestled it with it's Kraft counterpart behind it to make the white and flowers simply pop.

My background papers are both SU! cardstock in Tempting Turquoise and Orchid Opulence.  I distressed them both by crumpling them up in my hands first.  I then stitched around the edges of both for added texture.  I ran my SU! Grey ink pad over the edges of the Orchid and I used my white craft ink on the turquoise.  I coated it with white embossing powder and heat set it so it would off set the springy image with a little touch of the winter we still have here in New England.  

I used an aqua double stitched ribbon to tie into a tiny bow (my card only measures 4X4").  A teensy bit of twine tied around the bow for a bit of a rustic feel and a tiny snippet of turquoise glittery ribbon for the bit of bling that I know my Grandmother will love.

I love how this turned out!!  Thank you W+9 and Sarah for the inspiration!!!

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend and for those of you whom it applies to, a great February vacation!!