Check out this awesome blog candy!

Rather than feel depressed about getting older, Linda over at Linda's Crafty Creations is having a blog candy giveaway for her 60th birthday. Isn't she the sweetest? The link is on my sidebar, but hurry and enter!

Happy Birthday Linda! Remember we are aging like fine wine, from another who's sliding towards her 60th shortly.

Smeared & Smudged Valentine's Day Blog Hop

This is an altered paper mache box that I made to house one of my journals.  The "tiles" are made from black polymer clay that I textured using various stamps, and colored with Perfect Pearls.  The uncured tiles were then glued onto the box, then baked/cured in the oven.  The image of the woman is a digi stamp from Smeared & Smudged from the Femdom collection, called "Spreader Bar".  She was colored with Fabrico & Tombow markers and mounted onto a piece of  black "corrugate" cardstock.  I then took several metallic words by Making Memories and colored them with different colors of Adirondack Alcohol Inks.  The word Love was deliberately mangled.  This was an extremely personal project for me as I truly identify with the subjugated woman who is not allowed to speak and whose hand are tied behind her back.  The journal encompasses my journey as I separate & break the chains that bind - 21 years of marriage to an insecure despot - Time served.

Please check out all the wonderful projects from the talented ladies on the list, which is to your right -> and up. My apologies for downing anyone's Valentine's Day also for the delay in getting these dang pictures up. ** Weird, my computer shows the files, blogger can't see them, so I had to replace them **

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, here's the list of bloggers:

Terra
Tori
Alison
Lady B
Helen
Kymberly
Berenice
Kelli
Lisa
Dianne
Teri
Rebecca
Steph
Jane
Sugar
Kapree
Black Dragon
Alex

Why don't she write?

 I must warn you all the following pictures are very scary, and to me quite sad.  This is my crap, no I mean craft room - it's a teeny tiny bedroom about 7'6" x 6'8", and there is toooo much crap in there.  When I look at these, I think to myself  "this person should be on "Hoarders" ".   Perhaps I should.  

But, as any artistic/creative type person knows, it takes supplies to create anything!  Part of the problem is that I have too many areas of interest, since I have the attention span of a gnat .  First it's crochet, then spinning, then scrapbooking, followed by mixed media, quilting, lapidary work, jewelry making, cross stitching, drawing and painting, back to scrapbooking & paper arts.  EGADS!  The cycle continues.  At first it was okay when I just did scrapbooking & book arts.  There was room for what I used, but the fabric has taken over.  Immediately behind my chair is a mountain of fabric, some in containers, much is just stacked. 

God forbid someone should ask me if I have something.  I'm sure I do,but it takes forever to find what they are asking for.  Heck, it takes me so much time to find what I need for a card or a present, that the holiday/birthday passes before I finish making something.

I could blame getting sick, my heart condition, or the fibromyalgia, or the depression following my mother's passing (8 years ago today),  my buying things that I have, but lost, or my younger daughter who cannot entertain herself when she's home - she needs reassurance and gets upset if I want to go in my craft room, or my husband, a useless 300lb. person who lays in bed 24/7 expecting me to do everything for him except wipe his ass (it's not that he can't do, it's that he won't do anything).  Bitter much?   But, the fact is there is no excuse.  So, I've started to sort & purge, and at least store the fabbies somewhere else, unmount boxes of wood stamps, sell whatever I don't want & throw the garbage out.  I've asked my older daughter to come help move the heavy stuff - she's very strong .  Better to do it now, because if there were an earthquake & I was in that room - they'd never find me .   

If you read this, thank you for letting me vent.  I really am a nice person, just a tad overwhelmed right now. 

 

HDH072 -Hell hath no fury & S&S Sketch Challenge

The theme this week at Barb's Haunted Design House was Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.  Decided to kill the man in question, but didn't want it to be too gorey, and thought flowers are lovely and spring is coming soon.  I printed out the Grace digi from Simply Betty Stamps' great Steampunk line and came up with a little ditty based on a children's rhyme.  Colored Grace & former hubby with markers/pencils edging the cardstock with distress ink.  Added a few 3-d embellishments, placed it all on a floral paper on top of green cardstock from Club Scrap.

I'm also entering this card at Smeared and Smudged Forum's January sketch challenge.

Thanks for taking a look-see!  Comments are always welcome, Dianne

Simply Betty Challenge #2

This week's challenge from Simply Betty's Stamps is to "Make it a Classic"  using Black & White, Silver and the accent color of either pink or red.    For my card I used two of her cool Emo kids Christmas Lola and Valentine Miller (gosh, I love the look on his face - does he look lovestruck or what???).  They were colored with prismacolor pencils & Pitt pens, matted on a glittery dark grey/black cardstock & mounted on a white marbled cardstock.  I stamped little valentine candy hearts, attached them to foam rubber and placed them in a little candy altoid type tin embellished with black ribbon.  Added a couple of vinyl Thickets in black & Voila!

I'm really new at this card making - not hard to tell  hahaha

Welcome to the Smeared and Smudged Members Blog Hop to view projects from several talented ladies at S&S Forum.  The list of participants is to your right -->

For my project, I made a birthday card for my future son-in-law Cody who is turning 24.  He has a beautiful sleeve of skulls so I thought he might enjoy these skellies.  I used one of the new rubber images from Smeared Ink by Misty Benson.  Yes, I know it's the Death card, but it's also a card of rebirth, and each year we have the opportunity to re-invent ourselves.  I stamped the image on a grey cardstock, colored it with Prismacolor pencils, Fabrico markers and Pitt pens.  The Happy Birthday & fun is from Making Memories, and the Time Flies & Where Does the Time Go? are Dimensional accents from ??.  I printed out the "partay" senti & deckle edged, colored with Ranger's distress ink in Brick.  The little calendar is from 7 gypsies and the flower from Prima. 

As a side note, I crocheted him a beanie using my handspun wool in grey and black.  Tried to scan it, fail...  Found my camera & am charging up the batteries to take pics.  Anyway, I hope you liked the card and leave a comment if you wish.  Now off you go to hop to my  S&S Sisters' sites and leave them some love.   The list is to your right.  Have a wonderful day!  Dianne

Simply Betty Challenge #1 for 2011

Long time no post!  For Betty's first challenge of the new year, we were to use 2 of her stamps.  I used 2 of her Steampunk images (love 'em). 

This winter has just knocked the crap out of me, along with life challenges, but I really really would love to win even just one of Betty's new Valentine Emo kids.