Saturday with Poe, part deux

With Halloween fast approaching I'm adding to my Poe tribute collection of projects. When I was on the Smeared Ink Design Team, I started doing a sporadic Saturday with Poe and I've decided to continue on spending my Saturdays with him. This week the theme on the Smudgy Antics challenge blog is to use paint, messy & fun!

I flipped over a 10x10in canvas to use the wood as a frame & painted it black. The piece of pp in the center is from the "Street Lace" collection by Die Cuts with a View. I've distressed the edges with Pumice & Black Soot Distress Inks. I then stamped a verse from "The Raven" as well as a raven from Smeared Ink's "Quoth the Raven" rubber stamp set (my favorite set of theirs!) I also used some ephemera from a Joggles image sheet I had. I also used a Dusty Attic candlestick embossed w/Platinum UTEE and a couple of DA ravens painted black & embossed w/clear UTEE. The POE letters are from Making Memories.

September Smeared & Smudged Forum's Member Blog Hop!

Hard to believe, but it's already September. And, once again, time for our monthly Members' Blog Hop over at the Smeared & Smudged Forum. Each month we have a fun blog hop with a different theme. This month we were asked to combine two or more images into a new one, lots of possibilities. For my project I chose to combine the Jack in the Box from Smeared Ink's "Jack" rubber stamp set & Edgar Allen Poe's image, also from Smeared Ink. I also used The Octopode Factory's new Mad Hatter Digi. All were colored with Derwent Inktense Pencils & Tombow markers. I mounted them on a couple of older pieces of patterned paper, and all will be a part of a book for my DD, Becca. Sorry for the lateness.....

If you're not a member and you like the freedom to stamp and create the art you want to, it's time to join our little group! Besides, it's free. Our hop and forum is hosted by Smeared Ink who has the most awesome, edgy digital & rubber stamps. Check them out!

Next on the list is the lovely Kelli But, here's the whole list, in case you're lost:

Terra
Black Dragon
Jane
Kim
Celina
Kapree
Heather
Lady Brayton
Kristy
Monique
Lisa
Ike
Jean
Dianne-me
Kelli
Sara

I'm also entering this on Lily's The Octopode Factory Challenge Blog where the theme was stripes.

Thanks for looking

Smudgy Antics Challenge - Dead Divas

Each week, the folks at Smeared Ink are hosting a challenge on their DT's blog Smudgy Antics . The challenge starts on Monday at 12:01 a.m. and ends at 11:59p.m. the following Saturday, giving participants 6 days. The challenge has weekly themes, this week's being Dead Divas. The only stipulation is that there be at least one Smeared Ink stamp (digi or rubber) used. Beyond that, you can use any other stamps on your project. Of course, there's a prize! By Random Number Generator (which, by the way, hates me ), one person will receive a digi or prize listed on the blog. Cool, huh?

My project this week is a framed piece (all set for the best holiday of the year!) using one of Tiddly Ink's images "Frankie", a really sassy version of the bride of Frankenstein. She's a part of Tiddly Ink's Gothic Pinup collection. For the Smeared Ink image, I used the Gear Heart digi image available in their shop as a single, and printed several resized & twisted, printed on watercolor paper. For the coloring, I used Derwent's Inktense pencils, Tombow markers, and colored pencils. Added a little Distress Ink. Please excuse the flash...

A Call for Cards

The ever-sweet, lovely Meredith at Paper Canteen Creations has asked her crafty friends to send cards to a young man who was seriously injured last April. Ryan, on the long, laborious road to recovery, and whose story you can read about here Ryan's Recovery:. He sounds like such an extraordinary human being having moved from California to New Orleans to help out during the aftermath of Katrina.

Here's the card I am sending to Ryan:

The image is "Owlette" (isn't she adorable with her owl?) from Tiddly Inks, and the sentiment is from Comotion. She's stamped on watercolor paper, colored with Derwent Inktense pencils & colored pencils and mounted onto a piece of CS. The background paper is from DieCutsWithaView's Rock Star 8x8 pad. I added a little ribbon, a gear & spinner from Tim Holtz. Inside the card, I've written " 'Owl' be thinking of you" .

August Smeared & Smudged Member Blog Hop

It's that time of the month again, (no, not that time), but time for Smeared & Smudged Member Blog Hop, brought to you by Smeared Ink . This month we were asked to get messy with "Paint" for our projects.

Since there is only 81 days till the bestest day of the year, Halloween, I've begun working on additions to my decorations. I love Halloween so much that there are many items I leave up all year long, a muslin witch a friend made, a huge grinning paper mache black cat, my 2 Pumpkinseeds figurines by Janell Berryman, and more...

Today's project started life out as a plain old paper mache container. I painted it with black gesso, followed by a couple of coats of purple. For the lid, I printed out the "wicked witch" digi from Smeared Ink and colored her with Derwent Inktense pencils. I love those pencils, the intensity of the color after you paint with your waterbrush is amazing. To the lid I also added an orange pumpkin trim, accented with paprika & green stickles & black satin witch trim over it. To the bottom I used Graphic 45's new Oz stamps Wicked and the witch hat in white ink. Excuse the poor photos...

Thanks for hopping with us! Here's the complete list of blog hop participants:

Tori

Madeleine

Jane

Kapree

Sugar

Heather

Dianne

Lisa

Sara

Freddie

Ike

Monique

Lady Brayton

Smudgefest 2011 - Day Seven, The Final Challenge!

Wow, it's the last challenge of Smudgefest 2011, sponsored by Smeared Ink . There have been awesome prizes won, and lots of cool projects by many talented artists. Wonder who will win the grand prize of 17 digi sets?
Pick me... LOL

We were given a digi of an adorable rat named Calypso to use in our project, which was pretty nice of them. When I was young, about 14, we were visiting some friends who had boys about my age and a little younger. They had rats for pets, so we put 3 of them on my head, kind of tangled in my hair & I walked to where the grownups were playing cards. I told my mom "you always say my hair is a rat's nest, and now it is". Mom let out a little scream & we laughed. My daughters had rats when they were younger, but could only play with them in their rooms with the door closed because we also had cats & dogs. Cats plus rats equals dead rats...

My project is a simple card showing a rat's revenge on the human who hurt its tail . I colored the rat image with Derwent Inktense pencils & colored pencils, the same with the image from "Gross Anatomy". I cut out a second tail for the rat & wrapped it with gauze. Mounted them both on yellow patterned paper, and cut out a "mousehole" using another darker paper. Made a little tag showing his satisfaction with the Acme Human Trap, and added a metal swirl.

This was fun!

Varying Visages of Vincent Price

The illustrious Barb and her minions at Haunted Design House are having a blog hop to celebrate the 100th birthday of Vincent Price. There is blog candy for this challenge & I'm amazed at the awesome entries.

Here is my humble addition to the celebration. I loved Vincent Price, his voice, his movies and was saddened by his death in 1993. One of his last movies, "Edward Scissorshands" is one of my all time favorite movies. Anywho, I took a small shadow box, painted it black & purple, then added miniature photos I found online from some of his movies "The Raven", "Pit and the Pendulum", "Edward Scissorshands", and more. I also used a couple of Making Memories metal letter discs V & P, along with the bloody goo at the top and some little satin bats at the bottom. Please forgive the crookedness of the photo.