31 Days Blog Candy Winner!!!!

The results are in! I just have to say WOW!!!!!!!!!!! Between the two of us, Kelli and I had 561 entries for blog candy! That is truly amazing, and I just want to thank each and every one of you for participating and making 31 Days of Halloween such a fun and successful experience for everyone!

I know I had a wonderful time sharing projects with you all. This was the first year that I've done anything like this, and I learned a few things that I can improve on for next year. It was exhausting and thrilling at the same time, and I hope you all got some inspiration from the projects here on Smeared and Smudged, and from Cajun Stamping Queen. I truly love stamping and sharing!

So lets get to it... the winner of the hugely awesome blog candy prize is.....

We chose our winner using Random.org's random number generator, which came up as number 240. And that's you, Char! Please email both me and Kelli with your address and we will get your prize out to you!

Thank you again to all who participated! If you loved the projects that you saw during 31 Days, I'd like to invite you to join the Smeared and Smudged ning group. The group is growing and has some very cool people participating. I am slowly but surely incorporating some very neat challenges, swaps, and groups; and it's a great place to just chat and network with other stampers who enjoy alternative stamping!

For now, I look forward to sharing more with you in the coming weeks, and hope you enjoyed your Halloween! This week join me on Wednesday for the Bombshell Hump Day Hop, and I'll probably be throwing in a couple of other projects here and there... can't stay away from stamping too long!

Scary Cat

I figured before my 31 Days of Halloween is over, I better do a cute card so I can be sure to have something for everyone's taste. And today is as good a day as any! This is the last day that Kelli and I will be offering a challenge, so if you'd like to participate be sure to link to your project at the end of this post. The challenge is to use microbeads on your project.

Since I showered my tree card with microbeads, I thought I'd keep this one pretty simple. I used microbeads only on the cat and pumpkin so it gave them some shiny pop. The layers were made with deco paper and cardstock, and the star charm came as a RAK from Kelli earlier this month. Thank you Kelli!!!!!!!





So if you'd like to participate in this or any other 31 Days of Halloween challenge, be sure you do it before Saturday night! You'll get 5 extra blog candy entries! If not, leave a comment to get 1 entry. We'll be drawing in 2 days! If you've forgotten what the Blog Candy looks like, check out my sidebar for more info. See you tomorrow!

Hilarious Hags

Well, pumpkin patching and haunted housing ended up spilling over into Sunday, so I missed my post. My oldest had a blast playing Freddy Crueger in the house!! My husband ended up having to work late on Saturday, so the Pumpkin Patch trip took place yesterday. We all enjoyed the corn maze, farm tour, and special storyteller, and it was great non-scary fun for the little ones. I've included a couple of pics at the end of this post for your enjoyment.

Anyways, since I skipped a day, I decided to give everyone a two-fer today. Kelli and I are coordinating and making our projects using patterned paper. Give her a visit if you haven't already, and if you'd like to participate in today's challenge, link to your project by Saturday night! You'll get extra Blog Candy points, plus you'll get to share your fabulous creations.

My cards today feature hilarious hags from Third Coast. The first hag is just full of mischief, and spends her evenings toilet papering houses and leaving flaming gifts on doorsteps. Her sister swoops through the air, but has a very funny problem. Be warned, these cards are not for people who are easily offended, but I know quite a few people who would enjoy them.











I adore these stamps, and will be using them for Halloweens to come! I'd love to hear your thoughts on them. Now I'm off to get some more stamping done and to plan for a school party, only five days to go!!!!!!!!!

Haunted Housing






Pumpkin Patching

Glitterfied Skully Bugs

Well, I've decided to show you a different project than I had originally planned since there are only a few hours left today, and I'm still not done with the other. So I'm sharing the skully bug cards that I made for my sister.

Each holiday my sister orders postcard-type cards from me that have a blank spot for her to add a picture of my niece. For Halloween she wanted skully bugs that were similar to the design of her baby blog.





My one year old niece is going to be a ladybug for Halloween, and I just know everyone will love her picture pasted to these cute cards! The blank black spot on the card is the matt for the pic, and the stars and skull eyes are glitterfied with black glitter. Hope you enjoy!

Calavera Fiesta

Venga a la Fiesta!!! Ahora estoy la diez y ocho dia de Halloween en Smeared and Smudged, y mi tarjeta es de Dia De Los Muertos!

Okay, so my Spanish is a little rusty, it's been a while...
Today I'm bringing you a Day of The Dead party invite featuring the Bombshell Festive Calaveras set. It goes along with my and Kelli's Monday challenge, which this time is to create something using embossing.

I made my background paper, stamped my images, and embossed them in black. Then I added an embossed flag, glitter, hemp twine, and black glitter glue accents on the calavera's heart and left side of card. The background paper took alot of time, but I'm extremely happy with this fun card!


*click for close-ups*


My pictures are a little shiny in some spots and dark in others, but by the time I finished this card I had no natural light left to photo. Hopefully I'll be able to get a better picture taken later.

Now if you'd like to participate in this challenge and earn more Blog Candy entries, make something that has been embossed and post a link to it. Or just leave a comment. And don't forget to visit Kelli to see her embossed project!Hasta manana!

Harlequin Ghostie- Prickley Pear Sketch Challenge

Today is an awesome day for a sketch challenge! The folks over at Prickley Pear are sponsoring a super fun October Sketch Challenge complete with a fab prize! Visit the Prickley Pear Blog to get all the details, see other Design Team samples, and upload your own project using their sketch.

For my project, I've created a spooky Halloween card to go with my 31 Days of Halloween here on Smeared and Smudged, and it features the Ghost and Small Ghost images from PP.





If you follow my blog, you know that I love working with metal, and this card was no exception. The harlequin background is a scrap piece of aluminum (think soda can), as is the larger ghost image. I used my paint pens, my new favorite product, to add the orange and black diamonds. I distressed all my edges with scissors, and the super cool ribbon was a gift from my

friend Sarah K- thank you Sarah!

This was a rockin' sketch to work with! So now go visit the Prickley Pear Blog to view the sketch and all the contest details, then get creating! Upload a link to your project there. And if you want to share, please link to your project here as well to get an entry for 31 Days of Halloween Blog Candy! (Just be sure to link on the PP Blog first or your entry won't count for their contest!) Have Fun!

Zombie Mail Parchment Set

Today is Thursday, which means Cajun Stampin Queen and I have gotten together to bring you a theme. So far this month we've been featuring themes that revolve around certain things, so today we decided to feature a technique instead-watercoloring.

It's been a really, REALLY long time since I've pulled out my watercolors; in fact I think it's been close to a year or maybe more. I'm not used to doing it anymore, but I was pleasantly happy with the outcome of my project.

Do you remember way back when, I posted a lunchbox and a couple of other items that I had found at the consignment shop? If not, check out my altered lunchbox post. One of the items was a pack of vintage parchment paper in a box, and it had six envelopes and lots of sheets of parchment that were already slightly discolored, stiff, and pretty old looking. They were great! Well, the box found its way into my closet and never left, until now.

I doubt that when Eaton's made this set they intended it to be overrun with zombies, but that's what happened! To make my stationary ensemble, I stamped my Third Coast zombie using stazon on both envelopes and papers. Then I just watercolored away with a brush and my watercolor crayons! It was a very relaxing project to work on. I'm not used to having so little control over how the colors blend, like I said, I'm no watercoloring expert, but I enjoyed mixing the shades and seeing how it all blended. Other than a few muddled spots, I think it turned out pretty neat.


*Wanna see a close up? Click the pics!*





And since the paper was already distressed, my work was easy! I ended up with six envelopes and 18 sheets of paper, ready to deliver a frightening letter! I can't wait to use these, and maybe make some more as gifts. Of course, I'll have to find more parchment sets, but I still have one lying in wait.

So now it's your turn; your challenge if you choose to accept it, is to show off one of your watercolored stamp projects. Link to it in a comment under this post to get 5 Blog Candy entries. Don't remember what the blog candy is? Use the link in my sidebar to take a lookie. If you don't want to watercolor, but still want an entry, leave me a comment and tell me what you think! See you all tomorrow.

Simply Skulls Jewelry Set- Twisted Tuesday Materials Challenge

No one got into the groove of painting last week, so hopefully I'll have more takers on this week's challenge. Let's get right to it! Twisted Tuesday works like this:

* Every Tuesday I will post a new challenge. The challenge will be to use a specific material on your project. The material may be a store bought supply, an item you can find around the house, or a repurposed or recycled object. I will post a sample to go along with the challenge.

*You can make a card, scrapbook page, altered item...pretty much anything you want as long as it is stamped somewhere on it and uses the specific material.

*You will have until Sunday night to comment on my post with a link to your entry.

*I will choose the winner and announce on the following Tuesday. The winner will receive a material that they can use in a future challenge!


Here's the challenge for this week...

My Sample:

My sample this week is a jewelry set of earrings and a necklace. They feature a tiny skull and crossbones stamp from Bombshell's "Homeward Bound" set. I used chipboard for my base, and lock washers to frame my images, and as my dangle on the necklace.

*click pics for larger views*



The Challenge:
Use a piece of real hardware (from the hardware store, not the scrapbooking store) somewhere on your project.




The Prize:
Since nobody won last week, I'm offering up the same collection pack of assorted vintage buttons.

You have until Sunday night to participate in this Twisted Tuesday, so when you're done with your project, leave a link to it in a comment under this post. Don't forget, since this falls during 31 Days of Halloween, you get 5 Blog Candy entries for participating! Have fun raiding your tool box or local hardware store!

Pumpkin Rings

No, not the edible kind. My project today is themed around pumpkins as part of mine and Kelli's 31 Days of Halloween Challenges. If you'd like to participate and receive extra entries for the huge blog candy that we are drawing for at the end of the month, just make your own project featuring pumpkins and link to it in a comment under this post. Whew, that was a mouth full!

Now on to my pumpkins! I like to recycle, and I needed some table decorations for Halloween. So I took some paper towel rolls and cut them, doubled them up, then wrapped them in black electrical tape. It made them really sturdy and they are the perfect size for napkin rings.

I used a pumpkin swag stamp image from Prickley Pear to make my copper medallion; and I made it by stamping into hot glue and then covering with pearl-ex. Then I just added eyelets to the ring, made small black tassels, and attached my medallion! It was super easy, and I think they will look great on my table. I'll add a pic later this week when I get my dining table all spookified, so you can see how they worked out.





What do you think? Leave me a comment and get Blog Candy entries. And don't forget to visit the Cajun Stamping Queen blog today to see her pumpkin project!

Creepy Crow Punk Pouch

Day 8... wow this month is flying by! If you haven't joined me on my blog before, welcome to 31 Days of Halloween, a month long tribute to cool Halloween and Day of The Dead projects! If you've been here before, welcome back! All the 31 Days info is in my sidebar, so be sure to check that out if you haven't already.

Today is Thursday, which means Cajun Stamping Queen and I have gotten together to bring you a themed project. And today's theme is...treats!! We decided to make items that can hold all of our wicked little treats that we'll be collecting this month! After you're done here, be sure to visit Cajun Stamping Queen and see her stamped treat.

Last year, for my daughter's class at school , I punched out a whole bunch of cute little black pillow boxes. We decorated them, filled them with candy, and sent them for her to give out. I had a few left over and they've been stored this long. So when Kelli and I discussed today's theme, my plan was to create another pillow box.

Well, when I sat down to stamp, I screwed my first one all up! I stamped in the wrong direction from what I meant to, so had to start over. When I reached into my drawer for another template, *gasp* there were none left!! At least not in any halloween colors...

So, I pulled out my sizzix and die, and as I was doing so, I glimpsed a big scrap piece of leather that I've been holding onto. And then it all came flooding in, a new idea!!!!!

I punched a pillow box from my leather and decided to make a punk pouch! This bad boy is perfect for filling with any type of little treats, and you can see in my third (slightly blurry) picture that I've filled mine with pink and white licorice candy. But the best thing about this pouch is that it can be used after Halloween to hold neat little things like lipstick, jewelry, or credit/shopping cards. Just fill it up, tie it shut, and drop it in your purse! Perfect for someone special you know, or for yourself.

*click pics for closeups*
front


back


open


Everything happens for a reason, right?

For my punk pouch, I used an awesome crow stamp and transparency sheet from Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps. You can view all of their fab products at their online store.

I'm debating on adding some of these pouches to my etsy store, which is being established as we speak, so I'd love to hear your opinions! Plus, any comment gets you entered for Blog Candy!! If you'd like to participate in a challenge and get 5 extra entries, make a "treat" project and upload the link in a comment under this post. Hope you enjoy, and have a great Day 8!

Midnight Ride-Twisted Tuesday Materials Challenge

Welcome back to Twisted Tuesday! First let me say that Kas is our winner from last week, she submitted some awesome bottlecap earrings that totally rock! You can view her submission HERE. Thanks for playing Kas! Email me your address and I'll get your microbeads in the mail.

I know I go through the rules every week, but here they are again just in case:

* I will post a new challenge each week. The challenge will be to use a specific material on your project. The material may be a store bought supply, an item you can find around the house, or a repurposed or recycled object. I will post a sample to go along with the challenge.

*You can make a card, scrapbook page, altered item...pretty much anything you want as long as it is stamped somewhere on it and uses the specific material.

*You will have until Sunday night to comment on my post with a link to your entry.

*I will choose the winner and announce on the following Tuesday. The winner will receive a material that they can use in a future challenge!


Here's the challenge for this week...

My Sample:

While making my sample, I tried to follow the criteria for this week's Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential challenge, which was to use non-halloween stamps for a halloween card. I came across this awesome challenge group while visiting a friend's blog.

So this time my sample uses images from Prickley Pear. The pinup girl and motorcycle are available on a half sheet and they are definitely not Halloween stamps. The spooky tree is one of their newly released images. My saying bubble and witch hat were both hand drawn.

*click pics for larger views*





The Challenge:
Use paint.

I used acrylic paint to build my background scene. Use paint somewhere on your project to participate in this challenge.




The Prize:
A collection pack of assorted vintage buttons.

You have until Sunday night to participate in this Twisted Tuesday, so when you're done with your painted project, leave a link to it in a comment under this post. Don't forget, since this falls during 31 Days of Halloween, you get 5 Blog Candy entries for participating! Have fun painting!

Hag Smack-Down

What happens when an ugly hag and her reflection get into a smack down? Well, I end up with another awesome card, in my opinion! I've been waiting to use this stamp set for a while, and today Kelli and I are featuring projects that use witches; so I was presented with the perfect opportunity to bust these images out of stamp storage.



My hag and accompanying images all came from Third Coast, so check them out if you haven't already. The card was very simple to make by layering papers, a dictionary page, and paint. The coloring was done with prisma pencils, and of course I had to give this badass diva some glitter and sparklies! One of my favorite parts of the image is her tattoed arm.



So now it's your turn... to get 5 extra entries for our enormous BLOG CANDY giveaway, make a project featuring a witch and link to it in a comment under this post. You have until the end of October to do it. Plus, any comment you leave during the whole month will get you one entry, and posting one of my or Kelli's 31 Days buttons will get you an extra 7 entries! Check out my sidebar for more info, and then head to Kelli's to see her witchy project for today!

31 Days of Halloween Has Begun!

Welcome Frightful Fiends and Scary Ghoulies to

31 Days of Halloween!
This is a month long tribute to Halloween and Day of the Dead sponsored by Smeared and Smudged and Cajun Stamping Queen. Every day in October we will both be featuring a seriously scary, creepy, or haunting project for you to view.

To get the spooky schedule of events, please read my sidebar where you'll find all the information about challenges, projects, and the HUGE BLOG CANDY worth well over $150 that we will be giving away to one lucky follower at the end of the month!

Since today is Thursday, we have coordinated our projects and offer you a themed challenge. Our cards today are based around skulls, and your challenge is to share your own skull based project by linking it to a comment at the end of this post! Easy peasy...

Here's my skull themed card:

*click for close up view*


I challenged myself to make a Halloween card without using black! This was a little difficult for me since black is my favorite neutral to use, but I think it turned out pretty good. The card features a skull and crossbones image from Prickley Pear that I embossed onto my vellum and colored with prismacolor pencils.

The vellum was hand colored, and the embellishments include handmade sculpture paper, brads, eyelets, and dark brown raffia ribbon.

If you'd like to participate in the challenge, link to your finished skull project in a comment below this post. And don't forget, any comment will get you Blog Candy points! See you tomorrow!

Blog Candy Details-31 Days of Halloween

Here are pics and descriptions of the awesome blog candy that Kelli and I are drawing for at the end of the month. This candy is valued at well over $150. To be entered for blog candy, follow the instructions found in either of our sidebars. We'll be drawing on November 1st. Good luck!


*click pics for larger views*


Items Included in Candy Are:

*Heidi Satlerberg stamp "A child is born" from Stamps Happen Inc.
*Special Moments Scrapbook Stickers : Dragonflies and Flowers / Butterflies and Flowers
*Me & My Big Ideas : Soft Spoken Embellishment stickers/ family memories and fall
*Miss Elizabeth's Scrapbook Embellishment stickers: Nature, Birthday, white flowers
*Paperbilities 3-d Embellishment Adhesive Accents: Baby Animals
*Recollections Dimensional Stickers: Friends, Happy Birthday, Family Vacation
*12 x 12 Do it Yourself Calendar
*Halloween Stickers
*Colorbok: Journaling Tags, Paper Pad, Chipboard book(5pages)
*Studio G Clear Stamps: Party
*Studio 18: Epoxy stickers(black and white(2)), Rhinestones(pink), Self Stick Note Pads (Christmas 2pk.)
*Bead Party: Angel Charms'
*K&Company Happy Trails Grand Adhesions
*3 fall color wine bags( great for embossing)
*Various Ribbon (8 spools)
*Blue Fiber
*Binder Clips
*Crochet Flowers
*Chipboard Accents
*6 sheets of 12 x 12 Decorative Paper: 4 from Scribble Scrabble, 1 from Bella Blvd, 1 from Scrap Within Reach
* Studio G Mini Pigment Ink stamp pads- burgundy and white
*Strathmore Acrylic Linen Canvas ATC pack of 10
*Studio 18: 12 Notecards and Envelopes, Coupon Holder, and Paper Coasters 6 pack
*Jewelry Essentials Stringing 20 Gauge silver colored copper wire
*3 Packs Premium Inkjet Photo Paper 4"x6"
*Colorbok Rub On Sentiments-Love
*Colorbok Ahesive Metal Words
*Antique Silver Flourish Charms
*5 oz. bag of Ultra Fine Micro Beads from Pennywise Arts
*Miss Elizabeth's Embossed Metal Embellishments-Diva
*Stampin' Up! two corner stamps
*Stampin' Up! Retired Sale-a-bration Set- Congratulations (unmounted)
*Fiskars Vintage Farmhouse Clear Stamp set