Announcing the 2015 Smeared Ink Design Team

We are very excited to announce our new Smeared Ink Design Team!

Black Dragon
Shell
Shoni
Lisa
Elenor
Rebecca
Leigh
Fiona

We had some really fabulous applications come through this time around, which made our decision extremely hard! Congratulations to Leigh and Fiona who will be rocking it out with our veteran Smeared Ink DT Members. You can find their awesome art gracing the Smudgy Antics Blog daily (don't forget to join in the monthly challenge), as well as on the Smeared and Smudged Facebook group and occasionally on our Smeared Ink Facebook page. Congrats ladies, glad to have you on board!

New Release Day with Hop at Smeared Ink! (**For Kick-Start Your Art, please scroll down!**)

It's New Release Day at Smeared Ink! We've got two fabulous new digi sets for you available in our shop today, and we're so excited by them that we've decided to invite our Design Team members from our Smeared Ink, Mixed Media University, and Art Journal Every Day design teams to create projects for a fab New Release hop!

First, here is a preview of the new sets:

Octopus Pie

*click pics to view larger

Octopus Pie was drawn by artist Alexandria S, aka Little Black Kitten, and features Octopus Girl and her pet Octopus, complete with top hat and tentacle pie! You can find this set in our shop HERE as both a digital set and as single digi images.

Alex has created a journal page featuring the Octopus Girl Closeup from her new set:

"Several tentacles were lost in the making of this project"- Alex S. To see more details on her page, give her blog a visit later today.

The Keepers

The Keepers is a set of beautiful angels, keepers of lost love, with a Smeared Ink twist. The bleeding hearts and exposed bones are sure to get your creative juices flowing! You can find this set in our shop HERE as both a digital set and as single digi images.

I created an ATC with The Fifth Keeper, as well as a sentiment from the set.

When I see The Keepers, I picture them soft and pretty, so I chose to refrain from adding any blood and gore on this project. I'll probably try that next time. For now I stuck with soft pastels, used a tea-stained canvas background, and just layered my images and sentiment words. I hope you enjoy it.

Now, I hope you enjoy hopping through the blogs of our various Design Team members to check out more projects using these two fabby new sets. Please remember, posts will be live at 9am PST, so if you don't see a project yet, swing by a little later today.

Have fun checking out all the awesome inspiration!

New Release Blog Roll

Terra (you are here)
Fiona

Shell

Leigh

Kapree
Shoni
Ike

LauraB
Titbelsoeur

Susan

Julia

12 Days of Creepmas Prizes

Hello everyone, today I have the winners from our last few days of 12 Days of Creepmas, as well as the Grand Prize winner. I'm sure you noticed that I didn't get my last few posts up, my whole household was hit by the flu and it really, really sucked... especially after being sick just a few weeks before with food poisoning. I guess our immune systems were just blown, but we're finally on the mend which is good. Anyways, I have the prize winners from Day 9 and Day 12 for our Smeared Ink Days. Thank you all for hanging in there for the rest of the hop, as we know this is one of the busiest times of the year.

For Day 9 we gave away a winner's choice of 1 set of Smeared Ink rubber, and the winners are:

Jolly Blogger: Vicky

Merry Hopper: Maureen

Congrats ladies! Please select your set and email us at smearedinkstamps@gmail.com and let us know.

For Day 12, which didn't get posted, we were offering up a Smeared Ink tee featuring our Skull and Roses design. You can see the different color choices below, which are: Black, Red, Pink, Navy, Caribbean Blue, Heather, Green, Green Camo, B&W Camo, or Pink Camo. The winners will choose their color and their size (S,M,L,XL,2XL). Since there were no comments on my blog, we went ahead and counted all Merry Hopper comments for that day as well as all the Jolly Bloggers who posted Smeared Ink projects. The winners are:

Jolly Blogger: Julia

Merry Hopper: Emily

  

  

   

Congrats ladies, please email your color/size choice to smearedinkstamps@gmail.com.

And finally, we have our Grand Prize announcement! The winner of the Grand Prize will receive a $100 digi credit to use in our shop, which is also fab right now since we have our End Of The Year sale going on...here's the info in case you haven't seen it yet :)

The Grand Prize Winner will definitely be able to get some extra goodies before Jan 1st! We've tallied all the comments and blogger posts, along with Smeared Ink days, and the winner is....

Violent Kitty

Congratulations! Please email us at smearedinkstamps@gmail.com to claim your code :)

Once again, thank you to all of you who participated this year as either a blogger or hopper, and a special Thank You to our Jolly Bloggers for sharing wonderful inspiration for the Creepmas Season! Please swing by the forum soon and participate in some of our other events and challenges. We will be updating our monthly challenges on Jan 1, we have some member blog hops coming up, some awesome swaps in the Swap Shop, as well as prep for our Bloody Valentine Hop in Feb (that info will be posted in Jan). Also, don't forget about our fabulous group Design Teams who are posting tutorials and prompts for you weekly in the Art Journal Every Day Group, the Mixed Media University Group, and The Cheapskate Crafter Group.

And speaking of Design Teams, just a reminder that this is the last weekend to submit to be a part of our Smeared Ink Design Team who shares their wonderful talent all over the place, including on the S&S Forum, Facebook, and Pinterest. The deadline to submit is Dec 31 and you can find all of the info here.

Hope to see you all on the forum soon, and we hope you had a very Merry Holiday season and that you safely enjoy your New Year's Eve. We'll see you in 2014!

Smeared Ink Design Team Call

Yes, you read the title right.....Smeared Ink is having a Design Team Call!!!

Smeared Ink Stamps Design Team Call

Do you have a different way of looking at things when it comes to rubber stamping? Do you LOVE working with different and unusual mediums in your stamped artwork?  Smeared Ink is looking for design team members for our Smeared Ink Design Team! 

Smeared Ink is a rubber stamp company that features edgy, unique, wild, sometimes dark, and fun art stamps and digis. We are looking for team members who are not afraid to think outside of the box and express themselves in interesting ways through their projects, who enjoy using many different techniques and materials, who aren't afraid to try new things, and who have the capability of interacting in our online Smeared and Smudged forum.

We pride ourselves on being one of the first alternative/gothic stamp Design Teams, and we are looking for team members who want to push their artistic limits. No prior DT experience is necessary to apply, only a creative mind and a willingness to try your best.

Here's What You Need To Know

Requirements for Smeared Ink Design Team Members:

*You must have an active blog related to rubber stamping/paper arts or mixed media arts where you can talk about and post your DT projects.

*You must be or become a member of the Smeared and Smudged Forum on Ning.

*You must be able to actively participate on the forum.This includes commenting on a minimum of 5 member photos per week, and actively participating in The Vent group (discussion group) on the Smeared and Smudged forum. A minimum requirement is two posts per week.

* You must be able to meet team deadlines.

*DT members are required to produce a minimum of 1 project per week that features Smeared Ink stamps exclusively. This project must be posted to your blog and the S&S forum. 

* You must promote the Smeared and Smudged Forum/ Smeared Ink Stamps through your blog by adding your  Design Team Badge, and whenever you see an opportunity.

*You must actively participate in our Smeared Ink Design Team discussion group.

*Prior Experience not required.

*International Applicants welcome.

Benefits of Smeared Ink Design Team:

* Your projects will be showcased on the Smeared and Smudged Forum, Smeared and Smudged Facebook Page, and Smeared Ink Facebook Page, as well as our Smeared Ink Pinterest page.

*Your blog will be linked in all Smeared Ink DT badges and in all above-mentioned feature links.

*You will receive free access to all of our Smeared Ink digital stamps and a 50% discount on Smeared Ink rubber stamps.

*You will receive exclusive DT Member discounts on non-stamp products, including Graphic 45, Tattered Angels, Tim Holtz, Ranger, and any others that we choose to offer.

* You get to network with other wicked awesome stampers who share the same love for out-of-the-norm stamping.

*You get to share your ideas and mentor other stampers in their artistic journey.

* You get to sport a really cool Smeared Ink Design Team badge on your blog.

To apply, please follow these steps:

Email the following information to smearedinkstamps@gmail.com with the subject line: Smeared Ink Design Team Call

Name:

Email:

Blog URL (home page):

Attach the Following to your email:

Pictures of three card, scrapbook page, or other paper art  -AND-  one altered item that best represent your style of stamping. These projects must use rubber or digital stamps somewhere on the project. (No all digital projects, please)

Please answer the following questions in your email:

What do you think you can bring to the Smeared Ink Design Team? We want to know what makes you tick!

If you could choose one word to describe yourself, what would it be?

What is your favorite mixed media technique or supply and why?

What is your favorite non-stamp product or tool to use in your art and why?

Do you feel you can meet all the requirements listed above, including the deadline requirements?

Please list past and present Design Team experience. (Experience not necessary to apply)

Deadline for Submissions is Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Winners will be contacted by Friday, January 3, 2014 and announced by Monday January 6, 2014

DT term will run for 6 months starting January, 2014

For questions please contact us at smearedinkstamps@gmail.com

Good Luck!

Terra & Tori

owners, Smeared and Smudged Forum/Smeared Ink Stamps

http://www.smearedandsmudged.ning.com

http://www.smearedink.com

Design Team Throwdown #8 Entry- Old and Grey

Hi everyone, welcome back to my blog! I'm so excited to be posting the Smeared Ink Team entry for the 8th Design Team Throwdown Challenge. In case you didn't know yet, the Design Team Challenge has moved from the Smeared and Smudged Forum to its own BLOG. Hopefully this will make it easier for more Design Teams to join in the fun! 

Voting for this challenge begins Wednesday, August 28th, so please be sure to swing by the new blog and cast your vote for your fave team projects after you check out all the amazingness presented by the participants. Of course, we'd LOVE if you choose us, but we encourage you to vote for the projects (team) that you think are the best :)

This time around the theme was brought to us by our Challenge #7 Champs, Quoth The Raven. They challenged us to make something "Old and Grey", and they left it up to us to interpret that how we wanted. I'm excited that I got to play again on the Smeared Ink Team, and you'll see my project last (it's heavy on the pictures once again). Here are the entries for the Smeared Ink Team:

#1 Our first entry comes to you from Shell.

She created an awesomely beautiful piece featuring Smeared Ink's Man digi stamp from the Specimen Jar set. Be sure to visit her BLOG to get all of the details on her amazing work.

click for larger views

#2 Our second entry is from Lady Brayton.

She rocked out a vintage pinball machine using various Smeared Ink rubber, including images from Morte and As Death, both available exclusively as past club offerings through our Smeared Ink Rubber Club. For more information and an video on LB's wicked pinball machine, please visit her BLOG.

click for larger views

 (backing)

(with cover in place)

#3 Our final entry is from Terra (me)

For my "Old and Grey" project I though I would make an art doll. It's made from scratch and the face features one of the three new Smeared Ink digi singles from our artist Alexandria S. The image is called Within and is available in our shop today, along with Beyond and Behind.

Here's my doll, she's about 14" tall. More detail pics are included below my description.

click for larger views

I started by molding my doll body and head from air dry ceramic clay. I molded just the basic form, added pins to the head, and let it dry for about a day and a half. Then I came back with an x-acto knife and carved out my torso "hole" and bones. Needless to say, it took a while. You'll see in some close-up pics that the bones are actually 3-D and protrude from the hole. Then I let my body dry completely.

While it was drying, I worked on my base. I used an old candle holder, a wooden dowel, and plaster. I poured the plaster into the middle of the holder and inserted the dowel, then let that set up. Then it got a coat (or several) of paint. I forgot to mention, while the clay was drying I had to keep putting it over the dowel to make sure it still fit, and on the last day I left it to dry on the stand because the clay actually shrinks almost 10% when it dries. I didn't want it to not fit over the dowel, so if you try something like this please remember that tip.

Anyways, then I got to work with my paint on the body and head. It took a few coats, then a few more, to get the cracked and aged look I wanted. While that dried, I worked on the wings which are made of tissue paper and wire with paint and seed bead embellishments. Then I sewed, distressed, and burned the layers of the skirt; under the skirt I attached a swirled wire "petticoat". Then I added my face to the head, which is a tissue paper transfer of my digi image.

To finish off, I made the arms, which are wire and little salvage-metal pieces (they look like tiny washers) that I've had for a long time. I also attached my heart shaped wish box to her chest, added the bead embellishments and chain to the skirt, and finished by adding her hair and attaching her wings. 

Whew! That was a mouthful. Okay, now I'll let the pictures show what I've been blabbering about. These pictures were taken outside so you can see a truer color.

 click for larger views

I know there are alot of pictures and information, but I was trying to show and tell all the details :)

Overall I'm pretty happy with it, and I think I may eventually make her some sisters. For now, she's a permanent fixture in our living room, at least until after Halloween and then we'll see where she goes.

I hope you've enjoyed my project, and the projects of my teamies! Be sure to swing by all the blogs for details, and please come over to the Design Team Throwdown blog and vote on the 28th. Thanks for visiting!

Design Team Throwdown #6- Danse Macabre

Hello everyone, thanks for visiting today and checking out the Smeared Ink Design Team's entries for the 6th Design Team Throwdown. If you don't know what the throwdown is, please visit Smeared and Smudged here and get all of the details. Basically, each month different Design Teams compete against each other by making fab projects, there is a round of voting to choose the winning team, and then the winners choose the next month's challenge. It's a super blast and the Smeared Ink DT has really enjoyed participating with all of the awesomely talented DT members from all teams!

This month our Challenge 5 winners, Airless Chambers DT, chose the theme of "DANSE MACABRE". All participants were to interpret the theme how they wanted to and show how they view the universality of death, or "Dance of Death".

Without further ado, here are the Smeared Ink DT entries.

#1 Our first entry comes to you from Susan:

Susan rocked out a mask of death using the skull front from Smeared Ink's Anatomy 101 set. To check out all of the details on Susan's project, please visit her blog here.

#2 Our second entry is from Helen:

Helen created a whimsically wicked mobile using images from Smeared Ink's Venice digi set, Danse Macabre digi set, and the Dead Dancer singles. To read more details, please visit Helen's blog here.

#3 Our third entry was done by Terra (me! ):

For my Danse Macabre project, I altered a yoga mat using images from Smeared Ink's Anatomy 101 digi set, Old King Cole from the Framed Rhymes set, and the Falling and Pointing Dead Dancers singles.

(my daughter posed so you can see how big it is, she's as tall as me)

I have to say this is one of the most frustrating projects I have ever made, even though the end result looks pretty simple. I have NO IDEA what possessed me to alter my yoga mat, other than I was just tired of looking at the plain, boring thing. It ended up taking way longer than I had anticipated, and I am definitely the reason the Smeared Ink team post went up last minute. Well, at least I can say I finished :)

I started by altering the King Cole image by inserting the Anatomy 101 skull as the face and changing the word to say "Danse". Then I printed out my new pimp daddy death image (Cole + Skull) and the two dead dancers, but I had to super-size them to fit on more than one paper. Cole took four pages (he's big), while each dancer took two. That in itself was an issue because my printer gave me problems and didn't size them right the first few times, but finally I got it right.

Then I took my images and did image transfers using modge poge onto my mat. I've never done this type of transfer successfully before on anything other than paper or canvas, so it was a learning process. Unfortunately, my placement of "Pimp Daddy Death" was not dead center at the top of the mat, but oh well. After completing the transfer, letting it dry, etc etc, and removing the back layer of paper, I was able to faintly see my image lines. Then the painting started. It took FOREVER to paint just the three images, and I even left out some of the image lines as I saw fit. I had originally transferred on all 5 of the Danse Macabre skeleton images as well (Smeared Ink), but before painting I scraped and peeled them off because I didn't like how they looked.

After I finished with my three main images, I decided to spray paint my mat edges with red and black, and then paint on my roses and swirls. It was a combo of freehand and a rose stencil. I've never used a stencil before, another first for this project, but I think it still came out decent. The roses have between two and four layers of paint. Finally, to finish off the mat and prevent the paint from peeling off during use, I applied a clear varnish over the whole thing.

If you're wondering if I'll actually use the mat, the answer to that is HELL YES, after all that work I better get some use out of it, lol. I hope you've enjoyed reading about my project, and please visit the other members of the SI team on their blogs to hear all about their creative processes and let us all know what you think.

Good luck to all of the teams playing in the Throwdown this time around.

PLEASE COME VOTE for your favorite THURSDAY, FRIDAY, and SATURDAY! Voting will end Sat midnight. 

Vote Here

Dt Throwdown #2- Smeared Ink Entry

Hello everyone! Thanks for visiting today to check out the Smeared Ink team entry for the second DT Throwdown Challenge on Smeared and Smudged! If you don't know what the throwdown is, please come by and visit the S&S Forum. We have the best of the best Design Teams playing against each other in a friendly and fierce bi-weekly competition. We'd love to have your DT join in as well, and if you are not on a DT, we'd love to have you come and voice your opinion by voting for the winner!

Voting for this challenge begins tomorrow, so please be sure to swing by and cast your vote for your fave team projects after you check out all the eye candy presented by the participants. Of course, we'd LOVE it if you choose us to win, but we encourage you to vote for the projects (team) that you think are the best :)

So, without further adeu, here are the Smeared Ink entries for this round!

The theme for this challenge was Faux Finishes. We were tasked by the HDH Team, who won last weeks challenge, to create a project with some sort of faux technique used on it. Don't forget, you can click on any picture to see it closer.

#1 Our first entry comes to you from Anna.

Anna decided to use a Faux Metal technique, and used stamps from Smeared Ink's Quoth The Raven and Bloody Valentine sets. Visit Anna's Blog for more details about her project.

#2 Our second entry, for your viewing pleasure, is from Leigh.

Leigh used a Faux Ancient Stone technique for dominoes and she made both a pendant and a magnet that feature stamps from Smeared Ink's Quoth The Raven set. To view the details of Leigh's project, please visit her Blog here.

#3 The third and final project for Smeared Ink's entry is mine. 

I must warn you, this entry is picture intensive, but you'll see why. I decided to make a plaster gauze book with a Faux Leather cover. Here are the pics and details.

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE bees. I have such respect for them and really feel an attraction and calling to be around them. Of course, if they get too close without me knowing I will freak out, but more from surprise rather than fear. Anyways, this book is a sort of "shrine" book for my beloved bees.

Here is my faux finish piece of this project- the faux leather cover.

On the bound side of the book, I have my jar along with some other goodies. I am a little peeved about this jar and I'll tell you why. I have a bee (yes, a real one) that I have saved to use in the "perfect" project. My youngest daughter was stung about a year ago because she stepped on it in the grass. Poor baby, but it was not too bad. For the bee, well, it turned out not so good. Not only did the poor bee get stepped on, but he also died because, well, bumblebees die when they sting. Well, I kept the bee, which some may think is demented but oh well. When we packed up a few months ago to move, I put him in a safe place so he wouldn't get squished by the movers. Well, when I put stuff in a "safe" place, I tend to forget exactly where that place is, and having everything packed and unpacked just added to the problem. I can't find him. So, here my jar sits with a few screws in the bottom of it, waiting for it's bee. When I find him, this is where he'll go...

 So now begins the inside of the book. I've used stamp images throughout from a Smeared Ink set that will be released THIS FRIDAY. If you'd like to see sneak-peeks of the set, visit our Facebook page. Then visit the Smeared Ink shop on Friday to see this as well as a few more new release sets.

In addition to regular plaster gauze pages, I also have what I like to call faux-mica pages. They give the feeling of mica and also have the look of honey or bee resin.

Here you can see the separate "clear" page.

On this page I used beeswax to collage my pieces.

Some pages have journaling on them, and the blank pages are meant to hold pictures or mementos which will be added as time goes by. You can see the texture of the gauze.

Here's another image from our new set, along with some other goodies.

Another of our new images on a faux-mica page.

The final page in the book has metal covered in beeswax in which I've carved a thank you to the bees.

And there you have it!

I hope you've enjoyed taking a look at our projects. I'd love to hear what you think about the bee book, and if you haven't yet please visit Anna's and Leigh's blogs and let them know what you think of their projects as well.

Good luck to all of the teams playing in the Throwdown this week, and PLEASE COME VOTE for your favorite TOMORROW or FRIDAY! 

Vote Here