September Bombshell Hop

Yes, you read that right! It's been oh so long since I've had the time to play with my Bombshells, but I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to join in with the other lovely ladies on the Bombshell Forum and celebrate my favorite holiday!

Alison, the Blog Hop Captain, set out this challenge for September:
"Many of our major holidays are just around the corner. I think we all know what my favorite holiday is...but what's yours? My challenge to you is to make a Bombshell project for your favorite holiday. Bonus points if you make a decoration!!! Use any holiday you want and create something that's going to make us want to celebrate!!! "

Well, I think we can all guess what MY favorite holiday is...and if you can't, well, you just haven't been paying attention or this is your first visit to my little corner of blog land :) I just had to make a project for Halloween!!!!! And seeing that 31 Days of Halloween starts in just three days, I was super excited to make a warm-up project to share. BTW, if you don't know what 31 Days is, please click the link for info or come back and visit on the 1st, it's going to be a fabulously creepy-fun month long blog hop with tons of inspiration and amazing prizes!! You can see the list of Wicked Bloggers in my sidebar, and it is HUGE! Come check out how you can win some awesome prizes from some really great sponsors! (hint: Bombshell is one of them!)

Now that that's out of my system, I'll move back to the hop at hand...I'm just so excited.
For my holiday project I had to work with one of the new costumes from the Halloween Dress Up Set for Bombshell Angel. Once again, I did some digital work, but this time I combined digital with hands-on. I created an artwork piece that will later be added into another project during 31 Days (shhhh, kinda a sneak peek). Not quite a decoration yet, but it will be. Here she is, my wicked little witch, complete with black cat familiar.

*click for larger view

Bombshell Angel is colored digitally, and the background image and flowers are from Itkupilli. I used black canvas cardstock, and some white crackle paint on two different layers. Then I added ink shading all around and finally some fun little letters for my sentiment, ribbon, and hardware. After taking the pic, I went in digitally and added even more shading and texture and my spider webs. Other than the pic being a little blurry, I think it came out wonderful! It was fun to color the angel up in some bright Halloweenie colors, and I kinda made her look like me with her red hair and all (yes, it's red again!)

So, what do you think? I hope it gives you some inspiration, and gets you in the mood for Halloween! Now you get to hop on through to the other participant blogs and see which holiday inspired their creations. Don't forget to stop by the Bombshell Forum to get your fix and sign up for the blog hop next month. And if you're interested in joining in some fun conversation about our 31 Days of Halloween event, swing by the Smeared and Smudged Forum too. Have a great hop!

Bombshell Blog

Alison

Alex

Terra (<---yep, that's me)

Kathi

Kelli

Jennie

Glittery Katie

Sparkly Mary

Mary G

Alaine

Zetti Challenge

Hello everyone! I'd like to invite you to come on over to our DT Challenge Blog, Smudgy Antics, and join in our Weekly Challenge! Each week we post a new one, and for this week the theme is Zetti. In case you don't know what it is or haven't heard of it, here's a little descrip:

A style based on the work of Teesha Moore, Zetti is a blend of the ordinary and the fantastic. Blend collage, drawing, painting, stamping, etc, to make one whimsical concoction of elements based in reality and fantasy. Elements can include contrasting textures and patterns, bright colors, black and white patterns (especially stripes), faces and bodies that are mis-matched, animal parts, added body parts/clothes/wings, fantastic hats and crowns, quirky, odd, whimsical combinations of characters, lyrics, poems, handwriting and text. Use any of these, or all of them, but be sure to put your own artistic spin on it!

I actually got the chance to make a sample for this week's challenge, and I must say I am pretty in love with it. It is once again digital as I am having alot of fun with digi work lately. Here it is:

*click for larger view

I used three different Smeared Ink images for my main character. The body is Vivadondra from our Goth Fairies digi set, the head is Candy Creature from our Candy is Dandy set, and the wings are from our retired Praise Angel from Symbology of Angels. The two latter sets will be available in our shop as digis later this week!

I colored everything digitally and placed pieces and parts, and then added hand drawn elements and stripes. I think it's a pretty good first attempt at the Zetti style, and still fits well with my darker side.

I hope you enjoyed taking alook, and if you get the chance, swing by Smudgy Antics to give this super fun style a try!

New Halloween Hop and Release from Smeared Ink

Hi everyone! I hope your week is going wonderfully so far. Today we'd like to share with you that Smeared Ink is releasing some more Halloween images! To celebrate, of course we have to have a new release blog hop!

Our fabulous design team will be showcasing samples today to inspire and intrigue you. We hope you will visit all the blogs to see some great art, and when you are done swing by our shop to pick up your favorite new images.

Before I share my project, here's a look at the newest Digi sets and singles. These are all available in our shop now, and later today you will be able to get the individual images from the sets as singles as well. The great part is ALL of our digis are now instantly available when you make your purchase! If you haven't used the new site yet to download digis, you will love it!

Smell My Feet

Build A Graveyard

Babies of the Damned

Inner Workings

Zombie Headshot

Heavy Metal

Goth Fairies

Hallo Kitty

Elvis Grumpie

So for my projects today, I once again tried some digital work (cause I'm starting to love it!)
I used the Zipped Heart from Inner Workings on my first project. Then I used the Wire Corset image from Heavy Metal and the I Adore You Saying from Smitten in my second project.

*click for larger views

I really love the versatility of these images, as they are not all necessarily Halloween themed. I have so many ideas that I can't wait to share with you! In the meantime, please hop on through the blog roll and be sure to leave lots of comments! Thanks for visiting and we hope you enjoy the new images!

Terra (you are here!)

Tori

Black Dragon

Lady Brayton

Kapree

Sugar

Paula

Ike

Freddie

Celina

Jane

Monique

Heather

Our Guest Designer Sara

Smeared Ink New Release Hop

Hello everyone! Welcome to another New Release Hop for Smeared Ink. We are introducing two new digi sets today. Yay! and to celebrate our design team has gotten together to feature some of the fantastic images. Before I forget, let me also mention that we are having a special today only, if you buy any two of our digi sets, you get to choose a third digi set for free!! Just mention your freebie choice in the paypal comments when you check out. Woo Hoo! What could be better than free stuff!!!

So, now that I have your attention, I will show you the new sets. And let me tell you, I adore both of them! The first is a set of little stitched up dolls that are both creepy and cute. Think along the lines of a rag doll with button eyes and mohawks. Here's Stitchy Situation:

I just love these little guys,and you will see several projects today made with them. The next set is gorgeous artwork adapted from 19th century Austrian artist Franz Von Bayros and is called, or course, Von Bayros:

I was lucky enough to get to work with one of these beautiful images for today's hop, and here is my card:

*click for larger pics

It's actually pretty straight-forward for me. I colored with Copics and cut out four layers of the image. The background is peacock feathers layered with stitched cardstock, and I added a die-cut and distressed label that has words from a candle sticker. It says "Exotic Collection" and I thought it fit well with the bold colors of the card.

I made the green embellishments from sculpey, and I also added some spots of glitter and crystal effects to the image, as well as Pearl-Ex powder around the edges of my image and label. Here is a close up of the layers on my image:

Although it looks black, the background cardstock in my card is actually navy blue. I went for something a little different this time with a bolder color pallette, I thought the image looked somewhat exotic and that it fit really well.

So, I hope you have enjoyed looking. Hop on through the DT blogs to see some awesome projects, and then head over to our Shop to get your very own new release digis, and don't forget your freebie set when you purchase two sets! Thanks for stopping by.

Terra

Tori

Alison

Kelli

Black Dragon

Lady Brayton

Kapree

Sugar

Dianne

Paula

12 Days of Christmas: Day 5- Broken Heart

I'm back with my project as promised! I just used my lesser camera rather than waiting for the other to charge, so I apologize in advance for the not-so-great picture. For today I made an anti-Christmas type of card. This is one that you would send out to that ex who just ripped your heart out, with an extra special "I still hate you" note attached to the inside.



The anatomical heart comes from Smeared Ink's Quoth the Raven stamp set. I kept the colors really simple with black and white, and bold pops of red. The song lyrics were printed on glossy paper, and I added in some brads, punched hearts, glass beads, and wire. The final touch is the "Broken Heart" sentiment by the heart.

This anti-Christmas card definitely gets straight to the point! I hope you've enjoyed taking a look, and if you haven't already, please hop to all the other Jolly Bloggers for great S&S style projects.

Day 5- 31 Days of Halloween: Cutie Patootie Treat Card

Welcome to Day 5 of 31 Days, and yes, I said cutie patootie...something that is WAY out of my element. But, if you read my first 31 days post, I explained that I would probably only be making cards if I had a specific person in mind while making it. Well, this card definitely has someone in mind, and it is for my little niece India, who is 2.

I didn't want to totally creep her out, so I used the little stitchy fellow from Smeared Ink's Candy Is Dandy set by Irma Diaz. Which, by the way, came in EARLY and is now available in our shop! If you subscribe to our email newsletter, you learned about it yesterday and also got word that in celebration of the early release, this set is on sale for 15% off, but hurry because the sale ends tonight!

So anyhoo, I decided to make a really cute little card using all scraps out of my scrap bin. Here it is.



You may recognize the orange background paper from a skull card that I made last year for 31 Days. It was made with vellum that was inked directly from an ink pad and allowed to dry. I took my favorite spider web stamp from Lonely Boy and Puff and stamped them onto the orange paper. Behind that orange is a decorative paper that has black and white flowers, the same paper you see on the left. I thought it added cool dimension to see it peeking through the vellum a bit.

The weird curvy shapes came about from scraps that were leftovers of a pillowbox die cut. Amazing what you can find a use for! My flowers were made from scratch using the same ribbon that I used on my Candy is Dandy shrine a couple of weeks ago. I love how they turned out with the wire ribbon because it was really easy to shape them and this is one of my first attempts at making ribbon flowers.



The little stitched up bear-looking guy was stamped on glossy cardstock,colored using paint markers, and popped onto pop dots. The "Treat" saying was leftover decorative paper from last year as well, and I just colored in the letters. Finally, the long curly whispy things coming from behind the flowers are just really thin strips of paper that I cut, and the stitching was done with embroidery thread.



I really hope India enjoys getting this card, and I'll probably throw in a special treat for her. I wish I could see her face when she gets it (*hint *hint Tori, take a pic!)

So, now that you've seen my project for the day, it's time to announce the winner of yesterday's hidden prize! We had 10 people find the pouting witch on Meredith's blog. I put the names in order of when I received them, and the winner by random # is...

True Random Number Generator

Min: 1
Max: 10
Result: 3
Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Sue Kinsey!!

Congrats Sue!!! I will send out your digi prize immediately, and we'd all love to see what you do with your pouting witch so feel free to link up a project if you'd like. Now, go and enjoy the other Wicked Blogs today, and I'd love to hear what you think of my card and of all the 31 Days projects that you've seen so far!

Dropping The Bomb- Heartflies Garden

Ok, today I'm sharing my third and final catch-up Bombshell Stamps project with you. Not to say there won't be more, these are just the three that I was able to get done this past weekend. I still have ALOT to go to be completely caught up and will share as I am able to.

Like I mentioned yesterday, this one may be my fave out of the three. I used the Growing Hearts stamp set for this one.


*click pics to view larger



On the background of my card, I used a stencil and some black gesso to add some faint swirly images. Then I added some shading to make it look kinda like a night scene. I finished the background by stamping the vine image in white coming from the right edge.

My main image was stamped on white cardstock, colored with prismacolors, and cut out. I wanted most of the colors on her to be soft and faint, almost like moonlight was falling on her. Then I added bold color to the heart in her hand, her lips, and the heart on her forehead using nail polish. I added her to the bottom left of the card. Next I colored and cut out some flowers to surround her.

The rest of the hearts are leftovers from a die-cut that I used a while back. I had tons of the little hearts left over, and the swirly effect at the bottom of them matched perfectly with the heart in the image! I colored them with nail polish as well. I cut the wings from a metal piece that I had laying around (it's the same metal piece that I used for my Creationist spinner a while back), and added yellow embossing powder to them. Then I attached them to the back of my hearts, and added them to the card.

So, now you get the title! She's catching Heartflies in her midnight garden...or at least that's the visual I had. Does it make sense? I think this one's my fave cause it's kinda odd, it fits me. I wish I could go outside and catch heartflies, ha ha! I'd love to hear what you think.

Dropping The Bomb- Tiki Invite

If you joined me yesterday, you heard all about my attempt at catching up. Well, here's my second Bombshell Stamps project that I have to share with you. It's supposed to be an invitation to a summer tiki party. I make it relatively simple to keep with the idea that I'd be making quite a few of these to send/give out, and I think it came our rather nice.

*click for larger view

This card uses images from the Tiki Party and Madonna Woodcut Bombshell stamp sets. I started this time by stamping, coloring, and cutting out my tiki gods. For the coloring, I used two different distress inks, my colorbox tool, and some markers. I choose my cardstock colors to match the colors I used on the tikis.

On the rusty background cardstock, I distressed the whole thing to look kinda soft like suede. I stamped flowers from Madonna Woodcuts using distress ink, and added just a touch of color to them using chalks. For the saying, I crumbled vanilla cardstock and distressed it, then stamped my banner onto it. Then using my colorbox tool, I added deeper shadows behind the banner. Finally, I added two brown brads.

I layered everything, putting the tikis on pop dots, and tied a brown raffia ribbon to the background. To finish off the card, I added these two wood-like buttons to the raffia and tied them so they had space in between. Now I just need to throw a tiki party so I can send the invitation!

I'd love to hear what you think about this, so feel free to comment if you like.Tomorrow I have a third project to share with you, and I think it might be my favorite out of the three, so please visit! See you then.

Simply Betty Blog Hop...London Birthday Hardware

Ooooohhh...hardware! These are a few of my favorite things! Today the Smeared and Smudged Design Team is hopping along with Simply Betty Stamps and their super grungy-cute "My Kids Emo World" stamps. We were all challenged to make a project that was grungy-hardware, and it worked perfectly for me because my daughter's birthday is next week. Perfect challenge to make a birthday card for her!

I didn't want to grunge it up too much, since it's for her. Although she definitely takes after me and loves the darker themes, I still wanted the project to reflect her personality, which is kinda diva-grunge.

So, I chose to work with London, whose familiar is a cat. London immediately reminded me of my daughter; prissy and a little evil, ha ha! To work in the hardware, I chose to make a separate piece that comes off the card and turns into a necklace charm. Something that she will love to wear!

*click pics for larger views


You can see in the pics that I tore and layered a greenish paper in the background. The paper came from the inside of a package that I received a while back, and you may remember it from another card that I used it on way back when. The paper is SO COOL because when you tear it, the inside is black.



I colored London and cut her out, then simply popped her up on foam dots. The letters are stickers, and I added white gel pen lines to them. Then I worked on the charm with hardware.



Starting with a punched black square, I layered the same green paper onto the back of it. The front got a coat of black glitter glue, and the cute little cat that I had previously colored. After the glue dried, I sandwiched the square in the middle of two pieces of memory glass, and stuck it in a frame. Then I added some jump rings and these neat looking bolts. Finally, I tied a big black bow on the top of it and attached it to the card with more jump rings.

I know that she will LOVE this card, and the charm will be worn often, if not all the time. And I also know I will be using ths stamp for other projects pertaining to her, because it just fits her so well!!

So, now that you've seen what I've done with these great Simply Betty stamps, hop through the other S&S DT member blogs. Then visit Debbie, one of the Simply Betty Design Team Members, and Betty herself! You're sure to see some amazing grungy hardware featuring the "My Kids Emo World" stamps.

Terra

Tori

Alison

Kelli

Jean

Sarah

Danielle

Black Dragon

Lady Brayton

Meredith

Kim

Kathi

Lisa

Debbie

Betty Betty has had an emergency and won't get to play today :(

Don't Forget Grumpie- new challenges

I'd like to let you all know that we have updated The Challenger group over on the S&S forum with brand spanking new Very Sketchy challenges, an awesome Oh, The Horror! challenge, and an inspiration filled Rock N Rolla challenge! Plus, our guest DT member Lisa has challenged us to stamp something we can wear... you don't want to miss The Challenger this month!

Our July sponsors are just as awesome, and we have had generous donations from both Simply Betty Stamps and Stampotique. Be sure to swing by our main page to get all the info about these fabulous sponsors!

I don't usually participate in my own challenges, but I couldn't pass up this months card sketch(and probably won't be able to pass up the others, they rock!) So, here's my version.

*click pic for larger view

This little guy is Cotton, one of the images from our Li'l Grumpies set at Smeared Ink. I colored him with watercolors, markers, and distress ink. The background paper is from Black Market, and the cardstocks are from Stampin' Up. The punches I used are also from Stampin' Up.

I tore the edges of my papers and then distressed them with antique photo distress ink, then layered them on top of each other. I also used the ink on my blue velvet ribbon to make it look older. For hardware I used a cool little picture hanger-type thing, eyelets as flower centers, and a jeweled brad in his bellybutton.

The card is pretty simple, but still has depth in my opinion. I'd love to hear what you think! And I can't wait to see what you all can come up with using this sketch. Come on by the forum to submit your version for a fab prize!

*31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN 2010*

HIDDEN IMAGE FUN SCAVENGER HUNT

CLUE # 2: REWIND BACK ONE MORE MONTH AND SEE HOW MUCH JACK MISSES YOU

Guest DT Feature- Jennifer Willis

During the month of June, we hosted our very first Smeared Ink Guest Design Team Member, Jennifer Willis. She has been amazing, presenting a fabulous watercolor challenge on our forum, and sharing some pretty wicked stamped projects. Jennifer has been a member of the S&S forum since last September, and since that time has amazed us with her contest entries and beautiful art. Here's alittle bit more about Jennifer.

"I live in North Dakota and am a SAHM with two beautiful little girls. I have been involved in paper art and crafts for many years off and on. I enjoy rubber stamping, creating collage art, scrap booking, ATCs and more. I design for Stampers Quest, Sweet Pea Stamps, Faerie Song and Auntie Amy's Stamps."

Visit Jennifer on her BLOG to view all her fabulous projects!! Be sure to leave some love for her and a big thanks for being our Guest DT for June!

New Smeared Ink Release Blog Hop

Thanks for visiting today! The Smeared Ink Design Team has a WONDERFUL hop for you, featuring a new image from Smeared Ink! That's right, we have three fabulous new sets that are available in our shop today! Here's a lookie...

The Symbology of Angels

Teen Style Sayings

Teen Style Backgrounds



Aren't they great! I LOVE them all of course, but for the hop we all worked with one of my favorites from our new set The Symbology of Angels, his name is "Praise". He is such an awesome image to work with!! I know I'll be using him all the time. So without further adeu, here's my project!

*click pics for larger views


When I saw this card in my head, I pictured a bright burst of "light" in the center between his arms; which is where the idea for the circle came into play. I used some images from another Smeared Ink set, Shadow Thingies, to stamp and emboss the heart and whymsical swirls around the circle. I used feathers to make my rays of light coming from the circle, and attached a Karma charm.

The background of my card was made by sponging ink through a scrap piece of punchinella, then adding some accents with the gel pen. I also darkened the card behind my center light circle. "Praise" is colored with prismacolor pencils and gel pen. I added shadows around him, and popped his wings off of the card.

For me, even though this card is pretty simple, it really is a standout! The image just invokes a sense of beauty to me, and I adore it.

So now I'd like to invite you to hop on to the other DT members blogs to see how they interpreted the image "Praise" into their own project! Then come on by our shop to see all three new sets in detail.

Terra

Tori

Alison

Kelli

Jean

Sarah

Danielle

Black Dragon

Lady Brayton (oh no! Lady B is having problems with her internet, but I'll leave the link here just in case she can get her project up later. It is gorgeous and worth the wait! Check back later)

Meredith

Thanks for hopping with us! And be on the lookout toward the end of August for another hop dedicated to our Halloween Release! It's gonna be a doozey!

Artie Graduates!

Today I am sharing a card made with Artie, Smeared Ink's Graduation Li'l Grumpie. He is available as a digi image for a limited amount of time in our shop, and can be purchased when you spend $20 or more. Check out the June Specials link when you get to the shop. He is so fun to work with, and super cute in a grumpy sort of way!

I made this card for my cousin who graduated this month. It's pretty simple, using background papers and a "You Rock" saying. I really like the layout on this one because even though it's simple, it really catches your eye. Basically I just colored in Artie, mounted different layers, distressed edges, and added eyelets.



Isn't he adorable in his cap?

Miss You Jack

I just have a quick minute, but want to share. Last night I got the opportunity to sit for about an hour by myself, so I decided to make a card that's been sitting in my mind for a while. It uses sitting Jack from our Smeared Ink "Jack" set, and a saying from our "Carnies" set.


*click for larger pics*




The cardstock is all Stampin' Up, and I started by stamping and embossing my background images, then filling the music notes with blue shimmery powder. I was super inspired by Aletha from our S&S forum, so I made Jack into three separate dimensions. I stamped him with stazon, then watercolored him for our Smeared & Smudged Guest DT Watercolor Challenge that was posted by Jennifer.

I used different inks to make the background colors on the card, and then just simply layered stuff, made my tag, and added ribbon and hardware. Finally at the end, I covered the tag, Jack's eyes, and lips with Crystal Effects to make them glossy. The card is a little more subtle and pretty than I usually make, but I hope you enjoy it!

*31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN 2010*

HIDDEN IMAGE FUN SCAVENGER HUNT

CLUE#3: YOU'LL FIND THE HIDDEN IMAGE IN A POST FROM THE MONTH KNOWN FOR ITS SHOWERS. THIS PUNKY EIGHTIES GAL WOULD LOVE TO ADD A WITCH HAT TO HER FASHION STATEMENT!

Blingy River Nymph

Two posts in one day, I am really rockin' today! I guess I'm just in a pretty creative mood. The card that I'm going to show you now was made for two challenges. The first is this week's Practical Scrappers Challenge, which is glitter and bling, and the second is the Challenge over at The Cuttlebug Spot, which is also bling.

For my card I used the Nymphs stamp set from Smeared Ink and some decorative paper from Stampin' Up. I colored my river nymph and then blinged her up using crystals, and also added some diamond glitter to her. Building my card was pretty simple, I just distressed and layered the papers, added some more glitter and crystals, and a couple of touches of marker. Finally I added in my saying on vellum, also from the Nymphs set.

Even though it is very simple, I absolutely adore this card and hope you enjoy it too!

*click for larger views