Accordian Pumpkin Boo

This is a card that I made last year, but I had such a good response from it, I thought I'd share it with you. It was made using the Carved and Candlelit stamp set from Stampin' Up, and although the stamp elements are simple, the card design is super cool!

It is about the size of a long notecard and opens up to reveal an accordian folded element that pops out. Then there are two tags that slide out on either side for you to place a message, more stamped images, or a hand written note.









I LUV this card design, and forgot about it until I found this card lurking in my collection! I'll have to make another with a different design to share later on. I want to remind you all that the month is winding down, only 7 days til Halloween! If you're wanting to participate in any of the challenges that either Kelli or I have featured this month, be sure to link your entries to the corresponding post before Halloween!
We'll be drawing for Blog Candy on Nov 1.

Also, I wanted to let you know I will not be posting until late tomorrow. Today is a super busy day filled with pumpkin patches and haunted houses, so I'll not be making a project until tomorrow morning. In the meantime, have a rockin' day!

Going Mental

Day 16 and I've gone insane! At least my project has. This is a card that has one of my all time favorite Halloween pictures on it. The picture was taken several years back at a friend's Haunted House. We were all participants, and the theme was a Haunted Mental Institution.

My husband played the insane doctor who was carrying out cruel and unusual experiments on the patients. My second oldest daughter, who was about 6 at the time, played one of the residents, and let me tell you, they both were SCARY! My husband ran around talking crazy, being angry at the intruders, and sawing patients in half with a really loud jigsaw (bladeless, of course).

My daughter walked around creepily among the trees and asked the tourists if they wanted to play, then told them in a rhaspy voice with eyes wide "The ghosts like me, but they don't like you..." Scariest thing eva!!!!

I was the tour guide slash maid, and my oldest and her friends were some of the "tourists" that I led through the institute. Needless to say, we all had a blast! This picture was taken after the scaring was done, after we all came inside to have some food and talk about the best parts. When the camera came out, my husband posed and my daughter played right into it! Perfect picture!


*click to see bigger views*


I used some swirly type images from both Invoke Arts and The Enchanted Gallery, and a retired collage alphabet from Stampin' Up. The skulls were cut out of a paper coaster that I received from fellow Bombshell Kas (thanks Kas!), and the striped background paper also came from Kas. I really scored with that gift! I hope you enjoy the card, for me it's a definite keeper!

So join me tomorrow for a very special sketch challenge sponsored by Prickley Pear! You'll have to tune in to get all the details, but you're gonna love it! See you tomorrow.

Twisted Tuesday Materials Challenge- Sweet Pins

Welcome back to Twisted Tuesday! Last week's material was game pieces, and the winner of that challenge is Kelli. View her "lusty" submission HERE. Congrats, Kelli! You'll be receiving your prize in the mail soon!

Now on to this week, I'd like to invite you all to play along!

Here is the way Twisted Tuesday works:

* 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!

So, here's the challenge for this week...

My Sample:


*click pics for larger views*

The Challenge:
Use safety pins somewhere visible on your project.





The Prize:
Variety of eyelets, approx. 100, plus some other small goodies.

Now let's see if you can come up with some sweet pins! Be sure to link to your entry in your comment, and have fun playing!

Altered Monday: Domino Book Belts

Well, this is one of those long lost projects that I started right before our big cross country move. I got about half way done, then put it away. I've finally finished!

These are called book belts, which are similar to book marks, but have a piece of elastic that wraps all the way through the inside of the book to hold your page. They are really cool because they're not as easy to loose as bookmarks, and you can make them as elaborate as you want since the decoration is held on the outside of the book.

I made mine out of dominos that I altered. The images are from an old Stampin' Up hostess set called Organic Grace. I used acrylic paint, gold leafing, and embossing powder to add details to the Stazon-stamped images. I also added in some gold wire as embellishment. After finishing the dominos, I attached ribbon and completed the belt with a piece of elastic that is only seen on the inside of the book and holds your page. You can see the elastic in the last picture.

I will say that next time I make these I will probably go for some chord elastic and find a nifty way to attach it to the ribbon so it looks nicer, but I'm happy with these and they will get lots of use! My two oldest daughters have already claimed their favorites.

Twisted Tuesday Materials Challenge- Eye Candy

Welcome to Twisted Tuesday! This is a new weekly challenge here on Smeared and Smudged and I thought I'd kick it off right... with some eye candy! But first, here are DA RULZE:

* 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!

It's that easy! So now, on to this weeks sample and challenge.

My Sample:


The Challenge:
Use any type of game pieces in your project.


The prize:
No, it's not this guy, but I thought I'd give you another look.


The prize is a handful of recycled bottle caps that can be used on a challenge later this month, and maybe some other small goodies.


There are all the details, so now it's your turn to play! I'm really excited about this challenge and can't wait to see what everyone comes up with. Be sure to visit again tomorrow for another exciting feature!!

Antique Assortment

Well, the past few days have been hectic to say the least. Getting ready for a huge cross-country move is no picnic, and I haven't had a free moment to sit down and stamp. But, I thought I'd share the four card assortment that I was able to make last week. Some have seen it on my PCP blog, but here they are again. These cards were fun because I got to create anything I wanted without following any guidelines for swaps or orders, which hasn't happened in a long time for me. I used some leftover stripe-y deco paper that I had from Christmas for the color inspiration. All the rest of the paper was hand colored and texturized, so I really got to use some interesting techniques. The stamp set is from Stampin' Up and I just love it! I'll be using this one alot.