Macabre Monday Strange Brew

Hello, creepsters.  Miss me last week?  Seems I just couldn't get it together for Eerie Elegance, but this week at Haunted Design House we have a Strange Brew "Recipe Challenge" in honor of our sponsor Strange Skin.  I fancy myself quite the gourmet, so this is right up my alley.  And they always say, "The way to a man's heart is through his...no (you naughty minds!) STOMACH"!  I've chosen the fabulous Love You to the Bone.  Our mission was to create a dark, Gothic or Halloween based piece using the recipe: 2 layers+main image panel+metal bits+black pearls+single punched element+ribbon/trim.  Easy peasy, eh?

A couple things of note.  The keyhole on the image made me crave some DP with keys but there was none to be found in my stash so I embossed printed paper with one of the Cuttlebug folders from the Sentimentals Cricut companion set and sanded it.  I have to remember that.  I rarely emboss printed paper but I really love how it turned out.

The image was printed twice and the front of the ribcage was fussy cut and popped so there was room for my single punched element (the heart).  My metal bits are the key and Muse token.  Fabby red ribbon trim.  Looks like shredded stockings, me thinks.

Black pearls, no problem.  Heck, half the cards I make have those on 'em.  So in case you're missing that this is all about love, here's the sentiment.  Not a requirement, just how I'm feeling.  Put it all together and it reads "Only you hold the key to my heart forevermore".  xxxxx  Now off you go to HDH to see the rest of the Minions' fab creations and we sure do hope you cook up one of your own.  Don't you just love a good potluck?

I'm also entering this in the Poisoned Peas Goth/Emo Challenge, and the Forever Night Anything Goes Challenge.

Macabre Monday Hot as Hell

This week at Haunted Design House it's Hot as Hell in here.  Use flames or something that requires heat, burning, scorching or wet embossing to create a dark, Gothic or Halloween based art piece.  WooHoo!  Bring out the blow torch for something other than creme brulee.  Ummm...harder than I thought.

I used a flames image from the net and printed it many times (thank GOD!).  I left one in tact for a background, and then burned another (and another and...)to create the raised frame.  First used a Nestie to create an opening, then my handy blow torch to singe the edges.  CAUTION!  Do not do this indoors.  First failed attempt.  Yowzers!  My sneaks are still smoldering stomping that puppy out.  I'm not gonna tell ya how many tries this took.  LOL

The fab image is a freebie from Sister Minion Ike.  I've colored with Copics and scanned the image and fussy cut parts to add dimension.  Wonder how I did the flames?

This image is not a png and I haven't the foggiest how to make it one.  I wanted the flames behind to be paper pieced with the flames image so I flipped Ike's image and printed it on the backside of another printed flames image and fussy cut that.  Then I turned it over and pasted just the colored Grim Reaper image atop the flames et voila!

Here you can see the number of layers I used on the image.  "Burn" is hand printed because I was too tired  to try and print it on the computer.  That chalky substance on the frame is real ash...seriously.  The Minions knocked this one out of the park so be sure to visit HDH to view the fabulous inspiration and don't forget Wretched Wednesday for last week's Winner and Gruesome Twosome.  Hope to see you in Hell, later this week.  I'm also entering this in the Forever Night Anything Goes How Dark Can You Go Challenge, the Crafty Bloggers Network Decoupage Challenge, and the Rainbow Lady's "Age" as in decoupage, etc. Challenge.

Oh, and hope you all had a fabulous Mother's Day.  This was Goliath's attempt at breakfast in bed for me.  Obviously he had to take a little taste to make sure is was up to par.  Fortunately the cat door was locked and besides, I didn't want to break the news that I was sort of craving rat this morning.  Jezzie's gift was still breathing (a lizard) and is now living somewhere under the bathroom cabinet.  Nice.  She was so upset that I didn't get to play with it that she said she might let me pet her later. Still waiting. I'm not holding my breath.

So where's BBTB2?  I'll be posting a little late.  After my pyro adventures here and my Altered Alice project, I sort of ran out of gas.  I'm not exactly thrilled with my BBTB2 tag anyway, but I'll get it up eventually.  I'm in a bit of a rush this morning.  Obviously, my blog is not for wimps.  Hope you don't toss your cookies (a little BBTB2 humor there) at the site of my Mother's Day 'prise from Goliath.  I do wish more people would take a look at my Altered Alice banner though.  It's the kind of thing I'd love to do more of. 

Macabre Monday Which Witch are You?

Greetings, friends. Our challenge this week at Haunted Design House is Which Witch are YOU? Create a dark, Gothic or Halloween-based project representing YOU at your witchy best OR if you'd rather not represent yourself in that way, choose your favorite witch of all time and use her as your muse. Ever since "Bewitched", I've been fascinated by witches (the good ones) and dreamed of spells and potions and of course, my faithful familiar so I've created a little scene using one of the Which Which silhouettes from Stitchy Bear and isolated and assembled animal elements from the Bugaboo Happy Halloween Cat. I masked a full moon and colored the background with Distress Inks. The sentiment is computer generated.

Inside, I've completed the sentiment using a similar inked background. Simple, but effective I think, and perfect for Halloween or a special occasion for a witchy friend. A number of the Minions are out this week so please send healing vibes and don't forget to visit HDH on Wednesday for the winners of last week's challenge, and the always fab post by Creepy Glo.

I'm also entering it in the Forever Night anything Goes (but Keep it Dark) Challenge.

Macabre Monday Lurid Landscapes

This week at Haunted Design House our challenge is Lurid Landscapes. I scoured the net in search of someting spooky, but most of the stuff either easn't that scary or had a copyright thingy soo I was in a bit of a tizzy then I remembered my fab Holy City stamps from Smeared Ink. Hey yeah, graveyards are landscapes. WooHoo! I live near San Francisco, and those who travel frequently or live near tourist destinations are certainly familiar with the sort of fold out postcard books available. That was my inspiration.

It all folds up and this is the cover of the project. The skellie is from a Tim Holtz Halloween set and the words are computer generated. I might add that these are RUBBER STAMPS, no digis! Do you believe it?

Again, only the words are computer generated.

All from the same set from Smeared Ink.

In fact, there were only two in the set I didn't use. That a lot of stamps!

I was so excited that I didn't mess up that I had to give you closeups of ALL of it. LOVE how well these fab stamps work.

I thought this was a cute ending. I added the little raven to the skellie's arm. Looks like he wrote the sentiment. Wonder who he's sending it to? Be sure to check out the fab work by the rest of the Minions and check out our fab HDH Blog Candy for our soon to reach goal of 500 Followers, offered by our own Creepy Glowbugg and also check out the fab candy she is offering on her personal blog. (She's doing penance for her last week's DT project. LOL) I'm also entering this in the Forever Night Black and Creepy Challenge, Simply Create Shades of Black, Shopping Our Stash Spooky and/or Orange and Black and the Simon Says Stamp Halloween/Goth Challenge..

The Saturated Canary Challenge #1

Okay, I almost couldn't get any later than this. In fact I would have been too late had I not bopped over to The Saturated Canary Challenge Blog and noticed the deadline for this first sketch (and photo inspiration challenge) ends at midnight! EEEKK!!! I pretty much stink at sketches (no creativity for thinking outside the box with them) but Halloween...NO PROB! I chose the adorable Frankenstein Tambry digi for my project. She's colored with Copics to match the Basic Grey Eerie DP and from there I just pretty much followed the sketch.

Look at that face! Is she precious or what? (Actually, they ALL are and you can see them in the Etsy store HERE, but you'll have to wait 'til tomorrow because Krista took a mini vacay). Go Krista! Edit: She's BAACK!, go shop!

I took a close up of the little dangling charm so that the lovely ladies at Forever Night challenges could see that she's Trick or Treating. She's just a little shy. Love that webby ribbon and the crocheted lace. Thought it looked nice with the crocheted flower on top. So there we go. Friday there will be a new challenge at The Saturated Canary AND Forever Night. WooHoo!

Macabre Monday Inner Workings and a Mini Cricut Tut

Morning, my pretties! I'm running a little late today, so If you were expecting my BBTB2 project, be sure to come back. I DO have a Cricut creation, however, so I hope that will do until I get my act together. LOL This week our Macabre Monday challenge is Inner Workings. Create a dark,Gothic, or Halloween based project that is either quite literal (clockwork or guts) or just simply decorate the inside of your project as well as the outside. My first inclination was to find something really EEEEWWWW!!!! on the net, but then I remembered my heart stamp from the Quoth the Raven set from Smeared Ink.

I decided to create a gate fold rib cage card to hold my heart, using my Cricut. There's a bit of a lesson here, so if you're not interested, skip this part. (I'm feeling a bit chatty today, though so here goes.) I sized the skelton torso from the Oct 31st cartridge quite large in DS. In order to make a gate fold, the maximum my torso could be is 6 inches at the widest point because my card stock for the base is only 12 inches wide. The base, which measured 12"x7" (yeah, it's a BIG card!) was scored at 3" and 9" and folded towards the center. The skeleton torso was partially off the mat in DS, but since I only wanted the rib cage, it didn't really matter. Remember when doing this, however, that although the cutting will look complete on your screen, your Cricut will think there's still more to cut (because actually, there is, but you've run out of mat). You will have to delete that little cutting progress screen and unload your mat, but when you go to re cut, the program will be confused. It won't cut. You'll have to not only exit your file, but actually close out and restart DS in order for you to be able to continue. A GIANT PITA, but it was worth it to get the size I needed.

Next problem, there are no shadows on the Oct. 31st cart, so after cutting and trimming my rib cage, I sliced it down the center and used removable tape to secure it to my gate fold and traced around it. Make sure you leave plenty of area at the the folds so your base is stable and cut carefully through both thicknesses. Et voila! a shaped gate fold.

For the inside mat, I hid the contours of the rib cage and cut and trimmed it as previously mentioned. I used Copics and Distress ink for a bit of shading. My heart is also colored with Copics, but looked a bit lonesome without any other organs so I cut the zombie hand (also from October 31st) and positioned it to look like it was ripping it out (or at least squeezing the life out of it :D ) Who says Cricut has to be cutesy? (However, if this doesn't float your boat, come back later today to see a REALLY cute Halloween project for BBTB2. Please ignore that, Minions!) Anyway, the sentiment is computer generated and the front closure thingy was cut with the Cuttlebug Embossing Plus Fanciful Labels folder. Now, after all that for a mediocre project, I hope you still have the strength and inclination to visit HDH to see what the rest of the Minions have been up to, and don't forget Wretched Wednesday when Creepy Glo posts. We love it when you participate too, and it is October, after all. Time to get your creep on. I'm also entering this in the Forever Night Anything Goes challenge.

Celebrating The Mad Hatter with Twinkles

The Hatter shook his head mournfully. `Not I!' he replied. `We quarrelled last March--just before HE went mad, you know--' (pointing with his tea spoon at the March Hare,)
`--it was at the great concert given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to sing

"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you're at!"
You know the song, perhaps?'
`I've heard something like it,' said Alice.
`It goes on, you know,' the Hatter continued, `in this way:--
"Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle--"'
-- Chapter 7, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

At The Altered Alice we celebrate Mad Hatter's Day twice a year as the date is taken from the price on his hat - ten schillings and a sixpence or 10/6. That means it is on October 6 here in the United States, and on June 10 in the United Kingdom. But mainly it is just a great reason to party with the Mad Hatter twice a year! Your challenge is to celebrate the Mad Hatter, and as OPTIONS you can use something that twinkles or shines AND/OR you can bring some spookiness into it since we are all having a "Twinkle twinkle little bat" sing-along around our mad tea table!

My project this month is the Hatter's tea cup made from a Sizzix Bigz die run through my Big Shot. Because there were no layering features, I cut the cup several times and added layers of DP from the Graphic 45 Halloween in Wonderland stack and also popped the rims and handle. Instead of using the saucer from the die, I substituted my Oval Nesties to more easily layer that as well. The Hatter Stamp is on the Alice II set from our fabulous sponsor this month, IndigoBlu. I've added a small bat brad and gem to the center of the clock and a black rosette made from a Tim Holtz die and Stickled around the edges for some "twinkle".

Our prize this month is an A5 sized unmounted stamp set from IndigoBlu (a £13 value), or an equivalent amount of A6 stamps. IndigoBlu is a fantastic new British stamp company that makes "Quintessential English Rubber Stamps" right there in England.

In fact IndigoBlu is sponsoring The Altered Alice for October AND November, and the design team will be working with these two fantastic Alice stamp sets, titled appropriately "Alice I" and "Alice II". Most Americans don't know what A5 and A6 mean so I'll just tell you, these sets are huge!
I encourage you to go visit IndigoBlu.com. All stamps are on sale right now with their introductory pricing, but that won't last forever, and the designs are all wonderful! In addition, the Head Honcho Alfie says The Altered Alice readers can take 10% OFF during the challenge; just use coupon code AlteredAlice in the voucher code box at checkout! Thanks Alfie!

On the tea bag tag I've added a glittered bat cut from a large EK Success border punch and another gem for more sparkle.

The frame was cut twice using my Nesties Fleur di Lis Squares from adhesive Fun Foam and stuck together to hold the wire for my purple glittered flying bats. These were also trimmed from the border punch, run through my Xyron and sprinkled with Doodlebug Sugar Coating.

They were backed in black for a shadow effect and WooHoo, more gems! "Twinkle, twinkle" little bats..." Be sure to stop by The Altered Alice for more inspiration from the DT and welcome Retta as a permanent member. She, Tracy and I make up the first week's offerings. We have new ones every week so don't forget to pop in every to The Altered Alice every Sunday. October is a long month with five Sundays, so you'll have no excuse not to join us in our Mad Tea Party celebrating Mad Hatter Day, US style! Enter by Friday, October 28; our randomly drawn winner and the honorable mentions will be announced on the last Sunday, October 30. Just make sure YOUR watch is not two days slow! Go get your "Alice" on!

I also entering this in The Corrosive Challenge Blog Purple Passion challenge, the Forever Night anything Goes Challenge, and the new ABC Anything Goes Challenge where my dear friend, Leah, is a new Design Team member. WooHoo, Leah and the newly relaunched ABC Challenges!

TOFF Quotes and Forever Night

Just managed a quickie today for the TOFF Quotes challenge. I had planned to do something entirely different, but when I saw that Forever Night was Mysterious Findings (from Wonderland), I decded to use the Hatter's riddle as my quote. It's a quickie, because I'm running out of time and hubby wants to see a movie. Crafting as an excuse gets overused in this house so I'm rushing. I merged The Octopode Factory Raven, Ink and Quill from the Poe Set and Dada Steampunk Hands images (which for my purposes became the Hatter's) on the computer and added the quote. (I'm pretty sure the answer to this is still a mystery.) I colored with Copics, matted with a stripey border, a few beads and DONE! Sorry so short, but I'm outta here!

Macabre Monday I Was Framed Sponsored by Dilly Beans

Okay guys, this week we Minions have a super challenge for you for Macabre Monday, sponsored by the most fantastic creepy cute images from Dilly Beans. Our challenge requires you to use a frame because so many of Megan's fantastic digis have a fabulous frame around them. Megan is offering eight (count 'em EIGHT!) digis from her adorable designs, two each to the Gruesome Twosome, and four to the winner (Megan's favorite) of the challenge. Let me tell you, I've got PLENTY more than 8 and she currently has a sale running where you can buy 3 and get one free (through Labor Day)! BTW, although my FAVES are in the creepy cute catagory, there are plenty more that are just plain CUTE so check them out HERE. I've chosen the sort of mournful #205 Hypno Eye Girl. She looks so sad. Who is she missing? There were so many ways I wanted to color her, but I finally decided on my fave Copic combo of red, black and white. I used portions of the MS spider web punch around the page and distressed the mats with my Distrezz-it-All. The fab embellies include a Wonky eyed skull from our own fabulous Creepy Glo Bugg's Etsy store, as well as a flower from Recollections.

I printed the stamp twice so I could add some dimension to her face and added some adhesive beads to balance the design. As usual, the Minions have some fabulous inspiration and don't forget to check back on Wednesday for Glo's take on the challenge at HDH. ALWAYS worth waiting for! We LOVE seeing what you come up with, so grab a frame of some sort and join in. You could be the lucky winner of some FAB stamps from Dilly Beans! I'm also entering this in the Forever Night Too Cute to Spook Challenge. I think she's WAY too cute to spook, don't you?

Macabre Monday Kreepy Kids (Warning! Possibly Offensive)

It's another Macabre Monday and first I want to thank everyone for participating in our 100th challenge last week at Haunted Design House. Your projects were awesome and I certainly hope we see you again. This week our challenge is Kreepy Kids. I'm pretty sure my fans of the dark side will find my offering amusing, but I worry a bit about my mainstream followers and I'm hoping no one will take offense. I found the image on the net at Motifakes by somawhale. Fabulously creepy, eh? I've fashioned a sort of Gothic "blankie" using an MS punch around the page set. I was sort of channeling "Rosemary's Baby" here, one of my all time fave movies. The sentiment was done with my Dymo. No surprise I don't have kids. LOL I'm also entering this in the Forever Night Challenge Good or Evil Challenge. Guess you can tell which this is. So pop by Haunted Design House and check out the rest of the Minions creations and while you're enjoying the dark side, have a look see at the inspiration over at Forever Night Challenges as well.