Showcasing the New Lucy Loo 'Cat on the Head

Today I'm showcasing the newest digi from The East Wind called Lucy Loo 'Cat on the Head' over on The East Wind Show Room.  Gotta say she cracks me up, so I thought she'd be a great reminder of the "Just for a Laugh" FB contest going on now through August 17th.  Since it was all about the hair, I used bobby pin DP from the DCWV All About Girls mat stack and framed her with my Spellbinders Labels Twenty Eight.  My BFF Lisa helped me come up the the sentiment and I couldn't resist adding a mousey border done with my MS punch.

Lucy Loo was so much fun to color with my Copics and I just can't stop giggling about that cat on her head.  You can always count on Lucy Loo to inspire a humorous sentiment with that attitude of hers (or in this case, should I say "catitude"?  LOL)  Come on, join our FB contest and make us laugh!
I'm entering this in the Going Grey with Scrap-Creations Animals Challenge, 2 Cute Ink Animals,  Through the Purple Haze ATG/Femme Fatale Twist, Fan-Tastic Tuesday ATG and SOSS "Z" is for Zoo (or any other animal or animal print, man, those chicks are easy).  Hope to make one with an actual Zoo animal but might not make it due to a crazy couple of weeks, but I thought you might get a kick out of this.xxx

Smeared and Smudged DT Throwdown #4

WOW!  It's the 4th DT Throwdown at the Smeared and Smudged Forum and I'm joining my Minion Sisters Teri and Croms to proudly represent Haunted Design House.  The theme is Leather and Lace chosen by US 'cause we won last time, WOOHOO! and I've made a Butterfly Queen Dress Form Art Doll.  It started with a papier mache dress form which I gessoed and painted with acrylic.  Hubby drilled a hole through which I inserted a wooden spoon to fit in a spool base.

I've been collecting printed leather remnants from the fabulous Britex Fabrics in San Francisco and chose this piece for the dress.  (That's a chair seat for point of reference as to the size.)

I tried to make a sort of pattern with tissue paper before cutting into it.  Scared the crap out of me, to be honest, a seamstress I'm not, but the lace conveniently hid the seaming and I was on a roll.  Wouldn't mind one like this myself.

With the theme covered, I proceeded with the stamps.  All are from the Specimen Jar Set by Smeared Ink.  I printed the butterflies in different sizes on transparency film and thought I'd be able to color them with Copics, but the colors were too pale. Then tried Alcohol Inks with a brush but it looked streaky.  Finally I just dripped colors on the acetate and WooHoo!  Wasn't prepared for the lack of control you have as the colors mix and blend, but the final effect was pretty cool.  then I cut them out, attached little antennae and wire so they could fly.  I cropped and printed the lady to use only her head and neck.

She was printed several times, colored with Copics, fussy cut and layered for a bit of dimension.  Then I glued her to the front of the spoon.

The back served to be more of a problem.  The stamp had no rear view.  I considered making some rosette or something to cover the back of the spoon but didn't want to interfere with her wings, so I flipped the image and a bunch of just her hair, printed, colored, cut and pieced it together to form the back of her head.  I have to say I was really, really REALLY thrilled with how it came out.

Finally, the spool just wasn't a big enough base so I added a round box cover, cut more of the leather (with a Nestie, who knew?) and embellished it as you see here.  When I was done I did the "Happy Dance" and so did my teamies who were sweatin' it waiting for me to finish.  LOL  Please visit HDH to see their fab projects and also the Throwdown Post for more info and inspiration by the rest of the participating teams.  We all are bringing our "A" game and every team should consider themselves a winner.  However, there is a VOTE which starts tomorrow around noon EDT so be sure and support your fave!  You must be a member of the Smeared and Smudged Forum to vote, but it's free and fun (just ask) so why the heck wouldn't you?

I'm also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge, Simon Says Stamp and Show Color Challenge, Left of Center Challenge (hoping this is LOC enough?), the Stampotique Trimmed Stamp Challenge #97, the Going Grey With Scrap-Creations Insects or Animals, LEJ Designs Mystical, Magical or Mysterious, TTRCD Anything Goes, {Pin}spirational CHallenge #54, the Outlawz Paper a la Mode Anything Goes Challenge, the Art With No Boundaries Linky Challenge and the DLArt April Linky Party. 

Dilly Beans Flowers Challenge

The weather is spectacular here and of course that's bringing out all kinds of flowers.  Fitting Challenge for Dilly Beans this week.  I chose these fabulous funky ones #550 Doodle Flowers Framed to make a CAS card using my Printmaster Platinum program to crop and color each piece digitally and add the text at the bottom of the frame.  Then I just cut it out and mounted it over the embossed front et voila!  I really love how it came out and plan to do a whole set of note cards wth different colors and sentiments.  My talented teamies have all sorts of fab flowers to show you so pop on by the Dilly Beans Challenge Blog and have a look.  I'm sure you'll want to play along. 

I'm also entering this in the Whimsical Designs Smell the Flowers Challenge, The Paper Shelter Make it Bloom Challenge, Bearly-Mine Spring Flowers, the Deep Ocean Flowers and Fantasy Challenge (these sure look like fantasy flowers to me!), the Digital Tuesday Springtime Challenge, the Cupcake Craftroom Summer Blooms Challenge, and Going Grey with Scrap-Creations Flower Power Challenge.

White Embossed Background for ADFD

Yes, I know Easter has passed but for someone who just got her tree down last week I think this is pretty good.  You think I'm kidding, don't you?  Well, at least I made my resolution deadline.  (BARELY!)  LOL  I've been wanting to play at A Day For Daisies and keep missing the boat.  The current challenge is use a white embossed background and I have sooo many embossing folders I just couldn't decide so I tried a trick with a new die from Spellbinders I got at the Expo.  Instead of using the cutting plate, I ran it through my Grand Calibur with the embossing mat and plate only and got this cool effect.  Now what?

Choosing the image was equally hard.  I have hundreds, literally, but this adorable Bunny Ears won out.  I did a minimal of coloring with Copics and paper pieced the little jammies.  Had to have a fuzzy bunny, so I paper pieced him, as well, by printing again, fussy cutting, running him through the Xyron right side down and flocking before gluing to the image.  Added a mini pom pom tail too.  I wanted a panoramic egg effect so I again used Spellbinders to cut the egg and window, embossed and glittered it to look like sugar.  I snipped a punched strip and carefully taped it around the back for the decorative edge.  I used the same punch (Stampin' Up) for the card mat.

My plan as to keep the card mostly white so I dug in my stash and found a Spellbinders Easter border I've had for ages but never used.  The color was added with my Copics while it was still in the die.  More succesful had I pulled out my air compressor and sprayed, but with a light touch I managed not to have it bleed too much.  Finally I popped the elemants for a little more interest and added a sentiment with Alpha Beads.  Thanks for hangin' in there, I'm awfully chatty today.

I"m also entering this in the DL Art Thankful Thursday Spring Challenge, Going Grey with Scrap-Creations Easter Challenge, Simon Says Stamp and Show Very Strict Anything Goes Challenge, the Outlawz Monday Greeting Card Challenge Anything Goes, and Papertake Weekly Anything Goes and The Crafty  Bloggers Network Anything Goes April Challenge.

Dilly Beans "Green" Challenge

Our challenge this week at Dilly Beans is "Green".  I wasn't exactly sure what to do for this until I came across a shamrock I'd cut with my Cricut LAST YEAR around this time (think I need to clean off my table?  LOL) and decided that the cute Adrianna (#484) would make an adorable leprechan.  I found her hat on #329 Top Hat Snowman, paper pieced the lot and added an epoxy sticker.  the embossing was done right on the card blank using one of my Cuttlebug border folders which I trimmed out with black peel-offs.  Conveniently, I was able to find every other Alpha Bead letter in my sentiment in green.  WooHoo!  Please visit Dilly Beans a little later today to see the fab work by my teamies and "Go Green" this week to play along.

I'm also entering this in the following challenges:

One Stitch at a Time: Green

Twisted Tuesday: Spring into Green

Sweet Stamps: Green

Simon Says Stamp: A Bit O' Green

Going Grey with Scrap-Creations: Go Green

Celebrate the Occasion: Luck of the Irish

Inky Impressions: St. Pat's or Green

Crafty Creations: Green

The Winner, a New Challenge and a Freebie (for a limited time)

Happy Tuesday!  How do you like this little guy?  Isn't he the sweetest EVER?  Well, for a very limited time you can get Alex and his Teddy Bear absolutely FREE just for visiting the Papelitos Challenge Blog.  I couldn't resist coloring him up immediately and here's the result.  The Adage Tickets are Tim Holtz and the sentiment is computer generated on a TH journaling Ticket.  When you find someone you love this much, I don't think you should ever let go.

After coloring with Copics, I used a Glue Marker to add some flocking to the bear.  Love the warm fuzzies.  It wasn't as even as using my Xyron, but I actually preferred this result and even scratched a bit more of it off so it looked like he's been loved A LOT!  So if you love this image as much as I do, hurry to Papelitos and nab him before he's GONE and while you're there, check out the new Happy Birthday/Celebrations tandem Challenge with Paper Crafting Journey.  Be sure to link up to both challenges to be eligible for a prize.

And speaking of prizes, the winner of June from the new Papelitos Stamps Saturday release is # 9, Jenn Borgeson who wrote

Congratulations Jenn!  Please email me at dlundinger(at) yahoo (dot) com to collect your image.

I'm entering this card in the Paper Crafting Journey Anything Goes Challenge , the Digital Tuesday Child's Play Challenge, the Going Grey With Scrap- Creations Kid's Theme Challenge, the Critter Sketch Digi Week Challenge (I'm hoping the bear counts as a "critter"), the  Here Come the Boys, Boys Toys Challenge and the Use Your Stuff Let's Hear it For the Boys Challenge.