GDT Gig for A Step in the Dark with Aurora Wings.

WooHoo!  I'm thrilled to be guesting for a time for A Step in the Dark and this fortnight's Challenge is ATG (Dark) or Dark Fantasy, sponsored by Aurora Wings.  ASITD is a new dark crafting blog and I hope you come and join the group.  I've chosen the fabulous AW Santa Muerte for my project and made a wall hanging in traditional Dia de los Muertos colors.

This gorgeous image comes as I've colored her with Copics here and also without the background HERE.  Isn't she beautiful? (and trust me, not nearly as intimidating to color as she looks.)

The perfect DP is from K&Co and I've added some fun embellies.  In the bottom right corner I've used a Tim Holtz tombstone die cut, some Recollections roses that I've recolored with Copics and a fab spiderweb (and skullie) charm.

On the left I finally managed a hand made rose using the Tim Hotz pinecone die, enhanced with some Stickles.  I'll be making more of those for sure,now that I've finally got the hang of it.  Also some lovely Drippy Goo (MS punch) in red foil CS to match the foil flowers in the DP.

 Finally, I've made a triple looped bow with my Bow (un)Easy and added a gorgeous dripping butterfly die cut from Cheery Lynn that I originally saw on ASITD DT sister Teresa's Blog.  Thanks so much, Teresa!  (See, I told you you want to check this place out)  I've grunged up a skullie charm to add to the butterfly and finally, the sentiment is from Tim Hotz.  Be sure to vist ASITD to see the fabulous makes from the DT and some play along for a chance to win a $15 GC from the amazing Aurora Wings.

I made sure I used plenty of metal to enter the current Use Metal Challenge at LOC. 

I'm also entering this in the Corrosive Challenge Color Me Happy Challenge used Copics), the ABC Challenge "O" is for Orange, Craft Your Passion Ribbons, Paper Make Up Stamps Digi Makeover Butterflies Challenge, and 613 Avenue Create ATG/no Option.

Aurora Wings New Release Memento Mori

There's a gorgeous new stamp premiering today at Aurora Wings called Memento Mori.  Now you know I love me some skulls and this one, lying amonst the gorgeous poppies makes me swoon!  You can find the meaning of "Memento mori", as well as fabulous creations from my teamies using this gorgeous new digi on the AW Showcase Blog HERE.

Here's a closeup view all colored up with Copics.  I chose to do the poppies in red to truly make them POP.  Lots of fussy cutting going on too.

Did you know that Mitzi also has a variety of floral borders and corners that coordinate with her beautiful stamps?  I've used a Poppy corner to balance my design here, but there are many more gorgeous floral stamps available in both sets and individually HERE.  They are perfect to combine with her fantasy stamps or elegant on their own.

I've made a tent card, cutting the window with my Spellbinders Labels 17 and framed it with the largest of the Spellbinders Timeless Rectangles.  I used the second largest of the dies to cut the opening window with my craft knife.  The intricate web, floating through the center, is a Memory Box die.

I'm entering this in the Corrosive Crop it or Cut it Challenge, Left of Center using the LOC theme, Creative Knockouts Die Cuts/Punch Frenzy, the Fitztown Favorite Colors challenge (black, white, red)  and A Step in the Dark ATG.

Lucy Loo 'Lucy Longstocking', New from The East Wind

Every Monday and Friday Kyra releases a new digi at The East Wind Shop. Today I'm previewing the newest of one of my FAVE characters, Lucy Loo.  Meet 'Lucy Longstocking'.  This girl's got some 'tude!  I nabbed the fab sentiment from Ginger's House because it fit her just perfectly, sat her right on top and cut her out.  I thought she would make a fab door hanger.

I colored her with Copics in girly pink to enter in the Left of Center Girly Challenge.  The girly skull DP is DCWV.

I've even added girly LOC embellies.  How about that?  A number of my DT sisters have also made projects with Lucy and we've all colored her hair differently.  Isn't that fun?  Come visit the TEW FB group to see them all. 

Oh, and BTW, there's a fab sale going on at the Shop.  Huge discounts in the Now or Never section, available through the end of June.  Get them before they're gone for good!  (there's even a few Lucy Loo's!)

I'm also entering this in the Corrosive Challenge ATG 200 Challenge Celebration, Tuesday Throwdown Wild Hair Challenge, Milk Coffee Anything But a Card and Simon Says Wednesday ATG.

Week 2 of Skullduggery at HDH

Oh yes!  It's our second week of our Skullduggery Challenge at HDH and I've finally gotten around to making a faux porcelain skull with my meltpot using the fabulous step by step Tutorial by our own fabulous Minion Sister Blackdragon available in the Mixed Media University Group on the Smeared and Smudged Forum. So many cool things happening over there. The skull is a Smeared Ink digi that was printed 6 times, fussy cut and layered according to the tut.  WooHoo!  BD does the most amazing work and my effort cannot even begin to compare with hers, but I'm pretty damn proud of the result, just the same.  I've mounted it on a Tim Holtz Ornate Plate and added tiny metal roses and turned it into a necklace.

I'm entering this in the LOC Anniversay ATG Challenge (last day, BooHoo!) as well as the LOC Ribbons/and or Flowers challenge.

 Corrosive Challenge Show Us Your Metal

Tip Top Tuesday Metal or Faux Metal   My TIP for Tip Top Tuesday is after removing your creation from a Meltpot, you can easily remove bubbles or other imperfections with your heat gun.

Quoth the Raven Tic Tac Poe using the left verticle line of Hardware or Metal, Skull and Flowers and although it hasn't a specific reference to Poe, I think it speaks to his preoccupation with Death and I did find reference to "enamell'd head" in the poem Al Aaraaf.  (Perhaps a stretch.  LOL)

A Valentine for my Man

As soon as I saw Veronica Vamp by Kenny K, I knew she was gonna be on this year's Valentine for my man.  Had to say I kept it kinda simple ('cause he likes it that way), using two different doilies, a touch of embossing and a sentiment from Ginger's House.  Couldn't forget the lips though.  His kiss?  MMMMmm...!!!  (Oh oh, TMI?)

Now tell me you're surprised she's a redhead.  LOL  Really fun to color, too.

And inside...well...  Wishing you all the love of your dreams.  Happy Valentine's Day.

I'm entering this in the KennyK's Krafty Krew's Love Challenge, Digi Stamps 4Joy Hearts, the Outlawz Paper a la Mode Valentine's Challenge, TTRCD ATG Feb 11th -17th, Sassy Studios DTBST It's Valentine's Day Challenge, the Fan-Tastic Tuesday  Romance challenge, the Corrosive Feel the Love Challenge, the Crafter's Cafe Must Have Hearts and the very first Naughty or Nice Love challenge (the image is a bit naughty but the sentiment is nice). 

Aurora Wings Anti-Valentine for Left of Center

Just couldn't resist this cutie from Aurora Wings and thought she'd be perfect for the current Left of Center Cute/and or Creepy challenge. This adorable little Anti-Valentine Girl looks like she's through with love, at least for now.  Can't imagine anyone wanting to break her heart though, can you?  Wanted to do something a bit different so I made a "Spring" card, modifying it somewhat to suit my needs.

I took my colors from an old DCWV stack.  Had a ball coloring her edgy hair, well actually all of her, with my Copics.  EEEK!  Love her little kitty ears.  The fab sentiment is from Ginger's House and the adorable little Glo Skull is from Creepy Glowbugg's Etsy Shop.

I've used Nesties dies for the hearts and cut one jaggedly for either side of the base.  It helps stablize the pop up center because as usual, I've fussy cut and popped the image which made it a bit wonky.

I'm also entering this in the Corrosive Blog Feel the Love Challenge, Simon Says Monday Love Notes, Digi Stamps 4 Joy Hearts, the Outlawz Twisted Thursday ATG w/optional twist Valentines/hearts, and the Crafty Little Fairies Love challenge . 

And now for some exciting news (in case you missed the new badges on my sidebar).  Mitzi Sato-Wiuff of Aurora Wings has opened a new monthly Challenge Blog and has asked me to join the Design Team.  Although the challenges do not start until March 17th, there will be weekly interviews of us gals until then.  Be sure to stop by and follow the blog, because Mitzi has generously offered up a Freebie and coupon code (under the "Offers" tab at the top).  Also, if you just can't wait, there is a contest, more freebies and all sorts of good stuff going on on the Facebook Group.  Hope to see you there.

Macabre Monday Rotten Romance - Week 2

WOW, yesterday was a creative marathon for me. Loved participating in the week long Kickstart Your Art Challenge at Smeared and Smudged and I definitely plan to continue my Art Journal work more regularly from now on.  But I'm most proud of my piece for Haunted Design House Week Two-Rotten Romance, sponsored by our very own Minion Sis Teri, of the Fabulous Delicious Doodles.  Or should I say Delicious Darkness?  That's right, Teri's creepier images have a fab new home HERE, as well, if you don't want to sort pass any gorgeousness and fluff at Delicious Doodles while searching for the perfect dark image. 

As soon as I saw the challenge, I knew I'd be using her Horrorscope version of Virgo.  Looks like she doesn't plan on staying that way for long.  LOL  These images are so beautifully done in shades of gray that I only colored a few red bits here and there.  WooHoo!  She seems to have her sights set on...

 

HUNGREEEEEE!  Oh yeah, he's hungry alright, just not for her.  He's clawing his way outta there but she's hot on his trail.  Yikes!  (BTW, I found him on the Delicious Doodles Shop, as Teri hasn't quite had time to move all of her darker images to their new home, so shop around.)

 

Now, I was gonna quit there, but then Teri introduced a brand new image, Grotesque Cupid, especially for this challenge.  EEEK!, isn't he FABULOUS!?!

Well, he was a must for my little scenario and was the inspiration to do a side step card so he could appropriately take aim.  My thought was to add a word bubble that said "Shoot him, before he gets away", but I thought the whole idea was pretty obvious at this point.

The images were printed a bazillion times so I could fussy cut them and add dimension.

Even on the little guy.  HeeHee!  Isn't he the cutest?

 

The backdrop is done with my Nesties Gothic arches and hearts and I've used a Memory box spiderweb die as an overlay.  Conveniently, the current Delicious Doodles Challenge is Use Die Cuts/and or Punches so I'll be adding this to that challenge as well.  Be sure to pop over to HDH and see the fab makes by the rest of the team (don't forget to scroll down for week one's offerings) and come play along, as each of the Gruesome Twosome will receive 3 images of choice. 

 

I'm also entering this in the Left of Center Cute/Creepy Challenge using the LOC theme (although I do think that Cupid is all kinds of cute.  LOL), and the Corrosive Feel the Love Challenge.

New Beginnings

Don't faint, I'm actually posting.  Sorry about the void, I usually love the week between Christmas and New Year's because I can finally relax and play with crafty goodies and look forward to hubbie's birthday on New Year's Eve.  Not this year.  My mother-in-law died, totally unexpectedly on Christmas Day.  She would have been 92 on December 29th, but aside from some osteoporosis, she was perfectly healthy with no medical conditions or need for prescription medication.  She still mowed the lawn and planted a garden, drove a car, and lived alone (although her youngest son and family lived next door).   She had recently gotten a new computer and my hubby had been on the phone with her daily for about a week, trying to iron out a few glitches. She had fallen in the night, thinking perhaps she had passed out, and woke up with back pain, presumably from the fall.  The took some OTC medication but it persisted and she called next door to see if they thought it was too soon to take some more.  That was 11:00 am.  Jonathon went out to shovel his driveway and hers a bit later and went to check on her about 1:00pm.  She had passed away peacefully in her chair.  The ME said it was probably a heart attack and that back pain is a symptom in women.  The whole family was, and still is, in shock.  We assumed she would live to be 100.  She was a missionary and minister's wife, a loving mother of 6 children, 15 grandchildren, and 7 great grandchildren, a strong, determined, hard working Christian woman of passionate faith and will be missed by family, friends and the church she served her entire life.

We're still recovering here at home from the trip to Michigan.  David has been sick and I've not been able to craft.  I finally looked at a few of the challenges and decided that the Outlawz CAS New Beginnings challenge would be one I could handle.  I chose the adorable Sleepy Bunny Elf from Aurora Wings.  Mitzi's fabulous fantasy art is beyond gorgeous and this little guy was an easy one to color with my Copics.  I'm also taking baby steps on shoveling out my craft room and was organizing my Spellbinders dies when I found this ancient baby border.  I trimmed it to fit this A2 card and added a Cuttlebug sentiment and embossed background.

I'm also adding this to the Creative Romance Something New Challenge, Suzy B's Bloomin' Cute and Sweet Challenge, Scrapping4fun Baby Challenge, Corrosive Challenge New Beginnings and Moving Along With The Times New Beginnings.

12 Days of Creepmas Day 8

It's Day 8 of the 12 Days of Creepmas sponsored by Smeared Ink and the Smeared and Smudged Forum and I'm doing double duty today.  Obviously this is my 8th Day offering, but I made it an ATC to also play in the Wicked Wednesday Creepy Christmas Challenge.  The fabulous digis are from HDH Minion sis Teri at Delicious Doodles.  I've used Tombstone 1, although the economical way to buy them is the fab Tombstone Collection of all 6 because once you see them, you will WANT THEM ALL!  I've decked it out for Creepmas with Skully Xmas Wreath.    And just in case you're interested in non creepy stuff, teri has gobs of beautiful mainstream digis at Delicious Doodles as well.  The background digi paper is from the new Smeared Ink Icy Digital Paper Pack.

I printed the images several times, fussy cut and popped portions for dimension.  Keep in mind that an ATC is 2 1/2 x3 1/2" and I have a fair amount of arthritis in my hands. Kinda tough goin'.  Truly a labor of love because I gotta say I LOVE how it turned out.  Since I was unable to fussy cut the greenery of the skully wreath, I added deep green metallic pine branches from a Martha Stewart punch and teeny adhesive gems to the eyes.  I guess stone gargoyles don't have hairy legs or I'd enter it over at the Delicious Doodles challenge as well.  Bummer, shoulda gotten this done last week!  Next up is a fabulous treat from Violent Kitty, and remember, the Blog Roll is always on the sidebar if you lose your way.

I will, however, enter it in the PunkYouGirl Black Christmas Challenge, the Corrosive Challenge Anything Goes, Anything but a Card (it's an ATC) ATG with a Holiday Twist and Left of Center Winter/Holidays Challenge.

Simply Steampunk December Challenge- Anything Steampunk

It's the first Friday in December and that means a new challenge at Simply Steampunk.  This month it's an easy one, Anything Steampunk.  The team is using the Steampunk Romance Collection and I'm showcasing the beautiful Grace.  It looks ike she's holding an ornament so I went with a Christmas theme.  The DP and chipboard frame and sentiment are all from the VERY old K&Co Christmas Cheer line.  I loved the vintage feel to this line so much that I bought several stacks TONS of coordinating stuff.  The line of gears was cut with my Cricut from the Gears set on Cricut Craftroom.  I'd cut them in matte silver but grunged them up with some gold Rub 'n Buff, black Distress Ink and Frantage embossing powder.  So cool!  the other single gear is a Sizzix die.  Of course I added a ton of metal mini gears from Tim Holtz.  I should buy stock in these for sure.  The metal screws are from 7 Gypsys?  (I think)

Grace is colored with Copics, fussy cut and popped.  I had a hard time finding paper for inside the frame.  Nothing looked right but leaving it open didn't either. 

 I get a boatload of catalogs this time of year and on my desk was the cover of one I'd ripped off because I thought I might use the paper.  The color seemed right so I carefully ( Ha!) cut out a piece to fit. Too dull, so I embossed it and used gold Rub 'n Buff (my new fave thing) et viola!

Here's the dimensional shot.  Quite a lot of popping going on and it's pretty heavy, too.  Guess this one's gonna be hand delivered.  Please visit Simply Steampunk and check out the fabulous work by my teamies and come play alog. this challenge will run through Jan 2nd.

I'm also entering this in the Little Miss Muffet You've Been Framed Challenge, Add a Little Dazzle Embossing Challenge, Rhedd and Rosie's Use Old Stash Challenge (DP, frame and sentiment sticker), the Outlawz Twisted Thursday Bingo Challenge (using glitter or sparkles, stamped/digi image, and patterned paper), Clear it Out Anything Goes with a Stash Item (DP, frame and sticker sentiment), Craft Room Vintage Christmas Challenge, TTRCD ATG Dec 3-9and The Corrosive Challenge Happy Holidays.

Smeared and Smudged 12 Days of Creepmas Day 1

It's here, it's here,  The 12 Days of Creepmas sponsored by the Smeared and Smudged Forum and for the first time I'm a Jolly Blogger.  You've seen my "Dark Side", most often with my DT posts for HDH, but I love to play on the Forum as well.  Get ready for 12 Days of Creepmas fun offering the creepy cute, the cheeky, the gothic, the just plain creepy and the possibly the slightly gruesome, as it pertains to the holiday season.  It's all in fun, so let's get started with Day #1.  The Blog role is on my sidebar if you wish to hop along and see the fabulous projects from the rest of the Bloggers.  For those who comment on each of the blogs all season long there's a fabulous prize to be had. 

I thought I'd ease you in with a "creepy cute" image from Lacy Sunshine.  This is Amelia, one of my faves from Lady Heather's Curiousities.  She obviously has a bit of a split personality.  The front of the card is half of the 6x6" square covered with skully digi paper from the unfortunately now defunct Crafty Chaos.  The tombstone is a Cuttlebug die and I've added dark metal snowflakes from Recollections.  The oval die is Spellbinders, split and popped with a glitter zig zag sticker down the middle.

Amelia is colored with Copics, fussy cut and popped, and I've added a Glo skull from my HDH DT sister Creepy Glo's Etsy shop (great Creepmas stuff to be had there) and a bat charm (with the ring clipped off) to her hand.  "Naughty" and "Nice" is done with stickers from Studio 112.

Miraculously enough, I've finished the inside as well.  Woohoo!  The DP is Recollections (honest, it was from a last year's Christmas stack, if you're wondering about the color choice).  The sentiment oval was placed directly beneath the one on the front and I repeated the "naughty" inside 'cause you know her true inclination.  The acetate glitter snowflakes are from MAMBI with more metal ones on top and the fab skull and crossbones is from Tim Holtz.  Sorry I'm sort of the wordy type but I can't promise I'll do any better.  Now hop on to  over to Violent Kittie (don'tcha just LOVE her name?  Jezzie is SOOO jealous!) and see what Creepmas cheer she has in store for you.

I'm also entering this in the Lacy Sunshine Anything Goes Challenge, Simon Says Wednesday ATG, the Corrosive Happy Holidays Challenge the C.R.A.F.T. Use Metal/add a Charm Challenge, Drunken Stampers Metal challenge and Left of Center using the LOC theme.

Lacy Sunshine It's a Bling Thing

Still battling my stupid cold which has left me pretty ADD (sounds good to blame it on that, eh?) but I've finally managed to finish a rather giant tag for the Lacy Sunshine It's a Bling Thing Challenge.  I had the hardest time deciding which image to use, especially since there's a holiday sale of Seasonal Digis going on at the shop and I desperately needed some retail therapy.  I finally chose Coco's Holiday Ornament and made a mega tag because I had all kinds of bling I wanted to use.  The fab swirl is from Prima and the gorgeous snowflakes from JoLee's.  When you ask for "BLING", I don't mess around.  The shiny DP is from last year's DCWV Winter magic stack mounted on textured silver card stock from American Crafts.

I've colored Coco with Copics, the ornament with a metallic silver Sharpie and added Stickles to the top, as well as her wings and set diamonds in her wings as well.  I've flocked her boots and cuff and cut a tinsel pom pom in half for her earmuffs.  There are pearls in her hair and diamonds in her eyes.  I think I got the bling covered, don't you?   Of course there are only a couple hours left for the challenge so I better get my rear in gear. 

I'm also entering this in the Crafts 4 Eternity Glitter and Sparkle Challenge, Crafty Catz Tags and Bags, Creative Knockouts Snowflakes, TTRCD ATG Nov 19th-25th, Fab 'n' Funky ATG,  613 Avenue Create ATG, Corrosive Fur and Feathers Challenge, C.R.A.F.T. Challenge Nov. 21st (Inspiration Pic), and Tag Along Ring a Ding Ding, Lots of Bling Challenge.

Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge

I've really been struggling with creativity lately.  I rarely get sick but I've been battling a cold for a week now.  Still, I just couldn't miss the current Anything Goes Challenge at Wicked Wednesday.  The sponsor is Stampotique Originals and I sure do LOVE me some Stampotique.  I planned to do an ATC using a Stampotique image but I recently joined the Aurora Wings Facebook group and Mitzi gave us this adorable Flying Kitty digi as a thank you. It reminded me of my Jezebel so I had to go where the mojo flowed.

But Jezzie isn't white, you say.  No, she isn't, but she dreams she is.  She also loves to fly, me thinks, as she'll sit and watch the birdies for hours.  So just for Jezzie I fussy cut and flocked her in in white, added Stickles to her wings (as well as a pink feather 'cause she's such a girlie girl) and have her flying through the night sky.  Instead of "dream" I added an epoxy sticker that says "believe" because I always tell her that if she believes in dreams they will come true. 

I'm also adding this to the Corrosive Fur and Feathers Challenge and the Outlawz Paper a la Mode Stars and/or Snowflakes Challenge.

Wicked Wednesday ATC Add a Feather Challenge and Some Meet Up Pix

I'm especially thrilled to be playing along with Wicked Wednesday this week because I met up with 3 of the DT gals and 2 of their daughters in Walnut Creek over the weekend.  The challenge is Add a Feather sponsored by ADFD so I thought it fitting to use one of their sweet images.  This is Peacock Magic. She's colored wth Copics and glittered within an inch of her life with Waterfall Stickles.  After an exhaustive search I found my peacock feathers, only to find that they were too big for the ATC so I trimmed and layered some others and added them with a gem.  More gems to balance, a glitter mat, and there ya go.

I'm also entering this in the Corrosive Fur and Feathers Challenge.

Here's the group of us after a huge breakfast Sunday. There's (L to R) Denice, all the way from Chicago, Cass and Mom Jenn, Kim and daughter Emily, and me.

 We had an absolute ball.  Got quite a few clowning around pix too that I'll spare you for now LOL, but I'm telling you, these gals are the BEST!  Love and kisses to you all.

Dilly Beans Halloween Take Two

It's another Friday Challenge at Dilly Beans and we're continuing with our month long Halloween theme.  Lots of opportunities to use the fab creepy cute images Dilly Beans is know for.  I've created a tag this time using #456 Teeghan's Spider Framed.  I've printed her directly on DP and then paper pieced her hair and skullie bow.   The tag itself is recycled Prima Marketing packaging and the checked and striped DP bits just happened to be lying on my table from???  Wow, I used SCRAPS!  Go ME!  The rest of the stuff are stickers from Authentique Enchanted pack.  Ribbons from J's.  Easy peasy.  My teamies have again outdone themselves.  We just LOVE Halloween at Dilly Beans, so be sure to check them out.  There's a fab BOGO sale running at the SHOP through Sunday ...no tricks.  Isn't it time to treat yourself?  Come on!  No calories and they won't rot your teeth.  You know you wanna.

I'm also entering this in Use it Tuesday Scraps Pieces and Odds and Ends, Paper Pretties Halloween, and Corrosive Challenges Cute and Creepy.

Macabre Monday Who Are You Supposed to Be?

This week the new Macabre Monday challenge is,"Who are you supposed to be?"

You are to create a dark, Gothic, or Hallowe'en based art piece that depicts a costume orcharacter you have been, or want to be for Hallowe'en.  Isn't there that one costume you always remember fondly from your childhood? Or maybe that one character you've always wished you had the guts (or the money, or the body) to portray at this year's costume party?

We're being sponsored by I Brake for Stamps.  They have a varied selection of images from various artists.  Something for everyone.

We have chosen to work with the new Hallowe'en images designed by Rick St. Dennis.  All of his Randy Dandy images are available there in digi and there's a great assortment of Rick's designs in rubber, too.  It should be no big surprise that I chose Denise Devlin although any resemblence is purely coincidental.  LOL
I've always been pretty much considered the "good girl" but under my sweet exterior lies...Ummm..., nevermind.  She was great fun to color with Copics and I fussy cut her, backed her with black and fussy cut a border around her to stand out a bit from my fave flames background image I found on the net.  She's glitzed up a bit with gems and I gotta say I really covet those earrings.

It's an easel card and the fab sentiment is one of my faves from Ginger's House.  It's cut with a Spellbinder's Labels Four and inked with Distress.  Used the last of my webby red ribbon and more jewels to set it off.  This is week One of our challenge and my teamies have done a fab job so be sure to check them out HERE and come play along because we're all DYING to see who you're supposed to be.

I'm also entering this in the Outlawz Monday Greeting Card Make it Funny challenge, The Pink Elephant Digi Image or Papers Challenge, Corrosive Challenge Maiden, Mother Crone, and Left Of Center using the LOC theme.

BBTB2 Elephantly Speaking

Morning!  It's gonna be another hot one so I'm typing fast so I can hit the trail or there will be no hike for me this morning.  This week's BBTB2 theme was chosen by my fabulous DT sister and good friend Shelly, who asked for an elephant from any cart on our projects.  Last time we had an elephant challenge I remember having a hard time because there weren't many to choose from, but it looks like a pachyderm explosion over at BBTB2 this morning.  Who knew?

I thought maybe I'd mix it up a bit this week.  My original plan was to attempt an inside pop-up from Everyday Pop-Up Cards, but the project just grew.  First of all, there are no instructions on how to actually assemble the pop-ups on this cart and no real pictures on how the card is supposed to look.  Huh?  I cut a prototype in white and although I had a general idea of what to do, there was still a portion that seemed extraneous.  Fortunately I Googled instructions and found that dear Joy from Obsessed with Scrapbooking had a download for the diagrams HERE.  Thanks, Sweetie!

As usual, I was disappointed with the detail options on this cart.  (None for the pop-ups, as if Provocraft though just the mere thought of something 3-D was enough...ah, NO!)  I did think the ellie was pretty cute though, so I decided to free him from the terrible fate of being squashed inside the card and made a little party favor instead.  He's cut 3 times(at 6 ", I think), twice in gray, and once in dot so I could make him 2 sided and jazz up the little dealie he's standing on.  Hid contours in DS to cut the inside ears and tusks only in other colors.  Oh, I forgot, there were no inside ears.  Had to make those in DS.  Had to do a bit of trimming to get it all together, too, but I think he turned out pretty cute.  Tricked out a hat for him from Celebrations and he was good to go.  Funny thing though, even with the diagram, I still never figured out what to do with that extra piece.

His little cart is the matchbox from the original TTBM. The outside piece was cut at 3 1/4" but I found the inside part was so tight that I cut it at 3 1/8" so it would slide more easily.  I also thought that would give some room so I could attach the wheels with brads so they could actually roll, but was afraid it would catch and tear up the inside so I just glued them on.  So although I hit some snags here and there, I really enjoyed thinking outside the box (or should I say on top of the box?) this week.  Hope you likey.  Now it's time to pop over to BBTB2 and check out the fab projects by my teamies and hope you come play with up this week.  I guarantee you'll have a ton of fun.  (OOOh, cheesy!)  Just remember the rules, okay?

I'm also entering this in the Corrosive They Say It's Your Birthday Challenge.