Smeared Ink Skull Appreciation Day Blog Hop

Welcome to the Smeared Ink Skull Appreciation Day Blog Hop! If you've arrived from the uber talented Lady Brayton's Blog, you're on the right track. If not, you may wish to click HERE to find out all about Skull Appreciation Day and the fabulous prizes up for grabs for those who participate in the hop. The Smeared Ink Smeared and Smudged Forum is a fabulously supportive and fun community of artists, specializing in alternative, vintage, and Gothic rubber stamping. Normally for an event like this I'd be using some of my fabulous Smeared Ink stamps, but all types of crafting are welcome in this hop, so I decided to do what I do best and create a shaped card using Cricut Design Studio and my Cricut Expression. I've used the skull border feature from Wall Decor and More welded the shadows along with a flourish from Cindy Loo (to balance the bottom of the card) to create the shaped card base. Then I cut the regular layer 3 separate times in white to create the dimension. The flourishes and skulls are all connected so I colored only the flourishes with Copics and glued that layer to the card base. I added some stickles to the orange flourish and adhesive gems to all for some bling.

The next 2 layers were cut apart manually so I could pop the skulls with foam. The second and fourth skulls have 3 layers while the first and third have two for added depth. To give a bit of shadowing, I outlined the cuts with Copics before running them through my Xyron, right side down and glittering them with fine crystal glitter. They are obviously thrilled as all get out to have a day dedicated all to THEM, don'tcha think?! Now hop on to the amazing Black Dragon's blog to see what skully goodness she has created. I promise you'll be glad you did. And if at any time you get lost along the way, you can click HERE for the full hop list. So hop along, and enjoy!

Peggy Loves Vintage for The Shabby Tea Room and the BBTB2 Blog Hop Winner

I've been wanting to play along with The Shabby Tea Room since the blog started, the challenges are imaginative and fun and the Design Team cards are always gorgeous and inspiring. Although you are not required to do a "shabby" or vintage card I've always felt that I should at least try to approximate that style in order to feel good about participating and this week I think I did okay. A big help was the adorable vintage baby's bathtime image from Peggy Loves Vintage. Peggy lovingly collects real vintage cards and cleans them up and presents them on CD's and and Cut-Out sheets for every occasion. If you love vintage style, be sure to take a look at her vast collection in HERE and pop over to her BLOG and become a follower. There are fabulous freebies to be had.

This week's Shabby Tea Room Challenge combines a photo inspiration with a "2-4-6" recipe: 2 patterned papers, 4 buttons, and 6 layers. One needn't neccesarily use the colors in the photo but I used my MS French Scroll Punch Around the Page to give a doily feel to the mat and slightly softer versions of the peach and green for my color palette. The 2 beautiful DP's and "B" block are by the Graphic 45 Baby to Bride Collection. The 4 vintage buttons are from a RAK from my dear friend Joy and the vintage crinkle seam binding is from the Prairie Bird Boutique(thanks, Steph!). You have 'til Sunday to join in on this fab challenge so why not give it a go?

And now, on to the winner of the BBTB2 Blog Hop Candy. the winner of the $40.00 gift certificate to CUSTOM CROPS is..... number 5!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!

CAROLE BEATH who wrote:

CONGRATULATIONS CAROLE!!! Please email me at dlmundinger (at) yahoo (dot) com to arrange for your prize.

Winter Wonderland Blue and White Challenge

Here I am scrambling again. Maybe an hour left in The Winter Wonderland Blue and White Challenge. I'll admit to being quite the procrastinator, but that was not supposed to be the case this time. I'd designed a semi elaborate shaped card that had bells for Bah!Humbug! that I was planning on doing in blue and white to do double duty but I got sick Tues night and all day yesterday so that idea flew out the window. When I got up this morning I noticed a still had a little time left for Winter Wonderland, and I'd done their fabulous birthday blog hop and followed all the rules (except making the card) so I pulled out my trusty Cuttlebug and went to work. Had a bit of a time photographing it. The stickles on the Snowy Village embossing aren't dry and the silver mirror card stock is always a PITA but I hope you get the idea. The framed mats are done with my Labels Four Grand Nestabilities on my Grand Caliber.

Here's a better close up of the embossing. I just love this folder!

The bottom snowflakes are done with my Tim Holtz Alerations snowflake border cut once in silver, and once in white. The frame is popped as is the border for dimension. The sentiment is a peelie by Stampendous. The top right snowflake is a MS punch (again punched twice) and popped and the remainder of the snowflakes are Jolee Stickers. Okay, better get this linked up. I'm also adding it to the Christmas Cards Challenge which is snowflakes this week and the Christmas Cards All Year 'Round challenge which is Anything Goes. I do have to say I feel just terrible missing my Bah!Humbug! Challenge for the first time this year. I'll probably do the challenge anyway because I like the design I did and perhaps it would look better in different colors anyway.

Tiddly Inks Darling Diva Challenge

This week our Tiddly Inks Challenge is Darling Divas. I couldn't help but go with Flora, one of the Tiddly Inks Gothic Pin-Ups. Tell me this girl doesn't look like a DIVA, with her voluptuous hair (and bod) and gorgeous vintage outfit? I was sort of getting a French vibe so I went with beautiful flocked DP and a border from the GCD Studios Paris Nights collection. The striped mat is from DCWV La Creme Stack. The both mats are cut with my Nesties Mega Ovals and Mega Classic Scalloped Ovals LG and I've added a flocked sticker by Stampendous behind her. The quote is from Mae West (it's missing a "very" but it wouldn't fit in the oval, LOL). Can you think of a bigger diva?

Flora was colored with Copics and popped for dimension as are the the sentiment ovals. The vintage looking brads are by Recollections. Besides our fabulous Diva Challenge at Tiddly Inks, I'm also entering this in the Sweet Stampin Oh La La Challenge which is either something French, or cheeky/saucy. (I'd call this is both, HeeHee!) Be sure to stop by the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog for tons of inspiration by the rest of the Tiddly Inkers and we hope you can play along. Pop over to Christy's Blog for a peek at a new image and a little freebie, too. And if you haven't already, scroll down for my BBTB2 Blog Hop Post and leave a comment for a chance to win a $40 gift certificate from Custom Crops.

BBTB2 Celebrations Cake Challenge and Blog Hop

Happy Memorial Day! I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend and is ready for a fun Blog Hop with BBTB2, but first, please remember to say a little prayer of thanks to those who have sacrificed to keep our county free. This week our super sweet and uber talented DT sister Carole has chosen the cake from the Celebrations cartridge. You should have arrived from Carole's Blog if you're hopping along. This is a pretty simple cake and there's lots you can do to dress it up, but when I found the fabby DP from the DCWV Sweet Stack, I pretty much left it plain and let the paper do the work. This cut comes without an attached candle, so after welding the regular cuts together in DS for the card base, I welded the shadow of the cupcake from Doodlecharms to the first mat. The sentiment is from Sweet Treats. Both the candle and the word "wish" are covered in German Glass Glitter in Sea Shell available at Custom Crops. I love this stuff! It gives a cool texture that you can't get from any of the other glitters around and is particularly gorgeous on vintage projects. Lots more colors available too.

The popped layers aren't that obvious from the front, but they're there. I have to say this is one card that really does look cuter IRL. The only embellies are the gold adhesive beads and a single tiny Prima rose. (I've shown amazing restraint this week, LOL)

Here's a peek at the inside of the card. When you're making a shaped card with a delicate base like this one, it's important to reinforce the card back. Instead of just a single mat of the regular cake cut, I added an additional shadow of the cake plate AND topped it with a regular cut of the cake plate to make sure it was sturdy enough to stand. Now hop along to our beautiful Krista's Blog. Krista's gorgeous, cheery creations never fail to make me smile but don't forget to leave a comment here before you go for a chance to win a $40 gift certificate to Custom Crops. Be sure to check out their Memorial Day sale too. They are giving away a free stamp with every order. Also, if you don't have a blog, please check back next Saturday for the winner and leave a way to get in touch with you or you'll miss your prize.

Macabre Monday EMO Challenge

This week at Haunted Design House our sponsor for our Macabre Monday Challenge is Simply Betty Stamps. WooHoo! In honor of her fabulous EMO stamps, the challenge is to use elements on your project that begin with the letters E, M, and O. My image is Zombie Christian, one of the Zombie Teens collection of clear and rubber stamps. He is colored with Copics and Gel Pens and fussy cut and popped from the background. My elements are E=torn Edges on the fab Grunge Checkerboard digi paper from Tiddly Inks and Skull border from the Toasting Properly Paper set, M=METAL, as in the metal paper clip holding the computer generated sentiment, and O=the color ORANGE.

Here's a closer look at Christian. Is he not one cool DUDE? Fabulous detail on this image and so much fun to color! Christian is one of the Everyday Zombie Teens and there is is a new release of Summer Zombie Teens as well. I'm thinkin' this would be a great belated birthday card for a teenage boy. I'm sure you'll want to play along with this challenge for a chance to win some Simply Betty Stamps of your own. The rest of the Minions have more fabulous inspiration for you so don't forget to pop by Haunted Design House and check them out.

Whimsical Wednesday Tag Challenge

Okay, it doesn't look like a tag, but I'm using some "artistic license" here. I made it as a tag, so it IS a tag. My DH looked at it and said "Why are you calling it a tag? Isn't it kinda BIG?". I'm calling is a tag because that's what the Whimsical Wednesday challenge is. Make a TAG! Honestly, I started out designing a proper tag, but it took on a life of it's own, and who am I to stop the creative juices when they're flowing like wine (No, I wasn't drinking when I made this, I promise!) Anyway, I had leftover bird parts (OOOh, that sounds like something the cats dragged in...literally, EEEeeewww) from my BBTB2 Challenge card this week and was afraid I'd lose them so I assembled another version. See the first HERE. The bird is from Florals Embellished and I cut it using the silhouette feature in two shades of blue (at 4 inches) and had enough cuts to actually do 3 versions (so you just may see version 3 showing up in the near future on something else. Hope you're not TOO bored with it.) Of course I had to cut a bunch of white bases, but they're easy compared to the silhouette cut. If you're gonna do this bird, cut it BIG, like I did and use the multi-cut feature on 2 and you'll be good to go. "Fly" came from Straight from the Nest and it's cut at 5 inches. The sizing on Cricut always cracks me up. It is 5 inches from the top of the "F" to the bottom of the swirl but it's 12 inches long! Yeah, I'd say it's a BIG tag! LOL

Nothing too fancy going on here. I welded the shadow of "Fly to the shadow of the bird using DS and then added the layers. I cut 2 extra regular white layers so I could pop the wings making it look a bit more like it's flying and then popped the whole thing on the tag. My bling is a little subtle. I've used adhesive pearls, but yes, it's a TAG! See the ribbon hangy things on top? So what would I use such a huge tag for? How about a big Graduation gift, like a computer, or TV or better yet, a CAR! Works for me. I'm also entering it in the Allsorts Challenge, Things with Wings, and the Anything Goes Challenge at a brand new Challenge Blog called Crafting for All Seasons.

The Altered Alice "Time" Challenge

Honestly I have but a few moments to spare. I've been trying to enter The Altered Alice Challenge for months and things have conspired against me. Not exactly what I had planned, but it works. Have to post. I'll be back!

I MISSED IT!!!! I'm gonna CRY!!!!! SERIOUSLY! This card did not want to happen. I originally designed it in Cricut Craft Room LAST WEEK and it WOULDN'T CUT! WTF! I spent hours learning the program only to find out that the ONLY cartridge I chose to use (Celebrate With Flourish) wasn't recognized by the new software, huh? the words are from All Mixed Up which sort of fits. Don't get me started on this... Well, no time to redesign because I had DT projects to do and post and gee, maybe some laundry and cooking? So this week I redesigned the card in DS. But colors and patterns? and worse yet, I'm feeing BLIND with new contacts and I had another appt TODAY which was even WORSE! Just kill me now. Maybe I should hang up all this crafting stuff. Between that and arthritis. Maybe time to put this old girl down. (Can you tell I've had a couple of glasses of wine with lunch? Probably a bad idea, but... ) the fab stamps are The Octopode Factory. And blind me had a B--tch of a time coloring them but I was DETERMINED! But it was all for NOUGHT because I MISSED the CHALLENGE. SERIOUSLY, SHOOT ME NOW!!!! (But not until I have another glass of wine!) Now I wish I taken the time to flock and emboss the hat, oh well...

UPDATE!!!!!! Lynne to the RESCUE!!!!! The clock to Linky was 7 minutes fast so I was entered! WooHoo!!!!!! I love you Lynne! Thanks so much. (Bet you guys think I'm nursing a hangover, but I'm not, HA!)

And ANOTHER update!!! WooHoo! I'm so happy and proud to be among the Honorable Mentions for this challenge! What an honor to be chosen. The entries were AMAZING! See them HERE, and thank you so much!

A New One for Tiddly Inks

This new Imagination stamp from Tiddly Inks really took me back. I used to just get lost in books, especially during summer vacation. I spent hours and hours outside, transported to worlds unknown. Oh, to have that time again! I have to apologize for the coloring. I'm having a bit of trouble with new contacts that I hope to have corrected on Friday, but in the meantime, my close up vision stinks. Besides that, I printed the image quite small to fit into my Nesties Labels Seven die and tried that "dotty" technique with my Copics on much of the background, somewhat unsuccessfully. (Oh crap! Now that this is posted I realize I didn't finish coloring in the bunnies' ears and noses either. Well, At least that's fixable!)

I wanted the image to look like it was a part of the book so I cut several of the largest size Labels Seven and cut a Classic Rectangle out of the top one. Then I curved and popped the layers. I added a little twine bookmark for embellishment. The DP is Heidi Grace as is the "imagine" rub on. The top words are just how I felt during those carefree summer months. They are also rub-ons from K&Co. Don't forget the Manly Men Challenge at the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog this week and stop by Christy's blog for a peek at the new images and freebie at the Store. I"m also entering this in My Partner in Crafting Crime's Twine, Jute, or String challenge.

Bah! Humbug! Kinetic Cards Challenge

OOOh, those ladies at Humbugger Hall really tossed us a toughy this week. The challenge is Kinetic Cards, or cards that move in some way. I knew I couldn't leave this one 'til the last minute and wracked my brain until I remembered the Snow Angel cut on Winter Frolic. Quite frankly, that cart is a little too cutesy for me to use often, but it sort of saved my butt this time around. I designed a shaped card in Design Studio that rocked because of the curved base. WooHoo! but I didn't want to stop there. After layering up the little kiddle I stuck her on an Action Wobble so she actually moves like she's making a snow angel. I cut an opening the size of her face in the parka layer and trimmed it and the sleeves with a snow writer and added Polar White Flower Soft. Then I popped the parka and boots that are shiny with Glossy accents. (Remember those red boots we pulled on over our shoes a bazillion years ago?) The face and hair are colored with Copics and the funky face is hand drawn. Clearly, I need some Peachy Keen Stamps, LOL The words are rub-ons by Melissa Frances. I also added some pom poms to be eligble for the Winter Wonderland Give us a "P" Challenge (and there's a bit of pink on there too).


I tried hard to get a real blurred action shot with the Wobble really doing it's thing, but my camera stopped the motion every time. (Clearly I need photography lessons, too) But you get the general idea don't you? So yea! for once I'm not scrambling at the last minute and you've got a day to join in too if you're so inclined. At least be sure to check out the cool kinetic cards the Design Team has made and the lovely cards on Winter Wonderland with elements starting with "P".

BBTB2 Florals Embellished Flying Bird Challenge

Happy Monday, everyone! I'm pretty excited today because it was my turn to pick the challenge for BBTB2. While browsing through the manual of Florals Embellished, I fell in love with the beautiful birds, particularly the flying one on page 61. I immediately knew the "theme" for my card but it took me awhile to pull it all together. There are two different ways to cut the bird on Florals Embellished, the layers, or the silhouette. I chose the silhouette, but had a hard time choosing colors so I cut it several times in varying shades of blue and mixed and matched until I got a combo I liked. The dark body and outline are actually the negative cuts from that color but I likes the extra white border that gave me against the darker shadow. Now I've got lots more bird cuts that I can combine for other projects. The banner, from Happy Hauntings, had the word "caution" cut out of it, so I hid the contours and spelled out "dreams" using the font from Cindy Loo. I ended up cutting it 3 times (once with the letters, once in solid blue and once in solid white) and gluing the light blue behind the "dreams" layer and trimming the edges off to make it more dimensional. Because everything was pretty clean, I was afraid to ink it up, but I did use my Copics color CO to shadow the banner cuts slightly around the edges (although it doesn't show in the pix.

For the base, I welded two of the "doilies" from Cindy Loo and the shadow of the bird and shadow of the banner from Happy Hauntings. The shadow of the doily had different shaped scallops, so I had to hide all of the contours on the back of the card to get a solid scalloped square that matched the front.

Yeah, this turned out to be another fat one, alright. It started growing when I decided to give the wings multiple layers to simulate flight. There are 3 white layers to the bird, but they are all glued together at the body.

Two of the layers are glued together at the tail and lower wing and popped from the third and all 3 layers are separated on the top wing. The light blue embossed areas of the wings are glued near the body and popped near the edge for further dimension. I did the same for the shadows of the banner, popping all three layers through the center, but gluing two of the layers together at the ends to make it look more curved.

Notice when the card is open, the front is flush because I welded it all together, instead of just popping the elements on top. That way you don't see all the "mechanics". It also makes for a much sturdier base for all the dimension. Inside is the first verse of the poem "Dreams" by Langston Hughes, which is the inspiration for this piece. In case you can't read it, is says:

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

It reminds me that no matter how great the obstacles may be, it's our dreams that keep us alive. I intend to keep dreaming and believing, until they come true. xxD

Macabre Monday Necro Neckware

We have a really exciting challenge at Haunted Design House this week for all you budding artists out there. Our sponsor, Kasket Kustoms (Accessories to DIE for! SERIOUSLY!) is giving those who submit original artwork that can be turned into a pendant the opportunity to win. Check HDH for all of the deets. We have some seriously gifted artists at HDH and I really didn't plan on even participating this week. But what the hey? Since I couldn't compete on any serious level, I decided to doodle a bit and came up with this funky VooDoo Doll. (Yes, I know his arms are out of proportion and he's weird as all get out, but I colored him up anyway and stuck him in a memory frame.) I added some vintage buttons and a vintage pin (honestly it's rusted) that I got from my dear friend Joy. (Sorry Joy, I doubt this was what you had in mind when you sent me these. Hee hee!) I kinda got a kick out of it, though But if you REALLY want to see some fabulous creations, check out Haunted Design House and be sure to play along for the possibility of having your design turned into a fabulous piece of jewelry by Kasket Kustoms.