Macabre Monday #55 Elegantly Evil

Okay, so we're back to some scarier stuff at Haunted Design House with a new challlenge, Elegantly Evil. Heaven forbid we lose some of our darker participants with all of the creepy cuteness (not that I don't love that too) that's been flooding the blog so I've chose to go DARK with this one. I don't know why elegant to me means a chandelier, but it does. I had already done probably the most Elegant Evil Halloween card EVER (in my mind) and I was THIS CLOSE to just using that but I thought better. Here I used a chandelier from French Manor (first time using that EXPENSIVE cart) to create a little scene.

A bit hard to read those word stickers from Making Memories, but let me help you here.

This pic is an actual scanned tintype of one of David's relatives. (Tell me he doesn't look like he'd be capable of this.) LOL The fab frame is from Happy Hauntings.

A working noose. (Good knot to know)

Cool chair, also from French Manor, with some fabulously elegant tassel trim I got as a thank you from Kellie Winnell when I was Guest Designer from the last Lil Lolitas release at Tickled Pink Stamps. (Eat your heart out, she doesn't ship this stuff internationally. Lucky Aussies!)

So I hope you're inspired to take a look at the rest of the Macabre Minions fabulous work and play along this week at Haunted Design House. And for those of you left standing and in search of a slightly less DARK rendition of the theme I decided to repost a shaped card I did for Custom Crops last year. Those of you with a Cricut Expression can download the free .cut file and read the full article HERE.

Anniversary Card and BBTB2 Blog Hop Winner

Monday is our 35th Anniversary, but before I say anything else, I want to thank Queen B. Without the inspiration from her adorable Tiddly Inks Back to School card, I would still be scrambling for the perfect idea. Now perhaps I have some 'splaining to do. My DH (that's dear husband, Andrea) always gives me the sweetest, most romantic cards on the planet. I've learned however, over the past 35 years, that he prefers...something...else. LOL When I saw the KennyK's Gothik Angelz digis (this one's Allura Von D, isn't she cheeky? ahhh...literally!) I KNEW that one of those babes FOR sure was gonna end up on the card, but NerdyBot from Tiddly Inks? Oh yeah, perfect!

When we were in college my sorority sisters teased the crap out of me for dating a PhD candidate in PHYSICS. They went so far as to buy the poster "Are you a NERD?" (with the guy in the flood pants, white short sleeved shirt and tie with the pocket protector, taped together glasses and slide rule on his belt) and hung it in my room. Trust me, David NEVER looked like that. (I picked him out at the MSU swimming pool...enough said! ;D ) He, however, frequently refers to himself as a nerd so I'm reasonably sure no offense will be taken. I'm positive he'll get a kick out of the sentiment (and little Allura there) and I guarantee he'll LOLwhen he opens it up. That however, is private, but let's just say there may be some reference to a slide rule. HeeHee! (Sorry, haven't cleaned the gutter yet.)

Now on to what you've TRULY been waiting for; the winner of the $30.00 gift certificate to Custom Crops. DRUMROLL PLEASE.....................................

WooHoo! Congratulations # 81, Penniannie who wrote

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

Oh and I apologize if I haven't made it around to your blog this week. I'm scrambling to get my DT stuff done so we can truly enjoy the weekend. (I promised no crafting)

Stampotique Not So Sweet 16

Been missing playing along with the Stampotique Designer's Challenge and I thought the theme "Not So Sweet 16" was a hoot, especially since this time we need to use all Stampotique stamps (of which I have a TON!) I think I'll put a little disclaimer that this is in no means autobiographical and any similarity in theme to my Cuttlebug Spot card is purely coincidental. LOL This is Smile and Girl with Heart Purse by Daniel Torrente. The car was cut on my Cricut using Graphically Speaking. The tires are embossed with the Cuttlebug Herringbone folder. The Bingo card is Melissa Frances, exclamation point is Grungeboard, license plate "sweet" is Colorbok and DP is K&Co Alleghany Plum. The sentiment is Stampotique from Carol's Collection.

Enough said, except for one thing. It was supposed to be a birthday card for a non girly girl. OOOps! Perhaps for a 16 year old boy with an inside sentiment "May all your Birthday dreams come true" ? :D Perhaps I can get my mind out of the gutter and try again.

At the Fair with The Cuttlebug Spot

This week, at The Cuttlebug Spot, the Fair is our inspiration. Instead of the exhibits and food and hot sweaty crowds I chose to go back to a magical time when I was young and in love and carnival rides at night were about the most romantic thing I could imagine. Do you remember your first kiss on the top of a Ferris Wheel? Could anything be sweeter?

I have to admit I bought the Cricut Lite Carousel cartridge specifically for this challenge (thanks, Nilda, always the enabler!) I started out cutting in bright Fair colors but couldn't find paper for the background I wanted to emboss. I came across this piece of midnight blue and tried embossing with the Christmas Stars limited edition Cuttlebug folder (available at Custom Crops) but the embossing really didn't show up until I inked it with platinum. It immediately took me back to a very special time in my life and my idea was born. (There are just some things you never forget. Even after 40+ years. :D )

I recut the Ferris Wheel in gold foil card stock and embossed the base with one of the borders from Just My Type. The banner is also cut from Carousel and the flags are embossed individually with the tiny dots from the Cuttlebug Butterfly cutting combo. The crescent moon is another cutting combo called Halloween. The double scallop background punch is MS and the blue and base for the easel are embossed with the new Cuttlebug Polka Dots 5x7 folder.

"Magical" is a combination of the Cuttlebug alphas Curls and Swirls and Typewriter. "Kisses" is trimmed from "hugs & kisses" from the Love Language card making combo. The cool ticket is from another of the fab new Cuttlebug Embossing Plus folders called Vintage Collage which I printed on the computer and outlined with a Micron pen. The tiny hearts were a $1 punch from M's. Then I added loads and loads (and LOADS) of adhesive beads to resemble the lights.

To add even further dimension to the easel I cut a strip of paper and folded it into a sort of square "C" and attached it to the back of the wheel and the background for a pop-up mechanism so the Ferris wheel really stood out from the starry sky.

As you can see, the card still folds up (fairly) flat for mailing. I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did making it. Perhaps it will bring back magical memories of your own.

Be sure to stop by The Cuttlebug Spot to view the cards and say good bye to the existing Design Team. New things are ahead for The Cuttlebug Spot. September is our two year anniversary and next Monday Nilda will put out a call for new faces and talent. If you've ever dreamed of being part of a Design Team, next week is your chance to apply. This may well be my last week as an "official" member of The Cuttlebug Spot and I thank Nilda and my Design Team Sisters for a truly wonderful experience. Now don't forget to play along this week because we have a fabulous $50 prize from Simon Says Stamp. But remember your card must be "new", follow the theme, and include some embossing. Best of luck.

Tiddly Inks Goodbye to Summer

Where has the time gone? I think I missed August completly and here it is the very last day. At Tiddly Inks we're saying Goodbye to Summer with Autumn inspired projects. I'm not sad, it's my FAVORITE time of year, when the vineyards turn golden and a there's bit of a chill in the air. I've chosen Fairy Fae Dreams. As she sits atop her Fairy House with the autumn leaves swirling about her, what is she dreaming? She and her house are colored with Copics, fussy cut and popped upon yummy paper from K&Co Alleghany Plum. For some sparkle I've added some copper leaf peelies from Stampendous and a copper border. The sentiment is a Melissa Francis rub on.

The falling leaves were a bit of a challenge. They are punched, and originally I tried colored card stock but they just didn't blend with the rest of the card. Finally I punched them in white, outlined them with a Sigma Micron pen and colored them with Copics. Much better. The twine bow added a bit of a rustic touch. Are you ready for Fall? Pop on over to Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog for the fabulous designs by the rest of the Tiddly Inkers and check out the Tiddly Inks Store for all of the new designs. And don't forget there are FREEBIES every Tues when you join the Tiddly Inks PCP group. This week it's the colored version of the Cheshire Cat (good for 48 hours, so hurry)! But BOTH versions are for sale for only a buck! WooHoo! I'm so honored that my little altered version of "What's Up" inspired Christy to add him to the store!

And hey, if you haven't already, please scroll down for the BBTB2 Blog Hop and leave a comment for a chance to win my prize.

BBTB2 Blog Hop - Apron From the From My Kitchen Cartridge

Happy Monday everyone! Didn't August just fly by? It's the last Monday of the month and you know what that means, it's Blog Hop time at BBTB2. Hopefully you've arrived from the fabulously talented Krista's Blog, if not, why not pop on back over so you don't miss a thing. It's obvious that Krista is a chip off the old block, because her wonderfully creative Mom, Penny, chose the challenge this week; the apron cut from From My Kitchen (you'll see her fabulous creation further down the road). I used my DS to make a shaped front card using a variety of cuts from the Kitchen cart. The retro papers are from Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety and DCWV Nana's Nursery.

Here's a picture of it open so you can really see the shaped front. The buttons are a combination of Making Memories Chloe's Closet and Favorite Findings (on the apron) and the gorgeous colored ones on the card base are Stampin'Up (thanks Lillie). (BTW, Lillie has 24/7 ordering now if you click HERE)

Big surprise that there's dimension, eh?, but I WAS surprised that I had the perfect little dimensional sticker from Studio 18 that I found in the $ bin at M's. (It pays to dig!) Now off to hop to see what else is cookin'. Next stop, Julia's super fantastic BLOG, but before you go, please leave a comment for a chance to win a $30 gift certificate from Custom Crops. Thanks so much, Custom Crops! The winner will be announced sometime Saturday morning (hey, come on, it's Sat. LOL).

P.S. Scroll down to see this week's Macabre Monday Challenge "Creepy Cute" sponsored by Tiddly Inks. (Even you non creepsters oughta like that!)

macabre Monday Creepy Cute Challenge Sponsored by Tiddly Inks

Ah yes, it's another Macabre Monday at Haunted Design House with a super fun challenge sponsored by Tiddly Inks (and you know I LOVE me some Tiddly Inks!). The challenge? It's Creepy Cute. Create a dark, Gothic or Halloween page using cute images, but on the darkside. Turn something adorable into something abominable...something delightful into something devious...something cute into something creepy. Or just grab one of TI's Gothic cute images and start coloring. So here is Portence. Her lovely frame suggested a pillow for eternal rest. Her spidery coffin is cut from the Happy Hauntings Cricut cartridge. I created a shaped card using Cricut Design Studio and I hid LOTS of contours to create the background which I glittered with blood red German glass glitter. (This stuff is made from real glass so it HURTS, trust me!)

Dear Portence has been altered a tad (to look dead) by masking her eyes while printing, her x'd out peepers added by ME! (Sorry Christy, couldn't be helped) She's colored with Copics ( her skin taking a slightly greenish hue around the edges) and she's covered in a black tulle shroud.

She's still quite lovely though, hence the sentiment "Death... becomes her". Or perhaps I should have said "Undeath" Bwahaha! Again I used the Cuttlebug Embossing Plus Fanciful Label with a computer generated sentiment and a single Prima blood red rose. The coffin door is embossed with the Cuttlebug Distressed Stripes folder and the viewing window is cut with a Nesties Deckle Rectangle.

Of course there's loads of dimension and the entire card does open at the side. Ready to play along? Of course you are! Rush to Haunted Design House for more of Creepy Cute inspiration by the Macabre Minions and creep up your own cuteness for a chance to win some Tiddly Inks of your very own! (You know you want to!)

Bah! Humbug! Charms Challenge and A Blog Award

I was determined to not wait until the last minute this week for Bah!Humbug! so I took a break from my DT stuff to create this little tag. The challenge this week is Charms and after looking through my stash I came upon this little snowflake I'd done with Shrink Plastic. It was cut on my Cricut using the Very Merry Tags cartridge. The tag itself was cut from Plantin Schoolbook on both regular and shadow at 4". The cute little Stampotique stamp is "I'm Cold" by Jill Penney. See, not all Stampotique stamps are creepy. (And can you imagine that Jill is married to Daniel Torrente of the creepy stamps? go figure) The DP's are from S.E.I.'s Wintersong pack including the paper pieced jacket. The rest of her is colored with Copics. The rub on is Melissa Frances.

A little popping, some ribbon and wired stuff that looks to me like snow balls and that's it.

Now before I get on to the blog award, I have to apologize to the 25 or so people who have given me awards since Feb. of this year and I've never posted. I truly do appreciate them, but when they started coming fast and furiously and I started to get behind the whole process got so totally overwhelming, checking back to previous posts to find what award and who they came from, etc. etc. , so I just gave up. So SOOOO sorry my friends. I will try to do better but...

However, I did receive the Cherry on Top award from Lisa, Karen, Oh Snap and Sandra (critterbugg365) and I thank you ladies sooo much. Please visit these lovely ladies by clicking on their names and leave them some love. You know the drill for these awards so I won't go over that, but I do need to post

3 things I love about myself

1. I love that I don't feel or act my age

2. I love that I've found a hobby I truly enjoy and look forward to every day

3. I love that I still believe in Santa Claus, Fairy Tales, Love at First Sight and Happily Ever After (not necessarily in that order)

And the picture I love

Goliath, relaxing on Daddy's lap,

not a care in the world.

Last but not least, I'm supposed to pass this award on to 5 bloggers and you know that's impossible for me to choose but I do want to recognize one sweet and talented friend who is relatively new to the blogging world (since June). I always enjoy her encouraging comments and want the rest of the crafty world to find her blog and appreciate her creativity like I do so

LISA, this one's for you!

Bah! Humbug! Winter Wonderland (a Couple Hours Late)

Good morning! Mine started dark and early (1:45 am). It's been deathly hot and I woke up sweaty and thirsty and just couldn't go back to sleep. It must have been that I hadn't finished my Bah! Humbug! card and of course I didn't want to miss that! This past week the challenge was Winter Wonderland so I decided to play a bit again with my mini gel pens and holder from Chomas Creations. This time I chose the teal pen from the Assortment to match my frosty color scheme. The images I chose are from the Cricut Christmas Solutions cartridge. I used Design Studio for placement of both the regular and shadow features and then placed them on different mats; one for the drawing, one for the cutting. After drawing the images (pressure 3, speed 3) I pressed load mat (not load last) and replaced my pen holder with the blade housing. I adjusted my pressure to 5 and went to my second mat in Design Studio (where the shadows were) and pressed cut again. WooHoo! No fussy cutting. I did a bit of shading with my Copics using BG0000, BG000 and C1 and added some sparkle with Star Dust Stickles. I'm really loving these pens! SOOOO many applications! Be sure to stop by Amy's Blog to see more fabulous examples and you can order her fabulous products there too. Sorry about the pic here. It was still dark but the Stickles sure do stand out!

Hmmm, another card that fits a business envie. The base is Bazzill sparkle and the background is embossed with the Snowflakes limited edition Cuttlebug folder from Custom Crops. The top mat is embossed with a OMC Internet Exclusive Sizzix snowflake folder. The cut out is a Nesties Mega Classic Scalloped Oval. Big surprise that I used the Cuttlebug Embossing Plus Fanciful Labels which I colored with the same gel pen and added a peelie and pearls. This dimension shot is a bit better as to color. I'm also entering this in the Winter Wonderland Challenge (another great Christmas challenge blog) whose theme just happens to be Winter Wonderland. Anyway, hope you like. It's gonna be another scorcher so this Winter Wonderland is looking pretty nice right now.

I'm sorry for those of you who have asked, but I didn't save a .cut file for this. I just used Design Studio for placement of the shadows (for the cut page) and each of the images was cut individuallyafter drawing them all first. I have a tutorial on using Cricut Markers HERE that explains what I did I guess in more detail. Cricut markers work the same way as these pens. The example showing the monkey in that tut is what was done for this card. Hope that helps.

The Cuttlebug Spot Oh BABY!

This week at The Cuttlebug Spot it's all about babies. I LOVE babies and making baby cards. You can use all that frilly stuff and yummy colors! I wish they made scratch and sniff "baby smell" to put in them too. Is anything sweeter? I just want to eat them up! Okay, back on track. I usually try to keep these challenges all Cuttlebug if I can, but I had these adorable little clothespins that were just CALLING to me and also wanted to break out my new Cuttlebug Embossing Plus Monogram Seals for the sentiment. The baby clothes are from the New Arrival cartridge using papers from both Nana's Nursery mat stacks. I enhanced the embossed letters just a bit with my Copics (you do have to be a bit careful here so they don't bleed). The clouds are from Dreams Come True, cuttled with D'Vine Swirls and what would a baby card (or any card for that matter) be without Swiss Dots? LOL

This card fits a legal size envie (I hope!) There's a bit of popping of the clothes and with the natural clothespins and line, I added a kraft mat to tie it all in. The border punch is an old MS double scallop. As usual, there is loads of inspiration from my DT sisters so pop by The Cuttlebug Spot to check it out. And I've already seen some fabulous entries for the challenge to win a $20 gift certificate to Custom Crops. Where's yours?

Back to School with Tiddly Inks

This is my second post of the day, so if you're looking for BBTB2 (a day late) please scroll down.

The Tiddly Inkers are going Back to School this week with fun new projects and some fabby new images from Christy. I had a hard time choosing but SchoolGirl's gorgeous wavy hair won out. My original plan was to just make a card but I was talking to my dear friend Lillie and she had made the sweetest little backpack for her Cricut Cuts and Stamps challenge that I fell in love. Hers was a Cricut .cut file and I was way too lazy to design my own so I sort of put the idea aside until I was on my sweet friend Smita's blog (be sure to vote for her team!) and she had done an adorable backpack as well with a LINK to a tutorial which turned out to be from ANOTHER dear friend DeeDee from way back in 2008 before I even WAS blogging. Thank you to EVERYONE! Okay, so sorry for the long round about story of how this came to be, but isn't it fabulous to have bloggie friends for inspiration and how we all are connected!?

I had already picked out the cute apple paper by Creative Imaginations so my color scheme was set. I colored SchoolGirl to match with my copic and followed DeeDee's tutorial to make my backpack. The cute apple cut is the shadow cut from Create a Critter and I cut a circle out if it with Cricut Design Studio to frame SchoolGirl. My BFF's daughter Hayley is starting high school TODAY so I spelled her name out in Alpha Beads.

Had to have a little card to go with so there you go. It's a simple A2 (which I hardly ever do) but anything bigger looked silly with the little backpack and I wanted SchoolGirl to take center stage. She's cut and matted with Nesties with a matching bow and apple button and LOADS more Alpha Beads. Now pop over to the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog to check out the adorable projects from the rest of the Tiddly Inkers and while you're at it, why not do a little back to school shopping at the Tiddly Inks Shop? I'm also going to enter this in Lillie's challenge too because it has both a (digital) stamp and a Cricut cut and is certainly a back to school theme (if she doesn't mind that I copied LOL). So now you've got TWO great challenges to play along with. (And there are prizes to be had!) Hope to see you there.

BBTB2 Flamingo Challenge

Sorry for the late post here I've been sort of out of whack. DH went on a WEEK long backpacking trip and my schedule sort of went to hell. He's back safe and sound (and sunburned to a crisp and exhausted) but he's a happy camper and so am I. This week at BBTB2 our dear DT sister Melissa chose the flamingo from the Life's a Beach cartridge and added a twist. Our flamingos should be either patterned or any color OTHER than pink. I was messing around in Design Studio and decided that with no shadow and such delicate legs a shaped card was not in my future. (Well okay, this is sort of a shaped card, but you know what I mean.) When I flipped a second image and welded them together however, they started to look rather Art Deco to me so that's where I went. (I kept thinking Miami) I was dying to use one of my new Art Deco Cuttlebug Folders and set out to make something that looked a bit architectural and welded some rounded rectangles from George to make the base. Then I started layering, and layering, and LAYERING!

The card is about 3/4 of an inch thick and weighs a TON! Can't imagine what occasion it could possibly be for (although the flamingo heads sort of form a heart and our anniversary is coming up...no, not what I'm going for) and since it would probaby cost at least $5.00 to mail it ain't goin' anywhere soon. LOL The irridescent papers are from WalMart and M's and I couldn't resist some bling (also from M's). The rest of the team really rocked this challenge so check them out HERE.