Popsicle Toes

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Look What's New at Tiddly Inks

As soon as I saw Forever, I dropped everything and had to play. Tell me they aren't the most ROMANTIC vampire couple EVER! I merged them with the moon and coffin from The Vampire Extra Pack, which is simple to do in just about any computer program using the "layer" feature (I use Printmaster Platinum from , since the images now come in both jpeg and png format, and colored the whole shebang with Copics. The shaped card was quickly made using my Grand Caliber and Grand Circle Nesties. The sentiment is done with glitter sticker letters that seem to have lost their packaging in my Halloween stash. The gem swirl and tiny stars are by Recollections form M's, and the fabby ribbon is May Arts.

Ya know the teeth here are kinda subtle. I'm thinkin' it might just be nice for an anniversary card. The coffin...well, maybe not, but ahhhhh....immortal love...sounds good to me. And who doesn't love a little love bite, now and again? Be sure to check out all of the fab images in the What's New section of the Tiddly Inks Store. There's one more gorgeous Vamp Me digi, along with a new Wizard to go with that adorable Wizardette, and the sweetest little gal from the 20's, Aida, along with a dashing new beau, Aiden, who all the Victorian Gothic/Steampunk ladies have their eye on. And don't forget the current Thank You Teacher challenge, now going on on the Challenge Blog and the new Wow Ya Wednesday, where we feature artists from all around Blogland. To round out your Tiddly week, tomorrow is Fabulous Inky Friday where we announce our winners and highlight gorgeous examples from the DT and YOU! There's a special badge for those of you who are featured so be sure and take a peek. I'm also entering this in the Get Edgey with Jessica Dietrich Challenge over at The Ribbon Carousel.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

TOFF Girls, Girls, Girls and Whimsical Wednesday Fun With Folds

Well, I'm early (for me, anyway) for TOFF and almost late for Whimsical Wednesday. So happy I could combine them. The WW challenge is Fun With Folds and I've done a cool fold I learned from a former Cuttlebug Spot DT sister, Meredith, who seems to have stopped blogging so I no longer have a link to her tut. Bummer! It just so happened I had folded this card base awhile ago and it's been sitting on my desk since??? I added a Grand Oval and Scalloped Grand Oval to the center to back my images. The Octopode Factory Friday Challenge this week is Girls, Girls, Girls. As usual, I had a hard time deciding which images to use. I finally decided on Wendy, from the Peter Pan set, Posy, from the Steampunk Misses set, and Wednesday, from the Adams Family set. Don't they look like BFF's?

the girls were colored with Copics, and I just received some fabulous "bwainzzz" from my Minion sister Gloria's Etsy Shop. She's got all sorts of cool stuff over there, including jewelry, cards, ornaments, sculptures and more so be sure to check it out.

This prompted my sentiment which was computer generated. HeeHee, sometimes I just crack myself up! Hope you all get a giggle from this. I just love playing along with Whimsical Wednesdays and I don't think you can get much more whimsical than The Octopode Factory images so I'd say it's a match made in heaven! Be sure to check out the fab work by the DT's on both blogs. They are all just super fun and inspiring.

Monday, August 8, 2011

BBTB2 Pie Challenge

Wow, time sure seems to be flying, because it's already Monday again and time for another challenge at BBTB2. Our sweet and adorable sister, Krista, has chosen the pie from Paper Doll Dress Up for our challenge, but there are loads of pies on other cartridges if you don't have PDDU. I've chosen the pie from Simply Charmed because I've had that cart for ages and never used it. I thought about keeping the smily face on the cut but just couldn't quite bring myself to be that cutesy so I hid the contours in Design Studio.

The pie shadow is welded in DS to the shadow of the sentiment from Hello Kitty font, and a heart from Sweethearts. Yeah, no surprise, it's another shaped front card, the back being from Lacy Labels, another cart I had to have but I'd yet to use. The little tag hanging off the "C" is from Plantin Schoolbook. For once I remembered to do some embossing BEFORE I'd assembled the card with Swiss Dots on the heart, and a Stampin'Up folder on the letters.

The background paper is Graphic 45 Domestic Goddess. The print was the right scale and I thought it gave the card a vintage look. Had to laugh because DH even recognized the vintage vibe. His standard comment for my creations is "That's cute." (including the creepiest of my Macabre Monday cards, which pretty much means he's not looking too closely. LOL) I didn't go wild with dimension this time, but I guess it's enough. I had a busy week. I'm guest Designer at Bah!Humbug! for the month of August and I'm particularly proud of my debut card HERE (if you REALLY wanna see some layering) , and I've joined The Altered Alice Design Team and did something a bit different this week by altering a frame HERE. What fun! Anyway, there's a whole lot of yumminess going on at BBTB2 so be sure and check out the fab creations by my DT sisters and we do hope you play along.

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.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

The Altered Alice Chapter Six Challenge:Painting the Roses RED

I am totally honored and excited to announce that I have joined The Altered Alice Design Team! Each month I've ooohed and aaahed over the fabulous "Alice" projects by the talented artists there and to be able to craft among them is a dream come true. So on to this month's challenge.

'A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily painting them red. Alice thought this a very curious thing, and she went nearer to watch them, and just as she came up to them she heard one of them say, `Look out now, Five! Don't go splashing paint over me like that!'
-- Chapter 8, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Of course you know, that they were painting the roses red to avoid angering the Queen of Hearts, so this month's challenge is to use paint on your project. Each member of the Design Team received some glorious shimmering garnet paint from this month's sponsor, Creative Inspirations [Store/Blog]. The winner of this month's challenge will received their choice of 5 (of the 60!) available colors. WooHoo!

I've altered a $1.00 wooden frame from M's by covering it with DP from Stampin'UP and finishing the edges with velvet rick rack and tiny ball trim. The fabulous Queen of Hearts is a digi image by Mo Manning. She was printed 4 times, colored with Copics, and fussy cut to give the layered decoupage effect.

Here you can get a better idea of the dimension. Many crafters who use this technique color their image once, scan it to their computer and print out the desired number of copies. Nope, I didn't do that but it sure would have saved a lot of time. (Note to self: become familiar with the scanner, so coloring doesn't take you all day) Then, if I could just teach Goliath or Jezzie to fussy cut, I'd be all set.

The queen is obviously very upset about the white roses which have just begun to be painted with the Creative Inspirations paint. The large Grungeboard letters were embossed, gessoed (because they're sort of grey and I wanted the gorgeous clear garnet shade to shine), and painted with 2 coats for a really intense RED.

I wish you could see the beautiful shimmer, but my camera doesn't seem to be picking it up, so you'll just have to take my word for it. To highlight the embossing (Swiss Dots, Diamonds in the Rough, and the Roses European Edition) I used some black acrylic paint, and quickly rubbed most of it off. the paint brush is embellished with ribbon and a Fleur de Lis by Jolee's Boutique (because I thought it looked regal, LOL) The rest of the phrase (black letters) were cut with my Cuttlebug Curls and Swirls Alphabet.

The roses were made from tissue paper using a technique I remembered from my childhood, when the only magazine that had crafting articles was Better Homes and Gardens. The leaves are a stamp from Heartfelt Creations. This particular one does not have coordinating Spellbinders dies so I cut them out too.

The Altered Alice challenges begin the first Sunday of each month, with weekly inspiration posts by various members of the Design Team. Winners are announced the last Sunday of the month and you have until the Friday before at 8:00 pm EDT to submit your work. That means you have until Friday, August 26th to get your "Alice" on. I sure hope you'll follow me down the rabbit hole.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Jacob is hard at WORK!

So much for R&R. Jacob has his work cut out for him in my horrendously messy and disorganized scrap room. Here he is sorting embossing folders and Nesties.

And doing some heavy lifting of boxes and boxes of punches!

"Just how many stamps do you have? Jeez, I can't WAIT to get back to Australia. I've never seen such chaos! When are we going wine tasting?"

And where are Clippy and Chloe? Frolicking amongst the Primas!

Friday, August 5, 2011

Bah! Humbug! White on White Challenge

TGIF, everyone! An this is not just any Friday. Today I'm joining the Humbuggers for the month of August as Guest Designer! WooHoo! If you follow my blog, you know I've been a proud Loyalty Member of the Bah! Humbug! fabulous Christmas Challenge Blog since last year and I'm more than excited and honored to join Ann and Max and my fellow Guest Designer, Tracy for a month of Christmas fun. This week the challenge is White on White, a particular favorite of mine. I've had the idea for this card for a long while. I designed it in Cricut Design Studio and cut it on my Cricut Expression. The snowflakes are from Accent Essentials and Very Merry Tags, the gorgeous butterfly from Hannah Montana, the sentiment banner from Wedding Solutions and the back from George and Basic Shapes.

No surprise it's a shaped front card, my favorite type to make, and I've used a matte silver for the shadows, from Recollections, to set off the all white design. Then I added plenty of adhesive gems to make it sparkle.

Here's a close up of the sentiment, done on my computer with my Printmaster Pro program.

There are plenty of layers for dimension and the butterfly is adhered in the center only, so the wings are free to fly.

Inside, I've embossed the mat with one of the 5x7" Cuttlebug folders. The sentiment was placed so that it is not visible from the front. I have to say that this may be one of my favorite Christmas cards EVER! I do so hope you come visit Bah!Humbug! to see the lovely creations by the rest of the crew and would be ever so pleased if you decided to play along. On the first Friday of each month there is a prize to be won, and this month's is ever so exciting. I'm also entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Christmas in August Challenge, the Jingle Belles Shape-Up for the Holidays Challenge, the Fussy and Fancy Fridays Challenge and the Winter Wonderland White on White Challenge (I'm hoping since they're allowing a colored image, and I don't have one, that they'll let the little silver shadow slide. LOL)

Thursday, August 4, 2011

TOFF Summertime Challenge

This week the Octopode Factory Friday challenge is Summertime. Lily has so many adorable images that evoke summer in my garden, that I set about playing with my computer to merge a bunch of them together in a little scene. I've used The Sun is Shining, Flowers and Bees, Whimsical Fence and Grass, and another flower and ladybug from the Easter and Spring set (the economical way to go. LOL) Once it was all done, it looked like a coloring book page to me so I colored up a storm with my Copics, using whatever colors caught my eye. Although it's flat (with the exception of the metal "Smile" sentiment that I colored black with a Sharpie) I love how it came out. Just added a little doodling for the sun's rays and the bee's flight and sponged on some sunshine using Distress Ink. Cute, or quirky, Lily's images just make me smile. She is one talented girl!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Bah! Humbug! Lace Challenge

This week the challenge as Bah! Humbug! is to use lace. I was excited because I've been hoarding this gorgeous vintage lace I'd received from my dear friend, Joy and this seemed the perfect opportunity. I thought it paired well with the beautiful laser cut sticker I'd also been hoarding from another dear friend, Leah. Thanks you guys, love ya both! The sticker was on a piece of craft color backing, and I liked the combination so much that I cut Kraft paper to use on my card.

For some reason, the K&Co chipboard sentiment really didn't show up in the first pic, so here's a close up. It's layered on a scrap tag I'd cut with my Cricut, that was laying on my desk and the kraft piece behind it is the back side of a tag that came with my vintage seam binding from Prairie Bird Boutique. Way to recycle, go me! This is the last of my really late B!H! cards for awhile. Check back Friday for a surprise, and if you're quick about it, you can still join in on this week's lace challenge too. WooHoo! I'm also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Christmas in August Challenge.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Look who's HERE!

That Hot Hunk of Plastic, Jake has arrived with his Koala, Clippy on his Hot Blog Hop around the world, most recently from Cricut Junkie Traci's, in Chino Hills, CA. If you're unfamiliar with Jake and his story, please click HERE. I'm thrilled that I now have a scrap room assistant for a couple of weeks, but the boys were so tired from traveling over the weekend wrapped in plastic in a box, we decided that a little fresh air would do them good.

No one was as excited as my female Koala, Chloe. Poor Jake. Looks like he's gonna be lugging around two of them for awhile. How will we EVER get anything done? Great for the old biceps, though (as if he needs any help in THAT dept. LOL)! It was love at first sight for Clippy and Chloe, so perhaps a little alone time is in order. Stay tuned for their adventures here in Livermore, CA. there just might be a giveaway. WooHoo!

Tiddly Inks We Are Gell-ing Challenge

We have an exciting challenge going on at Tiddly Inks this week: Gel Cards! Never heard of a gel card? Go take a peek at the tut by our very own Meredith HERE. I didn't have any of the smaller baggies to use for my card so I had to fill a snack size that was 4 x 6 1/2. Now those who know me well, know I'm not really one to get "down and dirty" with inks and goop and whatnot, so I wasn't all that sure about this challenge. However, I was able to use hair gel, Distress Reinker and stickles all in my baggie, close it and smoosh it around (even open it and add more) without getting a drop of it on me or my table. WooHoo! I loved having the large window in my card, but it was a bit more difficult to mount. I used Terrifically Tacky Tape on both the card and the silver mat to secure it, then added the the top mat, embossed with the Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirls folder to the top with adhesive foam. The windows were cut with my Nesties Mega Ovals. Peeking through is the fabulous new Mermaid Miranda, part of the oh so gorgeous Victorian Gothic/Steampunk release.

Here's where It actually got messy. For the undersea flora, I cut apart a felt coaster I'd gotten at M's and tried to color it, not realizing that the felt had a water resistant coating on it (duh, it's a coaster). My first thought was Distress Ink, but it didn't even begin to stick. I then tried Alcohol Inks, Copic?...nope. (By then my fingers were blue and I was getting P---ed!) I finally tried soaking the felt and mopping up the Distress Inks Reinker I'd dropped on my craft mat and that at least turned it from yellow to a bit of a greenish color. I added Waterfall Stickles and Sprinked on some Mica Flakes as well. The glitter flowers are Heidi Grace, with Doodlebug glitter brads in the center. I'm also adding this to the Paper Cutz Under the Sea Challenge this week.

Here is the lovely Miranda inside. She's colored wth Copics and glittered up with Stickles, as well, and I've added Cloud Nine Raindot bubbles. To me she looks like she hasn't a care in the world, so I've added the Cloud Nine epoxy sentiment "no worries". Wouldn't that be nice? Now go have a look at the amazingly creative ways the Tiddly Inkers are gell-ing this week and I just know you all want to play along. And be sure to pop over to Christy's blog for a look at the fab new images she's added to The Store and the sweet story that resulted in some FREEBIES! WooHoo!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Happy Monday! If you're looking for the Haunted Design House 100th Challenge Celebration, please scroll down. Trust me, the blog candy at HDH is worth checking out!

With school just around the corner for many, our BBTB2 DT sister Lori, has come up with a school themed challenge using any of the school supplies from Locker Talk (or any other appropriate cartridge). I was inspired by a cute project my friend Margie made for the Stampotique challenge HERE (she was a designer's fave, WooHoo!) and borrowed her sentiment for my card. I was going for a primary school feel so I used Micky Font in all caps. I thought the sentiment captured the excitement a child feels when they rush home with something they've made at school. Obviously my "school supply" was scissors and I made a heart chain, welding the hearts from George.

It's a shaped front card, using Design Studio. The colors were chosen from the Cosmo Cricket background paper that I thought was perfect for this challenge.

Yeah, lots of layers and I've creased the heart chain to look like it was actually cut with the scissors by folding accordion style and cutting half the heart. (YKWIM, don't you?) Anyway, it's only popped in the middle of each heart and was embossed with Swiss Dots. I actually had to dismantle some of the card because I'd forgotten the embossing and couldn't stand how plain it looked without. Couldn't get the original chain off so I cut another one and sort of slid it in under the portions that overlapped. Phew! I worked. Then just a little doodling and it was good to go.

To make sure the inside sentiment didn't show through to the front, I cut another heart chain and glued it directly under the one on the front. I think I craft and blog because I never lost the thrill of creating, especially for those I love. My DT sisters have done just fabulous projects for this challenge, so I hope you stop by, and we invite you to share your love of creating with us at BBTB2. Our challenges run for 2 weeks and we only ask that your project be a new one and that you mention and link us in your post so that others can join in the fun. Hope to see you there.