It is Here!! The Start of the Dream in Darkness Challenge

I am beyond excited right now!  A dream is coming true in a matter of hours as Kim and  I will see the first day of our dark themed challenge Dream in Darkness !  We are being sponsored this month by Rick St. Dennis and he has been beyond fabulous to us!!  My creative team make is from his image Lets's Have a Little Chat which I fell in love with!  My fellow team mates all made their makes before me (procrastinating as usual!) and I was like Oh my gosh what can I do?  Panic big time.  But the more I looked at the "couple" in the image I saw a love between two very different beings and although this exact scenario doesn't happen it did remind me of love in general.  We don't choose it, it chooses us!  So they became engaged and then had a quickie wedding in Vegas!! As a matter of fact, they are back from the honeymoon...Disney World before you ask..and doing well and she has already had their wedding immortalized with a shadow box!

Yes, she is still wearing her veil, she is sentimental like that and still in love with her hunk of errr, hmmmm, bones?   The shadow box is a rustic metal former clock with the works removed and paper covering the back and silver trim around the edge.  The image is colored with Prismacolor colored pencils, you will be seeing a lot of them from me I am in love with the control and look I get with them (another nod to Mr. Rick as his video got me into these!)  I colored two copies, fussy cute them the top one without the ribbon that is on the image and on the bottom layer of my stack.  I was out of foam dots so of course improvise!  I cut up a Styrofoam plate and layered 2 pieces high to raise them up a little.  I accented them both in places with Glossy Accents.  On the background paper I glued a marriage certificate aged with distress ink pads and filled in to look unreadable by me.  I curled it up around a pencil and then let it go and adhered with Glossy Accents (glue used on the entire project so if I say glue that is it!)  Then I added a brain colored with Promarker and skull shaded with Chameleon pens that I then pressed into an embossing pad and used UTEE powder on and heat embossed.  I love that look!  Their rings are one of a cheapie one that I had acquired along the way and I made his out of copper wire.  A little lock and key was attached above her head.  And of course she had a bouquet and that is dried and put in with it's lace, black lace, ribbon, and velveteen around the paper flower I made a long time ago and it was nicely distressed without my help!! Some glue and black glitter topped that off.  Her antennae? spelling??? is made from green wire with blue seed beads glued to the end. Glued to her head where I had to amputate her original ones when I fussy cut and then added a sparkly black veil stitched on the sewing machine was added on top of the antennae!  It was still flat so following Kim's smart advice I added black lace and black velveteen in little sprays and sewed the ends to secure and then tucked one behind the wedding license and one behind her wing.  On top of that I added a sparkle star shape and a gold and black button.  The remaining sprayed black lace and velveteen made a tie for the top finial!  Here are a few random pics to show you how they looked better:

 

                                                                                                      Caught her without her veil! Oh, my!

So we leave the two lovebirds to coo at each other for millennium's to come!  And why don't you come play with us at Dream in Darkness Challenge this month!  And please check out my teamies blogs they are fantastic be prepared though....fantastically dark!!  Ohh, I love them soooo much!

Happy Crafing from No Good Nan at Dream in Darkness!!!

5th Week Month at Quoth the Raven

We are entering our last week at Quoth the Raven Challenge #43 Tic Tac Toe.  You pick out your row and use the 3 elements in it.  Such a fun challenge!

This is my egg using the 3 elements of decoupage/3D, lace, and Poe.  I covered my egg with designer paper torn into small pieces and applied with a watered down glue mixture.  I had colored the egg with a Promarker in red first so I ended up with some bleeding through on the paper.  I wanted to use the image Poe with Candle available at Ike's World Art.  Please find the link below.  I shrunk him rather small and colored with Prismacolor pencils, fussy cut (cut open the where the tie was also), and covered with Diamond Accents.  I cut the arm with the candle separately and covered with Diamond Accents. I wanted this to have the 3-D effect.  After everything dried, I took a small piece of lace and made a tie for Poe sticking it into the opening I had cut.  I also gave the dear man a small gem for his coat; I think he deserves it, don't you? Then I adhered Poe to the egg and then stuck the arm on a foam piece to make it stick out.  
Now time is running out but you have time to enter this awesome challenge so stop looking around and go get your Tic Tac Poe on!
Happy Crafting and Poe on!

Ike's World Art

Great News!

This project is a nominee for the Pick of the Week  picked by one of Rick St. Dennis's Elite Design Team members to be voted for to become Pick of the Week of April 19th.  I am so honored and am including the links below to vote for my project or one of the other fab ladies projects.  Here is my Zombie Boy found HERE at Rick's Zibbet Store. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/rickstdennisdigifansandfriends/

Go here to vote for pick of the week

It is an Enchanted Saturday at Rosey Hearts Today!

This is an enchanted Saturday at Rosey Hearts today!  We are cele.brating 2 of the fabulous Enchanted ladies that Melissa has created.  I am showing you the colored images, not a finished project, but as you will see at the Inspiration Blog HERE  we have tried to show you samples of all of our colorings of these lovely ladies and some finished projects, also!  And to add to this extra special day, we are giving away some blog candy at the link above.  All you have to do is follow 2 simple steps (1)follow the Rosey Hearts Blog link above and click follow the blog and (2) leave a comment on the post: a grin emoticon!!  One lucky, randomly chosen winner will win 2 images of their choice at the Rosey Hearts Etsy store HERE!

Enchanted Beauty

Colored with Prismacolor pencils

Enchanted Flower

Also colored with Prismacolored pencils

and a few Promarkers

So hop to the Rosey Hearts Blog and make sure you become a follower and then comment with a grin emoticon to be in the running to be chosen to win 2 images from the store!  Thanks for joining us on this Enchanted Saturday!

Happy Crafting!

Rosey Hearts "UpDo" Image Release

I just adore this image!  I want to do a canvas with it but with computer issues I ran short on time so decorated the letter "R" and since I wanted to use the sentiment "Bloom where you are" it appealed to me.  And here it is:

 



You can find this lovely image at the Rosey Hearts Etsy link here.  Also, don't forget the Rosey Hearts Challenge Blog HERE.  The theme this month is "Things with Wings" so go check us out and join in the fun!  And for some additional inspiration go HERE and look at the awesome work of our Inspiration Team!  Lots to see and lots to do so hurry up and come play with us!

 

Happy Crafting!

Time for Smeared and Smudged's April Member Hop!

April Member Blog Hop

Leigh
Nan
Leslie Rahye
 Susan R.
Jane
Kristy
Ike

Welcome to the Smeared Ink April Member Hop!  Our mission to decorate an egg...yep, a real egg!  This one has had me stumped for weeks.  But as I was gathering materials I was thinking about my project due over at Quoth the Raven which is pick 3 elements from a tic tac toe board.  One direction was decoupage/3D, lace, and Poe.  I immediately thought of a wonderful Poe with Candle image by the fabulous Ike's Art.  So I shrunk him down, colored him up with Prismacolor colored pencils, fussy cut ( cutting out his tie), and covered with Diamond Accents.  I cut his arm with the hand holding the candle out separately and covered with Diamond Accents also. I had made the mistake of heating Diamond Accents before and got this neat kinda weird effect (I do not recommend using any product in any way other than it's stated uses!!  I told you so don't forget!!) and liked it so I tried it again. And I also gave dear Poe a small gem for his coat, I think he deserves it!  Now the egg was also a mistake that kind of evolved.  I colored my egg with a red Promarker thinking I would decoupage Poe on the egg and I wanted the red to contrast with the dark image.  Then I also wanted to take a small piece of lace and make his tie and glue into the opening I had cut out.  So that idea didn't seem wise. Next idea cover the egg with black and white designer paper, in other words decoupage the egg with the papers.  One thought on this technique:  it is much harder than I ever imagined to be and don't color the egg red first and not seal it!  The red leaked through as you have guessed.  But already too far into the idea and late as usual to start I had to trod on down that path.  So my egg is slightly odd shaped in places but then I am slightly odd so fair is fair:)  After allowing everything to dry, I attached Poe on the front of the egg and fixed his arm so it would appear to come right out at you.  I am hoping this even follows the mission to decorate an egg; I did decorate an egg!  I look forward to hopping along and seeing the lovelies listed above and see how their egg-speriments turned out!  I know it was lame....But please visit them and leave them some lovely comments to match their lovely projects!

Happy Crafting

Winner of April Muse Hop by Smeared Ink

So sorry I am sooooo late doing this!  My random generator, Yoshi, has refused to work until today!  It's his schedule or no schedule!  This is the drawing from all the comments left here during the April Muse Member 3 day Member Hop at Smeared Ink.  And let me thank each of you for taking the time to leave a comment, I know how busy you all are and that it take time to do so! But the lovely encouragement you all have given me for almost 2 years now has given me so much confidence to try something even though it might not be great it will be fun!  
So with no more stalling from Yoshi, the winner is Teresa!  She will be receiving a $5 happy mail with some candy!  Thank you all for all your lovely comments!  You all deserve a happy mail but I will be doing this for each Smeared and Smudged Member Hops so hopefully Yoshi will  pick each of you at some time!!  Hugs to you all!

Dragons Lair Designs New "The Pansy Collection" Design Team Project

The Dragons Lair Store now has this lovely collection called "The Pansy Collection".  We gave some sneak peeks during last month but it is here now and you can purchase it!  I made a magazine rack with some of the lovelies that come in the collection.  I found the box at a mega store in a throwaway bin and knew the shape would make something; I just didn't know what it would be!  And I found a bunch of great magazines at a thrift store so when I got home I wanted them to be very easy to access.  The box was sitting there and that was it:)

I took the flowers from the collection and copied doubles. Then I cut the second copy and cut the center of the flower and cut between each petal on both flowers, the original copy and the center of the second, I also bent them to give them some dimension and as beautiful as they are anyway they turned out great!  The background of the center used a frame from the collection, a sentiment in the circle, and then the flowers.  I stamped a "B" and embossed with gold.  The side panel is pansy journal cards layered on to each other.  I also made a border from the cards to cover the front and glued a flower that I had made like the center section flowers and glued them down.  Looking at it now, I see that I probably need to put paper or maybe paint the bottom of the rack.
And that was it!  The collection does the work.  It is awesome and so beautiful and has so many elements, even an alphabet set that is included.  A great value and so useful to the beginner to the expert.
Happy Crafting!

Dragons Lair Links
 Dragons Lair STORE: http://dragonslairdesigns.com/shop/http://dragonslairdesigns.com/shop/
 Dragons Lair CHALLENGE: http://dragonslairdesigns.com/shop/http://dragonslairdesigns.com/shop/
 Dragons Lair FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/427447597324391/https://www.facebook.com/groups/427447597324391/

New Dark Themed Dream in Darkness Challenge Announcement!!!

We are soooo excited and happy to announce our new challenge blog Dream in Darkness for all our dark, steampunk, goth, Halloween lovers, alternative artists out there to play!  We will start on May the 1st with our first challenge being sponsored by the fabulous Rick St. Dennis, who is offering some digis to the lucky first place winner!  We have a few rules so please read them; there aren't many just some guidelines that must be followed and the biggest rules is "no cuteness, please".  Not that we don't love all the fantastic challenges that have amazing cute projects it is just that many of our dark themed challenges have had to close and we need a place to play dark:)  So one major thing I want to point out is that this is a challenge for stampers, digis, mixed media, altered art, paintings, etc. just follow the dark theme and we are always "Anything Goes"!  We hope to give as many folks as possible a place to show their work, also we take 100% digital work!  So in anticipation of our first challenge I have made a canvas with Rick St. Dennis's "Zombie Love" that I was fortunate enough to win from him.  

This was made on a canvas with stenciling, texture paste, and some Cricut cuts  and painted with many layers of dark colors.  Also a couple rubber stamps and a little embossing.  Some doodling which I need work at desperately!  The image was colored with Chameleon pens, fussy cut, and glued to the dry canvas.  The photo gave me problems but maybe I can fix that before adding to the blog page.  And that was the making of some zombie love:)
We are going to be posting some projects leading up to the first day of the challenge so please follow the link below and check us out every day or so and see what our fabulous team has created for you!  And most of all get started on your dark art....you don't have to wait for a theme always going to be "Anything Goes" so show us your dark side!! 
Thanks to everyone who has helped make this happen!  Kim Johnny is co-owner of this blog with me and she is one amazing person!  She thinks of things and has it done before I even begin to think of them.  We also have a Creative Team but we will be announcing them on the blog; we want to show them lots of love because we are so proud of them!  
Happy crafting and the link is below for Dream in Darkness dark themed Challenge starting May the 1st!
 Dream in Darkness Challenge #1 Anything Goes Dark http://dreamindarkness.blogspot.com/

New Release for Rosey Hearts Image "Flair Hair" and "Spring Witch"

I got the wonderful chance to work on a new release for Rosey Hearts this week!  The first image is "Flair Hair" so of course she had to have some fab hair!  She is colored with Chameleon pens and fussy cut and accented with Diamond Accents on her eyes, lips, and shoes.  The background started out as a piece of fabric, raveled, and glued on to a piece of cardboard from a cereal box.  Then I used my homemade gesso to stencil on some letters, fleur de lis , and  dragonfly.  Then I painted over the entire thing with black paint.  Before that dried, I painted some blue metallic paint on top of the black.  When that dried, I used my fingers to add yellow, brown, and some black acrylic paint to the raised areas.  I also added some washi tape to a couple of places.  The "Flair Hair" gal went into the corner and as she is wearing a spiderweb hat; I added a huge plastic spider heading her way...don't worry..she is one tough chick!  I had a rubber stamp with an elephant with "think Big" on it so I stamped that on to white cardstock in red distress ink and cute it out wonky and adhered on to the background.  And here she is....Flair Hair and entourage!

And for my second new release project, I give you Spring Witch!

Oh, the glory of finding a pack of a zillion lovely, mint green, embroidered napkins for 2 dollars!  I have had these for ages again waiting for that perfect project and seeing Vicky's wonderful aprons at Rosey Hearts Facebook page, I thought how perfect would a Spring Witch be on a mint green napkin!  I colored her with Chameleon pens and printed her out and  ironed her on transfer paper for light fabrics.  After it had cooled completely, I cut around the image leaving a small border.  Then I place the image side down on the napkin and took a thin piece of fabric to place between the image backing  and the iron and ironed for the recommended time.  It is very important to follow the directions of what ever transfer paper you use...this will make or break your project.  Again after cooling completely, I carefully pulled the backing paper off and there was my lovely Rosey Hearts Spring Witch!  Remember, as soon as you read this you can dash to the store on your computer....please use your computer, and purchase any of Melissa's new releases!  And they are soooo gorgeous!   Please don't forget the May challenge will begin running May 15th so get a Rosey Heart image and join the fun (and Melissa has even given us some on the Facebook page, all links will be below!) so no excuses not to play!

Happy crafting with Rosey Hearts!

Store link:https://www.etsy.com/shop/RoseyHearts?ref=em

Facebook link:https://www.facebook.com/groups/715465521904917/

Challenge Blog link:http://roseyheartschallenges.blogspot.ca/

Dragons Lair Designs Challenge "Add an Animal" Project Scroll Down, Please

Tic Tac Poe? Quoth the Raven Challenge # 43 Design Team Project

Oh well....still having computer issues so hoping to get Mr. Poe on here but probably without a watermark...sigh!  This month's challenge at Quoth the Raven is "Tic Tac Poe"!  The card to choose your 3 elements from is on the challenge page HERE!  This is such fun to pick 3 things and run with them.  I saw sewing or faux stitching and knew I had to go that way even if I didn't like the third option ( Master Poe being a component of them all, of course!) but it was a raven so that was just perfect, too!  I took a cheese it box and cut out one front/back? panel.  To that I layered a piece of my marvelous skelly and spider fabric, a piece of scrapbook paper with letters (we know the man loved his letters!), a torn dictionary page, a see through sparkly piece of material,  a Poe image from Rick St. Dennis, and a stamped and embossed raven..whew! I sewed the Poe and raven images first with a ziggy zaggy stitch and then loosely and roundly sewed around the edges of the layers.  Do sew the center pieces first or they can cause the rest of the materials to ripple.  And that is my Tic Tac Poe!  
If you have never entered our challenge this is the one to start with...it is really, really fun and you can make it as fun as you like!  So I will be watching for you to enter......oh please do not let Mr. Poe or me down....we do so want to see your finished wonder!!
Happy crafting and see you soon!

Last Day of Smeared Ink's April Muse

April Muse Three Day Blog Hop

Black Dragon
Susan R.
Fiona
Shell
Nan

Zombie Love by Rick St. Dennis is my inspiration of zombie resurrection!  They are standing in front of their new love nest...ahhh first/old love!  The image was colored with Chameleon pens, fussy cut, some Diamond Accents, and glued to a piece of acetate and tucked under the front door!  House courtesy of Cricut Reality for all the up and coming zombie couples!  Sorry still no computer for editing or watermarking....son is working on it as we speak so maybe tomorrow it will be ready for me to break it again!
Happy crafting and hopping!  Leave some love, please!

Also, not to copy Fiona, but I am..lol!  I am going to draw a winner from the comments left for all 3 days to be picked randomly by my random generator, Yoshi!  Just a thank you for all your hard work and time that you take to comment on our group hops!  Will announce winner on Monday so check back...also have a big announcement!

Day 2 of Smeared and Smudged's April Muse "Awakening the Beast" Beware Clown Alert!!!

April Muse Three Day Blog Hop

Black Dragon
Susan R.
Fiona
Shell
Nan

Well, we opened the clown door so I must try to get him out of my head!  So for "Awakening the Beast" my spring time component is a lovely White Rabbit by Ike and the beast is the "Circus Procession Clown " from Smeared Ink.  Yes, I consider a clown neither person or thing but beast!  There I said it and if anyone has family members who are clowns I apologize in advance and please no hate mail:)
It is a two parter with a package made into a puppet stage and a spring fabric curtain with the happy bunny waiting to unveil the evil inside....and now here "it" is:

And yes that is a polymer clay cute turtle on top but he has sneakers on his turtle feet so he can run from the clown.  
Hope you are enjoying the hop and have you seen all those fabulous projects?  Awesome!
Happy crafting and leave my friends some love, please?

April's Project for Rhedd's Creative Spirit Design Team: Altered Photo Album Cover

This project has had me stumped since February!  I wanted to use it for my March contribution to the team but it just wouldn't come together.  So I let it set and it watched me and I watched it...to see who would blink first!  Well, it did...I think.  I had all the found bits, beads, keys, plastic bits from rings, practically everything but the kitchen sink and the focal piece was to be a feather.....tut tut....long covered up!  So with everything stuck down with my homemade gesso, I decided to go with 3 colors as opposed to the pink I started with.  This I liked better and I took some gold acrylic metallic paint on my finger and highlighted some spots here and there.  For the binding, I took a piece of gold silky fabric and covered with some gold fiber type material and glued down and anchored with just plain, white pearls from a string from Mardi Gras.  So much better than the black and white it started out as...run for improvement for sure but all in all I am satisfied for this month anyway! :)
Happy Crafting and don't forget to alter something and make it pretty and enter our challenge this month!  Just looking at all of your creativity humbles me to no end!  You are all fabulous!  And take the time to look at my team mates blogs, also, please?  You will be inspired beyond belief and leave them some love; we all like those uplifting comments!
The link to the challenge is Here!

Happy Crafting from Rhedd's Creative Spirit Altered Arts Challenge!