April Fool's Day Smeared and Smudged Member Blog Hop

Happy April Fool's Day!  Is that the proper greeting?  I guess I've never really thought about it :)  Well, at any rate, today will be hoppin'... Blog Hoppin' that is!  The Smeared and Smudged online community is having a blog hop that is sure to be full of surprises... I'm not telling about ALL of the surprises... you'll just have to find out for yourself

{muhu whah ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhhhhhhhhhhh}

My project, however has no surprises... I was mojo-less for that part, so my sad little fairy must do.  I brayered & sponged directly on the card base for this one... the only additional layer is the fairy herself :)  She is so beautifully sad, don't you think?

I colored her with Copics and probably should have gone a little more dark with her to fit into the rest of the scene, but I kind of like how she is this bright little thing standing out in the middle of a dark evening.  I used a three-color feathering technique for her gown... it looks really good in person.

Stamps:  Sad Elfwood Fairy (Stamp It Crazy), tree (Tim Holtz), Edge Designs (TAC), Trendy Greetings (TAC), Fresh Air Favorites (retired TAC)

Paper:  premium white & white ultra smooth cardstocks

Ink:  Violete, Starry Night, Iris, Jardin Moss, Water Lily Green, Raw Sienna, Cognac, & Noir Palettes, Memento Tuxedo, Onyx VersaFine

Other:  Copic markers, foam tape

And to see if you actually read all of this stuff, I'm going to be offering up a little surprise of my own... be sure to leave a comment on this post, and I'll draw a name on Thursday, April 8th after 5pm.  Now, keep in mind that this IS April Fool's Day, so the little surprise you get in the mail MIGHT be new, used, shiny, ready for the trash bin... you just don't know!  It might be dark or cute or something in between, but I'm not telling.  Sucka!

Have fun hopping through all the blogs to see the great variety and talent that Smeared and Smudged members have to offer!!!  It is such a fun community of stampers, and if you like things a little on the dark side or out of the norm, it's definitely the place to gather!  These stampers are really fun group... now, go and check them out for yourself and be sure to leave the love!

Alison
Kelli
Meredith
Michelle
Kathi
Kim
Lisa
Danielle
Alex
Jean

Monica
Sarah
Erica

Black Dragon

Kymberly

Steph

Lady Brayton

Barb ***this is me!***

Terra

Zzzzzzz....zzzzzzzzz....zzzzzzzzz

Let me just start off by saying that I am half asleep while writing this. I only had about 2 hours of sleep last night (and the night before) because Poot's snoring is getting worse and worse. I was such a cranky bi-yatch today, that I am sure my boss and co-worker wanted to kick me to the curb. So, without further ado, and so I can go to bed EARLY, here is tonight's fun stuff:

Jack-o-Pop Boo card supplies:

Stamps: Halloween Town, Fresh Air Favorites, & Boo! gwp stamp

Paper: DCWV orange, misc. black & white cardstocks

Ink: Chartreuse, Landscape, Jardin Moss, Violette, & Noir Palettes

Other: hydra sponge & sanding block

What do you think?

Yes, a simple one, but I'm pooped...

A rant and a little haunted house...

The Maple Leaf Festival was super busy on Saturday! Last year we went later on Sunday and there wasn't near as many people... we show up right before parade time, so it was wall-to-wall people! I didn't spend very much this year... I think it was because, though I may seem to be sort of a 'people person', I'm really not! :) I just don't feel comfortable in crowds. A lot of it is because people are just not cordial like they used to be...

hello...

...is the phrase 'excuse me' in your vocabulary?! I must be showing my age or something, but I actually attempt to move over on the sidewalk if someone is approaching me so that they may pass, and I ALWAYS say 'excuse me' or 'pardon me', 'please', 'thank you'.

Am I wrong on this?!

Some of these people today [and no, it's not just kids & teenagers] have absolutely no common manners. I'm not saying that I am Eloise or Miss Proper Etiquette or anything, but come on people!!

Ok, rant over. On to the fun stuff. I started making these cards yesterday and finished them up late tonight. The techniques and supplies for the House Haunt Cards are almost exactly the same as my Creepy Landscape Card, except I used the haunted house from Halloween Town in-lieu-of the tree from Love & Laughter. I also used an eggplant cardstock on the smaller card instead of the navy.

Since my rant was so long tonight, I cut the fun part short. Sorry for the poor quality lighting for these photos... I didn't have the natural light like I usually do, so the colors are off.

What do you think?

Muhwah ah ah ah ah... [insert creepy background music here]

Halloweenie time again! I had soooooooo much fun creating the Leggy Witch card, that I tried another brayer / sponging project. This creepy little landscape uses only two different stamp sets, but several ink colors!!

I used a torn edge of paper to create the horizon line. I taped down that paper & then a punched circle over the moon to mask. I brayered Reflection Blue, then Prussian Blue, and finally Violette to create the sky. I removed the masks and brayered Chartrueuse over the grass area. I went back and sponged Landscape for more depth. I then used the reverse of the circle punched paper and sponged Sunflower & Raw Siena for the moon.

Using Landscape, Jardin Moss, Noir, and Violette inks, I stamped various images from Fresh Air Favorites at bottom and around right edge to create foliage. I used Graphite Black Brilliance and stamped a tree from Love and Laughter closest to the moon and then stamped another one, without re-inking, next to it. I stamped a third after re-inking and stamping off lightly.

To finish the scene, I used Fantastix and Landscape to shade the horizon and grass area around tree trunks. I sponged Jardin Moss & Violette around edges at grass area, and Noir around sky & moon.

I then matted it on TAC's Olive cardstock after running around the edge with a Cutter Bee Bug & distressing the edges. I used the dark navy from the Bazzill Monochromatic Blue cardstock pack for the card base.

Done!

What do you think? Me likey!!

Leggy Witch Card with a 'written' tutorial...

I abso-freakin'-lutely love this card!!! I've had the idea for the card for awhile and I finally just did it! I had a blast making it last night and could hardly wait for my work day to get over with today so I could share it. I used a couple of Michelle Zindorf's sponging and brayer techniques. She is amazing... a true artist!

The card front you see started out as being my 'sketch' piece to go off of and make templates, etc., but once I got started, I just kept going! So now I have to try to reproduce this again... yikes! I started out with White UltraSmooth 80# cardstock base. I hand sketched the moon & witch leg w/ a light lead pencil so I could figure out where to stamp the tree. Using the Coluzzle, I cut out a large circle from another piece of cardstock to use as my mask.

First, I placed the negative over my base and started sponging the moon with Sunflower and then Raw Sienna at the edges. I removed the mask and lightly sponged more Sunflower around the moon to create a haziness. I then placed the circle over the moon and a piece of cardstock at the horizon line, covering the grass area. I brayered Beaux Arts Blue around sky edges, fading in toward moon, and followed up w/ sponging to even out the color. I repeated this step using Violette. I ran the brayer across the moon (without re-inking it) to create the thin cloud lines and add to the haziness.

For the grass area, I masked off the sky half of the base and sponged Chartreuse and then Landscape, fading inward. I used a Tombow marker to create the horizon line and then heavily sponged Landscape around tree trunk base. I stamped two different images from Fresh Air Favorites to create creepy grass/weeds... I used Landscape and rolled in Charcoal at edges. Finished up by sponging edges of grass area with Violette.

Using Noir, I stamped 'sentiment' & date with Ecclectic Alpha (retired). I traced over portions w/ Stardust Glitter Pen. Next, I used Fantastix & 'colored in' the witch leg with Noir on the base. I did this so that it would be dark under the popped up leg element... it reads like a shadow.

For the Witch leg: on scrap of White UltraSmooth, I used the journal lines from a retired GWP from a year ago to create the striped stocking and shaded w/ Fantastix, alternating between Noir & a mixture of Orangerie & Cognac. Sponged edges in Noir. I cut out boot from black cardstock and highlighted with Brilliance Moonlight White. I assembled leg/boot and popped up on black pop dots.

Finally, I matted base on black and then adhered to charcoal card base (3.5"x8.5").

[insert heavy sigh and sound of popping knuckles]

Good grief... did I just write a freakin' novel?!

Anyway, I'm going to try to recreate this again this weekend, and I might try one with heat embossing the tree... I really like it now, kind of understated... I wonder if the shininess of the EP would look funny? We'll see.

Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think. And thanks for stopping by!