SBS Valentine Emos - Preview Day 5

Just two more days until Simply Betty Stamps' Valentine Emos Release Day!!!!  Did you go check the previous previews yet from the DT?  You really should... especially Cupid Christian... he is LOL awesome!

Sooooo, on to today's preview... London!  She is so cute, greedily hugging all of her valentines... she is one popular little thing, no?

Like Valentine Betty, London has a big wink for ya'... cute, huh?

And I am loving my Scor-Tape & squinchy ribbon look...

it uses way more ribbon, but it is soooo worth it :)

The sentiment is a retired one from TAC and the ribbon is HL.
I've used MME's Alphabet Soup Boy

& Echo Park's Everybody Loves Christmas paper lines.

Be sure to check out the SBS challenge blog for the other DT's work... it is fabulous as always!

SBS Valentine Emos - Preview Day 1... belated

So evidently Blogger decided to delete my January 1st post I had scheduled.  Ugh.

January 1st-6th, the Simply Betty Stamps DT have been/will be previewing the latest SBS Valentine Emos line... just in time for Valentine's Day!  On January 7th, there will be a big blog hop & you can begin purchasing these awesome images... digital or rubbah, baby!

Here is the Valentine Betty card from Sunday... she IS my absolute FAVORITE of this release!  And she can be used for more than just Valentine's Day... anniversary or "just because I love you" cards, too.  Maybe even a "kiss off" card?  :)

I'm lovin' that wink... flirty girl.  And I wish I could pull off a hair color like that... just sayin'.

Simply Betty Stamps also carries a few choice paper lines, including those shown here today!

I've used MME's Alphabet Soup Boy 

& Echo Park's Everybody Loves Christmas lines.

Be sure to check out the SBS challenge blog for the other DT's work... it is awesome!  And you make want to scroll back to start on January 1st... it's worth it!

Macabre Monday HDH070 - Nightmarish New Year

  Sorry I'm late with this week's challenge!  The hubby decided to that we needed to move my entire craft room this weekend... ugh.  I'm still not done yet.

HDH Macabre Monday Rules:

1. Create a dark and macabre SOMETHING (card, scrap page, altered item, whatever) that follows the specific Macabre Monday challenge given. Cutesy is fine, but creepy is better :)

2. You have until the following Sunday night @ 5pm central time to post your creation and please leave a direct-link back here.

3. If you upload to any online galleries (TACPCC, S&S, PCP, SCS, etc.), please tag the title using HDH070.

4. Weekly giveaways! Some weeks will be loaded with loot, others not-so-much... but the thrill is in the win, right?! Some prizes shall be by random drawing, others hand picked... and I'm not telling you ahead of time :)

5. We'll be selecting a weekly Gruesome Twosome (our top two favorite creations) from all the players. At the end of every month these will be compiled and a Master of Macabre will be selected and will receive a little giftie from me... this could be stamp sets, handmade items, papers, halloweenie embellishments... you just never know.

Ok, my little pretties... your challenge this week:

Nightmarish New Year

You are to create a dark, Gothic, or Halloween-based Winter Holiday card representing those long forgotten resolutions that NEVER seem to be carried out.

Check out what Donna and the other Macabre Minions have in store for your viewing pleasure... 

Macabre Mistress Lynx:

I can not even BEGIN to tell you how much I LOVE this one :)

Creepy Cricut Cween Donna:

How many times have we said THAT before :)

Digital Demon-ess Susan:

It's like you can read my mind, Susan :)

Chaotic Creepy Glowbugg:

Dreadfully cute... what's in that skully bottly anyway?  :)

And I'll be introducing her more formally this week, our newest Macabre Minion...

Smudgetastic Andrea:

LOL!  Starting the New Year off right :)


Fabulous work from everyone per usual!  I hope everyone enjoyed the break is ready for another year's worth of fiendishly fun challenges!  Welcome back!

Pimping myself out again...

Yep.  It's true.  So if this bothers you, please ignore it and go to your next item in your Reader :)

The Angel Company is having an AWESOME paper sale for all of you scrapbookers & cardmakers!!

Here's a link to my online store so that you can see what they look like... and you can order directly online :)  Just click the link and look at the side bar... then click on each collection to view them all!

 CLICK ME

For you local people (Kansas City to Wellsville areas), just EMAIL ME and I'll send the order in with others to save a little shipping cost!  And I'm sorry to say that The Angel Company does not ship outside of the US or PR :(

My Top 10 Cards of 2010 Blog Hop

Fellow SBS DT member, Suzi, has organized a fun blog hop to round out the year!

All you have to do to join in, is create a  post on your blog entitled

'My Top Ten Cards of 2010'.  Then link that post to Suzi's post, using the inlinkz tool at the bottom of her post... please visit that post to see details about prizes along the hop!

 

 

Sooooooooo, here are my faves for the year:

Images by:  Simply Betty Stamps (vampire),

The Angel Company (foliage & sentiment)

Images by:  Kenny K (girl), The Angel Company (sentiment & background)

Image by Stamp It Crazy

Image by Delicious Doodles

Images by:  Simply Betty Stamps (vampires), Stampers Anonymous (sentiment)

Images by:  Tiddly Inks (house & fairy), Viva Las Vegas Stamps (sentiment)

Images by:  Stamp It Crazy (fairy), Stampers Anonymous (tree),

The Angel Company (foliage & sentiment)

Images by:  Simply Betty Stamps (boy), unknown sentiment

 

Image by:  Tidldy Inks (witch), The Angel Company (Boo!)

 

And my absolute most favorite for the year has to be this one...

I think it's the hand drawn knife that's the clincher:

Images by:  B-line Designs (boy w/ wagon), Kraftin' Kimmie (dolls),

The Angel Company (fleur), Bombshell (skull), and unknown sentiment

What do you think?

Happy Holidays from HDH!

My last Winter holiday card for you this year... and actually it isn't really THAT holiday-ish... me thinks I could send this anytime.  And let me say that every time I use Stickles or glitter, I can't get the color balance & lighting right, so once again we have photos of the sucky variety :)

Nice sentiment, right?  Yeah.  I like it, too :)  It's from Stamp Insanity.  I'm picturing the adorable little Octopode Factory Angel yelling at the Christmas tree... like a few bulbs are out or something :)  Yes... yes... I like to make up little stories for my cards.  And that's just one of the MANY reasons why y'all come back to HDH all the time, right?!

I hope you and yours have a very Happy Winter holiday, and a joyful & prosperous New Year!

~Barb

Christmas Zombie Bob...

Ok, maybe it's not Bob... maybe his name is Cletus and he is from hillbilly country... or, it could be Justin and he lives in the 90210... whatever storyline you wanna work worth, man.  :)

Jennifer, one of my fellow Simply Betty Stamps DT gals has her own fun digi for sale.

You can find out more info by visiting Jennifer's blog,

and you can purchase this Christmas Zombie at Jennifer's Etsy store!

I do believe my buddy & Macabre Minion, Creepy Glowbugg, has worked up a little sumpin' sumpin' with Bob, too.  You should probably go check to make sure :)

AND I might have just ONE more card to share before Christmas gets here... 

you just never know :)

Welcoming the Winter Solstice and a little folklore...

Just thought I'd throw out a few little factoids and folklore today... just for fun...

Today at 5:38pm CST marks the Winter Solstice and the official start of Winter.  Which means that today is the shortest day of the year... well, in the Northern Hemisphere anyway.  Wikipedia has more info than you'll want to know about it.

{photo found HERE}

The Winter Solstice is a time for rest... I am SO into that :)

Let's just say that Google is my friend.

{photo & info found HERE}

The Winter Solstice marks the battle between The Holly King & The Oak King... with The Holly King of course winning while The Oak King withdraws & rests until the next battle... where upon the table is turned.

HERE are some interesting tidbits on the transformation of Santa Claus from folklore.

Holiday Card Quickie...

And I mean quick!  I'm thinking this should have been my holiday card this year... sooooooo easy to mass-produce, clean, simple and with just the right touch o' creepy-cuteness.

The Jack ornie was a freebie from Tiddly Inks on PCP (thanks, Christy!) and the sentiment is from a retired set of TAC's.  And of course, the infamous Scor-Bug... I just LOVE that thing.  Jack was colored with Copics and popped up on foam tape.

I'll probably have a few more cards to share before the end of the year, so stay tuned :)

Kenny K's - Maggie Mayhem & a camera question...

Check it.  This is a just-for-fun card I finished the other day.  Not for classes, not for DT, not for Christmas... just for the hell of it.  Ahhhh.  Cardmaking for the sheer joy... can ya' feel it?!

And since I suck at the whole photo-taking thing, I thought I would show you the difference from my scanner vs. camera.  Let's just say that in real life, the image color is actually in-between these two representations.

 

{photo shot with camera}

Awhile back, Kenny K had a contest to name his newest digi line, Krash Kittenz... and one of my names was selected!  Yeay!  This is Maggie Mayhem... VERY fitting name me thinks :)

 

{scanner version}

 I'm trying out the Latina-esque / sun-kissed skin tone with Copics E11, E13 & E15.  The jacket & shoes:  N1, N4, N7.  Reds:  R59, R29, R24.  Hair:  E21, E25, E29.

{photo shot with camera}

The trim is some pleather belt-ish stuff I found at JoAnn's, along with the black rose trim.  The paper & "beware" are from a Halloweenie MS paper pack... yeah, Martha can rock the paper once in awhile.  I added a touch o' shimmer to her bandanna, armlet, & necklace with a Stardust glitter pen.

{scanner version}

My camera is just a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ5... nothing fancy.  Something that can fit into my purse.  I'm thinking of getting a "real" camera sometime this year and I need to know what to get.  I am NOT a photographer-type person.  I don't want to have to read an encyclopedia in order to use a camera, and I'm too lazy to have to manually focus a shot.  Sooooooo... any suggestions?  Please leave a comment or email me at my address in my sidebar.

So.  What do you think of Maggie?

Sneak peek at an upcoming Copic class...

Real quick post tonight.  I thought I'd share one of the cards we'll be making in an upcoming class at

The Scrapbook Page!  The new calendar isn't out & sign-up hasn't begun, but in late January I'll be teaching an all occasion card class... Steampunk style.  Kinda excited about it.  :)  This is Gwendolyn from the Steampunk Gang at Simply Betty Stamps:

 

What do you think?

November 2010 Master of the Macabre...

Yes.  Yes... I know... HOW effing late is THIS little announcement, right?!

The Gruesome Twosome list from which I will draw a name for
Master of the Macabre for November 2010
(from HDH063-HDH066 challenges): 

1.Aisling

2.  Happy Days

3.  Croms

4.  Raeven

5.  Sarah

6.  Gina

7.  Crystal

8.  Andrea

{drum roll}

The November 2010 Master of Macabre is:   

Croms!!!

Grab your Master of the Macabre badge and please email me with your mailing address so I can send out your winnings :)

Thanks so much for everyone's participation... because we all really need a little bit of dark to balance out the cute & cuddly in our lives :)  Keep the Eerie Inspiration comin', guys!!

Octopodally Ominous Gruesome Twosome & a winner!

HDH068 - Octopodally Ominous Gruesome Twosome: 

Dawn for her awesome Octopode Steampunk entry, and Janet for her tribute to a Metallica Christmas!  And now, the prize winner, hand-picked by Lily of The Octopode Factory, for some fabulous digis is... Andrea!  Congratulations!  :)

If you are one of the chosen GT, be sure to grab the Gruesome Twosome badge and link back here... display it with pride, my pretties :)

Andrea, I'll send you an email with instructions on how to claim your goods from Lily!

Don't forget that there is still time to get in on the last HDH challenge of the year!  There are a couple entries that don't quite qualify, so your chances have increased already.  It's open until 5pm CST on Sunday!

Macabre Monday HDH069 - Colorblind Christmas

HDH Macabre Monday Rules:

1. Create a dark and macabre SOMETHING (card, scrap page, altered item, whatever) that follows the specific Macabre Monday challenge given. Cutesy is fine, but creepy is better :)

2. You have until the following Sunday night @ 5pm central time to post your creation and please leave a direct-link back here.

3. If you upload to any online galleries (TACPCC, S&S, PCP, SCS, etc.), please tag the title using HDH069.

4. Weekly giveaways! Some weeks will be loaded with loot, others not-so-much... but the thrill is in the win, right?! Some prizes shall be by random drawing, others hand picked... and I'm not telling you ahead of time :)

5. We'll be selecting a weekly Gruesome Twosome (our top two favorite creations) from all the players. At the end of every month these will be compiled and a Master of Macabre will be selected and will receive a little giftie from me... this could be stamp sets, handmade items, papers, halloweenie embellishments... you just never know.

Ok, my little pretties... your challenge this week:

Colorblind Christmas

You are to create a dark, Gothic, or Halloween-based Winter Holiday card WITHOUT using RED or GREEN...
Not even a teensie bit of it anywhere :)

Check out what Donna and the other Macabre Minions have in store for your viewing pleasure... 

Macabre Mistress Lynx:

Eerily elegant.  Yet another fantastically stamped card from the Sultana of the Sinister, Lynx!

Creepy Cricut Cween Donna:

Awesome step card, Donna... LOVE the Jack ornie with the black twigs! :)

Digital Demon-ess Susan:

Bwaahhh haa haa!  I'd say Santa looks extremely LATE :)  Thanks for ending the challenge with a giggle, Susan!

Chaotic Creepy Glowbugg:

Can't you just hear this:  "I have a wittle pwezent for you" {fluttering eyelashes} :)  Adorable image (which I downloaded the other day, too!) & Glo's Copic coloring is wonderful!

Fabulous work from my Macabre Minions... no less than you'd expect, right?!  :)
Don't forget that this is the LAST HDH challenge of 2010!  Yep, the Minions and I will taking a short break, but be sure to tune in on the first Monday after Jan. 1st, 2011 for a new year of FIENDISHLY FUN challenges!!

The Masterful Mistress of the Macabre & the Macabre Minions would like to wish you and yours a very joyous Winter holiday!

SBC 12 Days of Christmas... Day 8

Over at Simply Betty Challenges, there is an AWESOME challenge going on... ONLY UNTIL Dec. 11th at 11:00PM PST!  Now... many of us wait until the 25th for Santa Claus to come to town... but today SANDY CLAWS is coming instead! Or well he has actually arrived! All you have to do is create your version of Sandy Claws on your projects! You will win two very special digis... these digis are going to be exclusive to the DT, a few winners, and as a free set in the future with your purchase at SBS! You do not have to purchase a new SBS image, just get those creative gears turning and create your Sandy Claws project with any SBS image!

Be sure to check out all the details at the Simply Betty Challenges blog!!

The DT was fortunate enough to be able to work with this fabulous new image created by our very own Cheri!  I will apologize for the icky photos... they were taken late at night under the OTT light... ugh.

Isn't he awesome?!  Not what I did with it, I mean the image itself!  LOVE IT!  And how festive is he?!

The sentiment is from a retired TAC set, All Things Christmas, but I use it over and over again :)  It's VERY versatile, no?  The snowflakes in VersaMark are from TAC's Vintage Santa.  A little May Arts webby trim & some Eyelet Outlet brads finish this baby off.

Don't forget... you've only got ONE day to play along with this challenge over at SBC!!  Good luck!

HDH068 Octopodally Ominous... take two

I meant to get this up here yesterday, but oh well.  Today's card is totally NOT on the creepy side, dammit... hope y'all aren't too disappointed :)

This is Glinda the Good Witch of The Wizard of Oz series from Octopode Factory.  Don't you LOVE how Lily has drawn her crown coming right out of her head?!  Cute with a touch o' creepy... me likey.

Yes, yes... there is A LOT of pink here :)  But it IS Glinda, people.  Don't you love the fancy stick pins?  Those little beauties are from Maya Road.  The base is DCWV white scalloped cs, the paper is a retired line from Basic Grey & TAC, and the ribbon is a fabulously frugal find from a Hobby Lobby clearance bag of ribbon.

Here is the countdown of items for the HDH068 challenge (8 items only!):

1.  card base

2.  pink mat

3.  patterned paper

4.  sentiment panel

5.  Glinda

6 & 7.  stick pins

8.  bow (the ribbon & bow is all one piece, so I'm counting that as one)

You still have time to enter the challenge!  It ends Sunday night at 5pm CST.

HDH068 Octopodally Ominous... by Barb

Have you totally just had a heart attack from seeing a post with an HDH068 challenge card done by me?!  I know!  Cah-raaa-zy.  And the crazier part is that I'll be back in a day or two with a SECOND one... yeah... I know... un-effing believable.  :)

Since the winter holidays are JUST around the corner, how apropos is this?!  I seriously fell in LOVE with this little snowman... it's a bit warped and twisted... sooooooo up my alley :)

I should probably do my 8-item breakdown that was part of the challenge:

1:  card base, 2:  blue-grey panel, 3:  sentiment, 4:  webby trim, 5:  snowman, 6:  straight ribbon, 7:  separate bow, 8:  snowflake gem

How do you like how grungy this guy is?  It kinda looks like he was made from that snow along the street that has all of the dirt & grime thrown over it, no?  All misshapen and a little sad.  That's why I thought the sentiment was particularly fitting :)

 Digi:  Whimsical Snowman (Octopode Factory)

Rubber stamp:  retired TAC sentiment

Paper:  Caboodle White & scarlet cardstocks (TAC), blue-grey cardstock (Bazzill)

Ink:  VersaFine Onyx

Other:  ribbon & trim (May Arts), gem (JoAnn's)

Copics:  0, BV20, BV23, C00, C3, C5, C7, E57, E59, G21, G24, G28, R35, R37, R59

How are YOUR challenge cards coming along?  :)