SBS Friday Challenge - Recycle!

I'm here with another challenge for you!  Yes, yes... I know.  I haven't even done MY Macabre Monday challenge card yet, but you guys are sooooooooo much better than me :)

Since I've been a super-slacker DT girl for Simply Betty Stamps lately, I felt it was important to get my butt in gear and do a little creating!  So instead of doing work for my "real job", I decided to play catch-up.

Soooooo, on to this week's challenge over at Simply Betty Stamps Challenge blog:

It is Angela's turn to host this week, and she is challenging you to RECYCLE.
Come on how easy is that..

Don't toss it, Use it.

You can use scrap leftover paper, packing from paper, embellishments, bits and pieces of leftover embellishments or anything craft or non craft related.

It's up to you, just have fun with it and use things in a way you would never even think

to use on your creations.

A perfect night for a stroll in a cemetery, no? 

 

The only "fresh" items I used for this card were the card base, Stickles & ribbon.  Everything else I dug out of my scrap pile!  The Cricut die-cut fence, cemetery & gravestone were leftovers from a class I taught in early October.  The moon-with-ravens die-cut is from a MME sheet from who-knows-when.

I decided to use Elaine from the SBS Victorian Beauties digi line, and the stamped sentiment is from StampInsanity.

 I over-exposed this shot to show all of the layers and die-cuts... this card is so dark, it's hard to see all of the details!

How's this for using scraps... the batty background paper?  That is two separate pieces.  Yep.  I added the wavy ribbon to hide the splice :)  Genius, me thinks!


Now, whenever there is a challenge, there is a prize!
Betty is giving away two rubber stamps:
Lola and London.
 So be sure to go back and link up your project for this challenge on the SBC blog 
using ANY Simply Betty image as part of your creation.

And if you haven't created your HDH Macabre Monday challenge project yet, why not combine these two challenges?!  Don't just link them here or you won't be entered to win!

Are you up for it?!

Macabre Monday HDH076 - Love bites!

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. Please make sure that your blog post / upload has been made AFTER the challenge date... we wanna see fresh stuff, not those from a few weeks ago!!
3. If you upload to any online galleries (TACPCC, S&S, PCP, SCS, etc.), please tag the title using HDH076.
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:

Love Bites

You are to create a dark, Gothic, or Halloween-based project with a distinctly anti-romantic theme. We know there are dozens and dozens of challenge blogs out there that are challenging you to create loved-up sweet pink goo, and we want you to give your dark side a chance to bite back! Forbidden love, twisted desires, passionate revenge. Let your inner demon out and bludgeon that smug little cherub to death with his own arrows :P

We also have a sponsor this week, the fabulous Strange Skin, and the winner will get to choose 3 of their wonderfully creepy digis! I'm going to let them tell you about themselves in their own words:

"Strange Skin is a company run by, began by, and will one day be ended by, Pamela Bowman and Jorge Garcia. Until that fateful day comes, we provide very real and eager-to-be-purchased products to hypothetical potential customers. Such products include (but are not limited to): jewelry, t-shirts, toys, various other trinkets, and our newest product, digis! Oh hell yes! Though digis exist purely in the technological world of confusing neon green blips and bleeps, they can be made physical upon purchase with a simple print out. From then on the journey has begun! Do anything you want with our digis! Spruce up your ransom notes, or add a distinguished flourish to your morbid scrapbooks that once only contained yellowed newspaper clippings and victims' ears (not so hum-drum anymore, sucker)! Just one purchase gets you an unlimited supply you can use until your printer explodes or a virus deletes your backup files. But what am I saying? You know how these things work. We here at Strange Skin strain the thin membrane of our gray matter that dictates creativity in order to bring you the most unique, daring, and admittedly sometimes cliched digital illustrations for your anything-you-want-to-do-with-it-ing pleasure. We hope you enjoy our current line-up and check back in the very near future (later tonight) for even more incentive to question how much more you love being emailed some sweet-ass artwork over that lame stupid money that's just sitting there surviving this recession somehow. Halloween is our favorite time of the year and we believe our current and soon-forthcoming collections reflect that. We only hope our joy for that season spreads to you. After all, we are here to serve joy. And to serve you. Bone appetit! "- Strange Skin

Here's what the Minions have created for you this week, using some of the digis from our sponsor:

Macabre Mistress Lynx:

Creepy Cricut Cween Donna:

Chaotic Creepy Glowbugg:

Smudgetastic Andrea:

Terrifically Terrifying Teri:

Digital Demon-ess Susan:

And now we want to see your creations! The linky tool will be added shortly, but if you've finished your piece before it's up and running, feel free to leave a link in the comments and we'll find you :D

Meet Terrifically Terrifying Teri!

Finally, right?!!!  The Macabre Minions and I felt it was time to bring Teri into our little hoard... I mean how many times has she been part of a weekly Gruesome Twosome?!  I don't know exactly, but it was A LOT!

 

So please welcome, Terrifically Terrifying Teri:

Hiya Folks!

My name is Teri, and I am a stay at home Mum. I live in North-East Scotland with my hubby and three little ones, aged 12, 11 and 7.

I trained as a Graphic Designer, seems like a lifetime ago now, and have worked in the newspaper industry making up pages for print (pre-computers!) and later with magazines and advertising when computers came along. (Makes me sound old!!)This is where I learned the basics in Quark Express and Photoshop, which I use constantly!

I have been raising my family for the last twelve years, and only delved into the realms of Crafting after the birth of my youngest. I started 'blogging' in May 2009, and got into doing many weekly challenges including Macabre Monday!

I started using my drawing skills to make images for my cards, as I didn't want to go buying all the cutsie stuff everyone else gets. Don't get me wrong though – cute has it's place, just haven't decided where yet. . .

After much persuasion I decided to start selling my ickle creations in blogland, and so Delicious Doodles was born and I haven't looked back since!

I get my inspiration from all over really, nature for the flowery and animal images, architecture, art etc. I recently started dabbling in the more gothic/dark and fantasy side of things with fairies and mythical beasties, and Macabre Mondays have been a fabulous source of inspiration for me along those lines. After all, without these challenges I wouldn't have tried drawing many of my darker images.

So it is with great pleasure that I step up to the plate and become a Minion of the Macabre – mwuahahahaha! Watch out peeps, I'm coming to get ya!

Squelchy drippy hugs,

Teri xx

My 'Dark Side' Blog  http://deliciousdarknessbyteri.blogspot.com

Mainstream Blog  http://handmadebyteri.blogspot.com

Delicious Doodles Shop  http://deliciousdoodles.blogspot.com

 

Teri has a fabulous style and her drawing talents are fantastic :)  I know she is one busy lady, so I was beyond thrilled when she said that she would join our Macabre Minions!  She is a dark inspiration to us all!

If you are new to this blog and would like to read about the other Minions, you may do so

HERE and HERE

 

Now, how are your challenge projects coming along, my pretties?  It's already Thursday

>:)

Happy Birthday Rio!

Remember awhile back I told you an eerie story... so unbelievable, you thought I made it up.  You know, the one about a TEENAGER who did NOT want gifts or money, but instead wanted to DONATE it to St. Jude's Hospital?  Yeah!  THAT unbelievable story.  Well, today is that unbelievably generous teenager's birthday!!

Happy Birthday, chica!

I hope this card made it to you in time :)  The pictures of you getting all of your cards from the mailbox are priceless!  I hope today was the best year yet, kiddo.

So, here's the card:

And remember, all proceeds from the purchase of this Rio Birthday Girl digi goes to benefit St. Jude's!  To see how much has been raised so far, and to see the rest of the SBS DT's card creations, go to THIS post.

Digi:  Rio Birthday Girl (SBS)

Rubber stamp sentiment:  Savvy Sayings (The Angel Company)

Paper (all TAC):  Mimi dp (retired), Mimi cardstock, Caboodle White cardstock

Copic markers:  E11, E13, E15, R81, R83, R85, R89, YG01, YG03, YG23 (can't remember hair color)

That's it for today kids.  And I PROMISE I'll get Teri's intro post soon... but we're still trying to find just the PERFECT HDH alias for her :)

Macabre Monday HDH075 - Flesh-eating Frenzy!

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. Please make sure that your blog post / upload has been made AFTER the challenge date... we wanna see fresh stuff, not those from a few weeks ago!!
3. If you upload to any online galleries (TACPCC, S&S, PCP, SCS, etc.), please tag the title using HDH075.
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:

Flesh-eating Frenzy

You are to create a dark, Gothic, or Halloween-based project with a flesh-eating theme. It can be zombies, cannibals, unpronouncable viruses, whatever floats your macabre boat that has something to do with consuming flesh.
Here's what the Minions came up with this week

Macabre Mistress Lynx:


Yeah, you need a GOOD excuse to get out of babysitting :P. How wonderfully dark and creepy is this?

Creepy Cricut Cween Donna:

What a fabulous team this would be; I might even have got into football if the chamts had been along these lines :D

Digital Demon-ess Susan:

I had such trouble with this one, so just skip past it and feast your eyes on the next fabulous creation.

Smudgetastic Andrea:

Hmmm, can I have a palm piece? Genius Kentucky Fried Cannibal creation from Andrea!

Chaotic Creepy Glowbugg:

This is just stunning; I LOVE that image and teaming it with the rich damask and feathers is inspired.

Teri:

And last but by no means least we have this knock-out creation from Teri, isn't it fab?

So now that you've seen ours, we want you to show us yours. And this is Susan stepping in for Barb, but I don't know how to add the linky thing, so that will be added shortly, when Barb finds a moment to breathe, so check back a little later please.

And, before you rush off to create your dark masterpieces, we also need some suitably dark and macabre names for Teri and Andrea, so if you have any flashes of inspiration, just leave them in the comments box. Have a creeptastic week! :D

Macabre Monday is running a little late

Sorry guys, but I'll be late with this week's challenge!  Hopefully later today.  I'm a bit snowed under between work & classes.  In the meantime, please check the sidebar for the short version of the challenge!!

~The Not-so-Masterful Mistress of the Macabre

Fiendeshly Fun Friday

Well did you ever think wow my USB memory stick just doesn't do it for me??  Well did ya? This one is available on etsy for $30. 



Now I don't know about you but it looks freakily real to me.. Yuck, but then again I bet it would be hard to lose.

Smudgetastic Winners!

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

HDH072 - Smudgetastic Gruesome Twosome: 

There's a slight change this week as the lovely Andrea has offered has offered to reward not one, but three entrants! So, instead of a Gruesome Twosome and a winner, we have three winners, who all get a prize, and here they are:
Crystal for her Smudgy Sam character, and Miranda for her luscious folding card. :)

And the main prize winner is Teri for her brilliant red dragon love card - can you tell why we snaffled Teri for the team? With work like this, we had to have her :P

Can you ALL please get in touch with Barb (email in the sidebar) and she'll pass your emails on to Andrea. Adrea ad Miranda, we just need an email address for you and you get some fab Smudgetastic digis, and Teri, I think we need a snail mail address for you as you get a something physical (ooooerrr missus! :P)
Thanks very much to all participants for playing along, we love seeing your wonderfully macabre creations, and thanks to Andrea for sponsoring us :D

Help the technologically challenged...

Yes, that would be me.  Thanks for asking.  :)   I'm in need of some free & EASY digital video editing software.  I've been shooting a couple of tutorials with our digital camcorder, but they are waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long.  In fact, they would be just about right if I could just change the speed to fast-forward the whole time :)  It's not like I'm talking throughout the thing... although I would also need to add some text to the video to explain schtuff.

I just downloaded the Windows MovieMaker, but evidently my video card is total sheeee-ite (according to the little pop up window) and so the program won't run.  You would think that since I'm married to a compu-nerd that I would have some stellar system... evidently not.  Wienie.  Sooooooo... any ideas?

Macabre Monday HDH074 - Angels and Demons

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. Please make sure that your blog post / upload has been made AFTER the challenge date... we wanna see fresh stuff, not those from a few weeks ago!!

3. If you upload to any online galleries (TACPCC, S&S, PCP, SCS, etc.), please tag the title using HDH074.

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:

Angels and Demons

You are to create a dark, Gothic, or Halloween-based project using angelic products or images and creeping them out as only HDHers can!

We can't wait to see what you come up with this week :D
Our very own Masterful Mistress of the Macabre, Barb, is offering up some goodies from The Angel Company to the winner, and the Minions have all created their bits using TAC products.

Macabre Mistress Lynx:

Fabulous mini... can't wait to know what Lynx will be jotting down in this little baby :) Lynx worked with the Willoughby paper & ribbon collections and the Damask Backgrounder stamp set.

Creepy Cricut Cween Donna:

Beautiful card, Donna! LOVE all of the layers, and your coloring of the Stamp Insanity digi is awesome :) Donna used the Winchester paper & ribbon collections for this beauty.

Digital Demon-ess Susan:

Eerily somber & beautiful digital work from Susan! You know I love purple :) Susan used one of the free paper downloads from TAC's main website.

Smudgetastic Andrea:

Lovely little distressed number here! Andrea used the Penelope paper & ribbon collections, Edge Designs stamp set, and beautiful steampunk digi from SBS.

Chaotic Creepy Glowbugg:

Don't you LOVE the snarky sentiment?!  And that Stampotique image is a perfect pairing for it.  Glo is showcasing the Winchester papers & ribbons, and the Laugh Lines stamp set.

And though we'll formally introduce her later this week, along with her HDH title, check out who has joined our hoard!!

Teri:

We are THRILLED that Teri decided to join our motley crew! And me thinks she'll be forcing me to step up my game... she does gorgeous work!

Teri is showcasing a few of her own darkly angelic digis from Delicious Doodles.

Be sure to check out the Minions' blogs for more photos & description... they are all a beautifully dark inspiration :)

A just-for-the-fun-of-it post...

Yep.  I am officially putting my foot down... I decided to create something that is not for a challenge, DT assignment, or any other "need to do" type thing.

Oh how refreshing :)

I mean, I'm not saying that I don't love the DT thing or the challenge thing... it's just sometimes good to create something for no reason at all.

The sentiment is from Stamp Insanity and the digi is one of the Punky Teen Halloweenies from Simply Betty Stamps.  And I believe the paper is BoBunny?

Now, off to bed... I've gotta work tomorrow, then Monday, then teach a class Monday night.  Thank goodness I'm over my cold finally!  I hope everyone had a great weekend and is ready for a new challenge on Monday... in fact, this card kinda leads up to that challenge a bit :)

Simply Betty Stamps challenge... Bling It On

Since I'm STILL in a fog from this freakin' cold, I'll let you check out all the details for this challenge over at the Simply Betty Stamps Challenge blog :)

Pic is a bit out of focus... sorry.  The paper is Velvet Descent from Crafty Chaos Designs and the funky rhinestones are from JoAnn's.

 

I thought the folded flower was very fitting for a little fairy :)

And obviously, Stickles is my friend.

 

Be sure to check out the challenge over at SBC!

 

Winners and Gruesome Twosomes and wonderful schtuff like that!

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

HDH07i - Bizarre Birthday Gruesome Twosome: 

Crystal for her wonderful depiction of Audrey II, and Teri for her lusciously dark Poe creation; And the prize winner is Benedicte for her sultry Medusa card. :)

HDH072 - Hell Hath No Fury Gruesome Twosome: 

Catherine for her totally inspirational Book of Grudges, and Miranda for her kreepy Kraftin' Kimmie kreation (lol, sorry, got carried away there :P); And the prize winner is Teri for her fabulously eerie voodoo easel card. :)

Benedicte and Teri, please email Barb your mailing address, so she can get your goodies out to you!  Barb's email address is in the sidebar. And just a note to let you all know that our Mistress of the Macabre, Barb, is feeling a little snowed under at the minute. She's getting up to date on prizes that need to be sent out, but if you've emailed her and haven't had a reply, could you please get in touch again, just to make sure the gremlins (lots of them around here) haven't run off with your details? Thanks so very muchly!

Macabre Monday HDH073 - Smudgetastic

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. Please make sure that your blog post / upload has been made AFTER the challenge date... we wanna see fresh stuff, not those from a few weeks ago!!

3. If you upload to any online galleries (TACPCC, S&S, PCP, SCS, etc.), please tag the title using HDH073.

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:

Smudgetastic

You are to create a dark, Gothic, or Halloween-based project using images that have been colored/rendered with charcoal, pencils, pastels, or chalk.
(similar digital techniques allowed)

And our very own Minion Andrea (aka Smudgetastic) will be offering up a selection of her own digi images to the Gruesome Twosome and an additional challenge participant! To get an idea of what the winners may be receiving, check out what the Macabre Minions have done with some of Andrea's images...

Macabre Mistress Lynx:

Darkly brilliant work as always, Lynx!

Creepy Cricut Cween Donna:

LOVE the pop of red with all of the black/grey! Beautiful!

Digital Demon-ess Susan:

Fab and colorful collage piece, Susan! Luvin' that background paper, too :)

Smudgetastic Andrea:

Eerie and awesome image, Andrea!

Chaotic Creepy Glowbugg:

Fabulous work from everyone per usual! Now it's your turn to get your smudge on :)

One Hot Bi-atch

Ok, so even though I'm not following my own challenge, I figured you MIGHT want to see SOMETHING creative from me... I know... it's been awhile :)  I'm not getting into here, but if I start not making sense, let's just say it's the NyQuil hangover talkin', ok?  :)

Soooooooo, I've had this card done for awhile and have been waiting to see if a challenge would come up where I could use it.  But alas.  No.

This is Molly from Stamp It Crazy (page down a little).  She comes as a rubber stamp or as a digi!  And I have to say that I think this is the best I've done at coloring skin.  It looks even better in person!  I love this image... she DEFINITELY looks like a bad-ass.

I can't remember all of the colors I used, but I do know that her skin was done with Copics E11, E13, E15 and I think her hair used YR23, YR24 & E09.  I know... super simple card, but I like it.  The green & image panels are popped up for dimension.

What do you think?