Haunted Design House

Are you ready for Round #3 of the Design Team Throwdown Challenge going on at  Smeared and Smudged's ning forum ?! Teri , Creepy Glowbugg , and myself ( The Masterful Mistress ) are competing as a team for the badge and bragging rights of the DT Throwdown champions . Top designers from some of the BEST alternative DTs are competing against each other to see which DT reigns supreme. We won the first challenge... I KNOW we can do it again! This DT Throwdown Challenge is all about Mini Books ! Let us reveal what the Minions have been up to: Temptress of Terror Teri The Little Book of Gothic Horror Please visit Teri's blog to learn about all of the fabulous details in this beautiful faux leather & copper mini book! Masterful Mistress of the Macabre Barb Mixed Media Dark Art Book  Please visit Barb's blog to view each page up close and personal, and see what happens when she raids the Architectural samples closet in ...

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 Twoso me (our top two favorite creations) from all the players. At the end of every month these will be compiled and a Master...

Freakin' finally , right?  I stayed up late last night finishing this little baby off.  I've seen step cards around for awhile now, and just never tried one out... this HDH052 challenge gave me the perfect reason to do one :)  I mean, sometimes it's tough to get three or more images on one card unless you have just a little bit more room to work with :) Have I told you lately that I LOVE my MS grass border punch?!  I think that is clear on this little graveyard scene! I stamped the iron gate on a transparency and then glued it at the bottom & covered it with another grass strip to conceal it.  Works well me thinks! I'm not sure you can tell, but there are a bunch of little stars in the night sky that I made with a glitter pen. How do you like the kitty hiding behind the grass?  That would be a " whoopsie-turned-wonderful ".  I took a marker to color the white around his whiskers green, so that it would blend a bit.  UGH!  Do NOT...

Joy.  I finished my HDH049 Macabre Monday card last night... and NOT without difficulty, I might add.  I will suggest to you that if you want to cover Grunge Paper with patterned paper, do it PRIOR to die-cutting it :)  Yes, I thought it would be easy to just glue it on after... notsomuch. The plan was to Glimmer Mist the GB so that the grey wouldn't show on the edges... but the mist would probably cause issues with the patterned paper, so THAT'S why I tried it.  I had heated the GB after misting because I am too impatient to wait for it to dry on it's own... it changed shape and shrunk in one direction.  Yeah... totally eff'd up... JUST so you know.  :)  So I just ripped the paper off, sprayed & inked the back and used it anyway... paperless.  Worked out ok, me thinks. Stamps:   skull (Artful Illusions), web (Inkadinkado) Paper:  GrungePaper (Tim Holtz), black & premium white cardstocks (TAC) Ink:   Tuxedo Memento , M...

Another challenge card!  Barb over at Stamp It Crazy is holding a challenge for a spinner card... it will end on Monday night, so better hurry!  It's been a LONG time since I've done one of these... I forgot how fun they are to make! And I had so much fun doing The Burtonesque Dolls' skull & black flower challenge , I decided to add that to the mix again as well.  Same tissue paper & Glimmer Mist technique as the last one, but with a smaller flower die. Stamps:  Creepy Tree (Stamp It Crazy), Punk Princess (retired TAC) Paper:  Bazzill & black cardstocks Ink:  Memento Tuxedo & VersaFine Onyx Other:  Copics (BV20 & 0), Black Gold Glimmer Mist, tissue paper, Micron pen, pennies & pop dot Don't you LOVE that creepy tree?  VERY Burton-esque, no?  :)  And I thought the sentiment was kinda lovey-dovey... hmmm... I wonder if Poot would appreciate this card for our next anniversary... ... maybe not :)

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 HDH032 . 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. I'll be selecting a weekly Gruesome Twoso me (my 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. He/she will be asked to be a guest blogger for the following month, if they so wi...

I couldn't resist doing another card for the HDH030 Hello Dolly challenge :)  Especially since a blogging buddy of mine, Melisa , sent me a couple of stamped images... with a little nudge to Goth them out a bit ;)  This one is for you, Melisa!! I also wanted to participate in Copic Creations challenge No. 24 .  I just started following this challenge blog... they have some great tips!  I chose to do Skin Tones and a Brunette Hair technique ... and maybe this qualifies for the Feathering technique , too?! Stamps:  boy w/ wagon ( B-line Designs ), dolly ( Kraftin' Kimmie ), Aged Ornaments ( TAC ), skull ( Bombshell ), unknown sentiment Ink:   Moulin Rouge, Charcoal, & Noir Palettes , Memento Tuxedo Other:   Copic markers The boy image did NOT have the rusty knife in his hands originally (of course)... I drew that little twisted element myself  ;) Don't worry, Copic Creations people... I'm working on a not-so-twisted entry, too...

This isn't extremely Halloweenie, but a fun project nonetheless ;)  I followed ( sorta ) Martha Stewart's instructions to make this tissue paper mache pumpkin.  Basically, you use a balloon as a form, layer tissue paper with diluted Mod Podge, and let dry overnight.  Pop the balloon and remove.  Martha used her's as votive holders, if I remember correctly... I'm going off memory, so I'm sure I left some info out ;)  Let's just say, it would be WAY freakin' easier to do this project with two people... it took forever on my own, and it was probably messier, too. I punched a flower and cut it apart to use as leaves and rolled up some kraft packing paper and glued it for a stem.  A little Scrapper's Floss for the stem tendrils... perfect touch! I modified it a little and TRIED to create one of the striped green gourds.  I'm not sure how it's workin'.  To do this one, I under-inflated one of those long skinny balloons... it was trickie...

Greetings all, & welcome :) I'm totally psyched to have been chosen as a guest designer for today over at 365 Cards !! This entire week is Reader Appreciation Week , so be sure to join in the fun for prize opportunities and to gawk at all of the wonderful cards the Design Team & Guest Designers have created :) What is the technique toda y? SPONGING! Those that know me or my work will be the first to tell you that this is a technique that I use on probably 90% of my cards... and 100% on my Halloween cards :) Sponging tends to create depth, and REALLY finishes off certain images wonderfully. The entire background of this Halloween Flourish Tree card was created with sponging. Yep, I started with a completely white cardstock panel for this baby :) I also used regular hydra sponges , as well as manicurist pads ... the sponge creates a stippled texture, while the pad creates much softer blending. I created a reverse-mask for the moon first. Start with the lightest ...