Gingersnap Creations - Gothic Elements

These witchy sisters are my entry for the Gingersnap Creations 'Gothic Elements' challenge.  Cheers!

Something Completely Different - Colour Combo

The challenge on Something Completely Different is a colour combo challenge, 'Claret and Blue.'  Thanks for looking - cheers!

Lots To Do - Halloween!

The challenge for Saturday Lots To Do is Halloween!  It is the eve of the Spookiest Night of the Year so we are all thinking about witches and goblins and black cats.  I hope you get lots of treats and not too many tricks - Happy Halloween!  The birds are Tim Holtz and the main stamp is Red Lead.  Cheers!

CCC #19 - Extreme Masking

The Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #19 is 'Extreme Masking.'  This was really fun, but I had to get it organized in my head first and that took a bit of pondering.  Basically, it was masking and reverse masking, so a more solid type of mask worked the best.  I then used my 'masks' to create my flower embellishment.  I used Dusty Concord, Worn Lipstick and Crushed Olive distress inks.  Many thanks to Linda for hosting this challenge, do check out her fabulous blog, Studio L3, and see some terrific examples of this challenge. Have a wonderful day - cheers!

CCC #18 - Dabber Resist

Another challenge from the Compendium of Curiosities being hosted by the fabulous Linda, on her blog -  Studio L3.  We have been working our way through the techniques in book from Tim Holtz and this week it is 'Dabber Resist," on page 37. 

I only had two dabbers, one black and one turquoise; I chose the black to use on my spider web stamp for this piece.  Unfortunately, the paint had gotten very thick and wouldn't come out so I watched Tim's youtube video on the product and went to work creating a huge black paint disaster in my kitchen!  It ended up coming out too thick and blobby and looked more like crackle paint!  Anyway, I decided to persevere and worked with what I had - after I had thrown away the black dabber, my only other option was turquoise and I  was really not warming up to another mess!  I decided to resist the urge to pitch this piece into the garbage and to work with it!

I added this clipart from Collagevision and some spiders from a Martha Stewart Halloween stamp set and decided the blobby black paint gave it an interesting texture.  Looking at some of the incredible pieces of art that have been submitted for this challenge, I can see that the technique certainly has its merits.    Make sure you check out Linda's blog to see some great pieces.  Cheers!

Sunday Postcard Art - Witches

This week's theme on Sunday Postcard Art is 'Witches!'  I would not like to bump into this little witch in the pumpkin patch - she has attitude!  This image is from ArtChix; spider & web from Martha Stewart.  Thanks for looking - cheers!

Wednesday Stamper - Hearts

The theme on Wednesday Stamper this week is 'Hearts.'  I created the background using Distress Inks and bubble wrap, stamped the bird in Archival brown and added a sentiment from a new Tim Holtz mini set.  I found this piece of rickrack that matched the background ink and then cut our a cardboard heart from a drink sleeve - I often forget to take my personal coffee cup to Starbucks and I have ended up with a collection of cardboard sleeves that I cannot make myself put into the recycling bin - I knew I would find a use for them at some point!  This is my entry for Wednesday Stamper, thanks for looking and do hop over to their blog and check out some of the fabulous entries.  Have a terrific day and remember to pause....Cheers!

Three Muses - Say It With Music

The Three Muses challenge this week is "Say It With Music."  Include music somehow into your creation.  I use my music stamp on my backgrounds often, it is one of my favourites.  I hope all of your songs today are happy ones!  Cheers!

Art on the Dark Side - Black & Orange

I have been wishing someone would cast a spell on my Muse...for the past three months I have found it to be a struggle to find time and space to create.  Actually, it  feels like anything creative I had up and went on vacation and hasn't decided if its coming back or not.- maybe the result of a spell?  Anyway, it has been a dry spell to say the least and I am hoping it will turn around. 

The Month of Darkness is always one that I enjoy, so I managed to dig this out of my stash; this is my entry for Challenge #63 Black & Orange for Art On The Darkside.    Hopefully all of your spells are pleasant ones with positive results!  Cheers!

CCC#16 - Wrinkle Free Distress

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #16 is 'Wrinkle Free Distress.'  Another fun technique from The Mighty Tim's amazing book; the lovely Linda Ledbetter has been leading us through it, week by week on her blog, Studio L3.  This challenge will be running for an extra week, so there is lots of time to join in.

I love the backgrounds you end up with using this technique, they are quite random.  I used Rusty Hinge, Tumbled Glass and Worn Lipstick distress inks for mine.  Then I went to town stamping some TH stamps in the same colours to complete the background.  The birds are Shabby Green Door, the feathers Clear Art Stamps and the birdcage is a new score from the $1.50 bin at Michaels.

Have an amazing day!  Go ahead, open the cage door and fly free...cheers!