California Dreamin'

After 22 years in Utah where it seems to be cold 6 months out the year (2 inches of snow have fallen tonite)I am ready for a change. And, yes I'm California dreamin' having spent the first 35 years of my life in sunny SoCal as it now seems to be called. Long walks on the beach exploring as this young lady is doing, and I think she's in love. The Geared Heart image and "Crabby love" image are both digis from Smeared Ink (available in their respective sets and individually). I've colored them with watercolor/markers and put them on a base card covered with rectangles of paper that feels like sandpaper. I just love working with digis since they're so versatile, re-sizing as needed.

My thoughts and prayers are with everyone in the southern part of the US who have suffered through the recent storms. I'm praying that more do not come anytime soon. Stay safe.

Jack says "Thanks!"

Hoping this post finds everyone well! We've found ourselves "relaxing" in the path of several tornado producing storms, but truthfully they travelled on up toward our home as they passed by. The destruction occurred north of us here in TN and we're thinking of those folks & those in Alabama and Mississippi who seemed to bear the brunt of the damage.



Today I am using the Smeared Ink unmounted rubber stamp set with Jack. I started with a base from Halcraft naturals card bases & stamped Jack & the sentiments on another color of it. I grabbed various patterned papers & stamped him on them, then started cutting & piecing together until he was feeling dapper. The body of the box & it's flap are pieced as well as the star & crank. Jack's shirt, collar & hat are also pieced. He's trimmed & lifted from the surface with popdots for dimension. The sentiments are a combination of four from the set. Hope you enjoy him!

Be sure to check back each day for something fab from the design team. Watch Monday, May 9, 2011 for a Smeared Ink New digi Release blog hop for some brand new crafty creations from the design team!! There's still time to enter the April challenges--just a little so get your crafty hat on and make something! And its almost May so time for a whole new round of challenges.

Special thanks to Tiddly Inks for sponsoring challenges in April and providing the amazing Frankenhottie digi for the team to work with!

Happy Crafting! Paula

Dragon day....

Its Wednesday..... Dragonday.... and i have a Grumpie..... Stumpie... brooch to share with you. I used shrink plastic, stamped Stumpie using stazon.... cut my plastic down roughly to the correct size.... shrunk it.... sanded it to a perfect fit..(yeh right.... nothings ever perfect with me!) used diamond glaze and placed a silver curtain ring onto my plastic disc....filled the ring with glaze...set it aside. I used some beads i had lurking...... and some reclaimed material...made a flower and attached it to a brooch back.

When stumpie had dried i glued it onto my flower brooch.

Very simple... but very cute.

Thanks for being here..... dont forget we have a CHALLENGE ...... USE A SMEARED INK DIGI.... you have 'til Friday to enter.

xxx lynx

Where My Peeps At?

Happy Tuesday! I know Easter has come and past, but it was still on my brain last night, so my creation for today is very "Easter Cutesie"....I 'hop' you don't mind! (HA! I 'crack' myself up....oh my, I did it again. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

Today I have a project that I put together using recycled materials. This is the first time I've used a lot of these materials, so I hope you like it. My main ingredients are crushed egg shells left over from our dyed Easter eggs, an empty mini milk carton that used to be filled with Reese's Pieces, Gesso, lots of Mod Podge, some paper, some ribbons, some brads, a Li'l Grumpie, hot glue and some buttons - i know, that's a whole lot of stuff!

First I broke down my carton and covered it in a light layer of Gesso. I knew I was going to cover it in egg shells so i just applied enough to mask the bright orange color of the carton.

I crushed my egg shells so I had different sizes and shapes...

Then I mod podged my carton and rolled it in the egg shells. I applied a very thick layer of mod podge on top of the shells to give it a nice shine and to keep them from flaking off.

After drying, I applied some tea stain and china distress inks...

For my grumpie: He was stamped on a goldenrod card stock and colored with prisma color markers and a white gel pen. I used glossy accents on his eyes for that shiny look :) The last few touches were adding the ribbon, sentiment, brads, and flower buttons....

Here's the finished product! :)

Here's a shot of the carton with peeps in it  :)

Weekly Gallery Challenge- Digi Mania

Welcome back to Smeared Ink's weekly Gallery Challenge! Our winner for the last challenge is Lisa!!!!!!!! Congratulations Lisa, and thanks for showcasing the Faes for us in your project; we sure will miss those guys! Your project will be added to our gallery and will be up for the final showdown at the end of the month. Woo Hoo!!!!!

So, for those of you not familiar with the challenge, here is the low-down (we'll probably post this each week to keep newbies up to date, if you know the rules already just skip ahead to this week's theme):
Every Monday we are offering you an exclusive chance to get your project (and blog) added to our sample gallery at smearedink.com. Just use our stamps on a project, link to it, and then rake in the votes. We will announce the winner on the following Monday. At the end of the month, the weekly challenge winners will be pitted against each other to determine the monthly winner. The monthly winner will receive a 25% off coupon!


Here's how the challenge will work:
Each week will have a theme. We will post the theme on Mondays and the deadline to enter is Friday by midnight. Make a project to fit the theme using only Smeared Ink stamps. Post it to your blog and then link to it here.


The fun part about this challenge is, YOU will pick the winner! Starting Saturday morning, come by and vote for your favorite entry and encourage your friends to do the same. Voting will remain open until Sunday at midnight. We will announce the weekly winner on the following Monday, and they will be added to our online gallery!


At the end of the month, the weekly winners will battle it out, and once again the project with the most votes will be named the ultimate winner, and will receive a 25% off coupon for Smeared Ink stamps.


So, are you ready to play? Here is this week's theme:


THIS WEEK'S THEME
Digi Mania!!!! We'd love to see what you can do with our digi designs. This is a digi free for all, so use as many of our digis as you want in your project, the only catch is you cannot use any rubber stamps this week. Don't forget you can only use Smeared Ink stamps in this challenge, and your entry needs to be linked up by Friday at midnight. Good luck and Have Fun!

Save the Angels!



HELP!  The Femdom Mistress has locked the Angels up in her dungeon and THEY NEED YOUR HELP! 

Smeared Ink is retiring "The Symbology of Angels" rubber stamp set.  Once they are sold out they will no longer be available.  They are currently discounted and you can have them for a mere $16.00.  You get an 8.5" x 11" sheet of deeply etched rubber that contains 7 artisitc images as well as 7 descriptive words to go with them.  Check the shop for details. 

Cheers!

Lady B

Holy City Box

It’s Friday! This has been quite a busy week. Fun…but busy. And because of all the busy, my project is not quite finished. I need to embellish it a bit more. I’m hoping I can do it today…But we’ll see. For now, it looks pretty cool. Just not complete.


I used a plain wooden box and painted it green, then crackle painted it, and Distress Inked it. And the top has, as you can see, an image from Smeared Ink’s Holy City. The box was purchased for this very image.

I colored the image with my colored pencils and Mod Podged it to the top. I just love this image. I plan on adding some things to the top. I’m not exactly sure what yet…I need to look through my stash to see what I can find. But I definitely need some more texture. Some lumpy, bumpy goodness.

Here’s a close up of the crackling. I purposely did not apply an even layer of it. I really wanted the green to show through. I’ll be sure to post photos when the box is done. But what do you think of it so far??? Have an inspiring day!

Get well soon grumpie

welcome to my Smudgy Antics Thursday
today I have a simple get well card to share with you
I used one of my occasions lil grumpies and the sketch from the very sketchy challenge on the forum right now. (hint: if you participate in any of the challenges in the froum you get a free digi)


my nephew hasn't been feeling well...so I hoped this card would cheer him up:)
I used colored pencils for my lil grumpie and liquid glass for his eyes...

now swing by the forum and check out this and other challenges and drop us a hi on the vent...

see ya soon!

Sugar's Grumpy tag

Hello!!!
Happy Wednesday!!!!

I had lost my crafting mojo yesterday, but was determined to get a project done for today's post :)

I had a group of little chipboard tags that were just waiting for me..
I used some pearl ink and painted the edges..It's kind of hard to see in the pic, it is shimmery
tore and burned the edges of some Alice in Wonderland pages
then I used my distressing ink and stamped a grumpy on each page.. stickled and colored a little just to make it pop
I added some lace and charms to make it pretty.. I'm totally addicted to this lace lately..

Thanks for stopping by to visit me :)

Have a great day!

Forever...

Hello Lovelies,   I have for you today a card I made using a couple of my favorite things....vampires and ummmmm vampires....LOL  I used an image from the Glam Vamps set from SI.  These are digi images that I printed out then colored with my copics.  I then used this cool digi scrapbook set I found featuring another of my favorite things, the Twilight series!  I think it turned out wicked cool! It also follows the Smeared and Smudged Sketch challenge card sketch for April!!!

Weekly Gallery Challenge- Fair Thee Well

Welcome back to Smeared Ink's weekly Gallery Challenge! I'm sorry for the delay in posting, but we've all been sick here (again! will it never end?). Anyhoo, better late than never. I'd like to say congrats to Lady Brayton for winning last week's challenge!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!! You will soon see Lady B's project in our online gallery, and she is up for the prize at the end of the month!!

 

For those of you not familiar with the challenge, here is the low-down one more time (we'll probably post this each week to keep newbies up to date):

Every Monday we are offering you an exclusive chance to get your project (and blog) added to our sample gallery at smearedink.com. Just use our stamps on a project, link to it, and then rake in the votes. We will announce the winner on the following Monday. At the end of the month, the weekly challenge winners will be pitted against each other to determine the monthly winner. The monthly winner will receive a 25% off coupon!

Here's how the challenge will work:

Each week will have a theme. We will post the theme on Mondays and the deadline to enter is Friday by midnight. Make a project to fit the theme using only Smeared Ink stamps. Post it to your blog and then link to it here.

The fun part about this challenge is, YOU will pick the winner! Starting Saturday morning, come by and vote for your favorite entry and encourage your friends to do the same. Voting will remain open until Sunday at midnight. We will announce the weekly winner on the following Monday, and they will be added to our online gallery!

At the end of the month, the weekly winners will battle it out, and once again the project with the most votes will be named the ultimate winner, and will receive a 25% off coupon for Smeared Ink stamps.

So, are you ready to play? Here is this week's theme:

THIS WEEK'S THEME

Fair-thee-well! Use one of our three retiring sets to make a project. We just can't bear to let these ones go without one last hoorah, so use either Faes, The Symbology of Angels, or Teen Style Backgrounds in your project. The winning project will earn a spot in our gallery. Don't forget you can only use Smeared Ink stamps in this challenge, and your entry needs to be linked up by Friday at midnight. Good luck and Have Fun!

A Tribute to Poe, my DT Debut offering

Hiya Folks! This is my first official project on the Smeared & Smudged Forum Design Team, and yes, another Edgar Allan Poe project. I LOVE this stamp sheet "Quoth the Raven" from Smeared Ink!!! I hope you like it.

I've had a few pre-drilled dominos for several years now & thought it would be nice to have Mr. Poe with me when stepping out. First I used Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Inks in Rust, Espresso, TerraCotta & Jacquard's Pinata in Red to create the blood colored background. After they dried, I stamped images from the Quoth The Raven sheet in black Staz-on Ink. I then assembled the bracelet using stretchy cord & beads in between. All in all it was a fairly simple process, but I did learn if the stamp is too wet, it will take away some of the background color when removing it from the domino. Also, if you stamp and immediately wipe the domino, you will remove the Staz-on and alcohol ink underneath the image, leaving the original domino color.

I'll put up a photo using my camera wearing it in the morning after my batteries have re-charged. Thanks for looking!

Freddy's Coming For You

Hi everyone! First, I'd like to tell you about our new schedule for our DT blog. Since our new term has started we have rotated days and added in a some new things, so I thought it would be easier to follow along if you knew what the plan is. Each DT member will be posting every other week, and here is what the rotation looks like:

Mondays: Weekly Gallery Challenges posted
Tuesdays: Kelli or Tori
Wednesdays: Sugar or Black Dragon
Thursdays: Kapree or Paula
Fridays: Alison or Terra (me!)
Saturdays: Lady Brayton or Dianne

Sundays will be used occasionally to relay news or upcoming features. So now that you have the low-down on what's going on, you can catch your fave posts! Also, before I move on to my project for today, I just want to remind you that the deadline for this week's Gallery Challenge is tonight at midnight, and the theme is REALLY simple- anything goes! Just link up to a project that uses only Smeared Ink stamps, and you could win! You can find all the info by scrolling down to Monday's post.

Ok, now on to my project. I am sharing a scrapbook page with you today that is themed all around Freddy Krueger. A couple of Halloweens ago, my oldest daughter participated in a horror movie-themed haunted house, and she got the Freddy room! Can you say fun?! We both love this classic horror flick, so I decided to capture her experience on a layout.

I made the background paper by starting with white cardstock and then stamping with our Smeared Ink Inky Dreams set in acrylic paint. Then I aged the cardstock with distress ink.

Here is a closeup of the pic. I used some burning techniques that Meredith taught in our Mixed Media group on the S&S forum. The Elm Street sign is also a pic from the haunted house.

The side border was made with pictures as well; this was a poster that was hanging and I just printed three times and trimmed it out. Then I added in my hot glue dripping blood. My fave! In case you haven't seen me do this before, I use hot glue and then paint with nail polish.

After distressing my chipboard letters, I wrote out a Freddy Krueger rhyme. You know that one that every kid sang to scare the crap out of their friends..."One, Two, Freddy's coming after you....". It's still creepy!!!!!!

My tag was aged as well and inserted into a library book pocket that was painted that same bright red color.

So I hope this has given you some ideas on ways you can incorporate stamps into your scrapbooking. I know I am loving this new experience, since I am not a scrapbooker. Or at least I wasn't until now :)

See you all next time!

April Member Blog Hop and My no stress DT Debut!

I am so absolutely excited to be part of the new design team at Smeared Ink! When we received our assignments to post to the DT blog here, I thought, "That's Fabulous! Thursdays tend to be my crafty days :)!" Then I realized my very first DT member post was going to occur on April Member Blog Hop day AND I couldn't remember what project I had in mind when I signed up for it. But hey! That's how I operate most of the time and so...knowing this project is NOTHING like I first had in mind, here ya go!

The challenge was to use a stamped image somewhere and to use METAL. I decided to add another layer of difficulty and celebrate Earth Day by trying to reuse, repurpose, and recycle as much as I absolutely could in my project. You can find out more about the hows and why at my blog post at http://www.whatspeaks2myheart.wordpress.com/ because I don't want to load you down with details here when you have a BLOG HOP to check out! The METAL in my project is window screening shaped into a basket (and I have the holey fingers to prove it--two words of advice USE GLOVES!) and the handle is plastic coated twisty tie from toy packaging. The image and sentiment I used are from the Lil Grumpies Occasions found here http://www.smearedink.com/ .

And IF you are starting here, be sure to check out the entire blog roll for awesome METAL projects!

Thanks for having a look and I hope you enjoy!

-Paula

Dragon Day

Welcome to SMUDGY ANTICS , i'm proud and honoured to still be here on this wonderfully talented design team. My 1st offering of this new term is (my usual slightly macabre ) this layout using a fantastic victorian hearse (and verse) from the DEATH CABS DIGI SET. I used papers from my stash and bits and bobs i had laying around..... i heat embossed a stamped heart... and had a fun time cracking it.

If you havent signed up to the SMEARED INK news letter....you really need to...... there are some bargains to be had.... 3 stamp sets are reduced as they are to be retired soon.... and there is a DISCOUNT on all DIGI SETS..... YOU REALLY SHOULDNT MISS THIS OFFER!

Full details of this layout are on my blog..... see you again here in 2 weeks..... hope to see you on the forum soon.

lynx

Tori's Tuesday - My First ATC!

Hello all! Welcome to the Smudgy Antics blog! Today is "Tori's Tuesday", as I have so named it, and I'm going to share my very first ATC with you. For such a small project I managed to use four different Smeared Ink Stamps: the forward facing skull and fearful eyes from the new digi set 'Anatomy 101', the cross from digi set 'Glam Vamps', and the sentiment "forgotten" from the 'Quoth the Raven' rubber set.

I distressed some olive card stock with Tim Holtz Distressing Inks and my scissors to scrape the edges of the paper. I layered my skull so that the bottom jaw was below to give it some depth. The final touches were adding the glossy accents to the eyes and some jewels. Hope you like it!

Smeared Ink Gallery Challenge- Anything Goes

Welcome to Smeared Ink's weekly Gallery Challenge! As we mentioned last week, we have moved the challenge here to make it easier to participate, and we're super excited to get these rolling again.

First, we'd like to say a huge Congrats to Sugar for winning last week, and thank you for participating! Your entry will be added to our gallery, and also up for the prize at the end of the month :) WOO HOO!!!

For those of you not familiar with the challenge, here is the low-down.

Every Monday we are offering you an exclusive chance to get your project (and blog) added to our sample gallery at smearedink.com. Just use our stamps on a project, link to it, and then rake in the votes. We will announce the winner on the following Monday. At the end of the month, the weekly challenge winners will be pitted against each other to determine the monthly winner. The monthly winner will receive a 25% off coupon!

Here's how the challenge will work:

Each week will have a theme. We will post the theme on Mondays and the deadline to enter is Friday by midnight. Make a project to fit the theme using only Smeared Ink stamps. Post it to your blog and then link to it here.

The fun part about this challenge is, YOU will pick the winner! Starting Saturday morning, come by and vote for your favorite entry and encourage your friends to do the same. Voting will remain open until Sunday at midnight. We will announce the weekly winner on the following Monday, and they will be added to our online gallery!

At the end of the month, the weekly winners will battle it out, and once again the project with the most votes will be named the ultimate winner, and will receive a 25% off coupon for Smeared Ink stamps.

So, are you ready to play? Here is this week's theme:

THIS WEEK'S THEME

Anything Goes! That's right, you get the choice on what you want to make, so show us what you've got! Don't forget you can only use Smeared Ink stamps in this challenge, and your entry needs to be linked up by Friday at midnight. Good luck and Have Fun!

What Does my Future Hold?



Welcome back!

  It's Smeared Ink Saturday with Lady B!

Today I bring you a hybrid scrap page.  The papers and journaling are digital and the tarot images were stamped and colored with copic markers.  The stamp set I used is "The Morbidly Adorable Tarot" which is a Smeared Ink rubber stamp set designed by artist Misty Benson.  The stamp set can be purchased here.  You may have noticed that I don't have any photos on this page.  I think scrapbooking should incorporate thoughts, feelings, and memories...not just photos.  I think my stamped images convey my thoughts pretty well here.

Clean & Simple...with Smeared Ink?!?!

Hey All! Alison here! There’s something you probably don’t think about when you think of Smeared Ink stamps. Clean and simple. It’s certainly not something I usually think of! But I figured that some folks may be intimidated by the “typical” (I use that term very loosely!) Smeared Ink style. So, I wanted to show you that everyone can use these rad stamps, even if you like the Clean and the Simple! I started off by coloring Glam Vamp Anya with my watercolor markers. I cut her out, but I could have just stamped her directly on the card too. Then, I used 5 of the awesome sentiments from the Lil Grumpies set, stamped directly on the card. I purposely stamped them askew. I punched out a Drippy Goo Martha Stewart border and stuck it to the top. Two red Dew Drops to represent bite marks and a thin marker-made black border around the whole card and voila! Easy, clean and simple! I hope that I have shown you how to use these images in a different way. Have an inspiring day!

CD Pendants

Today I tried a new technique I have just been dying to do...
I altered pieces of CDs to make necklaces!!! how cool are these?

I made the skull one first....not bad for a first try...I used alcohol inks and layers of UTEE....then I made the heart one...again alcohol inks and layers of UTEE...both my stamps came from the Quoth the Raven stamp set....a fave of mine!
and now to finish them off with ribbons and beads...I wanted to make some home made paper beads but didn't think about it until the last min....I'll post pics when/if I do :)

thanks for taking a peek! now go hop onto the forum and check out some other amazing work!

My first DT post!

I am so excited to be able to put my very first post as a Smeared Ink DT member up!
I tried to make something extra special, and it kind of got out of control.
I started with a little wooden coffin.
I tried to die it with Tim Holtz aged wood ink, which turned my hands blue! (they are still blue btw)
I added some netting (from an orange bag.. I love to recycle)
I colored the fantabulous image "Frankenhottie" from Tiddly Inks.. made specifically for Smeared and Smudged.. (with my new watercolor pencils)
There was a little mistake when gluing her down. For some reason, most of my adheisives wouldn't work on the coffin, so I had to use my sticky glue.. It leaked ink through my paper and made her look kinda off.. But maybe that's just adding to her quirkiness..
I stickled her and tried to cover up most of the leakage..
Moving on to the inside..
can you hear the creaking?

I trapped a lil grumpie inside with some fairy dust. Hoping this will make him, not so grumpy. Or maybe it will give him special powers. Well have to wait and see.

That's about it. Thanks for visiting me today.
I'm off to find an awesome name for my posting days. :)

Shake it up!

Hello everyone,

I know I am late today but the stupid camera battery died so I had to recharge it before I could get my pictures on here! 

Today I want to share with you a shaker card I made using Fae's and Killer Bo Peep! 

I used SU cardstock, versamark ink, black embossing powder, and microbeads from pennywise arts.

Smeared Ink Gallery Challenges-Creature Feature

Welcome to Smeared Ink's weekly Gallery Challenge! Previously we have been hosting the Gallery Challenges on the Smeared Ink website, but to make it easier to participate we've decided to move them here. Every Monday we are offering you an exclusive chance to get your project (and blog) added to our sample gallery at smearedink.com. Just use our stamps on a project, link to it, and then rake in the votes. We will announce the winner on the following Monday. At the end of the month, the weekly challenge winners will be pitted against each other to determine the monthly winner. The monthly winner will receive a 25% off coupon!

Here's how the challenge will work:

Each week will have a theme. We will post the theme on Mondays and the deadline to enter is Friday by midnight. Make a project to fit the theme using only Smeared Ink stamps. Post it to your blog and then link to it here.

The fun part about this challenge is, YOU will pick the winner! Starting Saturday morning, come by and vote for your favorite entry and encourage your friends to do the same. Voting will remain open until Sunday at midnight. We will announce the weekly winner on the following Monday, and they will be added to our online gallery!

At the end of the month, the weekly winners will battle it out, and once again the project with the most votes will be named the ultimate winner, and will receive a 25% off coupon for Smeared Ink stamps.

So, are you ready to play? Here is this week's theme:

THIS WEEK'S THEME

Creature Feature: Use any of our stamp sets or digi sets to create a project that features some sort of creature. It can be mythical, monstrous, morbid, or magical, the choice is yours! Don't forget you can only use Smeared Ink stamps in this challenge, and your entry needs to be linked up by Friday at midnight. Good luck and Have Fun!

New Design Team!

Have you heard? We have a new Design Team!! We're SO EXCITED to introduce these ladies who will be rockin' our world from April through July.

Design Team Captains

Alison

Kelli

Design Team Members

Black Dragon

Lady Brayton

Kapree

Sugar

Dianne

Paula

We are looking forward to an amazing term and know that our team will be introducing us to some wicked inspiration throughout their term. Feel free to give them a visit on their blog and peruse their awesomness, and we will see you here later this week for a new posting schedule!

Smeared Ink Saturday with Lady B

Today I bring you a digital scrap page using one of Smeared Ink's Glam Vamps.  I printed my image on Copic X-press it cardstock and colored it with copic markers.  I scanned the colored image to my PC and played around with some digital scrap kits from www.oscraps.com  (O Boy! :: Oscraps Collab set) as well as a background image from itkupilli.  Here is my result.  I hope you like it!

Cheers!

~ Lady B ~