What's in your Brew?

Hello everyone and welcome to Tuesdays with Kelli.  Ok let's be honest with each other, it was a long long weekend with the hubby and kids home from work and off from school for 5 days and I completely forgot that it was my Tuesday until ummmmm like 9pm on Monday..... Soooooooooo, as most of you know I have several projects that I have made and posted that are works in progress so I decided to work on one of those.!!! In January I posted this lovely post for the S and S member hop!  It was meant to be a place where I kept my everyday thoughts for journaling in my art journal and has turned into something completely different!  Fo those of you who don't know I went to school to become a chef and actually finished and worked as a chef for a few years, then things happen and one thing leads to another and now I am a stay at home mom and I love it.  I love to cook and am always looking for new things to try.  My kids know this and have started writing down recipes or tearing them out of magazines for me(of course only things they are interested in!!!).  So long story short, this has turned into a recipe holder of sorts.  This is where I keep those bits and scraps until they are tested and voted on and then they are put into the bigger recipe holder!!! 

Today I added a digi image from SI Mad Scientist set and the words Witche's Brew (which will be printed out and attached to the actual book!!!)... This is where I keep all my Halloween themed recipes.  You know the kids are always bringing those home cause they involve candy or sugar most of the time!!!Anyway, I am sorry I didn't do something more elaborate for you today, I will try not to forget next time!!!!  Hope you enjoy!

Little Gamer

Greetings! Alison here. Today I have a scrapbook page! I have been itching to scrapbook more…it’s just “easier” to make a card. Anywho…here’s my layout, featuring some of the stamps from Inky Dreams.

This picture of my little Rhiannon was taken last July. She was playing with my sister’s X-Box controller…looking as if she really was playing a game. A couple of pics were taken…but this one is by far, the funniest.

So as you can see, I used the cool splotches and blobs from Ink Dreams all over my background. I inked them up with several shades of green watercolor marker. A lot of the blobs have more than one shade of marker on them. You can click on any picture for a closer look. Phoenix helped me with the background. He had a great time picking out the next green(s) I should use and what stamp should go where. We had an awesome time!

I also used the “play” from the “artist at play” sentiment. It’s a simple layout, but fun to make. I enjoy mixing colors together on one stamp. The cool thing about this set, is that…if you are afraid to make splotches and messes….this set does it for you! No mess, no cleanup. Just cool little drips and dribbles wherever you want them! Thanks for stopping by. Have an inspiring day!

Heavy in Your Arms

My post for today is an altered canvas with a wink to this week's Rock N Rolla Challenge on the Smeared & Smudged Ink group site. May's challenge is sponsored by Simply Betty and you could win 3 regular zombie digi images but just for playing you will receive the adorable "Artie", the graduation Grumpie from Smeared Ink. This month we looked at the song "Heavy in Your Arms" by Florence and the Machine. I really wanted to set my entry somewhere besides the shore, where the video is largely set, but that image is very compelling. So here goes....

I began with a hardboard canvas sized 8"x10" and added Golden Fluid Acrylics (yellow ochre, quin. gold, pthalo green (blue shade), pthalo blue (green shade), titanium white, Retarder) and Liquitex Dioxazene Purple (you will find this color used somewhere in almost any acrylic that I paint---I LOVE IT!!! and it is so handy to mix in to use for shadows.). I used these to concoct an overcast sky at the shore with a trouble sea. It didn't quite come out the way my head sees it but my painting skills are sadly very rusty. Nonetheless this was fun to work on and I can accept the outcome.

The images are digis from Smeared Ink, she is d-dancer 1 and he from the Deadly Battle, which was a freebie for playing in the challenges last month. (See what you miss if you don't play along in the challenges??? There's several different types--surely there is one that gets your mojo moving--give it a whirl!). I isolated the skeleton from the battle and added just a touch of sepia colored pencil & cut him out, leaving the other fighter for another day. Her skin is colored with the tan Sharpie layered over with blue and purple colored pencils. Her hair and skirt were colored with Cretacolor watercolor pencils, then her skirt was glitzed up with Distress Stickles. The orientation of the digi has her dropping from the sky with broken strings (somewhat like a marionette freed), but I trimmed the strings off and flipped her over. I layered the images and glued them directly to the canvas, then used a white Elmer Paint pen to add the title.

What do you think?? Be sure to check out the challenges--there's still some time to play and you will receive the Artie digi FREE and you can win some other awesome goodies from our fantastic sponsors of the month!!

Have a safe holiday weekend!!

DRAGONDAY.....

Happy Wednesday ...... today i have one of the digi CREATURE FEATURE images to share with ya..... these images are wonderful.... i sooooooooooooo wanna make a book with them, but for now its just an 8''x8'' layout. I used black white and pink.... i must be going girly in my old age.... gems ribbon and feathers.... really girly!
I cut the deaf signs out of some paper i had to spell out 'ink'.... did loads of distressing.... and ended up with something pink i actually like!
Dont forget to sign up for the SKULL APPRECIATION BLOG HOP..... its going to be something so special you'll kick yourself if you miss it!
Keep safe and see ya soon lynx

Do you Believe?

Hello everyone! Tori here to bring you a fun little project I made last night using Smeared Ink's Faes unmounted rubber stamp set. I really, really love these little guys....and if you like them, you better hurry up and get them because they're being retired! They are available for ONLY $16 on our website (go to SHOP and then SPECIALS) but only while supplies lasts!

So, last week I tried a new technique using gesso and my NEW BEST FRIEND - the heat gun. I really liked the results I got from it, so I wanted to play with it some more (that's what she said, tee-hee). This time, I started with a box that i had left over from some Christmas chocolates that one of my work vendors had sent to me...it's a cute little box and I probably have 5 of them laying around waiting to be used. I took the box apart so I could lay it flat and then i applied a thick layer of gesso to it. Then, I heated it up with my heat guy to create the wonderful texture you see below. It's so awesome!

After that, I painted my box with purple and green acrylic paint and left it to dry. Then, I went and chose two of my favorite faes and colored them with my prisma color markers, white ink gel pen and some glitter glue - set aside to dry. By this time, my box was all dry and ready to play with me, so I punched some holes around the edges so I could thread some silver twine to hold the box together. I really liked the look of the silver with the purple and green so I used some around the top and also tied little bows on each side. Last, I adhered my faes to the box along with the sentiment "Believe"... and VIOLA! I hope you like it, thanks for stopping by!!  :)

Life Flashes

Here's a little something I maded using Smeared Ink's "As Death" rubber stamp set. 

I stamped the image with versa mark onto black cardstock and heat embossed with black zing embossing powder.  I then painted the image with wet perfect pearls to end up with this cool shimmery effect.  I scanned the image to my computer and made a digital layout with papers from Crafty Chaos Designs.  The skull embellie is from Itkupilli.  I don't remember the author of the quote.

Cheers!

~ Lady B ~



Lunar Eclipse Page

As you all know (or should know), we had a full lunar eclipse on this past Winter Solstice, which is the first time that has happened in 372 years. Unfortunately with me being in one of the rainiest spots in the US, we had overcast skies that night at my house. But, my uncle came to the rescue and shared some awesome pics of the eclipse that he took.

Even though we didn't get to see much of it, we definitely felt the effects. Some say that the "crazy" comes out during the full moon, and I have personally witnessed first hand how some people just loose control the closer the moon gets to being full. It's especially evident in all the dumb decision making (including my biggest pet peeve: stupid drivers) that seem to plague some as the full moon rises each month.

Anyways, I decided to make a scrapbook page that honors the lunar eclipse and the "crazies" that come along with a full moon. This page features my uncle's pictures and the Crouching Wolf digi and Staring at the Moon sentiment from Smeared Ink's Part of The Pack digi set.

*click for larger pics

I am entering this page into Scraps of Darkness Darkest/Weirdest Layout Challenge of April/May. I think it's both dark and weird enough. What do you think? I hope you like it and that it gives you some inspiration for your own dark weirdness! Thanks for visiting.

beginings of a skull adventure

Happy Thursday everyone!
I hope you have all had a great week...and I hope you enjoyed the Zombilicious blog hop yesterday if you missed it stop by Terra's blog....now onto today's creation

due to all the fuss about the Skull Appreciation Day coming up (June 4) I was looking threw my stamps for what I have for skulls and found so many Smeared Ink ones that would work! So I busted out my As Death stamp set to play around a bit and begin my skull adventure...and here is what I came up with...it really got me in the skully mood....like I needed it ;)



For my background paper I painted it purple then smeared a black ink pad all over it. I colored my image with colored pencils then used some paint thinner to blend my colors (new technique I found) I stamped and cut out my favorite quote for this set, and lastly I made some super cool paper buttons (using parts of another as death stamp) another technique I picked up today...this one came from Creepy Glowbugg's blog...just punched 5 circles, stamped one, glued and stacked them poked holes and put liquid glass on top.

and there I have my super cool card! now onto create more skull things :) be sure to stop by the forum and join us for skull appreciation Day

Graduation Card

Hello everyone, welcome to Tuesday with Kelli.  Today I have to share with you a card I made using the card sketch, from the sketch challenge on Smeared and Smudged.  I used Artie, a graduating Grumpy for my card, he is this months freebie for participating on the forum!  Now you may be thinking,Kelli that doesn't say anything about graduation.  Well you would be right, I made this card for a friend of my daughter who loves Alice in Wonderland almost as much as I do, therefore the sentiment! 

Hope you enjoy!

Skull Appreciation Day Blog Hop with Smeared Ink- Join Us!

<a href="http://smudgyantics.blogspot.com/2011/05/skull-appreciation-day-blog-hop-with.html" target="new"><img src="http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk28/imstillbigred/skullhop.jpg" border="0" alt="Smeared Ink Skull Blog Hop"></a>



Do you love creating amazing projects that showcase skully goodness? Wanna get some traffic to your blog and share your obsession? Join us on June 4th for one wild blog hop event! We will be celebrating Skull Appreciation Day by featuring handmade projects that spotlight the much-loved cranium. We will also be giving away tons of freebies during the hop!

How can you participate, you ask? Well, there are a couple of ways to get in on the action. To spread the word, grab our button above and post it to your blog, facebook page, or website and share the info. Then come hop through the amazing projects on the 4th, starting here on the Smudgy Antics blog.

To join in, simply make a homemade project or craft that features a skull and sign up to be included in our hop list. This is open to any crafter or artist who would like to feature a handmade skull-themed project. You can sign up on our forum here, or by leaving a comment on this post with your name and blog address. If you choose to sign up on our forum, you will get your choice of a free Smeared Ink Skull Appreciation digi image to add to your collection.

After you sign up, be on the lookout for the hop list to be posted. The deadline for signing up as a participant is Tuesday May 31, 2011. We will post the hop list of participants on Thursday morning, June 2, 2011. Then just share your project on the 4th along with the list of participating blogs! During the hop we will also be giving away freebies, so that is even more incentive to participate or hop along.

If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the hop with your own freebie giveaway featuring a skull (and get advertising on our forum, blogs, and other hop information posts like facebook shares), please contact Terra here. When you sponsor, we will add your website/button to all of our hop advertising.

Thanks for joining us in this event and spreading the word, and we look forward to a fun skull-filled blog hop on the 4th!

*for more information on Skull Appreciation Day, please visit Skull-A-Day.

My "should've been" Saturday post w/Poe

Yikes! My original "post later" post disappeared & I apologize for not checking earlier.

On Thursday, whilst Blogger was down I had a chance to play in my craft room. I'd found Claudine Hellmuth's first DVD from 2005 while cleaning & had some fun with her techniques! I took a piece of Canvas panel, slathered it up with gel medium and placed torn pages of ephemera, in this case from a book written in Chinese. After it dried, I used a wash of various acrylic paints and dabbed randomly. While it was still wet I placed masking tape pieces side by side on the canvas and started ripping them off. Where the papers are wet will cause them to separate so you actually see the underside of the ephemera. Let it dry thoroughly then remove the remaining tape pieces. To keep it all down I covered the entire panel with matte medium & let dry. Next up was the peeled paint technique, using petroleum jelly randomly as a resist to a layer of red acrylic paint. When the paint was dry, you just take a paper towel & rub off the petroleum jelly & excess paint. I love how it resembles smeared blood. Made a second sheet using sheet music for use at a later date.

I then layered a piece of black mulberry paper & a piece of silk that I fringed. It's such a pretty pattern (yeah, I found that while cleaning too ), that I might move things around so I can see it better. Using one of Smeared Ink's digi stamp from the "hearts" set, I printed it along with the book title on a piece of Extrav-organza & distress them with Antique Linen & Vintage Photo Distress Inks. The heart and Poe image are also from Smeared Ink, in this case the "Quoth the Raven" rubber sheet which is my favorite one of all!!!!! The heart was stamped using Fired Brick Distress Ink & a leftover piece of Extrav-organza (fun stuff to use sheer & printable). I secured the heart to the panel with a lovely pin from Scraps of Darkness. My beloved's face (of course I'd have to fight Black Dragon for him) was stamped on cardstock & distressed as well. I also added a couple of acetate pieces from K & Co's Que Sera Sera line.

I'll be using this on the box that houses my first day covers from Edgar Allan Poe. Hope you liked it.

Death and a Rainbow

Hmmm…perhaps I should have saved that title for something else, as it conjures up a lot of very interesting things… Maybe I’ll just make a 2.0 version. But enough of me babbling! Alison here. Today I am bringing you a card using Misty Benson’s Tarot Set 1: Death, only available from Smeared Ink.


I used some very cheery colors in only a couple of key areas of the image. Don’t these skellies look like they are having a great time? Do you see the teeny tiny ones falling in the rain? Click on any of the photos to get a bigger view.

I didn’t want the rest of the card to take away from this image, but I wanted to use more of those bright colors. So, rather then using papers, I broke out my Smeared Ink Urban Decay set and used the wood grain image. I stamped it all around the edge of my card with Versa Mark ink. Then, I colored the border in with my chalks. Hmmm…this would have been a great technique for yesterday’s blog hop, huh? I just haphazardly rubbed the colors on. Then I glued the Death image on. That’s it!

Easy as pie! Well…easy as store bought pie since pie from scratch, isn’t so easy to make as it turns out…. But once again, I am digressing. This is fabulous technique that has awesome results. And talk about fast! I made the border and had it colored in in about 3 minutes. What a time saver! Give it a try! Thanks for stopping by. Have an inspiring day!

May Member Blog Hop and a little encouragement, carnival style

Today is my post day for the Smeared Ink design team and the May Member Blog hop at Smeared & Smudged Ink. For the blog hop, the challenge was to use a technique you've always wanted to try & haven't yet OR to use a technique you haven't in a while. I had something a little different in mind but am having some allergy aggravation for a few days so I had to make a few changes.

I am using the Smeared Ink unmounted rubber stamps Carnival set for sentiments & the image. He's colored in with colored pencils & cut out to "pop up" on the interior of the card. I'm not sure why, but I wanted to do an "encouragement" card today, mixing handwritten text (Prismacolor marker in Cocoa bean, fine tip end) with the stamped sentis (Palette Hybrid Ink in Noir Black).



The first displayed photo shows an idea of the dimension this technique provides. Be sure to visit each of the bloggers who are sharing projects with you today & leave them some love!!


Kelli http://www.cajunstampingqueen.blogspot.com
Lady Brayton http://www.ladybrayton71.blogspot.com
Meredith http://www.papercanteen.com
Black Dragon http://www.lynsblogger.blogspot.com
Jane http://www.jcocraft.blogspot.com
Judi http://www.creatingartwithheart.blogspot.com
Jennifer http://www.insanedaze.blogspot.com
Sugar http://www.sugscardsnmore.blogspot.com
Kapree http://www.kc-consultant.blogspot.com
Dianne http://www.dkspinner.blogspot.com
Paula http://www.whatspeaks2myheart.wordpress.com (that's me)

Be sure to leave them some love!! Thanks for stopping by! Paula

Pamper Yourself!

Good morning! Today I have a card I made for my mother for Mother's Day. It's a fairly simple card but I thought appropriate. I used the "pampered" li'l grumpie from the Occasions Li'l Grumpies set, stamped her in a lilac ink and colored her with my prisma color markers. I used a little bit of Tim Holtz distress ink around my edges and layered some maroon and cream colored card stock. I used the senti "pamper yourself, damn it.", also from the Occasions Li'l Grumpies set, added a bit of ribbon and a couple of brads to complete the look. I hope you like it!

New Release Hop AND Weekly Gallery Challenge- You are Sublime

Hello everyone! Welcome back to our Gallery Challenge day! We hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and Mother's Day, and that you are all well rested and ready to begin your week. We have a couple of things going on today, but first thing's first- congratulations to Lady B who won last week's pin it up gallery challenge!!! Yay!!! Both entries were spectacular, thank you both for entering!

We also have a winner from our digi-only challenge where the voting was extended, and that was Alison!! Woo Hoo, way to go!!! Now we will be linking up our four winners from April and YOU get to vote for the ultimate monthly winner who will receive a 25% off coupon. Here they are:





Please vote for your favorite by Friday at midnight.

The next thing on our list today is a New Release Hop! Yes, Smeared Ink is releasing two awesome new digi sets, and we'd love to have you come and join us for a blog hop featuring some of the new images. Here are the links for you to hop through, but don't forget to come back and read all about the newest Gallery Challenge below.

Terra
Tori
Alison
Kelli
Black Dragon
Lady Brayton
Kapree
Sugar
Dianne
Paula

So now that you have your hoppy-goodness all done, here is this week's Gallery Challenge: (if you need a refresher on the rules, please visit this post)

THIS WEEK'S THEME
You Are Sublime! Use any of our rubber or digi sets to create something that honors a woman in your life. It can be a friend, sister, mother, daughter, relative, or the lady who makes your special Starbucks drink every morning. Your project can be anything as long as it is stamped somewhere. 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. Also don't forget to come back on Saturday and Sunday to vote for your favorite entry. Good luck and Have Fun!

My Bleeding Heart Still Beats for You

Welcome to Smeared Ink Saturday with Lady B!

Today I bring you a little project that I threw together last night for our gallery challenge.  The Gallery Challenges are posted on Mondays and you have until Friday at midnight to post your projects to the linky on the Smudgy Antics Blog.  Look on the left sidebar for "gallery challenge" and you can read the deets about voting and prizes.

This week's challenge was PIN IT UP! and here was the criteria:
"This challenge offers you numerous creative outlets, as the only criteria is to use a pin somewhere on your project. It can be a safety pin, a hat pin, a hair pin....if it is a type of pin, you can use it! Other than that, your project must be stamped somewhere. Remember 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!"

Although it is too late for anyone reading this to join in the fun this week, come back on Monday for your next chance to play along.  Also, please come back for voting each week even if you don't make a project.  The gals work hard on their projects and would love to have their projects seen.

Here is my submission:

Image: Smeared Ink's "Candy is Dandy" rubber stamp set

Markers: Copic

Paper: crappy paper, thus the bleeding ink.  D'oh!

Other: Digi hat pins made by Me!

Cheers!

~ Lady B ~

Don't Step in the Blood Splatter!

Greetings! Alison here. ‘Tis yet another Friday (hooray for the weekend!) so I am here with a new Smeared Ink creation. I just got the Inky Dreams stamp set, so I decided to start my card for this week with the big background. Then…a Glam Vamp. I know. You are shocked. I can’t help it! I like that digi set a lot! I also added a few sentiments from other sets as well. Let’s take a look.


I stamped the splatter on a cream cardstock. I liked it against the clean white card. Thought it was kinda funny to have such a messy image over a pristine white card. Just me? Then I colored up Rachel. Looking at it now, I could have printed her out bigger, but I tend to just print a massive amount of images at once, and then put them all together later. But, the sentiments (also on white) fill up the space nicely.

I put her in black and grey because I really wanted the red blood to be the only color. Well, that and her eyes and lips which are also red.

Here you can see how shiny the splatter is. I embossed it with a nice, rich red from Ranger. It looks like it’s coagulating! The sentiments are from the Love Grumpies, Heart Wings, and Death Cab. I hope you have enjoyed my offering for today. Have an inspiring day!

Gargoyle card

Happy Thursday people! I hope your week has been going well....

today I have a card to share with you featuring the oh so cool Digi Thurston


I gave him some creepy red eyes to go with his stone cold face...ooohh I just love him!

Don't forget to enter this months challenges...all new and so exciting...and you'll want to get that free digi...trust me!

also you have a chance to win some other Smeared Ink images by entering the weekly gallery challenge.....details below....

Hello My Pet

Hello everyone and welcome to Tuesday on Smudgy Antics, I, Kelli, will be your host today.  So buckle up, grab a cup, and enjoy the ride!!!!

Today I have for you a bookmark/tag I made using Smeared Ink digi set Fedom.  I didn't do much to the image itself except add a little chalk here and there(thanks Alison for turning me on to that!).  The tag on the other hand I distressed the hell out of and then added a really cool background (from Itkupilli) I have had for a while!  My image i popped up for some depth.  No it's not quite finished as I haven't added ribbon and bling yet.  I know what I want to use and I know I have it, it's just a matter of digging it out and as I was a sick one this past few days that didn't happen!!! 

Hope you enjoyed it!!!

Weekly Gallery Challenge- Pin It Up

Welcome back to Smeared Ink's weekly Gallery Challenge! Last week's challenge had three AWESOME entries using our digi stamps, but we also have a three way tie for the win! We have decided to open up the voting for two more days so we can get a winner, so please swing by last week's gallery challenge and vote for your fave entry and help us break the tie. You can find it here
. Voting will be open until midnight on Wednesday, then we will pit the four monthly winners against each other for a voting showdown that will name the ultimate monthly winner for April.

In the meantime, join in this week's gallery challenge by reading all the info below.

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:
PIN IT UP! This challenge offers you numerous creative outlets, as the only criteria is to use a pin somewhere on your project. It can be a safety pin, a hat pin, a hair pin....if it is a type of pin, you can use it! Other than that, your project must be stamped somewhere. Remember 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!