Bombshell Bling Challenge!

Susie Little, Bombshell's Guest Designer, aka Ms. July, set this month's Bombshell challenge, which is Bombshell Bling. She wanted us to create jewelry.

I've been collecting stuff so that I could make some jewelry, so I was delighted.

I used the cat from the Classic Tattoo set to make a 1.5" square glass pin.

The cat was stamped and colored with Copic markers. Glitter pen was added to the cat's eyes. When I was at the recent Scrapbook Expo, I purchased a bag of glass squares from Craft Fantastic. I was delighted that the cat fit perfectly within the square. I coated one side of the glass with Glossy Accents and then pressed it to the stamped image, slid it around to get the air bubbles out, and to get good adhesion. Then I put the entire thing into another room overnight, so I wouldn't be tempted to touch it until it was completely dry. I pulled it out today, cut around the glass with an exacto knife, then filed off the excess paper. I used my new-to-me Hot Glue gun and adhered a pin finding to the back of the square. My daughter, the recipient, was delighted with her new pin.

One cool thing. The glass tile actually works as a magnifier, so the image appears larger than it is! The glass also changed the color a bit or maybe it was the lighting. The hat is actually a nice pale violet.

But I wasn't done yet! I still had another idea that I wanted to try out!

I used the Sugar Skulls set. So, I pulled out a Vintaj Bamboo Bezel and Glossy Accents to make a necklace.

Here it is!

I stamped a Sugar Skull, masked it, repeatedly stamped the daisy-ish flower from the Hula Girl set, then colored the skull and flowers with Copic markers, using the B60 series and the E70s, plus a few YGs for the leaves. When I was happy with the coloring, I used a 1 3/8" circle punch and punched it out, adhered it to the bezel, then added Glossy Accents to the bezel. I put the whole thing out in the garage and ignored it for 24 hours so it would fully cure.

Here's a close-up of the necklace:

Then I discovered that I had no round jump rings in either an aged brass or aged copper finish. I hied to Michael's, where I found a bugly necklace that had a cool chain. So I pulled off the bugly heart and added a few jump rings, my Sugar Skull pendant, and a clasp. I'll mention that it might be the Glossy Accents or it might be my mad (bad) photography skillz, but the colors are a bit off in the photo. The skull is a bit more on the tan/rose scale and the blues are more azure. Oh well.

Then I gave the necklace to my daughter who loves Sugar Skulls and all was good.

Thanks for visiting today!

Spread your wings -- Steampunk Style

Here's a card using the new Aviator Parakeet (KG-049-J) from Third Coast Rubber Stamps. He lives on page 49 of the new Spring 2012 catalog.



Do you know that parakeets come in oodles of color variations? I didn't, so I googled and found one that I felt like using. This variety will make this guy a frequent flyer on my blog.

Anyway, Aviator Parakeet (KG-049-J) was colored with Copic markers. Glaze pen was added to his beak, eyes, and goggle lenses for dimension and shine.

Old Lily Kate Basic Grey patterned papers from my scrap stash were layered, placed inside an often used Clockworks Cuttlebug folder, and run through the Big Kick. Once out, Pumice Stone and Brushed Corduroy Distress inks were sponged on and a touch of Stonewashed Adirondack ink was added as well.

The sentiment from the late, lamented Odd Bird Planet was stamped onto another scrap of Lily Kate paper, die cut, and layered onto another die cut and a wonkily cut strip of Lily Kate paper. All edges were sponged because I can't abide white edges. Yes. I'm picky. After all, I'm a Virgo.

The finishing touch was to add Ideology Game Spinners and some matching brads.

Thanks for visiting today!

Bombshell Stamps: July Sketch Challenge!

Here's my sketch for Bombshell Stamps for this month! Please feel free to get out your Bombshell stamps, take the sketch, and make a project. Then enter it over at Bombshell's Forum or at the Blog for a chance to win your choice of a free set of Bombshell Stamps!

Here's the sketch!


Here's my take on the sketch:


Here's a close-up of the image:


The stamp is from the Mermaid Anchor set by Bombshell Stamps.

I started this card over the weekend and it was a pita from the start for some reason or another. I decided that I wanted to do the no-black Copic coloring thing and wanted the coloring to look as though a human woman was turning into a mermaid.

I stamped the image and started coloring. But I had to go out and do stuff, so I put it aside and came back to it later in the day. After wine. Colored it. Messed up. Started again. Stamped, colored, but didn't finish because I was fried. Went to sleep, got up, and had to drive out to visit my Mom. That drive is the original Hell Drive. For real. Anyway, had a nice visit, got home, had wine, fell asleep in front of the tv. Woke up, then colored for a while and finished the image. Then brilliant me decided to draw the eyes and lips back in using Copic liner pens (forget their name). Hated it. Said to myself, "screw this" and went to bed.

Woke up, decided it sucked, and ran some errands. Came home, decided it didn't suck that bad and started coloring it again. Liked it better. Masked it, airbrushed the background, and proceeded to put the long tall card together. Measured wrong, didn't realize it, and cut. Tried to fix it and screwed up again. Finally decided that perfection was overrated and voila, my wonky cut card.

So that's the story. I like parts of it. Hate other parts. Kind of reflects life, don'tchathink?

The mat layers are shiny white paper and shiny textured blue paper The strips are shiny white paper that was airbrushed. The patterned papers are from the late lamented Flair Designs company.

Let's hope my next project doesn't give me fits!

Thanks for visiting.

***Edited to add***
Lest you think I'm a wino, I'm not. I'm a wine enthusiast. There is a difference.

We enjoy wine with dinner. I usually have a glass or two, which makes me fall asleep. My purring familiar aids in this process. I sit on the recliner, she comes over, perches next to me, and purrs. I fall asleep. Sometimes with the tv on. Other times not.

I used to be able to drink a bit more, stay relatively sober, AND stay awake. Not anymore. So sad.

Kenny K Congratulations card!

Two of my pals recently made the Kenny K Krafty Krew DT and I'm so happy for them both for two reasons. The first reason is that they will both rock Kenny K's stamps and second reason is because they're best pals and will have such fun with this new gig. So hearty congrats to two superstars, Torrey and Jodi.

The new Kenny K's Krafty Krew's first challenge was "Patriotic", so I used red, white, and blue for the card.

Here's the card using the Showgirl from the Retro Collection by Kenny K.


The Showgirl needed a close-up photo!



The Showgirl was colored with Copic markers. I used clear Glaze pen on her lips, shoes, and buttons for some dimension and shine.

The star paper is from an unknown source since it was from my scrap stash. The circle paper and the dotty paper are from Bo-Bunny. The gold stars (between each flag in the banner) and the sentiment are Stampendous sparkly stickers. The gold wiggly line across the base of the scalloped Nestie is a sticker, source unknown. The banner die cut is from Taylored Expressions and was popped up on dimensionals.

Thanks for visiting today!

This card shall be entered in the following challenges:
• Kenny K's Krafty Krew #100: Patriotic
• The Kraft Outlet #78: Red, White, and Blue

Procrastination strikes. Again! July 4th Time Warp card!

Yeah. My natural tendency to procrastinate plus some yummy-and-strong margaritas plus some user error plus some Blogger misteps has produced a time-warped July 4th card.

Why is it timewarped? Because Blogger lets us turn back the hands of time! Gotta love that. Wish it were possible in real life. Alas. Alack.

I hope you had a lovely July 4th!

Here it is!

The card uses one of Bombshell's FREE-to-newletter-subscriber's digital flag stamps (that I used below for my bad-pun card) together with the sailor girl from Bombshell's Ahoy Sailor set.

Both the flag and the sailor girl were colored with Copic markers. Spica glitter pen was used on the sentiment, stars, and swooshes. Glaze pen went over the Spica glitter pen on the sentiment to give it some dimension as well.

I stole an idea from the ever-so-talented Alaine, who is one of my Bombshell sisters. She had used a Labels Four Nestabilities die to cut out the flag and I thought it was brilliant. So I stole the idea. However, I messed up a bit when the die didn't cut all the way through, so I ended up distressing my edges with a distress tool and the edge of a scissor. I also used a curvy ruler to cut the top edge, so I distressed that too.

The center of the rope circle was cut out to form a frame for my sailor girl. She was masked with Eclipse tape and airbrushed. The Sunburst stencil by The Crafters Worskhop was used to sponge Distress ink over her.

I tried various patterned papers and decided that "less is more", so I went with kraft cardstock. That was a bit dull, so I sponged on some stars, using an old Fairy Tale Creations stencil, to the kraft layer.

Thanks for visiting today!

I shall enter this card in the following challenges!
• Outlawz CAS: Stars
• The Kraft Outlet #78: Red, White, and Blue
• Simon Says Stamp & Show: Spritz, Stencil or Spray

Gnome Pun Groaner Alert

Third Coast Creative Coterie has assigned dates to post on the TCCC blog. I was assigned July 4th, but my Third Coast stamp collection was lacking in patriotic stamps. So, I put on my thinking cap and this is what sprang into my head.



I'll admit to chortling maniacally whilst creating this one. I also had another incident that reflects somewhat interestingly upon my mental state. After I bore you with the details about this card, I'll relate that story. That way you can always skip ahead or click away. You probably will opt for the click after this groaner of a pun card.

So, the gnome is Gned Gnome (AP-157-C) and he resides on page 19 of the Summer '05 Catalog. He was colored with Copic markers and the buttons of his braces were touched with black Glaze pen for dimension and shine.

The flag banner is a digi from a free digital stamp set of four flags from Bombshell Stamps. Free digital stamps are available to all Bombshell Newsletter subscribers. The newsletter is very informative and exceedingly well written ;). Plus, if you subscribe by 7/3/12, you'll be in the running to win a $100 Bombshell Shopping Spree. Click HERE to subscribe. The winner will be selected on July 4th.

The flag banner was also colored with Copic markers using the same colors I used for the Gnome. I added "Land of the free... Gnome of the brave" using Photo Elements.

By the way, Third Coast has a new challenge blog that kicked off yesterday. Here's a link to it. You should play along to win a fabulous prize!

So, on to my story. I had finished coloring both the gnome and the flag banner and was starting to design the card. I was trying out various patterned papers and such. I thought to myself, "Self, you have some bangin' red/white and blue/white star ribbon. Go find it and see what'll work." So, I dutifully got the big plastic bag that hold my unsorted ribbon and various ribbon scraps and suchlike. I couldn't find either ribbon. So I got down the second bag. Same result. Got down the third one. Yep. Still couldn't find it. Meanwhile Gned was waiting a bit less patiently to be put onto a card. I dumped out all three bags on top of poor Gned. Still couldn't find either the red/white star or blue/white star ribbon. Sigh. So I started to sort the ribbon by color and finally found both color combos. Score! But I now had a foot high pile of ribbons all over my work surface. An hour and a half later, I had all the ribbon into plastic bags by color. I probably could have spent a few more hours because I got a bored with wrapping ribbon around my hand and just started stuffing the bags (still sorted by color).

After finding the ribbon, I did not feel like sorting through more patterned paper. I was "out of sorts". *snort* I used plain red ribbed cardstock and some shimmery blue vellum. I finished the card in the very wee hours of the morning. I know this because the birds started singing up a storm. *sigh*

So not only am I a compulsive bad-gnome-pun creator, but also tetched with some ADD and/or OCD.

Thanks for visiting today.

I shall be entering this card in the following challenges:

• Simon Says Challenge: Sporty or Patriotic
• Outlawz Greetings: Anything Goes
• Sisterhood of Crafters: Seeing Stars challenge
• Craft Punked: Week 26: Independence Day

You're so tweet!

Kraftin' Kimmie is moving house and is busy, so she's posted a few challenges on her Facebook book. One of them was to use purple. Meanwhile, Craft Your Passion challenge blog's theme this week is "Wings". Lately, I've been challenging myself to use older papers, so I did and hit a trifecta.

Woot!

So here you go.



Bird Fairy, by Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps was colored with Copic markers, masked with Winsor & Newton masking fluid, and the sky and grass was airbrushed. As sometimes happens, it got a bit sticky, so I did my "quick fix" (alcohol on a paper towel and smooshed over the sticky areas). I messed up and got a bit 'o green in the sky, so I added a sun.

The wings were painted with a layer of Winsor & Newton Irridescent Medium, which added a nice touch of glitter.

The patterned papers are from the Oh Baby Basic Grey collection, which I loved and hoard, especially the purples and that floral. There's something about the color palette in that collection!!!

The gingham bow was colored with a V22 Copic marker to make it blend better. I actually made a bow using the fork method, which I found online. And it worked. Yay.

The sentiment is from the late lamented Odd Bird Planet. Love those teensy sentiments in that fun and funky font (Purple Boxers).

Thanks for visiting today.

I shall be entering this card in the following challenges:
• Kraftin' Kimmie's Facebook challenge
• Craft Your Passion #117 Things With Wings challenge
• Basic Grey Challenge Blog: Favorite Colors Combo challenge