Art Journal Page

The Smeared and Smudged journal prompt was Duality. What a great prompt and I was all set to get all deep and dark. Then a couple of the responses were bright and cheerful and I decided to join the party. I used my Balance set from Stampsmith. I love this set and haven't used it much.

Day 30 of the 31 Days of Halloween

I never meant to have to post the attics but now that I've seen the photo of the whole house, it's just as well I am posting them - lots of detail lost in the house photo. Anyway, they are kind of lame. My fingers just won't do the tiny stuff and this time it's not because I'm old. I never could hold onto miniature stuff. For tiny, please click on Black Dragon in the blogroll and have a look around. Okay, enough chatter!

The stamp, and there's only one, is the surprised dunce/student in the bottom one. He's from Stamp Camp. The white things are PS brushes onto the photo - it just looked so bare. My favorite part is the drunken skellie telling the pumpkin stack what a great pal he is! The webby mist was a last minute thing to stuff in because they looked empty although I had put in what I thought would fit!

The hop continues at the beautiful blog of Lisa or if you are finally willing to take a look at the fabulous Halloween creations of the Wicked Bloggers, click on Terra's name in the blogroll -----> Thanks for stopping by and a special thanks if you took the time to leave me a bit of a comment! We all love getting them - you know it's true!

Day 29 of the 31 Days of Halloween

How do I put this delicately? Hannah and her guy, Harry have a few games they play, especially around Halloween. Wait, I'll let you judge for yourselves.

Hannah is "the" 2012 Rick St. Dennis witch. I consider her "the" witch but there are lots more to choose from and Harry is Rick's Executioner. He usually has a mean looking axe but Hannah requested he leave it outside this year as last year she ended up having to reattach a finger and a toe with a reattachment spell - doable but messy! He has a wicked cat-o-nine-tails too but there was no way I could extract his whip using a razor blade. I did the best I could to make one of jewelry cord. Since I have no personal knowledge of such things, I had to guess what they like to play with - most of the toys came from a box of discarded key rings. The spider chandelier was my hubby's idea! Such a good one! Although the bed is pretty hard to see, it was a wicked one from an online furniture source!

Wow, only two more posts and the month will be gone. It has gone so quickly! I guess if you haven't taken my advice to check out the bloghop by now, it's too late to persuade you. You'll never know what you've missed!  Lisa'a absolutely amazing projects are next - hop on over there and leave her some love. Thank you for visiting and for the lovely comments you leave behind!

Day 27 of the 31 Days of Halloween

We're in the home stretch here, Wicked Bloggers! Like many of the rest of you I now feel there's a lot more Halloween in my head - although there were days......  The rest of my posts will be more rooms from my cigar box dollhouse and even though I've being working on it (off and on) since early September, there are finishing touches still to go - hopefully today! Today's room might be my favorite - the pumpkin clan's dining room. It clicked into my head the minute I saw Rick St. Dennis' description of Pumpkin Head - He's just a monster around Halloween.

Oh, if only the chef had listened a little closer! It was supposed to be a feast for pumpkins not of pumpkins. The round headed kids are in frames on the wall and as I was hunting for round headed old-fashioned photos, I came across this old guy. I was nearly done giving him his pumpkin face before I noticed who it was and by then it was Brigham Pumpkin. Funny because I had started reading The Nineteenth Wife a couple of days earlier!! The skeleton chair is exactly how I found it on the internet.

The end of the days continues at Lisa's amazing blog next or click on Terra in the blogroll to the right to start at the beginning! Here's a big cheer for the Wicked Bloggers and the Horrifying Hoppers who've made it this far! Yea!! Thanks for your kind words of encouragement!

Day 22 of the 31 Days of Halloween

Just a short description because I want to say a few things I neglected to say yesterday when I announced that I would be a part of the Rick St. Dennis Design Team. First, I just adore the artwork that Rick does. I love the detail, the humor, the sheer amount of choice. And also, I'd like to thank him for being so kind in making his offer to me. He knew I was apprehensive to make a commitment but was really supportive. So thanks!!

This Craft Witch was one of the freebies at the Rick St. Dennis online party a weekend ago. You either got it or not - it is now retired. Several of the bloggers have colored it and every time I see it, I think -well, that's me. Then I got the idea to put her on my craft table as a setting. And make her old with thinning hair. Ha! So here she is.

The Blog Hop continues from here to Lisa's wonderful creations or you can click on Terra to start at the beginning. The blogroll is on the right side of the page. We are over two thirds done and I have seen amazing  projects and I want to thank the Bloggers for their beautiful work as well as the Hoppers for their encouraging comments!

Day 21 of the 31 Days of Halloween

A while back I peeked into the Vent to find a discussion going on about "Tilda" stamps. As I've said before, my whole career was built on "cute" so I try to avoid it now. Alex expressed a strong distaste for them as well as for clowns and porcelain dolls. So this digital collage is called Alex's Nightmare" and came to me as a result of that discussion.

There are stamps in there - the skull on the piper's face from 100 Proof Press and the rats from Artful Impressions.   From the internet I got the book form (My Journal), the dreamy background (Sol Stock on Deviantart), the piper ( University of South Florida literary files) and the many images of Joan Walsh Anglund's Halloween children. They are my generation's "mouthless" kids since I didn't want to actually buy any "Tilda " stamps. I have one book by Ms. Anglund but they are Christmas rather than Halloween kids. That's my clown doll (vinyl, not porcelain) made by kish & company  to resemble the Picasso clown in the print. There are lots of filters on everything. The Hamelin buildings are a font called Cityscapes. As I was finishing up, my dear husband asked if Alex liked rats and I said, "Oh, dear, I hope not. That would ruin every thing!".

Please use the blogroll on the right side of the page to continue on the hop- Lisa is next- or start at the beginning by using the link to Terra's blog.There are wondrous things to behold! Thanks for the encouraging comments that you've left here for me. I do enjoy them so much!!

Day 20 of the 31 Days of Halloween

I found a copy of this cabinet card when I was looking for people with roundish heads for a project next week. When I was done playing with these two for that project (only needed the heads) I couldn't let this go. So this is the first of the Halloween flavored Mother Goose cabinet cards. If you would like to play along, feel free. My fracturing skills were challenged by this one.

There is only one stamp - the passionate Mr. Pumpkin by PSX. Actually I put the face on him. He was just an ordinary pumpkin until he got stuck here.

The blogroll is on the right and will direct you to the blog of the oh so creative Lisa. Or if you don't know what you're doing here and you're in the mood for some Halloween stamping art click on Terra at the beginning of the blogroll and she has all of the information you need to have a good time. Plus even if you don't know what you're doing here, there are some awesome prizes you can enter a drawing to win, if you only pay attention while you are observing said lovely art!

I just realized this afternoon that I missed a comment on one of the blogs yesterday, so that chance has one less participant so stick it out you Horrifying Hoppers -there can't be many of you left! I will continue to comment since that's mostly for myself anyway and thank you for all of the lovely comments you are leaving here!! They make my day!!

Oh, btw, since I don't have children at home to help me out, my DH occasionally does a funny - like this grouchy pumpkin head he constructed on the kitchen table:

Day 19 of the 31 Days of Halloween

This project was done because like most every one else, I've been wowed by the fabulous things that the various artists have been doing over at Leigh's Domino Sharpie Queen blog. I had actually played with dominos the first time I saw them used for stamping, collected several of the tins of tiles and I guess not been quite as inspired by my own work with them. So I wanted to think of something unusual and, love it or hate it, I think you'll agree it's different.

My main image is Rick St. Dennis' fortune teller, Esmeralda. I ended up transferring her to the dominos using the old  method of rubbing the back of an image with pencil. While it was pretty successful, her chin got caught in a crack - OUCH - and she did end up looking like she'd been sipping out of Alice's bottle. Sorry, Rick! I made the tray out of polymer clay -  to my great dismay it shrinks a little!!! I painted her with alcohol inks straight from the bottles and drew the lines with India ink. It turns out that the ink needs fxative and in my limited trials I have not found a product that will dry on the dominos and not lift the alcohol ink. I think Leigh may have said dimensional sealer but I don't have that in my arsenal. It will be added to my shopping list of all of the products that the Wicked Bloggers are teaching me about! And I thought the studio was already crammed.

The hop continues over at Lisa's blog and if you're lost, click on Terra's link at the top of the blogroll and she will set you out on an amazing journey of viewing magical Halloween art! Thank you for all of the lovely comments you've left me!!

Day 18 of the 31 Days of Halloween

I have lots of pictures today so I'll try to have less words. This project was one that came of a piece into my head and it was just a matter of finding the stamps to see it though. There is one actual picture of the book. The rest of the post is from the digital pages I printed to put into the book as it didn't want to lie flat to get scanned. I tried printing on matte paper but ended up with glossy photo paper to get the sharp graphic look I was after.

 These two pages are the front and back covers.

Wicki Witch and the Haunted House and the door and the axe are from Rick St. Dennis.A lot of the bats are Inkadinkado but also 100 Proof Press (frogs and snail and teapot and cup too). Books and bookshelf are most likely Third Coast. The candy is Inkadinkado again. I used Chiller font for the witch's voice and A Mouthful of Beer for the kids' voices. Oh, the kids are that Michaels Halloween set.

I am sorry to hear that some Bloggers and Hoppers are under the weather and hope everyone recovers to be able to finish up. I'm actually feeling a little ahead of the game as Pam and I are going to a tiny stamp show this Saturday and I needed to get a wee bit ahead!

Another day of beautiful projects - if you haven't made it around to see the whole Hop, you should really try it!! Start with Terra at the top of the blogroll and go all the way! Thanks for all of the wonderful comments you are sending my way!! And now get on over and see what Lisa's done today!!

Day 17 of the 31 Days of Halloween

The base for this project was a set of chipboard shapes with pretty pink, black, white, green and yellow floral designs on them - both sides. They were joined together with a ball keychain. I think these were also a gift from Pam. But I do buy stuff for myself once in a while! One thing I got in anticipation of the Blog Hop was a small box of glittery Halloween cutouts from K & Company, actually the kind of stuff I almost never buy but this was in a box that looked like a little porch with a cutout window. And that's the kind of stuff I fall for! So no ideas and all this STUFF! I started arranging the pieces on the shapes and it was kind of fun. Got out the Distress ink pads, applied Halloween colors to cover the springy flowers, stamped backgrounds to enhance each loosely themed piece and started gluing. Just what I needed to get my head back in the game!!

                                          

I was just grabbing and throwing stamps so if you have questions, I'll try to figure out which ones I used.

There were so many mind blowing projects yesterday that my comments didn't do justice to. Time just slipped away. The Hop continues from here to Lisa' s imaginative creations.And thank all you visitors to this tiny corner of the web for your kind comments!!

Day Two Of the 31 Days of Halloween

Well, well, well, this is a shock. Goggle actually put my images in the order I added them. Of course, I was expecting the opposite but now I know and will use that to my advantage.
The project for today is the bat girl in the last picture. I showed her in front of yesterday's house for scale and also with some decorations. The head, body, arms, legs and base are all made of polymer clay. I had done a cake topper in August and had a pair of black feet that had not worked for the groom so that was the start of her. The bat wings stamps are from Third Coast. Her clothes are the coolest part. For the skirt I stamped the webs on black text weight paper, then ran it through a crimper, then painstakingly refolded each fold so that it would gather like fabric. That got glued onto her middle. For the top, the paper was a bit heavier but way short of card stock - like nice stationery. I stamped the bat and then crumpled and recrumbled the paper over and over until it was as pliable as fabric and then cut the top as if it were fabric and glued the seams. Both of the clothes stamps are from those little sets of images that are so old I don't have the packaging anymore. Just a little foreshadowing - she is far from the last batperson I'm doing this year!!
If you got here accidentally and really love Halloween as much as I do, check out the whole Blog Hop by clicking on Terra in the Blog Roll for the 31 Days of Halloween 2012. You will find the chance to win some wonderful prizes as well as seeing some amazing art projects courtesy of the participants. If you're here on purpose, your next stop is Lisa, right after me, Sharon, in the Blog Roll

31 Days of Halloween - Day 15

This is the spooky ATC I found incomplete from last Halloween. I was not able to find the skeleton I had used which is a total shame as I love his face. I did find a similar body on halloweenclipart.com and I suppose I could still use this face on it. The swirly stamp in the corner is from Inkadinkado. I made the background which includes that spider web from my garden.
I am in a complete fuzz this morning starting with fixing this ATC and then having to do it again because I couldn't find the file and then being completely confused about Terra's sponsor message today (or maybe that was yesterday) which couldn't have been more clear. So if my comments on your posts today don't make any sense......that's why!

A Book Round Robin

For the last seven or eight months, a group brought together by Kate Markey, my sister, has been working on a book round robin. In early October, I went to Davis, CA to celebrate the end of the project and to look at what the six of us had accomplished. Each participant chose a theme, created or readied a book form, worked the first pages, and then sent the book along to have each of the other people add their magic. The skill sets and styles were wide and deep, and the finished books were truly wonderful. This post shows what I sent out and what I got back.

My theme was Fairy Tales Real or Imagined. I used a largish board book, stripped the glossy part of the pages off, and lightly gessoed the pages. My cover and spread were done as digital collages in Photoshop, with stamped and photographic images. At times I used real images laid over the stamped images to create depth. These are the print files because I couldn't deal with the glossiness of the printed pages. The spread was a tunnel with four layers.

Autumn's Two Pages

Autumn Labbe-Renault does it all. She makes papers, she stamps, she collages. And now she can say that she has done scenic stamping. She did a lovely job. Here's lots more of Autumn's work.

Stacy's Spread

I didn't get to meet Stacy Goldenberg and I would have liked to. I enjoyed her attention to detail and the composition of her pages. I really liked her book form which was a "Pooh" book disassembled and immaculately reassembled in an accordion structure.

Deatra's Painting

What can I say? Deatra Cohen's painting (in this and all of the other books) is so imaginative and so accomplished. She brought along other books she has written and illustrated and they were all equally witty and charming.

Cheryl's Collages

Cheryl Lundstrom created two more of her amazing collages for my "Fairy Tales..." book. After our brunch, Cheryl talked Kate and I through her free association method. We spent several hours tearing images out of magazines and calendars that just appealed to us and later each of us put a collage together. More on that later.

Kate's Story

Kate Markey, my sister, stamped her images, scanned them into Photoshop, and then told her version of "Once upon a time..." which included a busy but very hip fairy godmother.