Feeling Grumpy??

Good gray and rainy morning here in the Northeast!! I am VERY proud to be posting my first card from Smeared Ink as a Design Team member!!

I made this simple card for a dear friend of mine who is suffering a loss of a loved one right now. So this is my version of a sympathy card for her. If you knew her, you'd know that it's PERFECT for her. I was thrilled that she loved it.

I used the Lil' Grumpies set from Smeared Ink (you MUST own this set! - so versatile). I kept it simple as my friend's style is such.

I inked my adorable grumpy in Versamark Boysenberry ink on PTI white cardstock and heat set the image with clear embossing power. I then colored it in with my Copics. The sentiment "leave me alone" is also from the Lil' Grumpies Set and was inked in Brilliance Lightening Black and heat set as well.

My card base is simple Kraft cardstock from Martha Stewart. The sentiment on the inside simply said "thinking of you".
I hope you enjoy this lovely Friday and have a fantastically crafty weekend!!

Lawn Fawn Sketchy Thursday!!

Hey Everyone!! Welcome to a NEW Thursday event here on Paper Canteen!! Each Thursday I will be participating in Sketchy Thursdays!!! This week one of my NEW and most favorite companies is sponsoring!!!

If you haven't heard about LAWN FAWN you MUST check them out:

Kelly Marie Alvarez, the creator and owner of Lawn Fawn Stamps, has this to say about her awesome company:

"Lawn Fawn is dedicated to providing you with the best in photopolymer clear stamps, both in quality and design. We’re so glad that you’ve decided to visit our little corner of the web and look into our imaginations.

We like to create stamps that make us smile and inspire those around us. We’re excited to be making beautiful and happy things for you, and we can’t wait to see your gorgeous creations!"

Here is this week's sketch and below that is my interpretation of it!!


I have THOUSANDS....and I do mean THOUSANDS....somewhere in the range of 80K+ photos on a variety of hard drives here at my house. About twice a year I place large orders from Shutterfly and the rest stay on my computer and back up drives.

So I went through my long ago stash and pulled out baby pictures of my children. In these pictures they are roughly 3ish (my daughter) and my son is about....15 months or so. They are now 5.5 and 4 respectively. But I couldn't resist pulling out these old photos of my babies to use for this sketch.

The large picture is of my son - all bronzed and delicious the summer after his first birthday. The small picture was taken that following Fall. My darling husband and I take our kiddies to a local nature reservation and do family pictures every year since our daughter was born in 2004.
It's a picture of me walking both of them off into the distance. =)

I love sketches as I like to interpret them exactly sometimes and other times simply run away with them! This time, being my first time participating in a Lawn Fawn Sketchy Thursday, I chose to follow the sketch exactly (well almost ;).

My background paper is ivory, followed by the adorable green and white semi-rustic polka dotted paper. I used yellow Martha Stewart cardstock to mat my photos. The swirly black, flowery rub-ons are from SU! and the sentiment CHERISH was sent to me in one of my many crafty magazine subscriptions. (gotta love those freebies!)

I used all different size and shapes of yellow buttons, purchased in bulk bins at my LSS. I tied a few with tan, linen twine from The Paper Source and left others untouched. They are all adhered with SU! small adhesive dots.

I already own the Sew Lovely set and just added one tiny little touch from it in the bottom right corner - the button that is green is from the set. (hehe) So I just wanted to play along for fun!!



I hope you've enjoyed my interpretation of this awesome sketch! I can't wait to see what's on tap for next week!! Check back to see what happens NEXT Sketchy Thursday!!

XOXO-
Meredith

April Bombshell Sketch Challenge

Welcome to April Bombshell's Sketch Challenge!!! This was a tricky one for me...and I honestly don't really know why. I think it was the banner-esque half-border accents? Maybe the simplicity of it? Either way...it made me think!!! =) And I always learn when I'm challenged so bring it on baby!
I started with my color scheme. I was thinking Spring/Summer which always makes me think of all things nautical. So navy blue and white popped into my head. (I always go with what hits me first). I then looked through my stash of DP and found some cutesy under the sea paper. Since it's SO cutesy I didn't want that to overshadow our gorgeous lady so I kept it mostly covered but really enjoyed the colors so I used it as the accent for this.
I followed the sketch but doubled my accent layers. My first layer is the under the sea paper, whereupon I added my triangle photo corners - SU! photo corner punch, punched alternatively out of the navy and under the sea paper. I adhered them down lightly and stitched them for some texture.

I punched out another set of triangle photo corners and set them aside.
I then stamped Angel in Navy Blue Versamark Chalk ink and heat set her with clear embossing powder on PTI white cardstock. She is colored with my Copics and embellished with black glitter on her delicious bathing suit, a silver pin in the middle of her flowery hair pin and a blue pearl adorning the flower down at the bottom. I then stitched her down to a mat of navy blue cardstock. I adhered it down to my first layer with existing photo corners and then, using 3-D foam adhesive dots I added my second layer of photo corners directly on top of my original set that I had previously put aside.

I was just playing with the photos and loved how it looked in Sepia tones so I just added it as some vintage inspiration.

I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of this awesome sketch!!

QKD New Release Tuesday Hop!!!! Mmmm...Pink Candy Anyone???

Hello and HAPPY NEW RELEASE TUESDAY!!! If you've arrived here from the WIS blog then you are on the right track and if not PLEASE start HERE so you get to see all of the Tuesday gorgeousness!!

Today I had the great pleasure of working with a brandy new Maigan-Lynn Creation - Pink Candy Hair!! Isn't she simply FABU!! I LOVEEEEEEEEE HER!! What am I saying, I love EVERYTHING Maigan does but this gal rocks!!
As you can see, I followed the sketch about 96% ;) I used a base of PTI's Enchanted Evening as my base.
I hadn't yet decided what my color scheme was going to be and then I found this adorable under the sea scrap in my drawer and I knew that was it! I cut them into 4 equal sized pieces and I then used some textured SU! cardstock from an old Simply Scrappin' kit as the backing for each piece. I trimmed the orange to fit each piece of under the sea paper and then stitched each one down with a zig zag trim in blue thread.
I adhered the 4 pieces down. I then set to coloring my lady! As you can see, I used a WIDE variety of markers. Copics, Prismacolor and Pantone. I set her on a green scrap of cardstock (from the same SU! kit) and stitched her down. In lieu of the 4 corner dots I chose to add rhinestones to mimic a sort of "hollywood mirror" effect. I think her pose is very indicative of that! Very "senior photo-esque"!!!
Again, not to veer TOO much from the sketch, I added "bubbles" out of metal beads for her fishy friends in each of the 4 corners.
Lastly, I added some sheer, white ribbon tied in a fluffy bow with white linen thread from The Paper Source as an added embelli. I scrunched up the width of the ribbon some so as to not interfere with the main image.

I hope you enjoy all of the newness you see today!! Thanks as always for hop, hop, hopping!!

Now, off you go to the amazing Anita to see what gorgeousness she's got for us today!!!

Smeared Ink - All Complaints This Way Please!!!

Hello!!! I'm so excited to FINALLY be posting as an OFFICIAL team member of Smeared Ink!!!

Today I am bringing you an altered project made with the super awesome CARNIES set.

I've had my iPhone box in my "alterables" basket in my studio since I got it months ago. Just waiting for the right project to come along. And here it is!! For those of you who are Mothers, and even for those of you who are not, you'll get it. This is my Mommy Complaint Box. There are LOTS of things that we as Mommies could complain about, lack of sleep, lack of free time, lack of quiet, on some days lack of obedience from said little ones, etc. But most of them just come with the territory of having little ones. So complaining constantly does no one any good. So, I've decided that when I'm having one of THOSE days, I will write my complaint down on a scrap of paper and deposit into my newly decorated "complaint box" and let my Carny Friend inside deal with it!! LOL!!After picking out my papers which are all SU! DP, I then lightly sanded down the iPhone box. I eyeballed about where I wanted the spot for my "complaints" to drop into and I cut it out using my Exacto knife. (I don't measure much unless it's absolutely necessary)

I then ran "red liner" tape around the entire perimeter, top and bottom so that the paper would seriously adhere. After I added my base layers of paper on the cover of the box I then again lightly sanded the papers so that they had a slightly distressed look to them. I covered the slot with ribbon scraps and added screw brads to each corner to make it look more constructed than it really is!! ;) I then pulled out some super cool, black, fuzzy yarn and just wrapped it around a bunch of times and tied it off. I then hit my hubby's tool bench...AGAIN... ;) grabbing a handful of washers and whatnots to tie on with ribbon scraps.
I then decided on my image. I REALLY wanted to work with our desolate looking, accordion playing, cigarette smoking, roughed up gal. She speaks to me...in a certain manner of speaking. lol!
I inked her up in Brilliance Lightening Black and heat embossed her. She is colored with a mix of my Copic markers and Prismacolor pencils (for her face). I added a strip of baby silver beads to adorn her forehead. I then, using matching paper to the cover, matted her and stitched her down to add some dimension.
I love that when the box is photographed from the side that it looks a bit...coffin like!!! Not intentional but after I photographed it, that's what I saw!!!

My last touches were my sentiments on the cover of "Step Right Up" and "Don't Be Afraid" both inked in Colorbox Pigment Ink in Eggplant, the first punched out with my SU! circle punches and the second with my SU! word punch. I dug through my sticker stash and came out with the glittery letters to spell 'complaint dept' on the bottom.

I hope you enjoy my altered creation for today!!!

Ring, Ring??

Hey All! I have to tell you, the last Mo's Challenge was so fun that I HAD to participate AGAIN!! Hmmmmm...I sense yet ANOTHER addiction coming on!! ;)
This week's challenge was to create in all PASTEL colors. For those of you who know me IRL know why this is close to IMPOSSIBLE for me. For those of you who only know me virtually, I wear only black 99.9% of the time. So...THIS was a real challenge.

I didn't want to go overboard and I didn't want it to be TOO soft. That's just a little too far out of my comfort zone...for now ;) So I chose 2 colors to work with, yellow and purple, and simply variated within those two color families.
I chose Melia on her Shell-Phone as my image. LOL! Get it? HAHHAHAH! But seriously? She is THE CUTEST thing EVER. I love her!!! She is colored with a mixture of my Copics, Prismacolor and Pantone markers. Her nails and beads are colored with marker and then overlayed with light purple sparkly, Sakura gel pen. I stitched her main panel to the mat of yellow behind it.

My card base is 5x5, followed by a simple yellow cardstock, then my main layer. I knew I wanted to do SOMETHING else but wasn't sure what. Like I said, I didn't want to fuss with it TOO much.

I decided to paper piece her tail with a scrap of purple DP that I ran through my printer and printed the image again. I trimmed out her tail leaving the very end of her fin unglued and flipped up a bit so you can see my coloring underneath. I love the detailed and dimensional effect piecing has!!!

I then grabbed my 3/4", 1" and 1-1/4" circle punches and just started punching. No particular amount of one or the other. But I wanted them to be able to just mix and match easily representing bubbles for our darling mermaid!!! I had a darling time playing, matching, adhering, and lining up the "bubbles". My very last touches are the silver beads (I'm in love with those lately!!) in each bubble and the 2 tiny ones in the flowers in Melia's hair.
Thanks SO much for reading and following along. I'm so appreciative of every view and comment that I receive!!

I hope you've been inspired and have enjoyed my creation for Mo's Digital Pencil Shop!!

Dark Inspiration

Welcome to a nice and fab Dark Ink Saturday ;)

I wanted something "vintagey" yet grungy. I went through my stamps and pulled out the Vintage Time background one of my absolute loves! And the domino stamp from a previous Get Inked kit from 2009.

I started with PTI's Scarlet Jewel as my base. I had a scrap of the grey flourished cardstock that literally was already cut to the exact dimensions of the card!! I stitched it down using a wide, wavy stitch many times with black thread.
I then inked up my Time stamp in Tim Holtz distressing in and Ranger Ink (from this month's Get Inked kit) in Lettuce. I stamped this on a REALLY OLD index card that's all faded, sprinkled clear embossing powder and heat set it.

I then matted that panel to a distressed piece of ivory PTI cardstock. I then stitched around the edges, purposefully messy. I added a bit of roughed up ribbon and the domino, heat embossed and popped up on 3-D foam.
As lasting touches I added a strip of silver beads subtly on the left hand side and a mini clip embellishment that says 'inspire'. Before photographing, I took my roughest sanding block and just ripped the heck out of this!! That was the fun part! LOL! No wonder I'm on this team ;) heheheeh...

Thanks for visiting and I hope YOU are inspired to do something creative today!!

Simple Thank You

My first cousins are fantastic. I'm very lucky that way. We don't get to see much of each other but when we do it's always a fun time!

My cousin Jennifer hosted Passover Seder this week. It was fun, light, we all like we haven't laughed in years...and it was really a truly relaxed and great time.

I really wanted to let her know how much I appreciated it so the next morning I whipped up this little thank you note to send to her.

The flower stamp is from The Paper Source as is the Versamark Boysenberry Ink. My sentiment is from and old SU! set. I added a simple Velvet flower with a flower brad in the center adhered with a glue dot.

Just a little cuteness for today.

Thanks for visiting!!

Smeared and Smudged April Fool's Surprise Blog Hop!!

Happy April Fool's Day Everyone!!! I'm SO thrilled to be here hopping with the gals on the Smeared and Smudged network!!!

Today I recreated a wreath in similar fashion to one that I made in this post. However, THIS one was done in the S&S way!!!
My thoughtful Brother In Law got me THIS book after I'd made a comment about his and how cool the pages would be as DP.

So instead of this being a nice, crisp, light looking Literary Wreath, this one is grungy, scary and creepy. NICE!I started with a 4" foam wreath or ring. I used LOTS of hot glue, tearing pages and either rolling them, fan folding them, "s" folding them, any way I could think and adhered each piece one by one. (really look at the pages if you have time....there's lots of creepiness goin' on!!!)
I then set to embellishing my wreath. I used an OLDDDDDDDD Inkadinkado bug set from maybe 18 years ago! ( lol! ) I stamped, colored and punched out an assorted array of bugs, attached them to straight stick pins whose tops I bent and littered the wreath with these pins.

I then showed it to my Gorgeous Hubby while he was doing laundry in the basement. He looked at it and initially gave it a WOW...and then studied it. I grabbed a hand of rusty bolts from a jar on his workbench and he said yes...they need to come out to look 3-D. He's always amazing as an outside eye for me. I used giant needles used for...yarn sewing? Latch hook? I don't know but I've had them for as long as I can remember in my sewing kit and have NEVER used them. And I knew that they'd be strong enough to hold the bolts with hot glue.

I did the same thing with the bolts as I did for the bugs. I found their homes, some on pins and some just randomly placed in shallower spots.
I let everything rest and really harden and then I took a thick hair elastic, hot glued it to the back (as a hanger), and glued a pretty piece of 1" wide green grosgrain ribbon to cover 60% of the elastic band. (otherwise it looks like a tangly mess of hotglue - not pretty).
I let that dry for a few and then took pics!! And it already has a home in my living room!!!
I hope you are inspired and SURPRISED by my April Fool's Day creation!!!

Here is the entire list of fab hoppers today so PLEASE leave love and kisses for all of their hard work and gorgeous inspiration!

Alison
Kelli
Meredith
Michelle
Kathi
Kim
Lisa
Danielle
Alex
Jean
Monica
Sarah
Erica
Black Dragon
Kymberly
Steph
Lady Brayton
Barb

Terra


Thanks for hopping today!!