Thursday, May 31, 2012

Haute Hazel


Today is release day for the Zombabes from Simply B Stamps!!  They ladies are WONDERFUL so go grab all of them!!!  You can see not only Haute Hazel here, but the other three that weren't shared yesterday at the Beyond the Burtonesque Dolls blog.  Make certain you swing by the Simply B Sstamps store and buy them all!!!

I paired Haute Hazel with some paper from the Heidi Swap Sugar Chic collection.  Those lovely pearls are made with the Viva Decor peal pen in white.  Knowing that I am always going to have the perfect size of pearl, no matter what the size, is just fabulous.  Love, love, love my Viva Decor pearl pens!!

Get Inky!
Alex

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Lucious Lucy

There is a new release coming at Simply B Stamps and the DT for Beyond the Burtonesque Dolls has been asked to share it with you.  I am super excited for this release, it is the ZOMBABES!!!  Can I get a "WOOT WOOT!"?

Today I am going to give you a peak at Lucious Lucy.


Isn't she just divine?  Looking all "Hottie" in her suit eating a brain ice cream and hot fudge sundae!  She is rockin' the polka dots with the background paper from the Lilybee Designs paper pack. 

Be certain to check out all of the peaks from the DT at the BBD Blog and come back tomorrow for another from me for release day!!

Get Inky!
Alex

Monday, May 28, 2012

Moon Garden






This image is called Moon Garden, part of plate #124, and is drawn by ching-chou kuik for Sweet Pea Stamps.  I have paired her with some Basic Grey paper from the PB&J collection and decided she looks wonderful in blue and as a redhead.  How would you color her?

Challenges:

Crafty Challenges - Things with Wings

Get Inky!
Alex

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Happy Mail Peeker




Happy Mail Peeker is part of the Sweet Home Peekers.  She is my favorite from this collection.  So sweet they way she is up on the edge reaching into the mail box.  I used the Prima Almanac paper collection.  I also used it to paper piece the matching envelope.  The flower is from the Petaloo Darjeeling Dahlias - Neutral sprayed with Dylusions Ink Spray in Postbox Red. 

Time to mail this cutie to a good friend so she knows I am thinking of her!!!

Get Inky!
Alex

Friday, May 18, 2012

Spring Butterfly






This pretty fairy is Spring Butterfly by ching chou kuik for Sweet Pea Stamps.  I colored her one evening just to relax and she has been hanging around for some time.  I decided it was time to do her justice and make a card.  She needs to go spread joy to someone else :)

Get Inky!
Alex

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Heart Keepsake

I know it isn't Valentine's Day, but isn't every day a great day to let the people we love know we love them?


This great image, Heart Keepsake, is just perfect for that.  It is from the recently released Guardian Angel collection at SCACD.

I did something I don't normally do, and that was color the image without having selected any papers or having a plan.  I went just a bit crazy here.  I had no doubt that I would figure something out though.

I grabbed some paper from the Lilybee Victoria Park pack.  It is a pink and white chevron design.  I really wanted to pull in the purple a bit more so grabbed my purple mist and a Prima Stencil to decorate the background a bit.  If you haven't played with the stencils SCACD has, you really should.  There are so many things you can create and it is just plain fun.

The sentiment is the bonus stamp from the Fun Collection at SCACD.  Both the sentiment and the ribbon on the heart received the diamond Stickles treatment

Who do you need to tell you love them?  Why not create a card and pop it in the mail?

Get Inky!
Alex

Friday, May 11, 2012

Powerful Beyond Measure

I got busy with some more art journaling.  This is really a lot of fun and quite soothing.  I love the rules for art journaling.  They are 'NO RULES'!!!


This started out WAY different than it ended up.  There was some gesso cover up involved along the way and a complete shift of direction, but THAT is exactly what makes this so fun!

This left side had some images stamped, some Silks with templates and such, but it wasn't coming together and was frustrating me, so out came the gesso and a paintbrush.  Once it dried, it was still too transparent so out it came again for a second coat.  The great thing, see all those lovely brush strokes?  Those are from the gesso and showing through the layer of Silks in Honey Amber I put on top of it.  THAT made me happy.  The 'polka dots' are created with bubble wrap dipped in a mixture of Mica Power, gum arabic and a touch of water then just dabbed on top to see what happens.  I wrote the Quote in a paint pen and the picture was taken as I was charging into the finish area of a Spartan Race.  Once I made it past the Gladiators, I crossed the line after 8 1/2 miles and 20+ obstacles including things like a barb wire crawl, climbing over , 8 & 12 foot walls, hauling sandbags, traipsing through mud pits and lots and lots of other fabulous things.

The right side I did not have to gesso over.  The background is Silks in Honey Amber, the ground has a layer of Scarab Beetle Mica mixed with glaze over the top.  The clouds are Viva Decor Prcious Metals in silver applied with a spounge.  I stamped the image from Street Views stamp collection onto an old book page and cut it out.  The brush in the image is colored with a gum arabic, water and Fern Mica powder mix.  The buildings are painted with a coat of the gum arabic, water and the Solar Gold Mica power.  The words in the clouds read 'What is in your way?'



So, what is in your way?  What is stopping you from getting messy and playing?  What can you create?

Get Inky!
Alex

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Be Your Own Light

I have really enjoyed doing more Art Journaling lately.  This particular spread is one I could see in my brain but was so worried wouldn't materialize the way I imagined but I have learned that is OK as the path you think you want to take may not be the right path at all and journaling allows that process to occur so the end result is always exactly as it should be.  However, my brain must have been on the right path as it is PERFECT!  This is a loooooooong post, with a lot of pictures, but I wanted to share as much of the process as possible for those interested.  I suggest you click on the pictures to see them larger so you can see the detail and shimmer.

This is stage one.  I took pictures as I went, mostly because it was going so well, I was scared I was going to screw it up at the next step so had to be able to prove it was working.  The nice result is that I can share the progress.

The background is painted with Luminate Silks.  The grass is Olive Vine and the sky is Harvest Sol  with some 'dabbed' Periwinkle.  I also scattered the tiniest amount of the Scarab Beetle Luminarte Mica Powder.

The dark trees on the edges are done with black gesso and the Branches Reveresed Crafters Workshop stencil.  Once it dried I used the same stencil and a black mist to create the shadowed ones in the background.  The black on the ground is just some random markings from the palette knife after using the black gesso.

I knew I wanted to add in a fence using the LaBlanche Wrought Iron Fence stamp.  I also knew I didn't have a prayer of actually having it stamp correctly and line up properly multiple times on something where I really, really wanted it to work.  I decided instead to take a chance on a different technique.  I stamped the image multiple times on tissue paper.  I then trimmed it out, put plenty of glaze medium where I wanted the image and stuck it down.  I covered it with more glaze and then waited for it to dry.   It worked!  WOOT WOOT!

This fabulous girl is Rockstar Eyes "Alex".  I have never had the honor of having a stamp named after me before and I ADORE this one.  I would, regardless of her name, which makes it even BETTER.  I used copics on her skin, but colored the rest of her using Luminarte Silks in Vavoom Red, Periwinkle, Honey Amber and Ice.  The image has wings, but I decided, at the last minute, to cut them off for this page.  I am hoping you can see how gorgeously she shines in the picture.

This close up of the background really helps to show off how gorgeous the Luminarte Silks are.  I am completely in love with these.
I began to pull everything together and finish it off.  I used the Bird on a Wire stamp set by Dylusions.  If you have been reading my BLOG long, you know I kind of have a 'thing' with ravens.  I begged, yes, BEGGED Susana to bring this set to SCACD and I am sooooooooooooo glad she did.  How more perfect could it be than to have ravens deliver the message?
I DID, however, cut apart the birds in flight that are in the set.  Now, that was a labor of precision, but I needed to use them differently, so just went for it, because I am crazy like that :).

This close up of Rockstar Eyes "Alex" shows the glow.  I created it with a thin outline of Viva Decor Precious Metals Silver paint.  While it was still wet (as in immediately) I then mixed some glaze medium with some Luminarte Mica Powder in Solar Gold.  This was probably a 2/1 mix of glaze to mica.  I only needed a touch and wanted the gold to really be prominent.  I applied it with a small flat brush and brushed away from Alex to blend the silver and gold creating the glow.

This is a close up of the raven messengers.  I added a touch more glaze to the left over gold mix and swiped it over the words for added shine.
The finished product.

I am so very, very pleased with the end result and enjoyed ever single step of the process. Well, except for waiting for things to dry, but that is only teaching me patience. Something that I need to continue to learn and be reminded of over, and over, and over again.

Have you played with your supplies lately?  Gotten a bit messy and just gone where you heart and soul want to take you?  Try it.  There is no perfect, no right, no wrong, just a process and FUN!!!

Get Inky!
Alex

Sunday, May 06, 2012

Citrina


This lovely mermaid is Citrina and one of the new images from Joanne Schempp for Sweet Pea Stamps.  She is on plate #206 with 3 other gorgeous images.  I wanted to color and create with some water/cool colors with her and the blues and purples seemed to just work perfectly. 

I used paper from Basic Grey for the background.  After I fussy cut the image, I ran the scalloped edge purple circle through my Oriental Fans embossing folder and then used a dark purple ink to highlight it.   Citrina received Diamond Stickles for some shimmer and shine.  The bow was created using my Bow Easy.  This is the first time I have actually used it and I love that making this double bow was truly easy!  It is certainly an underused tool in my arsenal, but no more!

Get Inky!
Alex

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Sweet Sale

Friday, May 04, 2012

Dragon Luck



Sweet Pea Stamps has sooooooooooooo many fabulous stamps and I am fortunate to own many of them.  Sometimes I like to just dig through my collection and remind myself of some of the ones that have been available for a while.  When I do that I always end up stamping one, two, twenty or so to play with.

This cutie is Dragon Luck by Lisa Victoria.  He can be purchased individually or on Plate #39 with three other adorable images.  One thing I just love about the dragons by Lisa Victoria is that many of them make great masculine cards.  I don't make or need a lot of those, but these are perfect when I do.  Especially for younger boy birthday or even cards.  Several of them work great for those kiddo scrap book pages too.  The Sport Dragons are FABULOUS!!!

Get Inky!
Alex

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

WINNER, WINNER!!

According to random.org (looooooooooove that tool) the WINNER of the Sweet Pea Stamps BLOG CANDY is..........


#17
LynzCraftz said...
I would love to win some of these truly gorgeous stamps! I'm a new stamper but I already love it!Thanks for the chance to win!
Lyn

CONGRATULATIONS LYNN!!!! Please contact me and let me know where to mail you new Sweet Pea Stamps!!!!

Get Inky!
Alex

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

If I were a Zombie....

If I were a Zombie, I'd eat you the most.  That is the theme for the latest Beyond the Butonesque Dolls challenge. So give us Zombie, all lovey dovey about something.


I decided that instead of using a zombie image and making it lovey dovey, I'd use a cute lovey dovey image and make it zombie!  This cutie is the Sending Love Angel by Elisabeth Bell and is part of the Guardian Angels collection at SCACD.

What does your inner zombie love?

Get Inky!
Alex