Fears by Ike's Art with LOC Challenges

I am thrilled to be able to announce that I am a new member of the Design Team for the Left of Center Challenges!  I can't tell you how excited I am to be a part of this great team of artists!

Today is my first DT offering for a challenge, which is the "Fears with Ike's Art" challenge starting today over at the LOC site.

(If you are looking for my post for The 12 Days of Creepmas, please scroll down to the post below.)

This is my creation, using the Ike's Art image called Girly Pin-Up.

Thanks to Maureen and the rest of LOC Design Team for allowing me to play!

I'm Watching You

Today is the the third day of Smeared and Smudged's 2014 12 Days of Creepmas Blog Hop!  I'm excited to be here, along with all the other great artists that you can see in the blogroll to the right.  Start at the top with Terra or just jump in anywhere and follow along.  If you've arrived here from Keren's blog, you'll want to continue on to the lovely Leigh after stopping here.

We guarantee to give you an alternative view of the holidays!

I have a tag today which horrified my 15-year-old stepdaughter.  Yay!  I win!!

Vampy Santy

The details:

1. Background paper--Pine St. Square Paper Pack by The Paper Studio
2. Santa image:  from Old-Fashioned Christmas Illustrations CD-ROM and book, by Dover Publications.
3. Alphabet:  Studio G alphabet
4. Prima Marketing Chalk Ink Edgers

Zombie Gingerbread Men

Today is the the second day of Smeared and Smudged's 2014 12 Days of Creepmas Blog Hop!  This is also a Smeared Ink day, in which we have been challenged to use only Smeared Ink images.  I'm excited to be here, along with all the other great artists that you can see in the blogroll to the right.  Start at the top with Terra or just jump in anywhere and follow along.  If you've arrived here from Keren's blog, you'll want to continue on to the lovely Leigh after stopping here.

We guarantee to give you an alternative view of the holidays!

Today I have a quick card to offer, using an image from the latest Smeared Ink Rubber Club plate, A Very Skelly Christmas.

OK, true confessions--it wasn't meant to be quite that blood-spattery, but sometimes late at night...unpredictable things happen.  And I think I kinda like it!

The details:

1. Zombie gingerbread man--from A Very Skelly Christmas rubber set by Smeared Ink
2. Zombie gingerbread sentiment--from Create with TLC
3. Spectrum Noir colored pencils
4. Tsukineko irRESISTible Pico Embellisher
5. Background paper--Pine St. Square Paper Pack by The Paper Studio
6. Background paper embossed with Darice Crackle Embossing Folder

Confused and Enraged

Today is the the first day of Smeared and Smudged's 2014 12 Days of Creepmas Blog Hop!  I'm excited to be here, along with all the other great artists that you can see in the blogroll to the right.  Start at the top with Terra or just jump in anywhere and follow along.  If you've arrived here from Keren's blog, you'll want to continue on to the lovely Leigh after stopping here.

We guarantee to give you an alternative view of the holidays!

To start things off today, I have a piece I've entitled "Confused and Enraged."

I got this frame (with a piece of "art" in it, naturally) for a couple of bucks at Goodwill, after reading this post by Ann over at wonderstrange.  She's so right!!  A cool frame makes everything looks better and more artistic!  And the price was oh, so right!

The details:

1. Reindeer image:  from Old-Fashioned Christmas Illustrations CD-ROM and book, by Dover Publications.
2. Alphabet:  Studio G alphabet
3. KimberlyGeneral’s,  Loew Cornell, and Prismacolor watercolor pencils
4. Prima Marketing Chalk Ink Edgers
5. Background:  collaged from scraps, painted, sanded, and sprayed within an inch of its life

Transparency--Smeared and Smudged November Member Blog Hop

Today is the Smeared and Smudged November Member Blog Hop, and the theme this month is "Transparency."  This is my first time participating in the monthly member hop, and I'm excited to be here, except...

OK, I admit, I had a hard time with this one.  I rolled the idea of "transparency" around in my head for a while, and came up with exactly...nothing.  So I decided to just go down into my studio and start playing around, and eventually came up with something quite literal.

It's hard to see here, but there is a transparent layer atop the stamped poppies image; here the transparency layer is reflecting the flash.

Here you can see the transparent film a bit better, with the poppies image stamped on it as well as on the underlayer.  I offset the top tranparent layer of stamped poppies just a bit so that it would look a little bit 3-dimensional.

After making this, I know several ways in which I would change my techniques a bit if I were making it again, and I have several more ideas about transparency rattling around in my brainpan.  For example, I thought (too late, oh too late!) of the idea of transparency as it relates to color theory and how fun that would be to play around with. 

So, in a way, I guess, this monthly challenge did for me exactly what it's meant to do--got me back in my studio working and the ideas spinning!

Thanks for visiting, and please do visit the rest of the members on the hop today and enjoy their creations!

Black Dragon

Evil Edna

Jessica

Karen

LeslieRahye

Nanette

Kim

Sarah N

Keren

Susan

Sarah S

Six Blue ATC's

I've been playing around with collaged backgrounds lately, and then I read this post over at wonderstrange, and of course got some super ideas on how to improve and change what I've been doing.

I made a masterboard and then cut it up into ATC-sized units.  Then I finished each one, making the whole set related but not exactly the same.

I had a lot of fun with these--I foresee more sets of ATC's in my future!

Left of Center DT Call

Left of Center Creative Challenges is have a DT call, and I am applying!  I will try to keep this short and sweet.

The LOC blog and challenges were brought to my attention by my being a participant in the Smeared and Smudged 31 Days of Halloween challenge and blog hop.  I learned about the DT call from Maureen on the hop.  I had a fantastic time participating all month in this event!

I would characterize my go-to crafting style as "fine art meets offbeat."  I have a BFA in Design from the University of Kansas, and I would say that that fine art sensibility colors everything I do, at least a little bit.  I love making pieces that tell a story, or make the viewer say, "Wait...huh?" for just a moment.  I also love injecting a bit of humor into my work!

Some of the recent work that I am most proud of is my series A Gibson Girl Halloween, which I made for the 31DOH blog hop.  A few of these are pictured below.

I would like to join the LOC DT team in order to continue to stretch myself as an artist and to connect with other artists who share my enthusiasm for papercrafting and stamping.

Thanks so much for considering me!