Friday, October 31, 2014

The Rejected and Unfinished

Today is the thirty-first (and very last) day of the 31 Days of Halloween Challenge and Blog Hop, sponsored by Smeared Ink and the Smeared and Smudged forum!  Woohoo!!  We made it!

To see everyone who is participating in the blog hop, follow the blog roll on the right.  If you're following the blog roll, you probably got here from Sue's blog and will want to proceed to Leslie's blog after you've stopped here!

I figured there would be lots of bloggers on the hop today who would finish off with a bang, showing you some sort of major and wonderful creation, so I decided to take the opposite approach and go out with a sort of weak whimper.  Instead of giving you a grand and great piece of art, I give you:

The Rejected and Unfinished!

These are the things I worked on that just didn't make the cut, for one reason or another.  Let's start with the rejects:

This just never quite jelled, although I certainly worked at it and wanted it to.

I don't even know what to say about this one.  It's just weird.

Somewhat blah, and not very Halloween-ish.

Meh, as my kids say.

Now the unfinished:  things I started but just didn't go much of anywhere:

I had something very atmospheric in mind here, but it didn't get there.

I made this base very early on, and then it languished at the bottom of a stack.

These two pieces were once part of the same piece, which I tore apart and started playing around with in other ways.  This is where it ended, for the time being.





These are all background of one kind or another that just never quite found their proper place this month.  They are not abandoned, just patiently waiting to find their true calling.

So there you have it folks!  My poor rejects and unfinished bits and bobs, all holding such promise early on but not yet having realized that promise in finished form.

I hope you have enjoyed at least some of my projects this month--thanks for hanging in there with me and for all the lovely comments each day.  It's been a blast!

Please come back and see me again for more of my adventures in papercrafting, knitting, crochet, and quilting!

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Where Death and Gibson Girls Intersect

Today is the thirtieth day of the 31 Days of Halloween Challenge and Blog Hop, sponsored by Smeared Ink and the Smeared and Smudged forum!

To see everyone who is participating in the blog hop, follow the blog roll on the right.  If you're following the blog roll, you probably got here from Sue's blog and will want to proceed to Leslie's blog after you've stopped here!

Where has the time gone?!  I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with all my time when I'm not hopping 37 blogs a day!  I have so much enjoyed looking at everyone's work this month; I've drawn so much inspiration from all of you.  I can only hope that I might have inspired someone just a smidgen as much as you all have inspired me.

So, today, the penultimate day of the hop, my two series, A Gibson Girl Halloween and Death Has a Life Too, have collided, producing this:



Death wants to look his best for his beautiful date.

The details:

  1. Lavinia--Gibson Girl stamp from flonzcraft (also on ebay here)
  2. Death--Antique Gothic Chemistry Skeleton 1 digi stamp from AntiqueGraphique etsy shop
  3. Alphabet--Studio G alphabet set
  4. Spectrum Noir colored pencils
  5. Prima Marketing Chalk Ink Edgers
  6. Background--collaged from scraps, found papers, tissue paper

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

The Witching Hour

Today is the twenty-ninth day of the 31 Days of Halloween Challenge and Blog Hop, sponsored by Smeared Ink and the Smeared and Smudged forum!

To see everyone who is participating in the blog hop, follow the blog roll on the right.  If you're following the blog roll, you probably got here from Sue's blog and will want to proceed to Leslie's blog after you've stopped here!

Today I have a mixed-media piece which I have entitled "The Witching Hour."  This is another of my collaged backgrounds, to which I have added a stamped and colored landscape.




The details:

  1. Tree and moon stamp--from my stash
  2. Witch stamp--from Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers Halloween UM set 1 at Stamp Francisco
  3. KimberlyGeneral’s,  Loew Cornell, and Prismacolor watercolor pencils
  4. Background--collaged with scraps, Gelatos, chalks, etc.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Death Considers Growing A Mustache

Today is the twenty-eighth day of the 31 Days of Halloween Challenge and Blog Hop, sponsored by Smeared Ink and the Smeared and Smudged forum!

To see everyone who is participating in the blog hop, follow the blog roll on the right.  If you're following the blog roll, you probably got here from Sue's blog and will want to proceed to Leslie's blog after you've stopped here!

As the penultimate entry into my Death Has A Life Too series, I offer you "Death Considers Growing A Mustache."



The details:
  1. Death--Grim Reaper from Viva Las Vegas Stamps
  2. Mustaches--Mustaches Clear Stamp Set by Stampabilities
  3. Alphabet--Studio G Alphabet set
  4. Background--collaged from scraps, etc.

Monday, October 27, 2014

A Cigar-Smoking Devil

Today is the twenty-seventh day of the 31 Days of Halloween Challenge and Blog Hop, sponsored by Smeared Ink and the Smeared and Smudged forum!

To see everyone who is participating in the blog hop, follow the blog roll on the right.  If you're following the blog roll, you probably got here from Sue's blog and will want to proceed to Leslie's blog after you've stopped here!

Today I have a trio of tags; I found this cool little cigar-smoking devil stamp, and my husband smokes cigars, so I just had to combine some authentic cigar bands with my little devil!





Sorry about the fairly poor picture quality today--those cigar bands had a lot more reflectivity than I thought!

The details:
  1. Devil stamp--from my stash (I'm sorry I don't remember and can't track down where this one came from)
  2. Cigar bands--from my stash
  3. Flourish stamp (in background)--Inkadinkado (no longer available, as far as I can determine)
  4. Pebble Pearlescent Chalks
  5. Alphabet--Rubber Stampede Monogram alphabet set
  6. Prismacolor watercolor pencils
  7. Sharpie marker

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Today is the twenty-fifth day of the 31 Days of Halloween Challenge and Blog Hop, sponsored by Smeared Ink and the Smeared and Smudged forum!

To see everyone who is participating in the blog hop, follow the blog roll on the right.  If you're following the blog roll, you probably got here from Sue's blog and will want to proceed to Leslie's blog after you've stopped here!

Today I have a very simple card to share, because after all, home is where the heart is.


The details:

  1. Heart in a jar--Antique Creepy Jar of Hearts digi stamp from Antique Graphique etsy shop
  2. Spectrum Noir colored pencils
  3. Sentiment--cut from a page from DCWV The Coral Couture Paper Stack
  4. Green paper strip--Jim Holtz Kraft Core Nostalgic Collection by core'dinations
  5. Red paper--The Paper Studio Scrap Paper Pack

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Taking Liberties

Today is the twenty-fifth day of the 31 Days of Halloween Challenge and Blog Hop, sponsored by Smeared Ink and the Smeared and Smudged forum!

To see everyone who is participating in the blog hop, follow the blog roll on the right.  If you're following the blog roll, you probably got here from Sue's blog and will want to proceed to Leslie's blog after you've stopped here!

I think this might be the last of my series A Gibson Girl Halloween; I seem to have run out of ideas on this series!  Well, ok....there might be one more!  *wink*

Pearl and Edward have distinctly different ideas about what "taking liberties" might entail.





The details:

  1. Pearl and Edward--from Gibson Girl Illustrations CD-ROM and Book by Dover Publications
  2. Kissing couple--from Gibson Girl Illustrations CD-ROM and Book by Dover Publications
  3. Couple on couch--from Old-Time Naughty French Illustrations CD-ROM and Book by Dover Publications
  4. KimberlyGeneral’s,  Loew Cornell, and Prismacolor watercolor pencils
  5. Sharpie marker
  6. Faber Castell Gelatos
  7. Background paper--from The Paper Studio Best of the Paper Studio 12 x 12 paper pack
  8. Alphabet--Studio G alphabet stamp set
  9. Clearsnap Colorbox Chalk Inks