Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Bombshell Hump Day Hop-Disco Skeleton Pencil Holder

Welcome to the Bombshell Hump Day Hop!
Every Wednesday the Bombshell Design Team Members are bringing you a fabulous blog hop featuring killer projects. When you leave comments on our projects, you're entered to win an awesome prize from Bombshell Stamps! Since this is the last hop in September, the prize winner will be announced soon.

Here's how it works: Start at any of the Bombshell Design Team Member Blogs and take a peek at their Hump Day project. Leave them a comment and tell them what you think about it! Then follow the links to the other DT member blogs and leave them comments. Don't forget, the more comments you make, the more entries you get!

Now on to the project! This week our Captain Inky challenged us with the theme "Pencil Me In"...basically use any type of pencils on our project! For some Copics lovers this may prove difficult; but since I don't have any yet (don't get me wrong, I WANT THEM!) and I use my Prismacolor pencils on the vast majority of my projects, I thought I'd do something a little different.

Of course I used my Prismas, but I decided to not only color with them, but make a project based around them! I've been holding on to this really nifty pencil box that I found at Goodwill for a while now, just waiting for the right idea to come along. The box is really slick because it opens two different ways. Here are some "before" pics:







You can see how the box opens from the side and the top. Well, for some reason Disco Skeletons danced their way onto my box!!

*click pics to see close up*








I altered the box first by adding some homemade sculpture paper in black and silver to the outside. It was somewhat like wrapping a present and I think it turned out pretty cool. Then I took mirrors from a tiny broken disco ball and made my "dancefloor" area.

I added crystal and silver brads, and ribbon on the hinge to embellish. My skeletons came from the Bombshell Retro Cowgirl set and were colored using my pencils. Now my Prismas have a happy little home! Much better than a ziploc bag.



Now it's time to tell me what you think, and then dance on over to the other Bombshell Hop Participants:



Angela

Kathi

Mary G

Glittery Katie

Miss Magoo

Sarah K

Gabby

Jacquie

Kas

Lyss

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Twisted Tuesday Materials Challenge: Faces of Me Bracelet

For this week's Twisted Tuesday, I wanted to make something other than a card, and since I missed Altered Monday this week I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. This will be my last Twisted Tuesday Challenge for September, and hopefully there will be some more players. I'd love to see some other ideas for using the chosen material, so please feel free to participate! I am also debating on whether to keep this challenge going, so if it interests you please let me know by sharing your own project.

So, on to the rules; here's how Twisted Tuesday works:

* I will post a new challenge each week. The challenge will be to use a specific material on your project. The material may be a store bought supply, an item you can find around the house, or a repurposed or recycled object. I will post a sample to go along with the challenge.

*You can make a card, scrapbook page, altered item...pretty much anything you want as long as it is stamped somewhere on it and uses the specific material.

*You will have until Sunday night to comment on my post with a link to your entry.

*I will choose the winner and announce on the following Tuesday. The winner will receive a material that they can use in a future challenge!


Here's the challenge for this week...

My Sample:

*click pics for larger views*







The Challenge:
Use bottle caps on your project.






My "Faces Of Me" Bracelet features stamp images from Invoke Arts

The Prize:
A 1 oz. baggie of Clear Mini Micro Beads
(sorry, no pic, but you can see them used on my Faces of Me bracelet!)


Can't wait to see what you all can come up with using your bottlecaps!

Monday, September 28, 2009

I Have Returned...

Well, I've returned to the land of the living (somewhat). I'm feeling much better today, though not entirely back to normal. However, I will be stamping today and will have a project to share with you tomorrow.

Just a few notes:

Don't forget about the Bombshell Hump Day Hop this (and every) Wednesday. This week is the last week before the September prize is given, so be sure to swing by and comment on the projects to get your chance to win the awesome prize from Bombshell Stamps.

Also, starting on Thursday:
31 Days of Halloween will begin here on Smeared and Smudged!
I will be featuring a new Halloween or Day of The Dead themed project every day in October! I'm so excited to share this with you!! I will be offering prizes throughout the month, so don't forget to check in every day to view all my spooky stamps and be on the lookout for chances to win!

Tune in tomorrow for a great new project!

Friday, September 25, 2009

No Posts Until Monday

I will not be posting any more projects this week or weekend. My family has been sick with the flu and unfortunately it has caught up with me too, so I have not had the energy to stamp. I apologize, but will be back up and running HOPEFULLY on monday!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Thrilling Thursday: Fairy Dust


Anyone in need of some fairy dust to make their Thursday Thrilling? After all the late-night work getting my layout "upgraded", I know I could use some!

Well, here ya go *SPRINKLE*SPRINKLE*


This is my first post featuring Prickley Pear stamp images, and I am truly astounded by the amazing Design Team supplies I received from them... I have lots of faves, like, all of them! But, one image in particular stood out to me right away because I am IN LOVE with all types of fairies. I always have been and always will be, I even have a fairy tattoo (that may be a bit too much shared info, but you get the idea). SOOOO, when I saw the Fairy Dust image, I needed to make not one card, but two cards!



I used the same color scheme on both cards, but tried to make each card very different. The first is sweet and pretty and almost has a vintage feel to it because of the whitewash treatment.Plus the fairy image is glitterfied in purple!







The second card is a little more mysterious with gold accents and an irregular layout, and shows off one of the awesome transparency images from PP that I colored from the back using gold leaf and acrylics.







I'd love to hear what you think about them, and be sure to check out Prickley Pear by following the link above! They just introduced some new Halloween images that you'll be seeing here on Smeared and Smudged during my 31 days of Halloween next month. Can anyone say Grim Reaper?!!?!!!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Bombshell Hump Day Hop- Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

Welcome to this week's Bombshell Hump Day Hop! Every Wednesday all the Bombshell Design Team Members are bringing you a fabulous blog hop that features exciting projects all along the way! When you leave comments on our projects, you're automatically entered to win this awesome prize from Bombshell Stamps:



Here's how it works: Start at any of the Bombshell Design Team Member Blogs and take a peek at their Hump Day project. Leave them a comment and tell them what you think about it! Then follow the links to the other DT member blogs and leave them comments. Don't forget, the more comments you make, the more entries you get!

This week our Blog Captain, Angela, challenged us with the "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" theme. Of course, with all these movie contest themes running through my head lately, what do you think the first thing I thought of was? MOULIN ROUGE!!!! One of my all time favorites!

One more movie card won't hurt anyone! So here it, based on the scene when Satine is swinging high above her top-hatted beaus, singing "Diamonds..." I'm not usually one for girly girly, but in my mind this card is sexy and sassy, just like the movie. Not to mention COVERED IN BLING!

*click pics for better views*







I used the Bombshell "Cherry Bomb" set for this one, and she fit just perfectly on her swing, feather butt and all. Doesn't she look like she's having fun? And the glitter runneth over!

I hope you enjoy my version of this challenge as much as I enjoyed making it; don't forget to leave your comment and then hop on over to the other blogs.
See you next hop!



VISIT THE OTHER BOMBSHELL HUMP DAY HOP BLOGS:

Angela

Kathi

Glittery Katie

Kas

Miss Magoo

Stephanie

Sarah K

Mary G

Nicole

Gabby

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Twisted Tuesday Materials Challenge: Real Fairy

Welcome to the third installment of Twisted Tuesday. Last week's material was safety pins, and again our winner is Kelli! She made an awesome mini chipboard journal using safety pins as embellishments. View her submission HERE. Kelli's work has been a hard act to follow...this week will someone challenge her reign as Queen of Twisted Tuesday? Let's see...

Here is the way Twisted Tuesday works:

* I will post a new challenge each week. The challenge will be to use a specific material on your project. The material may be a store bought supply, an item you can find around the house, or a repurposed or recycled object. I will post a sample to go along with the challenge.

*You can make a card, scrapbook page, altered item...pretty much anything you want as long as it is stamped somewhere on it and uses the specific material.

*You will have until Sunday night to comment on my post with a link to your entry.

*I will choose the winner and announce on the following Tuesday. The winner will receive a material that they can use in a future challenge!


Here's the challenge for this week...

My Sample:

*click pics for larger views*

My sample uses a digi stamp from Mo's Digital Pencil



The Challenge:
Use cardboard, flat or corrugated, on your project.





The Prize:
Six sheets of cut soda can aluminum (FUN!)and some other small goodies.



Have fun playing! Let's see if there will be a new queen!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Altered Monday- Butterfly in Bronze

Welcome to a brand new week, and a new Altered Monday post on Smeared and Smudged. A couple weeks back I had a little shopping splurge at Michael's $1 spot; they had alot of tiny items priced at 39 cents, 49 cents...you get the picture. I found some large and flat circle magnets and decided to buy a couple. They were decorated with scenes of country houses, apples, and sunflowers. Anyone who knows me (or follows this blog) probably suspects that country is not my style, and you're right! I HAD to alter!

I have one of them done and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the result. This is one of a handful of projects where I have stamped into clay, and I'm loving it more each time I do it. I started off by covering the whole magnet with a coat of bronzy-colored nail poish. This was easier than using paint because the magnet was very slick, so the polish adhered better and gave it a cool shimmer. Then I rolled out some super sculpey and stamped wing images into it. The images are from The Enchanted Gallery.

After preheating the oven, I rolled some aluminum foil into an egg shape and used it to place my cut out wings over so they would bake with some shape to them. I followed the intructions on the box for baking, let the wings cool, and then painted with acrylics.

To embellish the butterfly I used some old beads that I've been hanging on to, a broken necklace, and some bronze wire. I stuck the butterfly to the magnet using really REALLY strong glue, E600. And here's the result:







The magnet is pretty simple as far as the amount of stuff on it, but I think it's beautiful! I enjoyed making it and will be altering the other two magnets soon in a similar way; I'll share when I'm done.

Thanks for looking, and don't forget to join me tomorrow for the Twisted Tuesday Materials Challenge!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Sassy Saturday Featured Blog

First, I'd like to mention that Gutter Girlz had posted their new prompt for this month. Check it out if ya wanna, but be sure to do it with no little kiddies nearby!


Now on to Sassy Saturday's featured blog. As you may or may not know, I will be linking to one of my comment contributor's blog every Saturday just to share in the creativity. This week I've chosen Melody, and her blog is called Mel's Place.

To start off, Mel's Place is covered in sparklies, which is an immediate plus! And, this blog is all about scrapbooking, which is something I feel inept at doing, so it was cool to go and see someone who has alot of passion for it. Be sure to visit Melody and let her know what you think.

HAVE A FABULOUS WEEKEND!!!

Friday, September 18, 2009

Funky Friday- Bomb Squad

Welcome to Funky Friday!! Are you ready for this one? This week, to get into the funk, me and my oldest daughter got together for a finger painting session...literally. I have no clue where I got this idea from, it kinda just popped into my head, but I decided I needed to stamp on
her nails!
First we put down a base coat metallic nail color and let it dry. Then using an eensie weensie stamp alphabet and stazon ink, we stamped out the words BOMB SQUAD on her nails, with a little Bombshell Stamps bomb (from the "Cherry Bomb" set) on her thumb in between the two words. Then we went back in with a tiny paintbrush and added green polish accents.The stazon comes off cleanly since it is sitting on polish and not nail (we tested it!!!!)
I hope you are able to see the pictures well, it was a little difficult getting all the nails in one shot where you could read them. And the stamping is not perfect, as evident on her bomb thumb, but it's really hard to roll a stamp on a fingernail without slipping! I think with some practice I could get really good at it. For now I think that this manicure is DA BOMB!

*click pics for larger views*















Thursday, September 17, 2009

Great Design Team News!

I've been asked to join the Design Team over at Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps! I'm very excited to start working with them and using their images. I'll be posting new Prickley Pear projects each week beginning in October.I love the new Halloween and Fall images, so I definitely plan on using some of those. You can visit them by clicking the link in my sidebar. Just had to share!

Thrilling Thursday- More Bombshell Movie Challenge Love

Before I get to my Thrilling Thursday projects, I'd like to thank everyone who posted comments on my Bombshell Hump Day Hop post! The video was really fun to make and I don't think it came out half bad. Right now I'd like to share with you a very special countdown, David Letterman style!

TOP 6 THINGS I LEARNED FROM WATCHING MY OWN TUTORIAL:

Number 6
Tilting your head to the side while you talk is totally cool!..

Number 5
Technology is not my friend...

Number 4
"Um" is a real word in my world...

Number 3
Never make video sections longer than 9.95 minutes long if you plan on uploading to YouTube...

Number 2
Filming a video on the same day that you plan on hacking up a lung is never a good idea...

...and the Number 1 thing I learned from watching my own tutorial is...
Eyelets and Brads are two separate things no matter how many times you use their names interchangeably.

If you can't laugh at yourself, right? Anyways, now on to today's post.

Sarah K, Miss September over at Bombshell Stamps, issued the September monthly challenge last week. The challenge is to make a project inspired by a movie. I already made one card inspired by the movie Rock N' Rolla, but thought I'd show a little more love for this challenge on Thrilling Thursday!

For these two card, I chose the movie Coraline. If you haven't seen it, it's a MUST SEE! Not just a kids movie! There is a scene in the movie where Coraline's neighbors, who happen to be ex-burlesque/vaudeville performers, put on a little show. They are respectively dressed as a mermaid and a pearl in a clam. To portray this, I decided to use several stamps from different Bombshell sets, including "Retro Cowgirls", "Mermaid Anchor","Mermaid Treasure", and "Homeward Bound".





My original plan was to add red curtains on either side of the cards, but cards are only so big! So rather than crowd, I decided against it. I tried to make the backgrounds and waves look like hand-painted sets, and I think they came out pretty cool! I'd love to hear what you all think, so feel free to leave me a comment. You can upload your own challenge entry by visiting the Bombshell Stamps forum just click the link above. See you tomorrow!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Bombshell Hump Day Hop

And once again we're off! Welcome to the Bombshell Hump Day Hop! Just in case you missed the details last week, myself and the other Bombshell Design Team Members are bringing you a fabulous hop each and every Wednesday! If you leave comments on our projects, you're automatically entered to win a fa-bo prize from Bombshell Stamps!

Here's how it works: Start at any of the Bombshell Design Team Member Blogs and take a peek at their Hump Day project. Leave them a comment and tell them what you think about it! Then follow the links to the other DT member blogs and leave them comments. The more comments you make, the more entries you will have to win a great prize from at the end of the month!

This week I decided to go all out and bring you a Neverending Card video tutorial! Unfortunately, I'm getting over a sore throat and was loosing my voice, so I had to stop the video a couple of times to recoupe. And since this is my first video tutorial, I also learned that youtube will not host long videos. But all in all, I think it still turned out great. I hope you enjoy the project.

When you're done viewing, leave me a comment and let me know what you think. And be sure to hop over to the other gals' blogs and leave them a comment too, the more you comment, the more chances you have to win!

SOUND PROBLEM IS FIXED(I HOPE!) Unfortunately I had to cut a minute or two from the end of the first video in order to get it hosted right, so I will try to explain the steps in between the videos, very easy so there should be no problem. Sorry for the technical difficulties! I hope you still enjoy the tutorial.



* Attach your large squares to the two center squares on your base using adhesive of your choice, centering them from top to bottom and lining up the inner edges against the opening in the middle of the card.

* Attach your smaller rectangles of deco paper using adhesive, to the small rectangle areas across the top and bottom of your card. Be sure the side edges line up with your center squares to make it even.

*Matt your smaller red circles (the one with your saying stamped on them) onto a larger circle using adhesive, then attach these to the center of your large squares. Easy! Now you're ready for the Part 2 video!





Thanks for watching!
Here are some pics of the project, you can click them to see a more detailed image.









Check out my step-by-step on making Flaming Hot Decorative Paper HERE

Never-ending Card Measurements:
Card Base: 6" x 3", score 1.5" from each end
Large Squares(Mats): 2.75" x 2.75"
Large Squares(Inner): 2.5" x 2.5"
Side and Top Rectangles: 2.27" x 1.5"
Corner Squares: 1.25" square punch


VISIT THE OTHER HUMP DAY HOP PARTICIPANTS:

Kathi
Nicole
Glittery Katie
Kas
Angela
Mary G
Gabby
Anam



Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Twisted Tuesday Materials Challenge- Sweet Pins

Welcome back to Twisted Tuesday! Last week's material was game pieces, and the winner of that challenge is Kelli. View her "lusty" submission HERE. Congrats, Kelli! You'll be receiving your prize in the mail soon!

Now on to this week, I'd like to invite you all to play along!
Here is the way Twisted Tuesday works:

* I will post a new challenge each week. The challenge will be to use a specific material on your project. The material may be a store bought supply, an item you can find around the house, or a repurposed or recycled object. I will post a sample to go along with the challenge.

*You can make a card, scrapbook page, altered item...pretty much anything you want as long as it is stamped somewhere on it and uses the specific material.

*You will have until Sunday night to comment on my post with a link to your entry.

*I will choose the winner and announce on the following Tuesday. The winner will receive a material that they can use in a future challenge!

So, here's the challenge for this week...

My Sample:


*click pics for larger views*


The Challenge:
Use safety pins somewhere visible on your project.





The Prize:
Variety of eyelets, approx. 100, plus some other small goodies.



Now let's see if you can come up with some sweet pins! Be sure to link to your entry in your comment, and have fun playing!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Altered Monday: Domino Book Belts

Well, this is one of those long lost projects that I started right before our big cross country move. I got about half way done, then put it away. I've finally finished!

These are called book belts, which are similar to book marks, but have a piece of elastic that wraps all the way through the inside of the book to hold your page. They are really cool because they're not as easy to loose as bookmarks, and you can make them as elaborate as you want since the decoration is held on the outside of the book.

I made mine out of dominos that I altered. The images are from an old Stampin' Up hostess set called Organic Grace. I used acrylic paint, gold leafing, and embossing powder to add details to the Stazon-stamped images. I also added in some gold wire as embellishment. After finishing the dominos, I attached ribbon and completed the belt with a piece of elastic that is only seen on the inside of the book and holds your page. You can see the elastic in the last picture.

I will say that next time I make these I will probably go for some chord elastic and find a nifty way to attach it to the ribbon so it looks nicer, but I'm happy with these and they will get lots of use! My two oldest daughters have already claimed their favorites.