more halloween gift bags! SFYTT and WOJ sketch challenges

My last two Halloween bags are done!! YAY!! i based them both on sketch challenges meant for cards but you know how i like to change them up! one was Jen's SFYTT ->






and the other was from the WOJ challenge blog->










And here are the bags:

The first one for WOJ uses one of the new releases - it is not a halloween stamp but i tried...
i painted the bags with crackle paints. the shimmery background pieces are done with shimmery mist made with perfect pearls, water and distress reinkers in a mini mister.

both bags have prima flowers

the images are colored with copics and highlighted with spica glitter pens. the second stamped image is from SUINK.

stay tuned tomorrow for my first CHRISTMAS TUTORIAL!! christmas ornaments using alcohol inks.

HOLY COW a tutorial!!!! PURE halloween distress!

That's right! i am finally back to doing some tutorials for y'all! today's is actually the October technique challenge issued by T!m Holtz over on his blog - that man is just inCREDible!! he did a tag as usual so i expanded on it and came up with these little goodies:

these are jars i am going to fill with hallowen nonsense and send to my brother and his friend. i think they will get a kick out of them. we will be using crackle paint - an amazing product that i just adore!!

Let's gather supplies: Crackle paint (only one color is necessary but i did several projects at once), cardstock, stamps, black soot distress ink, coordinating colors of distress ink (two is nice to use as opposed to one), foam ink blending tool, black paint dabber, fragments charm (brand spankin' new!), patterned paper, glossy accents, brad or eyelet, ribbon or fiber, stickles, grungeboard - all of these items can be found on my website except for paper and ribbon.

Start by painting on the crackle paint - it will take awhile to dry. Shake the paint well and then paint it on with the brush cap - just cover SOME of your cardstock - not all of it. Put it on a little thick so the cracks are nice and noticeable - i don't find it curls my paper too badly once it is glued down. i did gift bags too which will be a project posted later this week....

i did two pieces of cardstock and two bags. The top one uses shabby shutters and dusty concord. this one uses antique linen and black soot.

next let's do our fragment so it can dry. these come in a package with a wide variety of shapes and sizes. choose one that fits nicely over a portion of your patterned paper you want to highlight. squirt some glossy accents on the back of your fragment.

Place the piece over the patterned paper and press down from the center out gently - wiggle it a bit if necessary - so there are no air bubbles. Let it dry and then trim it out.

Also - optional - choose some grungeboard (i used "boo" letters but the seasonal set has some great halloween ones too. color your grungeboard - you can ink it directly with an ink pad, cover it in stickles, paint it, use perfect pearls shimmer mist and let dry if necessary.

Once the crackle paint is completley dry choose a couple ink colors and blend them over the unpainted portions of your cardstock. it doesn't matter if you get it on the paint too. the best way to use this tool is to dab it on the ink pad, then start off the edge of your piece on the craft sheet and begin rubbing in a circular motion with light pressure. gradually move onto your cardstock.

Next stamp you background stamps with black soot distress ink. using a slightly damp paper towel GENTLY rub the stamped image off of the painted areas:



Ink your main image(s) with the black paint dabber - rub across to knock the peaks of paint down. stamp it.

Last step - using the foam ink blending tool again - rub vintage photo distress ink or similar dark brownish color along all the edges. use a distressing tool along the edges for added distress look if you want.

Here is a close up of one of the jars.

Attach your fragment charm with ribbon or fiber using a brad or an eyelet. glue grungeboard pieces on.

To make the jar i attached my paper pieces with mod podge and used alcohol ink on the plastic lids.

crackle paint is GREAT stuff but especially for halloween!! i am hoping to get a wooden halloween plaque done using it too.........

i hope you enjoy this project -if you choose to do it i hope you come back and share a link with me so i can see it!! remember all of these great products can be found at http://www.pezadoodle.com/ !!

enjoy life

today I have my second design team project for Paper Patch Crafts:

The basic layout is the same as the note cube - Ranger's crackle paint in Worn Lipstick around the edges. Canvas sprayed with Perfect Pearls, water and reinker in a mini mister (one of my fave things).

the top panel has flowers and dirt pile cut from Walk In My Garden cricut cartridge.

the bottom panel has studio g stamps dusted with dry perfect pearls and of course tons of Paper Patch's gorgeous collection of primas!

Stay tuned here for an exciting new studio g announcement tomorrow!!!

Squared....

I have one of my Design Team projects to show you for Paper Patch Crafts. The concept is completely scraplifted from Amy over at Pickled Paper.

Anne at paper patch sent me a collection of goodies to play with and i have three projects in all so this is the first in a series :)

i based the layout of each side on an SCS sketch challenge (since i really have enough cards I am trying to play but do something different with them - stay tuned):



Anne sent a collection of pink, green, and yellow embossed papers, prima flowers She has a GREAT collection here including the fabulous new 2008 collections), clear and lime green bubbles, a mini mister with reinker and perfect pearls powder (which you can get here), and a cool piece of canvas which i had never worked with before - among other things you will see in future projects this week!

I started with a plain wood block from Michael's and painted the edges of each side very thickly with Ranger's crackle paint in Mustard Seed and Worn Lipstick. It needs to be painted on thickly so the crackles are prominent. it still dries relatively flat. I cut the canvas into squares and sprayed liberally with the pearl mist and reinker. this not only turned them green but gave them a bit of golden green shimmer as well.

All pieces are edged in SU glorious Green ink. Large Butterfly stamp is SU and colored with a clear spica glitter pen but it doesn't show well in the pic. The little girl swinging is my very first elzybells stamp (YAY!!!! more of those coming soon too!) and it is colored with prismas and gamsol. The butterfly is a studio g $1 stamp with perfect pearls. The little flowers and dirt pile are cut with Walk In My Garden cart for my cricut.

Stay tuned for more.....

FInally the top :) the clip is a pink binder clip glued to the top. Then i just covered it with primas. the prima centers are the bubbles in some and then crystal stickles with pink seed beads in others. Love this look and have TONS of these from my beading days so i may be doing this more often. I will likely use this to clip my little sketches when i am working on a sketch challenge :)

Scrappin'!!!!!

hooray - I am scrappin' like I have been saying i need to! too layouts to show you - the first one uses a technique called cuttlebug smoosh from the technique junkies newsletter i just started getting. i also used sketh 39 from the got sketch blog i found recently - there is a link to the right. first the sketch:



and now my LO:



this next one is one of my faves ever. not only do I love the content of the pics - remember the diaperhead gang?? but i am really pleased with the LO and feel it is unusual and really works for this. the funniest part is the grungeboard - i was sure i would NEVER use the skull and it was the first one i used! paper is SU.



some close ups:





i LOVE the tim holtz crackle paint and the grungeboard too. i have some more pieces on my table right now :)

gotta love embossing powder!!!!

i did these cards with the magic pattern technique in the Technique Junkies newsletter I just got - so many fabulous ideas, so little time!!! the stamps are a CTMH set that i just love AND i got to use my watercolor pencils that have just been sititng around - i didn't get very artistic with them as i have not had much success with that....i really love this look but need different stamps to make it look as good as the samples i have seen. i made these for my mom because she said she needed some "every day" cards.

in other news...i finally broke down and ordered some grungeboard! :P i fought it for awhile and then started looking at the elements set and thinking maybe....but then there are some weird shapes in there i thought i'd never have a use for, then i thought oh what the h*** i just have to play. and then don't you know i suddenly realized the piece i thought i would NEVER use will be the first one! i had some pics sititng on my table waiting to be scrapped and i came up with the perfect idea - used crackle paints to and LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!! but ya'll will have to wait til i get my grunge board piece before you can see it!! i am really trying to do more scrapbook layouts and use the new products, stamps and techniques i am learning on my pages because frankly i have WAY too many cards!!!