Mojo's getting there

I committed to this project in hopes to regain some of my Mojo. I'm feeling creative again. The project is a 2 for 2 swap through Retro Cafe. I love their mini houses.

I spent a day papering and painting the houses and then just couldn't figure out where to go from there. So I put them up for a few days. I decided to start with creating in my box. Here is my blinking king cake baby playing in the pumpkin patch.

I have these vintage pipe cleaner snowman heads and bottle brush trees. With a little bit of mica flake glitter and diamonds dust a nice winter scene appeared.

This one is a little more out of my box. I'm really not into birds but as I was looking  through my stash I realized I have several different owls. His nest is made from these copper flat wire strands and some faux moss with a few feathers tucked in for some nest fluff. Adding the stick to the frame just pulled it all together.

This one is a little more out of my box.. little cutsie for what I usually do. I have this stash of worry dolls and thought they would be fun to use. With a blue dew drop roof inked with black stazon and then covered with some vintaj antique cooper patina. I hand stamped a no worries banner and the little brass legs made it all fall together.. I am excited at how these turned out. Even had a quick second where I thought about keeping them.. but ahhh thats part of the challenge. I'm sure they will find good homes and be enjoyed as much as I did creating them.

Vintiquities Workshop Halloween Charm Swap Linky Party

Awhile back I told you about a charm swap that was happening over at Vintiquities Workshop hosted by none other than Thespoena McMcLaughlin. Our charms started arriving a few days ago. What a awesome package. The goal was to create 15 charms, you could either make 3 sets of 5 or 15 different charms. Today we are having a linky hop to share what each of us created.

Here is a closer view. I made a double wrap bracelet out of a strip of halloween fabric and attached the charms.

Just as exciting as the charms was seeing the packaging they came in. Everyone created a fun little display for their charm. Here are my contributions to the swap. I chose to make 3 sets of etched copper discs.

Here is the set fresh off my work bench.

To see what the other participants created go here to find the link hop list.

Apothecary Challenge

When Laura Carson of Artfully Musing and team designer for Alphastamps posted her Apothecary Challenge I thought why not. Boy what a challenge it was. It just kept growing and growing. Here is what I started with, a grape crate.

And this what I ended up with. My darling husband got right into the challenge also. He added shelves and this trim I found laying around. He figured out how to add some doors. I just had to have doors. I covered the inside of the crate with some flocked scrapbook paper.

Here it is with the doors shut.

I'm going to start out with this is a long post with many photos. There was just no way I could share and not really share... so here it is. I would love to hear what you think.. please leave me a comment when your through. There are two separate challenges. Both using items made from images Laura designed for Alphastamps. The first challenge was to create at least 3 potion bottle from her images. The other a much grander challenge was a apothecary cabinet. I started right in creating my potions bottles. It took awhile longer to come up with a cabinet. In her video Laura uses paper mache boxes. This was not the direction I wanted plus I wanted something compact and that I could close up when done and store.

This is where I will make this a little like Where's Waldo and let you search for potion bottles. My apothecary bottles from Laura's apothecary sheet are, Frog Slime, Sleeping Death Powder, Bottled Ghost, Rotten Pumpkin and Poison. In there I also have some glow in the dark dragon eyeballs, zombie fingers, werewolf fur, bottle blondes and much, much more.

I do like the creep factor.. so along with your search you will find cockroaches, spiders and webbing, a rat or two and a plate of brain.

Here are a few up close and personal pics of bottles.

And some more.

More.

And one last one.. Here it is with the lights on. I can't finish this posting without stating after many failed attempts at photographing. I ended up taking most of these in night mode.

Please let me know what you think.

eeepy, creepy skellies and a eyeball to boot..

Saturday I had to make a run down south past Detroit to pick up an order. My friend Rhea was able to ride along with me. We hadn't seen each other in awhile so it was nice to catch up. We headed out early in the morning. It didn't take long of construction on the highway, that we decided to back road it. It was a beautiful, sunny fall day. Along our journey we hit a flea market and made a couple good scores. On to pick up my order and do a little shopping. On our list of stops was the Rust Belt Market in Ferndale, Michigan. A venue I had been wanting to see for quite some time. What a wonderful place, so full of some amazing artistic one of a kind items. Really got me thinking about Christmas.

To my surprise, Rhea brought me a gift and I want to share with all of you. I absolutely love it. I'm all into skellies and eyeballs.. the more the merrier. Her assemblage work is awesome. She has such a great eye for putting them together. Take a second and check out stargazer creates.

Haunted House Tour...

You don't know what your going to find waiting you at the 2011 AlteredWithOutLimits haunted house tour. This year I had some exceptional houses from the gals in my little yahoo group, AlteredWithOutLimits.

I found this cute little box that fit my pages perfectly. I covered it with Some Like it Haunt paper from the Midnight Dreary collection from gotmoxxie.

Enjoy the tour. Who knows what creatures are awaiting you.

The moon is full and all sorts of bewitching creatures are out to meet us at Cathy's garden gate.

Down a dark winding tree whispering trail you find Deb's english cottage and her ghosties of the night out playing.

As we head down towards the lake we run into Ellen's little cottages. Wonder what is being cooked up down there.

Continuing the haunted tour takes us to Jean's. Where we find a house full of toil and trouble.

Up on the hill is Judy's spirit filled mansion. Take care as you enter. Who knows what ghostly sights await you inside.

Down the lane to Lori's. We find a skellie dancing into the night. Who might that be watching out the windows.

Heading down to the Big Star state we find Mary Lynn's covenant waiting to cast a spell.

Ending our tour, takes us to Sandy's. A house filled with all kinds of winged delights.

Hope you enjoyed our little haunted tour.

Come see what the Ravens brought in...

Last week I had a wonderful opportunity to spend the day with some of my "local" art friends. We took a trip down past Detroit to Monroe to a place called Craft 2000. There I found this wonderful spooky wire tree, that I just had to have. I recently participated in a couple of charm swaps over at ArtCharms, a Halloween and Day of the Dead. I knew this tree would be perfect for either one.

I wish I had taken a picture of the tree before I coiled up the limbs. They were long strands. Which didn't work real well holding the charms up to the top. So I took my large bail rounders and went to town. This also added some volume to my tree.

The Halloween swap was the first to arrive so it has the honor of being on my tree. I am always amazed at what others create. Here are some closeups. You can get an idea of what awesome charms I received.

There is so much creativity in this group. I love to see everyones take on the theme. This was my first swap with them and I am delighted with my charms.

I should add in here.. that I had been looking for something to hang my charms on and had thought about a wire tree, but not really wanted to create on myself. Being the impatient, instant (well kinda) gratification person I am. A week ago I had bought a mini fake tree that was metallic lime green in color. I spray painted in navy blue, then some flat black. A little of green had peaked through. Now I liked this tree and it would do. But when I say this one, it was a must have. Plus I had two swaps coming.. so BONUS!!!!

Now patiently waiting for the next swap to arrive. What will I do with them.. hahaha...

Metal Deck.... final project from CREATE

Be prepared this is a long one. I just couldn't decide what to share. I feel that you need to see the whole thing to get the real feel of the deck. The Vintage Metal deck was a awesome class taught by Leighanna Light. This class was from 9 am to 9 pm and chucked full of information. We worked on 10 blackplate cards. We each worked in our own theme. I chose a theme familiar to me. I enjoyed watching others eyeballing my deck throughout the day..

This is my cover. It started out as a simple robin. I collaged images added a nest and eggs.. it was sealed with Bullseye Amber Shellac. I added the Porkchop Show doll eyes to put some creep on.

On this set of pages... I used my creepy dolls from Alphastamps. On the back I painted some blue metallic paint them covered it in a light coating of Ultrecht gesso, then stamped with a number rubber stamp.

I started this page with a gesso back ground that I used a circle stamp to remove some of the gesso. Collage and added a doo dad or two. The back is blue metallic under coat with the same gesso stamp removal.

My he/she image was given a eyelet for a eye piece. Collage, blending of paints, some cheese cloth... ring of keys for the keyhole. A vintage rook card is the focal point for the back. I tried a patina effect and it came out with a rusted look. Which I am very happy with.

Some more collage work with another one of my skellie guys, old playing card. The background is a page from a book. The back is gesso applied through a stencil. At some point I probably will paint it and see what I get.

Another patina that turned out looking like rust. It looks great with my calavera, some grungeboard heart with some wings finishes out this Day of the Dead theme. The back some of the blue patina took. I like just looking at it so I probably will leave it.

My ghost guys. The were created doing a image transfer with Ultrecht gesso. This technique is awesome. I love transfers and do several. And I can't wait to play with this one some more. I colored in my guys inked the edges. Added a TH doo dad. The star charm hanging on the side was created by my friend Rhea for a charm swap we participated in while at CREATE. It just fit in with my guys. The back more collage and continuation of my ladies, gesso stamping and a piece leave piece that I did some patina on.

This page was a gesso stamp them punched bubble with a doming tool.. It was created purely because I was playing with all the option Leighanna showed us. The back is another attempt to patina.. good thing I like the look of rust.. lol

Another gesso image transfer. I love image transfers. I then tried to patina it and got.. well you got it.. I then rubberstamped wordage around the image. Added a skull with glasses.. Inked it up.. The back is the start of collaged images.. my lady again.. I will add more at a later time

I love this owl image.. he is both cool looking and creepy. Basic page.. image, inked up page, rubber stamped with gesso. The back and the back cover of my deck is image, inked.. cheese cloth for texture, some more gesso stamping and a flip off button.

I will add more I'm sure. At the moment its more charms and texture. As you flip through it you will get a hint at my inner personality. Enjoy.. this was a blast to do.