"Happy Haunting" with UNI-BATS! Sketch-It Saturday with Unscripted Sketches #224

Welcome to Sketch-It Saturday with Unscripted Sketches #224. I couldn't wait to share today's project because it's so SpOoky Cute! Sometime during the week I saw a project shared by a fellow creative that was a One-EYED bat with fangs {drawing a complete blank now} and I had to do a one-eyed bat card with today's new sketch.

The background was a section of painted cardstock using peeled paint and seedless grape distress stain spread on my craft mat, misted with water then paper dragged into it. Makes a nice dripped splattered background - perfect for halloween! I stamped sentiment "Happy Haunting", one tiny bat from a flock of bats, spiked fence, a tree background and Halloween Tree Silhouette - all from Viva Las VegaStamps!. The two larger bats are felted stickers by Stampendous - embellished with my FAV... GOOGLIE EYES. The fence is a large border Martha Stewart punch - the punched border sections pieced together cut from grey shimmery cardstock.

Honestly - I hadn't planned to use it this punched border - except the stamped fence that I added hand drawn areas {with what I thought was a matching distress marker} was so bright - and with all attempts to dull it down - I just made a blurred BRIGHT stripey mess out of it. SO one spooky fence border punch to the RESCUE! And it totally works. SO PLEASE don't be afraid to work through a mess-up. Tinker around and see what else you can add... or remove to get it just right. You just need a little patience - and trust your muse :)

What is Sketch it Saturdays at Unscripted Sketches? Every Saturday morning a new sketch is posted for the week. Flip the sketch, rotate it… create a card, a scrapbook page, a wall hanging, digital, paper, fabric, paint, anything your imagination comes up with! There is no right or wrong way, as long as you are using the Unscripted sketch as the inspiration for your creation! And everyone is invited to join in the fun... and post your creation on their page via inlinkz for all the world to see!

Thanks for dropping by today. Have a wonderful weekend!
:) Sb

"VISION is Greater than Baggage..." Altered Book Pages for Week 3 of Anything But a Card Challenges No. 27

Happy Sunday! Today begins the THIRD and final week of Anything But a Card Challenges #27 "Hit the Books" Theme. To see more fabulous work from my fellow design team members today over at ABAC, CLICK HERE.

I have a very hectic day job which leaves me little time to create - and that time is even less after creative team commitments are done. This is where I reserve a special book, just for me... where I can create and paint freely. My altered book spread I'm sharing today is from this book.

The page features a quote that was actually part of the book I've altered and it was the inspiration for this spread. Layers of torn magazine pages, found objects and sponge stamped texture tie the scene together.

"Vision is greater than baggage...." Quote is embossed onto cardstock with my Dymo hand labeler and then inked, painted and attached with mini brads. If you cut strips of paper the width of the labels you can stamp words into whatever color paper you desire.

I make my acrylic paint translucent with Golden Acrylic Glazing Medium, which gives lovely painted layered effects without using water.

I add hand drawn details in using my favorite Caran D'Ache watercolor crayons which can be used as a pastel, or like a paint by adding water with a brush to blend out areas.

Thanks for dropping by to visit. I hope you will find some creative time to make some BOOK ART of your own. Have a great Sunday!!! Sb

"You Do NOT Have To..." Art Journal Play with Unscripted Sketches No. 223 and Craft Stamper's Take It Make It Challenge

It's finally the weekend and I promised myself I wouldn't do anything else until I shared my newest page in my art journal using today's new Sketch-It Saturday with Unscripted Sketches #223. It's the middle of September already and can you believe I haven't made one single Christmas card yet {yikes}!

I also wanted to take part in current Craft Stamper's Take It Make It Challenge which calls for using acetate. So I used old recycled film negative strips as my acetate substrate and stamped on it.

This first thing I did was print out a bunch of quotes collected from facebook and other social media saved on my iPhone with my ZINK Happy 2" square photo printer. I got it about a month or so ago on HSN and I haven't played with it too much because the app is really a bit of a pain to use on my iPhone {and it doesn't help matters that my touch screen has some dead areas}. But for this purpose it was perfect and I have about 2 dozen quotes ready to go... and best part - they are already stickers!!!

The base was a monoprint painted paper leftover from my Amazing No Gelatin Rubber Plate play. I punched it to match my journal using a square fiskars punch. I sprayed a 6" stencil {Flower Quarter TCW369} with black pearly mist and a bit of water over some blank journal pages {I'm not wasting one drop of this precious pearly mist}; then turned the painted stencil over and burnished it down on my page to give the positive of the stencil. It was a little bold so I misted the page with water in areas and blotted with blank cardstock until it was toned down to my liking {this is result after 3 or 4 sprays and blottings}.

The sentiment is from www.bravegirlsclub.com - a source of daily inspiration. I peeled off the backing, smudged the edges with black StazOn ink and stuck it onto a scrap of similar colored monoprint paper. I added a few blue and green colored staples to the corners and added some 3D foam dots to the back. This is layered on top of recycled film negatives that I stamped a grungy chevron border from Viva Las VegaStamps!; joined to my page with same blue and green staples. The section at the bottom is glued on with Diamond Glaze, then I dripped some by accident on top of it... so I dipped a paperclip into my bottle and flicked some more drips around {see top pix}. I'm happy - it's done and now I can get on with other crafty goodness for the weekend! There's still a little time to enter the Craft Stamper's Take It Make It Challenge too.

What is Sketch it Saturdays at Unscripted Sketches? Every Saturday morning a new sketch is posted for the week. Flip the sketch, rotate it… create a card, a scrapbook page, a wall hanging, digital, paper, fabric, paint, anything your imagination comes up with! There is no right or wrong way, as long as you are using the Unscripted sketch as the inspiration for your creation! And everyone is invited to join in the fun... and post your creation on their page via inlinkz for all the world to see!

Thanks for dropping by. I have so many projects I haven't posted... and slowly I'm getting everything scanned and typed up to share. I hope you have a great weekend!
:) Sb

Hoot... Hoot... Hit the Books with Anything But a Card Challenges No. 27

The new Challenge... Anything But a Card Challenge #27 asks you to "Hit the BOOKS". Hit the Books: create a project based on a favorite book, or alter a book, use book pages on your project, create a book mark, a book cover, make a tote, etc. JUST REMEMBER... create anything EXCEPT a card for this challenge :)

**A REMINDER** This Challenge will go through the end of the Month... so you have an extra week to play along and ENJOY the creative process! CLICK HERE to jump over and see the fabulous Design Team's creations to help get you inspired.

Above is an altered vintage sun catcher that I got from one of my crafty pals who seeks out vintage goodies. I think this is from one of those kits that you could bake crystals into back in the day when I was a kid... at least that's how my memory sees it. I've embellished with painted book pages... and now this OWL is now addicted to reading under the moonlight! 

To see how I transformed this adorable owl please CLICK HERE.

Thanks for dropping by... hope you have a creative Sunday! Sb :)

Paper Artsy #3up Challenge... I'm featured Today for "Night Four: Squiggly Ink"

I'm so excited to be playing in Paper Artsy's 3up Challenge and I invite you to my "Inspiration Garden House". Please take some time and see all the wonderful work by fans of Paper Artsy on the Paper Artsy Blog HERE.

I while back I was on twitter and I came across a tweet calling for volunteers for #3up challenge with Paper Artsy... it peaked my interest so I responded. A few weeks later a envy of goodies from ENGLAND arrived with my items to use for the challenge with specific instructions. I love a good challenge... and boy oh boy - Leandra at Paper Artsy must be having a good laugh at throwing us all for a loopy-di-loop! It indeed was a challenge, but I have to admit - my best work comes out of that which is not my usual style. My "Inspiration Garden House" is featured today {tonight in England} for Paper Arsty's 3 UP Night Four: Squiggly Ink on the Paper Artsy Blog HERE. Please take some time and see all the wonderful work by fans of Paper Artsy.

The #3up Challenge: 

In my assortment of creative goodies for the challenge there was a scalloped wooden book page, wooden buttons, some teeny tags, Squiggly Ink Flora and Fauna Stamps and some color swatches. I immediately decided on creating a birdhouse using the scalloped page as a roof. A project like this is ALL ABOUT the DETAILS so please bear with me as I share an extended explanation of my project with you.

Stamps used:

Squiggly Ink: Flora and Fauna 3

and

Squiggly Ink: Flora and Fauna 4

I painted the base with the Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics in Claret {a lovely cranberry red}; then layered the Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Crackle Glaze with Sherbet over the top {I love these paints and this Crackle Glaze - thanks Leandra for the amazing crackle demo video}.

I TOTALLY LOVE THIS STUFF! Depending how you apply paint on top of this crackle glaze, you get large cracks or smaller cracks - that look really organic from natural weathering of paint and not so much painted on.

And the crackling on my teeny wooden spools ended up in proportion to the size of the spools... a fabulous surprise!

I gave a light rubbing of Walnut Stain Distress Ink and a wet brush to antique the bright pink down to go along with the rest of my color palette.

The distressed flowers are the roof die-cut distressed flowers cut from stamped muslin, dabbed with watered down fresco paints from the roof. The vintage handle detail is a resin piece I created - I made a mold using Amazing Mold Putty and cast in Amazing Clear Cast Resin, Brown Alumilite Dye and Alumilite Gold Metallic Powders. 

The base of the house is a recycled holiday card box covered in a recycled woodgrain brown packing paper. It was perfect for covering the silver snowflake box. I made sure to even use a recycled soda can tab as a hanger attached with a decorative brad with a bird on it.

The center of the box background is a scrap of BoBunny patterned paper that matched my color palette perfectly; overstamped with leaf foliage using Timber Brown Staz-On ink. Now for the details...

I stamped flowers onto recycled sewing patterns, hand-cut and layered to make my giant whimsy sunflowers. Mini wooden spools painted same as the roof serve as flower pots; and fiber covered chenille stems make these blooms spring to life.

I finished off this garden by creating a pennant banner using the teeny tags. They had a wine colored thread so I tied a bunch of them together and filled them in with some inspiring words using Walnut Stain Distress Marker. 

I want to say thank-you to Leandra from Paper Artsy for hosting this challenge and for inviting this girl from across the pond to play along and inspire. Please take some time and see all the wonderful work by fans of Paper Artsy on the Paper Artsy Blog HERE. I can't wait to see what's coming up tomorrow! :) Sb

Getting Inky with some GREENCRAFTING for the Viva Las VegaStamps! September Challenge

Dropping by today to share a project I have featured today at the Viva Las VegaStamps! Blog using their September's Challenge Inspiration Board. I am all about recycling and greencrafting so this is right up my alley... and I got to play with my stash of stamps, too! 

In gathering up goodies to create with I came across an Altoid tin... so this project is also inspiration for the current Viva Las VegaStamps! Altoid Tin Swap {CLICK HERE for swap details}. 

Please CLICK HERE to jump over and see the whole project.

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Supplies used: STAMPS - "Panda Eating" #963 and "Flower Background" #18369. Other supplies: white cardstock; recycled book pages and Altoid Tin; gesso; Staz-On Black ink; Miracle Tape; Ranger Distress Markers; Sakura of America Gelly Roll® Stardust® Glitter Pens; Sakura of America Souffle® 3-D Opaque; Ranger Distress Stains - Peeled Paint, Old Paper, and Antique Linen; water brush; Peeled Paint and Frayed Burlap Ranger Distress Inks; Cattails Chipboard from UmWowStudio; buttons; glitter; Diamond Glaze; and natural raffia.

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Thanks so much for dropping by. I invite you to play along with the monthly challenge - make a creation using the inspiration and your stash of VLVS! stamps... you could win RUBBER! CLICK HERE for challenge details. 

Thanks for dropping by. Have a great Labor Day! Sb :)