Eerie Is The Raven

I am so excited! I won a $50 gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp for the random drawing at last weeks "Striped Card Challenge". WOW!!! I spent that real quick and will show you what I got when it comes! That totally made my day! Thank you Simon Says Stamp, and the blog reader who told me!!!  And...thank you, thank you to everyone who has commented and followed my blog! Words cannot express what that means to me.

This weeks challenge for Grungy Monday is the "Perfect Distress Technique" that you can see Tim video demonstrate. You create a background or image by stamping with distress ink, applying Perfect Pearls, and spritzing with water to deepen the color underneath. You get a vintage metallic finish. It's very beautiful looking and actually gives your project a faux texture, very cool. I decided to go for a Halloween theme just one more time this year, since I've been in the mood for it and orange, purple, and green have exploded all over my scrap space. I have done this technique so many times on various projects so I thought I'd give it a go. The Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge this week is to make something using "One Color". I thought this was indeed a challenge because you want things to pop off the page and scream, "Look at me!!!", and I wasn't sure that would happen. So I created this Halloween "Eerie Is The Raven" decoration. I used four accordion folds to make the window really stand our and not blend in with the wall since they were both bricked. I tried to photograph this but my picture is quite blurry...sorry.  As luck would have it, I was surfing the various blogs I subscribe to, I found two more challenges at Gingersnap Creations that happened to apply to my already finished card. One was a color challenge to make something "Black and Gray". The other is a Theme Challenge to make something with "Ravens"...an Edgar Allen Poe type theme. I couldn't believe it.  I don't know if GC allows one project in two challenges but I guess I'll find out soon. I am so loving all these challenges, and am thrilled to be able to take on some of them. If you haven't tried it, I hope you do soon. It really gets you inspired and driven to create something every day.

Supplies:

Paper Used-  Core-dinations Black Magic Color Core Cardstock; Graphic 45 Times Nouveau Collection Die Cut Frame; Making Memories Spook Alley; Cosmo Cricket Haunted:Gothic

Vagabond Materials Used- TH Alterations Die in Raven & Scaredy Cat and Small Easel; TH Alterations Texture Fade in Bricks

Stamps Used- Stampers Anonymous TH Collection in Mini Halloween 2 (bat) and Joyful Songs (cracked glass)

Coloration Used- TH for Ranger Distress Ink in Black Soot; Ranger Perfect Pearls in Heirloom Gold; Mini Mister with water

Embellishments Used- Teresa Collins T Drops in Black; American Crafts Thickers in Black Tiara; wired spider web given to me from Paula; brad

A Striped 10 Minute Card

Well...I decided to do another combination challenge (even though I didn't win the last two). The Grungy Monday challenge this week is to make a "card in under 10 minutes" using of course, some of Timmy's product (you can purchase it by clicking here). You cannot even imagine how difficult this was for me, the gaudy scrapper who takes days to complete something just so it's perfect. Challenge is the absolute correct word here!!! The other one from Simon Says Stamp and Show is to make something "striped". I have tons of striped paper, so no problem. I combined the two and created "Even a Queen Deserves the Night Off", in the movement of the moment...Halloween. It took me 2 times to get it done in under 10 minutes though. I only had seconds to spare. What a great idea when you are in a pinch and have to get a card out quickly. You absolutely have to have all of your supplies ready to go and your design all planned out to complete this in 10, but so worth it when your other option is stopping at the store, searching for the right card, and being late for the occasion. Moreover, you always score extra points when you give handmade.

Supplies:

Paper Used- Kraft Card & Envelope from Paper Studio; white card stock from my stash; Haunted: Them Bones from Cosmo Cricket; Haunted: Journaling Cards from Cosmo Crickett

TH Vagabond Materials Used- TH Alterations Queen of Hearts Texture Fade (I made 2, an extra to cut hearts from for the hat)
Stamps Used-  Stampers Anonymous TH Collection Mini Halloween2
Coloration Used- Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black; TH Distress Ink for Ranger in Gathered Twigs, Ripe Persimmon, & Seedless Preserves; Sakura Glaze Pens in orange & yellow; Zig Dotta-Riffic in black; Faber-Castell Colored Pencil in lime green
Tools Used- Tonic Studios TH Scissors; TH Idea-ology Tini Attacher; Glue Glider Pro Perma Tac