12 Days of Creepmas - Book him, Danno!

Well, here we are on day 6 of the 12 Days of Creepmas, according to the Smeared and Smudged blog - halfway there.  If you're following the Smeared and Smudged Blog Hop in order, (see here for more about how to play!) you've arrived here from Airless Chambers.  If you're lost, or have come in halfway, you can go work your way through in any order - the blog roll is over there on the right.

Today's project is a little box.  It features this GREAT stamp  - Gaudete - from Visible Image

It's a sizeable stamp - one of their background stamps - and much too big for the little fake book (which is made out of chipboard, a kitchen towel roll, string and faux leather -see the Snapguide for how it was constructed) - so I stamped it onto shrink plastic.  The frame is a Tonic die (one of the Keepsakes range).  I covered the sides of the book-box with modelling paste and ran an old bank card through it to make the "pages"

Inside it's lined with "William Morris" style paper.  You could put a Creepmas gift inside...something suitable..

Today's bonus bit is "Gaudete" from Steeleye Span - partly because the words are on the stamp, and partly because  the song was in the charts my first year in college - happy memories!  (The rather scratchy quality is deliberate!)

Onward, now, to Sarah's blog.  See you on Dec 13 for the next offering!

12 Days of Creepmas - Ho Ho Ho

Day 5 of the 12 Days of Creepmas, according to the Smeared and Smudged blog.  If you're following the hop in order, (see here for more about how to play!) you've arrived here from Airless Chambers.  If you're lost, or have come in halfway, you can go back to the start, or work your way through in any order - the blog roll is over there on the right.

If you've been playing along with the blog hop from the beginning, you may remember that on Day 2 I was inspired by Hogfather, a book by Terry Pratchett (which has also been made into a TV movie).  Today, we have the Hogfather himself (well, actually, it's the Death of the Discworld who is filling in for the Hogfather.

The plastic skull was antiqued for Halloween and never made the cut - but we don't throw good elements away, do we?  The beard and fur on his hat are Martha Stewart paper clay - there's an Amaco mould of faces (dolls, cherubs etc) and one of them is a Santa face.  While the clay was still soft I cut away the hat and beard (sorry Santa - hope I'm not on the naughty list as a result!)  and shaped them over the skull while they set, then glued them in place and added some red crepe paper to finish the hat.  The Death of the Discworld books has blue glowing eye sockets, so I stuck a couple of blue rhinestones in place.

Last month's Craft Stamper magazine cover mount stamp (by Visible Image) went to make the HO.  HO.  HO along the top of the bauble.  I stamped it onto cellophane (packaging material!)  and stuck it to the bauble with double-sided adhesive film scraps, left over from another project.  (I am not so much frugal as downright tight sometimes!)

I stuck the skull into the bauble with epoxy putty (the stuff they sell for mending pipes - I wanted a fast set, and Milliput takes a while to go off) which wasn't the most attractive look.  Once it was set I painted it white and stuck on some fake snow, as sold for decoration at Christmas.

It's now joined the Raven bauble and the Scary Fairy on my Christmas tree.

Today's bonus bit is from Hogfather.  Well, it had to be, didn't it?

I hope that you're enjoying the blog hop so far.  Off you go, now, to Sarah's blog. Thank you for visiting, and I'll see you on Dec 9!

Keren

12 Days of Creepmas - The Scary on the Christmas Tree

It's day 4 of the 12 Days of Creepmas, according to the Smeared and Smudged blog.  If you're following the hop in order, (see here for more about how to play!) you've arrived here from Airless Chambers.  If you're lost, or have come in halfway, you can go back to the start, or work your way through in any order - the blog roll is over there on the right.

Today I present - the Scary on the Christmas tree!

Well, it's more of a dark angel really...

I gave this Halloween decoration a coat of acrylic paint to use in a 31 days of Halloween project that never got made -  and then my husband said " You should make a Scary for the Christmas Tree..."

The wings are a stamp from Sheena Douglass - they're a good size and worked perfectly with the skelly.  The robe is just a bit of Angel hair (appropriately!) and the gold star is a bit left over from another project.

Today's bonus bit is a song from The Springfields - Bambino.  I loved this as a child - in fact, I was a big fan of the Springfields and was quite upset when they split up.  I hope you enjoy it too!

Thank you for visiting.  If you're working your way around the blog hop, please move on to Sarah's blog.  See you on Dec 9 for the next offering!

Bye for now!

Keren

12 days of Creepmas - Bearing gifts

Day 3 of the 12 Days of Creepmas, according to the Smeared and Smudged blog.  If you're following the hop in order, (see here for more about how to play!) you've arrived here from Airless Chambers.  If you're lost, or have come in halfway, you can go back to the start, or work your way through in any order - the blog roll is over there on the right.

 If you followed this blog during the 31 Days of Halloween, you might remember me mentioning a visit to the Harry Potter studios.  There's an awesome shop where you can buy almost everything Hogwarts (husband came away with a set of Slytherin robes and a wand...don't ask...) and I bought a chocolate frog, mainly because it came in a smashing five-sided box.  (The frog was a substantial piece of very nice chocolate.  I had to eat it...husband isn't keen on chocolate.)

Anyway, I deconstructed the box and made my own template - if you look on my Templates page you can find a PDF or SVG version.

The skull digi came from Delicious Darkness - I'm so happy that we'll still be able to get Teri's art next year.  For a while there it looked as if changes to the tax laws were going to force her to quit.  Luckily for us, she's joined the team of artists at Smeared Ink (whew!)  The colour in the photo has come out a bit wonky - in real life the yellow highlight on the skull are much more subtle.   The star on top of the box is die-cut from soft gold card, and the border around the base of the box is a bit of ribbon from the stash, which I'd totally forgotten about and found when I was looking for something else (which I still haven't found.  You win some and you lose some.)

As promised, every day I'm sharing something that I associate with Christmas or the festive season.  Today's bonus bit always makes me laugh.  Hope you enjoy as much as I do!

Onward, now, to Sarah's blog.  See you on Dec 7 for the next offering!

Bye for now!

Keren

12 Days of Creepmas - What's so special about Robins anyway?

It's the second day of Creepmas according to the  Smeared and Smudged blog hop. If you're following the hop in order, (see here for more about how to play!) you've arrived here from Airless Chambers.  If you're lost, or have come in halfway, you can go back to the start, or work your way through in any order - the blog roll is over there on the right.

Today's offering features a Smeared Ink digi.  The set is no longer available as a digi, which is sad, because it's just SOOO easy to flip an image so that the raven is double-sided.  He's stuck onto some acetate (cut from packaging - regular visitors to this blog may be aware of my penchant for making use of packaging material) and then glued inside a clear bauble with a bit of fake snow.  Yes, he will be going on the tree when it goes up!

The inspiration for this deccie came from a book by Terry Pratchett, Hogfather.  It was also made for TV a few years ago.  In the book, a raven is employed by the Death of Rats to act as interpreter - the Death of Rats communicates by saying SQUEAK, which the raven, being a naturally occult bird, can understand.  It is a bit resentful that robins get to appear on greetings cards and ravens - don't.  The raven was cut from the programme, but Rat Death made an appearance, so here he is in today's bonus bit.

Hope you enjoyed - now, if you're working your way around the hop, it's on to Sarah's blog.  See you on December 5th!

Bye for now!

12 days of Creepmas - Marley was dead

Hello everyone, and can you believe it?  It's December already, and here we go with the 12 days of Creepmas.

If you're following the Smeared and Smudged Blog Hop in order, (see here for more about how to play!) you've arrived here from Airless Chambers.  If you're lost, or have come in halfway, you can go work your way through in any order - the blog roll is over there on the right.

Today's project was inspired by the part in A Christmas Carol where Scrooge arrives at his front door to find the doorknocker has taken on the shape of his deceased partner, Jacob Marley.  I die- cut the door out of black woodgrain paper and rubbed a bit of pan pastel over the top to make the grain visible (black on black is not necessarily a good idea).  The wreath is made up from the Wondrous Wreath stamp set from Stampin' Up!   (I am  so pleased that it's now possible to shop online!) - and cut with the matching dies.  ( The magnetic platform for my Big Shot was worth every penny!) .  The skull is moulded out of Martha Stewart paper clay and the door knocker is a plastic curtain ring.  (I might as well say here and now I made a few copies of the skull while I was at it so you may be seeing it again as the month wears on!)

Because it's Christmas, as well as the usual crafty bloggingness, I'm including a "bonus bit" - something that I've enjoyed and want to share.  Today's bonus bit is from A Muppet Christmas Carol - it's Marley and Marley!

I hope you've been entertained!  If you're following the blog hop, please proceed in an orderly fashion to  Sarah's blog, and I'll see you here on December 3.

Bye for now,

Keren

I can see clearly now

Hello big friends, and thank you for stopping by.

After the fun and frolic of the 31 days of Halloween Blog Hop - wasn't it GREAT? - I have emerged from my darkened room just in time to take part in the November Smeared and Smudged blog hop.
Here's the blog roll -
Black Dragon
Evil Edna
Jessica
Karen
LeslieRahye
Nanette
Kim
Sarah N
Keren
Susan

If you're following  the hop in order, you've arrived here from Sarah's blog.

The theme is TRANSPARENT, and for my offering I've used a snow globe.

These things are ace.  They are designed with a void in the middle which you can fill with whatever image you choose (and there's enough space to allow for a quite lumpy image).  The best bit is that you can change the image as often as you like - so you may be seeing the globe quite often in the future!

Mine's more of a Poe globe, actually...

This was such a quick project, using the watch stamp from Creative Expressions (with a bit of masking and DI on the background) and the Poe digi by Rick St Denis.  I actually printed out Poe for another project, but he wasn't the right size when I came to use him....then I lost the bit of paper...

Anyway, it was so quick it seemed a pity not to do another insert for the other side of the globe...and it looked so GOOD all magnified by the globe...so I did another one.

So once I'd finished, I got to thinking that it was all too easy for a blog hop project, (I like to give value for money!)  so I decided to make a little stand for the globe to sit on.  

I started with a carton that came with cans of lager.  (Of course, someone had to drink the lager.  The sacrifices I make for my art...)  It's a good weight, cuts well, and the price is right.  I found that one of my Spellbinders circles was just the right size for the globe to sit on so I cut three circles and glued them together.    

While I had the Big Shot out, I also cut a length of card with the Iron Works On the Edge die and another strip of card.  See the jar lid in the picture?  The strip of card was the same depth as that. the lid is there to provide support as the globe is relatively heavy and I don't want the card to collapse under the weight.

While the glue was drying, I cut some construction strips out of lightweight card (cut a 1 inch wide strip of card, score in half, and apply strong double-sided tape to the sides.  I use Template Tape from BCE.  I notched one side of the construction strip ready for the next stage - 

I glued the construction strip to the underside of the card circles.  I used glue as well as tape- the tape gave a quick grab, the glue makes sure that the project won't come unstuck.  I clamped it (mini clamps came from the pound shop!)  while it was drying.

Then I glued the jar lid to the underside with glue gel.  After that, it was just a matter of sticking the edging onto the platform. painting it and giving it a coat of Decoart Metallic Lustre wax in black.

So, if you're working your way through the blog hop, you're nearly done. On to Susan's blog!