Smeared and Smudged: More from Smeared Ink

Discontinued Rubber and Pre Black Friday Sale!

2011-11-20T10:38:00.000-08:00

PRE BLACK FRIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA! 25% OFF AT SMEARED INK!

Hi Everyone!! I'm happy to announce that we are doing a PRE-BLACK FRIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA SALE over at Smeared Ink. All stamps (digital and rubber) are 25% OFF from November 19 - November 25.

We also have a big announcement to make. We will temporarily be discontinuing all of our rubber sets. After the current stock is depleted they will be offered in digi form, so if you have rubber on your mind get them while you can! This is something we've been trying to avoid for some time now, but can no longer. We hope to one day offer rubber again, but right now it's not practical for us. We will be having more and more digis added to our site within the next few weeks so we hope you check back often to see what new art we have to offer you. Thanks for stopping by and happy shopping!

Monthly Member Blog Hop- Steampunk

2011-11-10T10:24:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, welcome to our November Member Blog Hop on Smeared and Smudged! This month we decided to challenge our participants with a Steampunk theme. They must use images, pieces, or parts that embrace the Steampunk genre, and it must be stamped somewhere.

My card is pretty simple, featuring papers from the Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutant collection, and also featuring stamps from Smeared Ink's Urban Decay.

Please enjoy the hop today as you visit our wonderful participants from the Smeared and Smudged forum!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 31

2011-10-31T14:25:00.000-07:00

It's Day 31 of our month long blog hop, and I can't believe it's over! As promised, I have some fun information for you about My Memories. A few days ago you had the opportunity to win the My Memories Suite 2 software on Sugar's blog, and today you get another chance!

My Memories Suite is the software I have been using for the past couple of 31 Days projects that I have posted, as well as for the banner you see above. I have to say I am thoroughly impressed with it! As most of you know, I am not a scrapbooker. I have made some pages that I loved, and I love the process of it, but unfortunately my life just doesn't allow me the time. I've never used digital scrapbooking kits because, well for lack of a better term, they just seemed cheesy to me. They were all very cut and dry and frankly, too cute

for my tastes.

When I was approached to try the My Memories software for free, I decided to give it a try and be completely honest with my review of it. I can honestly say that I LOVE it! It is super easy to use, and I love that you can add on any extra kits or embellies that you like from the My Memories website. They offer alot of free add-ons, and the others are very reasonably priced for what you get in the files. They come formatted for the Suite program, and also for use in Photoshop which is my go-to for digital work.

After I made my scrapbook page of my daughter's Haunted House picture, I was pleasantly surprised to find out you can export your projects as jpeg files to your computer, so you can share in any way that you like. This makes it amazingly convenient for me to share with family, since we are military and are nowhere near my family. I'm super excited to continue working with the program to finally get some of my memories and important pics put together.

So, now that I've told you about my experience with the program, here's your chance to win it for free!! Just visit the My Memories website and choose your favorite digital paper pack. Then comment here and let me know what it is. As on Sugar's blog, you also have the chance to get extra entries by becoming a follower of one of these three sites:

Blog

Facebook

Twitter

If you follow all three, you'll get three extra entries! After becoming a follower, come back here and let me know you did it.

Finally, for those of you who would rather not wait to see if you won, I have been given a special promotional code that will give you $10 off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store- a $20 value.

Code: STMMMS25878

This code can be used at any time, not just today.

So, now that you've heard all about it, hop on through the Wicked Blogs one last time! Also, please be aware that we will be posting daily winners over the next couple of days, and our grand prize winner will be announced by November 5th! Thanks for making 31 Days of Halloween 2011 another extraordinary event!!!!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 30

2011-10-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Today we are being sponsored by, well, me! I will be sponsoring with my etsy shop, Rag Fairy Creations.

Rag Fairy Creations is a mish-mash of my creative endeavors. I love creating mixed media art, homemade herbal items, journals, cards, fabric items, crochet items and sculpture. Over the next two months I will be adding in lots of goodies, so be sure to swing my and check them out! For my sponsorship today, I am offering up two jars of my Herbal Healing Salve, which is not yet in my shop, but will be soon.

Herbal Healing Salve can be used to soothe bug bites, rashes, dry or cracked skin, eczema, minor burns, sunburn, cuts, scrapes, and sores. Also, it is great on healing tattoos! I make it all with organic natural ingredients, most of which are grown or harvested by me.

To be entered, find the Rag Fairy hidden image on one of the Wicked Blogs. Also don't forget to look for the Rick St Dennis hidden image. Email us when you find them, and have fun hopping today!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 29

2011-10-29T13:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Day 29! Once again, we are being sponsored by the fabulous Graphicat Designs!

Today Graphicat Designs will offer the winner a choice of a $10 Gift Certificate to the store, or their choice of 5 digi images. Be on the lookout for the Graphicat hidden image and the Rick St Dennis hidden image. When you spot them, email us and let us know where they are to be entered. Have fun hopping today!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 28

2011-10-28T08:38:00.000-07:00

Welcome back folks! Today we are bringing you another Smeared Ink day, and a chance to win another awesome digi set!

This is one of our personal faves! Zombie Classics Digi Set

Find our hidden image and email us to let us know where you saw it. And also, don't forget about the fabulous Rick St Dennis' digi giveaway!! His image is hiding somewhere out in Wicked Blog-land too. Have fun hopping!

31 Days of Halloween Day 27- Insane Scrapbook

2011-10-27T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, welcome back! Once again our very own Black Dragon is sponsoring with her beautiful handmade jewelry. To enter to win the item of your choice, find the hidden image and email us to let us know where it is.

Also, don't forget about Rick St Dennis and his wonderful digi set up for grabs.

Today I do have a project to share with you. It is a digital scrapbook page and featured one of my favortie Halloween photos of all time.

*click for larger view

I used this same photo last year in one of my projects, so you may remember it. Every year we try to host or participate in a Haunted House. Well, this particular year a friend and I got together and planned out a Haunted House, and the theme was an insane asylum. In my opinion, it was the best one we ever did. My husband played the demented, psychotic doctor who was doing experiments on the patients. My now 12 yo, who was 6 at the time, played the little creepy girl patient who talked to the ghosts. She was super scary, I think maybe even more scary than everyone else, and she LOVED participating and being the little actress!

Well, her favorite line to say was "The ghosts like me but they don't like you", which she came up with all on her own, and she would say it in a creepy voice to the asylum guests as they walked through. Anyhoo, this picture was snapped after we were done and had come inside the house to relax. My husband was joking around with her as the doctor and he grabbed her to "strangle" her and we just happened to have the camera out. I just love the look on both their faces-they look happy and like they truly are enjoying themselves, which is why I love the picture so much.

For the page, I once again used the My Memories software, and just let me remind you to visit on the 31 for more about that. I included her fave quote, and also some journaling about the event. I also added in one of our Raven stamps, which I stamped and then scanned, then resized in photoshop. The raven is there because during the Haunted House, my friend's husband (as a patient) bit the head off of a fake bird, which was gross and completely genious, we didn't know he was going to do it. It's just a reference to that. Before anyone says anything, just know that my daughter was not a witness to this, lol. We kept her out of the gory aspects of the house because of her age.

So, I am completely in love with digital scrapbooking. I have tried some normal scrapbook pages and although I am good at it, I just don't have time. I will probably have lots of these to share in the future. I hope you enjoy it and that this page gave you some ideas. Have fun hopping today!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 26- Skimpy Costume

2011-10-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, welcome to Day 26! Today we are being sponsored by the fabulous Kenny K!

"Digi and rubber stamps from KennyK are a fun and edgy way to add the perfect dose of attitude and style to all of your creations!

The creator, the artist, the man: KennyK is a NYC-born professional illustrator who has brought his funky-but-slick, urban-influenced look to the cardmaking and papercrafts world. His signature style can be seen throughout his various collections of sexy pinup babes, sweet 'n sassy girls, cool rockin' dudes, kid’s stuff, retro characters and more at KennyKDownloads.com .

I’m ElenaK, the woman behind the man. I am an event planner and crafter at heart. KennyKDownloads.com is a collaboration that combines both of our respective skill sets and allows us to create together – and there is nothing better than that!"

For today's prize, Kenny K is offering four digi singles of the winner's choice. To enter, find the hidden image on one of the Wicked Blogs and email us to let us know where it is. Also, don't forget about the Rick St Dennis hidden image. Email us the hidden image location for that one as well.

I actually got to make a project for today. It is a digi card that I think I will be sending out to a couple of close friends, as it's just too funny in my mind. Elena and Kenny were so very generous to let the Smeaed Ink Design Team work with some of their images, and the one I chose was Capt. Locke. I will definitely be using her again, as it's just the perfect image to send to my husband on the ship, but for now I am using her as a Halloween costume-clad cutie.

We've all heard that Halloween is just an excuse for women to run around skimpily clad, and I thought I'd play up on this thought for my card. I used, as I said before, Capt. Locke from Kenny K as my main image. My background papers and embellishments all came from My Memories, and I just have to say be sure to visit my blog on the 31st for more exciting info about that!

I love how the image looks like the bats are swooping around her and producing wind, or at least in my mind it looks that way. I can't wait to send this one out :)

So, I hope you like it! Have fun hopping today, and I'll see you all tomorrow!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 25

2011-10-25T07:31:00.000-07:00

Well, it's almost over, a little under a week left. Can you believe it? I can't; I still have not finished all that I have to do before Halloween, and I haven't even been participating as a Wicked Blogger! Well, I guess what gets done will get done. Hope you all are enjoying yourselves and all of the amazing projects this year!

Today you have one final chance to win an awesome prize from Crafty Chaos Designs! Once again, Crafty Chaos is offering up 2 items of your choice from the shop.

Email us the location of the Crafty Chaos hidden image as well as the Rick St Dennis hidden image to be entered for today's prizes! And have fun hopping the Wicked Bloggers today!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 24

2011-10-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

It's Day 24 and we have a new sponsor for you!

Delicious Doodles offers up some pretty amazing designs in their shop, and we are always thrilled to have Teri sponsor us with her deviously dark images!

Teri has donated three awesome images: Call of the Wild, Bat-erfly, and Halloween Border. To enter, find the hidden Delicious Doodles image on one of theW icked Blogs and email us it's location. To enter for the Rick St Dennis digi set, find that hidden image as well. Have fun hopping today!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 23

2011-10-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday everyone! It's Day 23 and we have more sponsor info for you!

Remember the awesome Dracula wood mounted stamp that Sideshow offered up last time? Well, here is it's match, Vampira!

To win , email us the location of the hidden image. Also, don't forget about your chance to win the Rick St Dennis digi set. Happy Hopping!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 22

2011-10-22T22:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Day 22! Today we have another amazing sponsor to share with you!

Once again, Val from Third Coast has very generously donated a $50 gift certificate for our 31 Days hop! To enter for the $50 gift certificate, find the Third Coast hidden image. Then email us and tell us where it is. Also, don't forget about Rick St Dennis and his amazing digi set up for grabs! Find and email the location of that image as well to be up for the drawing. Have fun!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 21

2011-10-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

Welcome back folks! Sorry about the technical difficulties yesterday, my internet was down. But, I'm happy to report today's sponsor for Day 21!!

SMEARED INK is sponsoring with another awesome digi set giveaway! What is more suiting for 31 Days than the Cavaleras Digi set!!?!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 19

2011-10-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Day 19 of 31 Days! I am pleased to announce our sponsor for today!

Strange Skin is offering up 3 digi images of the winner's choice.

Email us the location of the Strange Skin hidden image as well as the Rick St Dennis hidden image to be entered for today's prizes! And have fun hopping the Wicked Bloggers today!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 18

2011-10-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

It's Day 18 of 31 Days, and I am pleased to tell you about our sponsor for today!

Once again, Crafty Chaos is offering up 2 items of your choice from the shop!

Email us the location of the Crafty Chaos hidden image as well as the Rick St Dennis hidden image to be entered for today's prizes! And have fun hopping the Wicked Bloggers today!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 17

2011-10-17T18:17:00.000-07:00

***IMPORTANT*** I had this post autoposted and apparently it didn't post, so you will get an extra day for this sponsor day ONLY to find the hidden images. Please have your entries emailed to us no later that 9 am on 10/19. Tomorrow's sponsor will revert back to normal time.

It's Day 17 of 31 Days, and I am pleased to tell you about our sponsor for today!

"Digital stamps based around my girls Creepie Cuties. A great place to find the cute, creepy and kooky images."

Kristie from Creepy Cute Stamps is donating to the winner any 3 digi stamps from her etsy store . To enter, just email us and let us know where the hidden image is! Also, as always, don't forget about the Rick St Dennis hidden image.

Okay, now I have to tell you all about my situation. I am going to have to withdraw from being a Wicked Blogger this year. I will still be participating as much as I can, but I have come to realize that I just don't have the time to make a project every day, especially with Halloween getting closer, my daughter's constant practices and competitions (which is for colorguard, for those of you who asked), business stuff, and nobody around to help out with the kidlings. Let's just say I know when to bow out gracefully lol. But, like I said, I will still be rocking some Halloween projects and posting them as often as possible, it just may not be every day.

So what does that mean for you? Well, you will still need to visit my blog daily to find out about our sponsors, and winners of sponsor prizes. Also, feel free to comment on any projects that I do post when you feel like it, I always love hearing the feedback! I do hope you will enjoy the Wicked Blogs, and the remainder of 31 Days, and kudos to those of you who are still blogging strong with a project every day! See you all tomorrow with more sponsor info :), and soon with a project. Happy Hopping!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 16- Spooky Witch Canvas

2011-10-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hello hello! I got plenty of rest yesterday, and was able to get together a super project for you today! Can't wait to share it! But first I have our sponsor information for you.

Once again, we are being sponsored by the fabulous Graphicat Designs!

Have you had the chance to swing by their new shop website? They are now offering rubber stamps, and I just LOVE their snarky sayings! They go perfectly with so many of our Smeared Ink stamps. Today Graphicat Designs will offer the winner a choice of a $10 Gift Certificate to the store, or their choice of 5 digi images. Be on the lookout for the Graphicat hidden image and the Rick St Dennis hidden image. When you spot them, email us and let us know to be entered.

As far as sponsor winners go, I will be updating winners later today and catching up on claim emails. If you are listed above and have not yet done it, please email us so we can pass on the info on how to claim your prize!

Okay, now that I've given you all the great sponsor info, let's move on to my project! It is an 11x14 canvas and it's pretty "Spooky".

*click for larger views

Once again, my canvas uses tons of different materials to make the background. There are too many for me to remember, but some of them include paint, papers, pattern paper, book pages, different homemade masks and texturizers, paint spray, mod podge, crepe paper, stamps, charcoal, pastels, & pens. I can, however, tell you that I used various stamps from our Urban Decay and Quoth The Raven stamp sets.

I started with the background, and then moved onto my witch. I just love how she came out, as this is the first one of these girls that I have made!

I recently took a workshop that taught how to make these girls, of course in a much cuter style, but I have so many ideas for changing them to suit me and I plan on making tons more of these canvases. So, what do you think? I think this will be the first that I will be selling and I'd love to hear your opinions.

Okay, now that you've seen my project, it's time for you to hop through the Wicked Blogs. Have fun today, and I'll see you tomorrow!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 15

2011-10-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, welcome to Day 15! We are HALF WAY THROUGH!! I can't believe it! How have you been enjoying it? I've really loved all of the outstanding ideas and really look forward to the rest of the month.

Today our sponsor is our very own Tori, who as you may or may know runs her own successful Scentsy business. Click the pic to visit her site.

As the pic says, Tori will be donating this very cool Fright Night Plug In Warmer to the winner of today's scavenger hunt! Isn't it super cool? I personally love these little plug in warmers. So, to qualify, visit Tori's blog (on the Wicked Blogger list) for details. Also don't forget about the Rick St Dennis hidden image.

So now the bad news, today I do not have a project to show you. Once again we had a competition yesterday and I did not get back until extremely late, which is also why my post is up late today. I know I should plan ahead, and for next weekend I definitely will, but I just didn't have the chance this time. I'm so sorry I have nothing to show you. But, on the bright side, that's one less blog to comment on as Horrifying Hoppers :)

However, I am positive you will find some amazing inspiration on the Wicked Blogs today!! And I already have an idea-a-brewin' for tomorrow's project, so please come back and visit me then.

Happy hopping!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 14- Creativity Revolution

2011-10-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

Hello once again! I am feeling a little better today, although still tired, but thank you all for the well wishes!! Today is Friday, which means it's Smeared Ink day!!!

There was a little bit of confusion about the rules for our Wicked Bloggers today, so I just want to clarify...Wicked Bloggers get an extra entry for the grand prize drawing when they use ONLY Smeared Ink stamps on their project for Smeared Ink days each Friday. We love to see what you can do with our images, and what amazing ideas you all can come up with! Of course, this is not mandatory at all and we are enjoying all of the projects presented during our 31 Days celebration! We've been visiting each and every blog every day, and although we are not commenting, please know that we are thoroughly enjoying looking at everyone's hard work and sharing in the creativity!

So, as I said, today is Smeared Ink day!

Anatomy 101

Look for our hidden image somewhere in the Wicked Blogs to be entered to win our Anatomy 101 digi set. Here is a copy of the image (no, this isn't the hidden one) as we know today it's hidden really well!

Also, don't forget to look for the hidden Rick St Dennis image to win the fabulous digi set he has offered! Email us when you find them, and you will be entered for the drawing.

Ok, for my project today I made a canvas featuring the Front Facing Skull from Anatomy 101. This is less a "Halloween" project and more an an ode to the creativity that is 31 Days of Halloween.

A while back I made a similar canvas that featured the side facing skull and a hand drawn girl, and this one kinda matches.

*click for larger views

Out of the two, I love this one more. It just seems darker to me, which I love, and is more me. As I said, it started as ablank canvas and has tons of layers on it including decorative paper, newspaper, gesso, paint, paint, more paint, more newspaper, magazine scraps, more paint, and handwriting.

In case you can't read my horrible script, the writing in the eye sockets says "Look Within to Transcend Common Thought", and the Escape writing says "Escape the Boundary of Your Own Imagination". This is something that I try to do with each and every project, especially during 31 Days, when I can.

I am debating on whether or not to keep this for my Halloween room or sell it. Like I said, I love it so much, but will also be starting to work on and sell my canvases and altered items regularly through my etsy shop, so I haven't decided yet. Either way, I would love to get your advice about some pricing. I've never sold canvases before. If you were selling this piece, how much would you charge? If you were looking at buying it, how much would you pay? It is an 11x 17. Any advice you can give would be very much appreciated!!

So before you go, I just wanted to give you an update on Ruyke the kitty. Oh yeah, someone asked how you pronounce it and what it means- you pronounce it "Ruke" with a long u, and it means dark companion. Obviously she is a darker coloring, and she has become our companion so it fit :) Anyhoo, we took her to the vet last night and other than a cold, she is in pretty good health! They gave her a shot of antibiotics for the cold. She does have a missing k-9 tooth which they think was knocked out, so that may cause problems later, but for now she's doing good. They are guestimating her age at anywhere from 7 yrs to 12 yrs old, but more in the area of 7. She got all her immunizations, including rabies, and is now ready to join our family. She has been inside since yesterday and is doing great!! She loves the kids, LOVES being pet, has devoured all the food we gave her, and only hisses at Zombie (our little chihuahua/daschound) if he gets too close. She's twice as big as him, and since she can't claw him, I don't foresee any real problems. So, looks like it will be a perfect fit! I will get more pics later on for you all.

Ok, so I hope you enjoy your hopping today and get lots of inspiration! Have fun!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 13- Magical Cat

2011-10-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, welcome back! I am a little under the weather so my project for today is digital and pretty simple. But first, I have sponsor info! Today our very own Black Dragon is sponsoring again with her fabulous handmade jewelry, and we have the Rick St Dennis digi set up for grabs! To enter, find the hidden images and email us to let us know where they are.

So now on to my project. This was a collaboration of sorts between me and my kindergartener. I used our Hallo Kitty digi single stamp, and I'll give you a little bit of the back story behind the image. There is a cat that has been hanging around outside of our house, and she seems to love us very much. I believe she is an indoor cat that just got out one day or someone jus let loose because thwey didn't want her. She is a long hair and I believe she is part Persian because she has that flat nose. She is orange and black with a little white on her belly. Well, lately it's been getting really cold here and I am thinking about letting her into the house and "adopting" her. She doesn't belong to anyone in the surrounding neighborhoods, and doesn't seem to want to go anywhere else. So, I made a vet appt for her today to go get her checked out and possibly get her groomed as she has alot of matting on her. Oh yeah, she is also declawed which is why I think she was a pet.

Anyways, she was the inspiration behind the Hallo Kitty image cause she's so scruffy looking right now. So my daughter wanted to make a card that we can print out and give to her class this year, and she helped me pick the colors and design it. Here it is:

*click for larger view

and here is a very bad pic of Ruyke the cat:

Isn't she gorgeous? I can't wait to get her all brushed and cleaned up so we can add her to our family.

So, I am off to go rest and hopefully get rid of this funk before it gets worse, but have fun hopping today! Will see you tomorrow with a better project.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 12- Scary Shadow

2011-10-11T23:39:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, welcome back! Today brings us to Day 12 of 31 Days, and isn't the time just flying by? I have a couple of things to talk about, but first let's introduce you to our sponsor for today!

Viva Las Vegas Stamps is located in fabulous Las Vegas, and they have thousands of stamps to choose from ! Be sure to visit their site to view all the fun! VLVS has generously donated a pound of rubber to the winner today, so be sure to look for their hidden image, as well as the Rick St Dennis hidden image. Email us when you find them to be entered.

Ok, so I had a couple of comment questions about some of my 31 Days projects so far that I want to address...

I will be making a tutorial on how to make the pattern paper flowers from Day 2 and I will post it sometime this month on the S&S Forum tutorial page. When I do, I will let you all know.

Also, the question came up several times asking how I stamped on the curved glass of the Raven Pedestals from Day 10. The secret is to ink up your stamp and then lay it face up on your table (my stamps are unmounted). Then take the glass, ornament, curved surface, etc, and slowly starting from one edge of the stamp, roll it over the stamp. The cool thing about doing this on clear items is that you can see exactly which part of it has stamped and which hasn't, so you can adjust pressure accordingly. If you'd like a tutorial on this as well for a visual, I can do it, but it really is very simple and only takes a little practice before you get the hang of it.

The blood splatter on my Day 7 Glam Vamps project was done digitally, I just used different PSE brushes to obtain the effect.

I think those were all the questions I have come across so far. Now to share my project for today. It is digital once again, and features our Shadow Grumpie image from Creepy Li'l Grumpies.

*click for larger view

It's pretty self explanatory. I started out with a wall background and used PSE to grunge it up a bit more than it was and skew it. I made the floor as well and skewed that to fit. I then placed my Grumpie on top, colored him up, and added my word. The final step was to add my back layer, and voila! All done! I think I may have this one printed to send to family and friends this year, I really adore the way it came out. And I just love how he's so mesmerized by that flame, he doesn't even notice his shadow is coming to eat him! Bwahahahahaha!!

Now that you've seen my piece, hop on through the Wicked Blogs and have fun getting your inspiration on for the day! Also, don't forget our new Smudgy Antics challenge has been posted, and the theme this week is Black Birds. You have until Sat at midnight to enter! Hope to see you over there :)

31 Days of Halloween: Day 11- Antique Lace As Death Garland

2011-10-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Day 11! I'm so excited to share my project with you today, as I've been wanting to make this for a while now. And I know I am getting this post up after the deadline, but I worked on it so late and had some overnight drying to do. But, before all that, we have another sponsor for you! Can you believe the amazing sponsors this year?!??!!

"Howl-o boys and mostly ghouls, hope you're having a fangtastic Rocktober! Sit around the campfire while I spin you a delightfully dreary yarn about a company I like to call...Strange Skin! This crafty creature was constructed from the decomposed (and recomposed!) body parts snatched from the local graveyard by mad scientists Jorge "The Ghoul" Garcia and Professor "Pallid" Pam Bowman. Slowly starting out as a hideous oozy mass, this pitiable pile of goo quickly hacked its way up and produced tasteless t-shirts, horrid handbags, putrid plushies, ghoulish jewelry, and finally...despicable digis! Make sure you sleep with one eye open and your covers pulled all the way up, kiddies- because this creepy company is ready to spring out of your closet and aid you in your any need to spruce up those makeshift monsters of yours ...at a price! A monetary price, that is! Let this spooky space serve as a rotten reminder that Strange Skin no longer accepts brew ingredients (fresh or dried nightcrawlers, newt, salamander or toad eyes, etc.), scalps, shrunken heads, british pounds (of flesh!), or pesos. Have a dreadful day, everyone, and an even more terrible tomorrow!"

Today when you enter by finding the hidden image, you have the chance to win three digi sets of your choice from Strange Skin! When you find it, email us and let us know where it is. ALso don't forget about your chance to win the Rick St Dennis digi set; email us the location of that hidden image as well.

Okay, I can't contain myself any longer. This project is super simple and I don't know why I love it so much, I think it's the combination of our As Death stamp set, which is one of my absolute favorites, and the awesome antique crochet lace that I've been wanting to use on a Halloween garland since I found it.

I started with some cardboard circles that I already had and covered them with a simple DP that looked distressed. Then I stamped my alternating images. That's it. I know, I know. I was thinking in my head "how dare I". But, it's exactly the look I wanted for it. Then I just framed each one with either black crepe paper & glitter glue, some of my crocheted lace, or twine. The final step was to run some twine through the backs of the circles, which conveniently already had the holes, and then hang my garland up.

*click for larger views

It is located in my entry way, and the room you see behind it will become my Halloween room, probably by this coming weekend. Transformations will start today!! So, what do you think? I hope it gives you some ideas for your own garland...even the simplest things can look amazing!!!

Have fun hopping the Wicked Bloggers today, and I'll see you tomorrow!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 10- Raven Pedestals

2011-10-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

Well, time caught up with me yesterday and I was never able to finish my Day 9 project. I did, however, make a Day 10 project to get back on track. My Day 9 will just have to wait until later in the month. But, before we get to my pedestals, we have sponsor information for you!!

Once again, Crafty Chaos is offering up 2 items of your choice from the shop!

To qualify for this prize or the Rick St Dennis digi set, find the coordinating hidden image somewhere int he Wicked Blogs. Then email us their locations. We will get winners up by Monday evening, as I will be away from my computer today and most of tomorrow.

Okay, now I'd like to share with you my super easy Raven Pedestals. I didn't stage a photo for you because I'd like you to see them in my Halloween Room when it's all said and done, so you are just getting a taste of how cool these actually are when they are decorated.

You can probably see how I made them, but just in case you can't tell I flipped a glass upside down and attached either a plate or bowl to the top using industrial strength glue. The cool thing about them is you can place something under the glass as well.

I used images from our Quoth The Raven rubber set and stamped with Stazon on the glass, and craft ink on the plates. When these are all decorated, they will hold some pumpking goodies and some candy, with some creepy creatures under the glass. I can't wait to show them to you in my final pictures!!

So, I hope they've inspired you, and that you have lots of fun hopping through our blogs today!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 9

2011-10-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, it's Day 9 of 31 Days of Halloween! How have you liked the hop so far? What a party, right? I know I have been really inspired by our Wicked Bloggers, and the Horrifying Hoppers have really hung in there with all the comments and technical difficulties. Please remember this is supposed to be fun, so don't stress too much.

Today we have another amazing sponsor to share with you!

"Third Coast is a small, one-woman owned art rubber stamp company started in 1995. Now carrying more than 6500 stamp images, we work with several artists to bring you you new unique and inspiring images. Our stamps are manufactured to order, from deeply-etched red rubber. We have something for every taste!"

Did you know that the Third Coast DT Blog is having a Halloween project posted every day this month as well? How cool is that! And, Val has very generously donated a $50 gift certificate for our 31 Days hop! So, if you're itching to get some Third Coast stamps, this is definitely the scavenger day for you!

To enter for the $50 gift certificate, visit the Third Coast DT Blog (linked above) and choose your favorite Halloween project that has been posted so far. Then email us and tell us about it! We will draw for the winner tomorrow.

Also, don't forget about our Rick St Dennis digi up for grabs. Look for his hidden image on one of the Wicked Blogs and let us know where it is!

So, onto my project info for today...I actually don't have one to show you yet. BOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I know. Yesterday's chaotic schedule with the competition did not leave me any time to craft, we weren't home and done until almost midnight! Unlike some of the more organized bloggers, I did not start my projects early this year so have no emergency pieces stashed. SO, I will have to share a project with you later on today.

But I absolutely know that the Wicked Blogger will have an enormous amount of inspiration for you, so please hop through the blog roll (still in the sidebar) and have tons of fun!! See you a bit later.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 8- Cyclops Bite

2011-10-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Saturday everyone! It's Day 8, and unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I must make my post quick and to the point. Me and the kids are preparing for a competition today and must get our butts in gear!

Before I get to my project, we have another fabulous sponsor for you again today!

"Sideshow Stamps is a hand crafted rubber stamp company owned and operated by the artists! Celebrating 11 years in business this year!! We are geared toward the art of the unique and strange, yet exotic and beautiful, and hopefully, somewhere in the midst of it all, is that exact stamp you've been looking for. Perfect for scrapbooking that trip to the circus, making a hep invitation to your next beatnik bash, decorating a photo album of your latest retro road trip, creeping out your mail carrier with a monster stamped envelope, or creating a work of art like none other!"

Today Sideshow Stamps is donating to one lucky winner their Vampire wood mounted stamp! Isn't he creepy cool?!?To win this guy, simply email us and let us know what you would use him on! We will draw for the winner tomorrow. Also, don't forget about your chance to win the Rick St Dennis digi set. Email us and tell us your favorite image from the set to be entered. (If you need a refresher on the set, scroll down).

Now, on to my project! As I mentioned, we are on our way to competition and last night we had a performance as well, so I didn't get a whole bunch of time to craft. I opted for another digital project to share with you today.

*click for larger view

It features our Cyclops image from Smeared Ink's Heebie Jeebie digi set, as well as one of the sayings from our Zombie Pinups digi set. In my mind Cyclops is a child of the 80's with his bright colors, but who doesn't want to wear a pink jumpsuit I ask? I mean really...

Despite the fact that you need sunglasses to look directly at my project, I think it turned out rather swell. What do you think?

Hope you enjoy your hop today and all the inspiration the Wicked Bloggers have to offer you! I'll be back tomorrow with, hopefully, another awesome project to share! Have fun!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 7- Into The Earth

2011-10-07T07:02:00.001-07:00

It's day 7, I can't believe it! Already a week closer to Halloween; so much to do and so little time! Today on 31 Days it's Smeared Ink day! Meaning we are your sponsors for the day, and will be every Friday. This also means that Wicked Bloggers get the chance to earn an extra grand-prize entry if they used only Smeared Ink images on their project!

We've had tons of new releases lately, and we'd love to introduce you to our latest. Be sure to swing by our shop to see our two newest digi singles from our Steampunk-themed Riders set. They are available now!

For our prize we are offering up one of our favorite digi sets, Glam Vamps! In order to win it, just look for our hidden image on one of the Wicked Blogs, them email us and let us know where it is. We'll draw for the winner tomorrow.

Also, don't forget to look for the Rick St Dennis hidden image for today!

For my project I decided to use, what else, Glam Vamps. This is Clarice, and she was just a little bit hungry.

This is an all digital project and features, like I said, Clarice and the flourish from Glam Vamps digi set and a saying from our As Death rubber set. I added wings to her just to make it fun, and I always love the combination of this blue color with red. I have to say I am getting alot more comfortable coloring digitally as well- I'm glad we allowed all digi projects this year! What a fun medium!

So, enjoy the rest of the Wicked Bloggers today, and be sure to swing by the shop to see what's new! Have fun!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 6- Pick A Pumpkin Hair Clip

2011-10-06T07:38:00.000-07:00

It's Day 6 already? This week has flown by for me! Welcome back to 31 Days of Halloween on Smeared and Smudged. If this is your first visit, please take a look at this post for all the rules and regs.

Today we have another fabulous sponsor joining us in our plethora of giveaways!

Black Dragon is one of our very own, whose jewelry making skills never cease to amaze! She has so very generously donated one piece of jewelry of the winners choice! How can you win? Well, click on Black Dragon's banner above to go to her shop page. Pick your favorite piece and then send an email telling us which one it is. We will draw the winner from the emails by random # and they will receive the piece that they picked! Easy!

Also, don't forget to enter to win the Rick St Dennis digi! Let's have the same criteria, shall we? Go to Rick's shop and choose your favorite image, then email us and tell us what it is! The winner will get the amazing digi set that's up for grabs.

Now, I'd like to share with you my project for today. I must warn you, it's super kiddie!!! I made a hair barrette for my daughter, and now the other ones want one as well. I do think this project could be adapted to be a little less kiddie though in the future, and I can't wait to play around with it.

I started by crocheting a 3-layer flower. Then I printed out my Round Pumpkin image from Smeared Ink's The Patch digi set onto printable fabric. I attached it to the middle of my flower and sewed around it. Then I outline with black glitter glue, a step I will probably avoid in the future because it turned out kinda wonky against the crochet. The final step was to add the long sequin ribbon and attach my barrette to the back. Super easy but very cute!

This project goes perfectly with our challenge over on the Smudgy Antics Blog this week: Pick a Pumpkin or Two. Won't you come join us? Hope it gives you some ideas! Now hop on through the Wicked Blogs, listed in my sidebar, and have fun!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 5- Halloween Henna

2011-10-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome back! Today is day 5, and I am so excited to share my project with you! But first, I have some sponsor information to share once again.

Today, as with every other day this month, you have the opportunity to win the Rick St Dennis digi set. Be sure to look for the hidden image and let us know where it is. You can email us at smearedinkstamps@gmail.com. We also have another sponsor for you today!

"Crafty Chaos Designs sells digital downloads, mostly papers that you can print yourself at home, but also some stamps and sentiment packs. We cater mostly to crafters who enjoy the less-cute side of creating, and if you're looking for papers that include skulls or spiderwebs or gorgeously grunged-up damask patterns, then you need look no further, because we have dozens and dozens to choose from."

As you can see, Crafty Chaos Designs is donating 2 items of the winner's choice from their shop! How cool is that!! Be sure to be on the lookout for a second hidden image and email us the location to qualify for a chance to win this prize.

Now I am very excited to share my project with you, as it is not something you normally see done with stamps. Tori and I have always talked about getting tattoos with our stamps as the design....we've even actually had a customer and friend (Sugar!) get tats featuring our images! Unfortunately, my kids want to do the same thing. Obviously they are not old enough to get tattoos, but we found an alternative that is super fun.

In my house we commonly give each other henna tattoos, and I pretty much have henna powder in the house at all times. We LURVE IT!!! I thought how cool would it be if we made Halloween themed henna tattoos using our stamps as the "stencil"! So, we did.

I started by stamping the design that each person wanted using brown ink. I made sure it was non-toxic, and figured since I get it on my hands all the time, it couldn't be THAT bad, right? Besides, it would only be on the skin for a bit.

Anyways, after stamping the image I traced using the henna. We then let it dry, wiped it off, and that's it! I've included pics of the stencil, the wet henna, and the finished henna. The finished henna images are still super light and may be hard to see, but they will darken over the next few days.

My youngest chose the creepy-cute bear image from Candy Is Dandy and put it on her hand. We also added the words "That's Kinda Creepy" because, well, that's what she wanted it to say (she's 5 years old lol)

*click for larger views

My second oldest chose the Mummy Grumpie from our Creepy Li'l Grumpies set and put it on her shoulder blade. She wanted a little shading on it, so we smudged some of the lines inward.

Finally, I chose the bloody heart from Candy Is Dandy because I just had a cool idea for it.

Like I said, these will darken over the next few days. And the great thing about them for the kids is, they will go away! Then they can try another Halloween-themed design to go Trick or Treating with. Super fun!

So, I hope you've enjoyed taking a look. Hop on through the wicked blogs, and be sure to check back later today for our Day 4 sponsor winner info. Have fun!

31 Days of Halloween:Day 4- Yummy Glitter

2011-10-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Welcome back to 31 Days of Halloween and Day 5 of our projects! I'm sure you've noticed that my post is up a little later than normal, but just a reminder that 9 am Pacific time is our deadline for posting. I wanted to mention it just in case you are an early hopper and come across a Wicked Blogger that doesn't have their post up; be sure to visit again after 9 am :)

So, above all the posts on this page you will find the winner's list for our sponsor prizes. Please don't forget to email me if you are a winner so I can get your info out to you for your wonderful prize! Once I've heard from you, I will remove your name up there. We've been getting lots of entries and love that you all are having so much fun with the scavenger hunt!

Today is another opportunity to win the fabulous Rick St Dennis digi set that he put together for us. We've decided to try something a little different and fun, so instead of finding a hidden image today, you can enter by emailing and telling me which Smeared Ink stamp set the image from my project today came from. Just in case you need a reminder about how awesome this digi set is, here's the pic again.

For my project today I went a little cutesy. As I mentioned before, I do have younger kids at home and sometimes they just like the cute stuff...so I made the first in a series of 3 canvases that will hang in my kitchen.

So, I am not going to give you details, as that would ruin the sponsor contest for today, but I hope you like it! I haven't yet decided how I would like to frame this; I will probably wait until I am done with the other two before deciding, but I will definitely share when I do.

Hope you have enjoyed taking a look! Now off you go to hop at all the other Wicked Blogs, whose link are in my sidebar. Have fun!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 3- Eek Boo Tree

2011-10-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

Day 3 is here, and along with it another day of marvelous projects! Just as a reminder, if you need to know the rules for 31 Days of Halloween, take a look at this post.

Before I show you my project, I have some sponsor info for you! Once again, you have the opportunity to win the fabulous Rick St Dennis digi set, so be on the lookout for that hidden image. But wait, I do believe we have another sponsor for today!

"Graphicat Designs is a Canadian based stamp company specializing in their own line of snarky and sarcastic, humorous sentiments and images. We carry both digital and rubber forms of our sentiments and are the only Canadian retailers of fabulous companies such as Simply Betty Stamps, Tickled Pink Stamps and Glo Skulls (more to come soon). We carry a selection of other paper crafting necessities and are adding to our inventories constantly. Come on by and check us out, sign up for our newsletter and join in our challenges. We'd love to have you! And we're proud to sponsor Smeared and Smudged!"

Graphicat Designs will offer the winner a choice of a $10 Gift Certificate to the store, or their choice of 5 digi images! Isn't that awesome?!? So when you are hopping today, you should be on the lookout for TWO hidden images! When you find them, shoot us an email and let us know where they are. Don't forget to come back by later on to check for the Day 2 winner as well.

Ok, now I am ready to show you my project for today. I so fondly named it my Eek Boo Tree. I'm sure you have seen all the cute little Halloween trees popping up in the stores lately. I really wanted one, but not a plastic or wire one, and not one that would cost me $30! So, I decided to make one myself for practically nothing.

I started by gathering some dried up branches from my cherry tree and wrapped them with floral tape in the spots where I needed to attach them together. I then drilled a hole in a scrap piece of wood and stuck the "trunk" through it for stability. After wrapping that as well, I spray painted it all black.

It looked amazing already, but I wanted to go for a different feel. So I sponge painted all the branches (very tedious!) with white, then did a brownish color wash after the white dried. I added rocks to the bottom of my container, which is a small plant container left over from buying seedlings, and then stuck the wood piece with branches in.

*click pics to view larger

In my backyard I have a birch tree and I've wanted to use the paper-like bark on a project for quite some time now. This ended up being the perfect opportunity!! After removing all the bugs (gross!), I hot glued the bark to the outside of my container. Then came the fun part...

I took air dry clay (10 lb box is only about $8, and I already had some) and shaped all my little ornaments, which include small birds, a pumpkin, a cat, and a ghost. I took tiny alphabet stamps and pressed them into the birds to spell eek and boo, and did the same on the pumpkin's hat. After drying, I painted them up and added hemp hangers to them. I have to say I cheated a little as this and the painted spool words are the only stamping I did, but I just love how it looks! Speaking of the spools, I just painted them and small wooden beads, stamped my words, and added them to hangers as well.

The final steps were to find spots to hang everything, add one bird to the front of my container, and then add my jewels to the inside of the pot. The colors mimic the colors of paint I used on the ornaments.

And voila! There you have it!! Super inexpensive handmade Eek Boo Tree!

I hope this gives you some ideas, and that you are enjoying 31 Days so far! I know I certainly am. Now it's time for you to hop along; and don't forget hidden pictures and checking back on winner info. Have fun!

31 Days of Halloween:Day 2- Death Becomes Her

2011-10-01T23:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome everyone to Day 2 of 31 Days of Halloween! How did you enjoy the hop yesterday? What an amazingly talented group of Wicked Bloggers, right? I know I was completely thrilled looking at all the projects; it definitely got my wheels turning!

Today we have even more for you, but first we have some sponsor information. Look above this post right under the sponsor ads...you will see a spot that says "Sponsor Winner for Saturday, October 1". This will be where you check winner information each time there is a sponsor prize to be given out. If the prize has not been drawn yet, you will see a message that says "Winner Coming Soon". Everyone has until 9am Pacific time to enter the scavenger hunt, basically until the next day's posts go live, so we will have the drawing shortly after.

Be sure to check back if the winner has not been posted yet! Our winner of the Rick St Dennis digi set will be posted today, and as we mentioned yesterday, you have an opportunity to win that digi set each and every day! So be on the lookout for a hidden picture today. When you find it, email us and let us know where it is so your name can go into the random drawing.

Now I'd like to share with you my project for Day 2. If you were around last year, you got to see part of my Halloween decorations in my house. I tend to go more for the distressed, creepy, eerie feel with just a little gore for good measure. Alot of this stems from me having young kids in the house. Anyways, my project today is the perfect example of that creepy style.

It is an altered jewelry box drawer mirror thingy that I found at the thrift store. It started out white and ended up, well, creepy.

I stared out by distressing with layers of paint, using my heat gun as I went along to burn and bubble. Then I added my doilies with modge podge and added more layers of paint. After it all dried, I distressed with Distress Ink, Kona Crackle, and more paint. Although it looks gold in the picture, the colors on the project are actually white, grey-blue, and brown. While everything finished drying, I worked on my mirror.

The Skull Front image is from Smeared Ink's Anatomy 101 digi set. I printed it out on cellophane and then wrapped my mirror. Super easy, and it produces a stunning reflection effect!

The flowers are made using sewing pattern paper, and I colored them up with some distress inks to make them look like old, dried flowers that had been sitting there a long time. The leaves are actual dried herbs from my garden.

Here you can see the doilies that I added, along with the jewelry that will be on display. The pearls belonged to my Grandmother, who passed October 29; it's been twelve years this month. They are not attached to the project, but I thought they looked stunning! The rocks are Citrine.

Here is a closeup of the drawers and the doilies I added there as well.

I really enjoyed making this project. Although it was alot of work, it was actually very relaxing. I hope it gives you some inspiration!!

Now it's time to hop through the other Wicked Blogs to see some superb art! Don't forget to leave your comments if you are a Horrifying Hopper, and have fun!!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 1-Zombify Me

2011-10-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Well, today's the day...it's officially the first day of October, AND the first day of 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN 2011 here on Smeared and Smudged!!!Woo Hoo!!!! Are you ready for round three? We are super excited to be bringing you our third annual Halloween/Day of The Dead celebration!

As we did last year, we've recruited some awesomely Wicked Blogs to join in the 31 Days extravaganza, so you'll have a plethora of Halloween goodness to feast your eyes on all month long! The challenge for the Wicked Blogs is to participate all month by providing a different stamped project each and every day in October. If they complete the task, they will be entered into the huge prize drawing at the end of the month!

I know I am looking forward to the challenge again, and I hope you are excited to participate as a Horrifying Hopper or Sinister Lurker. Here's how you do it...
See that long list of participating blogs in my sidebar? The one under the Wicked Blog Button?
---------------------------------------------------------->
Yep, that's the one. Be sure to visit each one every day in October, and here's how you can win prizes!!

Horrifying Hopper:

What You Have To Do:

Hop through each of the Wicked Blogs that are participating and leave a comment on each project. No need to sign up, just start on the first day and work your way through all the blogs. All Horrifying Hoppers will receive a Survival Button at the end of the month to proudly post on their blog.

The Rules:
You must leave a comment on EACH participating blog EVERY day in October to qualify for the grand prize drawing. Your comment should be about the project or something related (i.e.-no "Here's my comment for today" or "I'm here!"...these types of comments won't count!) If you miss a day or a blog, you will still qualify to receive a survival button, but will not qualify for the grand prize drawing.

Sinister Lurker:

What You Have To Do:
Some of you can't participate all month long, and that's okay! Only Wicked Bloggers and Horrifying Hoppers are up for the grand prize drawing, but if you can't do either of those you will still have the chance to win some Lurker prizes! We will be hiding scavenger hunt pictures randomly throughout the month on various participating blogs...if you find one on any given day, you will be put in for that day's freebie drawing. It may be a coupon, a free digi, or a Halloween goodie, who knows!

The Rules:
Scavenger Items will be hidden randomly on the Wicked Blogs, and are not guaranteed to be available every day. You will have to visit blogs to find them. If you find one, you will email us at smearedinkstamps@gmail.com and let us know exactly where it was and your name will go into that scavenger item's drawing. Each person who finds the "hidden" picture will get one entry. The drawing for each scavenger prize will be the day after it was posted and winners will be chosen by random number based on who emailed. Wicked Bloggers are able to participate and find scavenger pictures as well, unless it is hidden on their own blog. Horrifying Hoppers can participate as well!

Doesn't this all sound like fun? But wait, I know you are now asking yourself "What huge prize drawing at the end of the month is she talking about?" In addition to some awesome scavenger prizes provided by some pretty amazing sponsors, Smeared Ink is offering up this glorious concoction of 31 Days goodies!

*click for larger view

Prize Pack Includes:

Smeared Ink Logo Tank

Raven Collage Throw Pillow

Faes Magnet

Li'l Grumpies Suck It Up Snack Pack

Li'l Grumpies Black & White Bumper Sticker

Raven Collage PJ Set

As Death Journal

Card Goddess Keychain

Winner's Choice of 5 Smeared Ink Digi Sets

Each person who successfully completes the 31 Days as either a Wicked Blogger or a Horrifying Hopper will receive one entry toward this prize drawing. If you successfully complete both, you will receive two entries. (Meaning if you are a Wicked Blog Participant and you comment on every blog every day, you have successfully completed both).

That just about covers all the rules and regulations for this year's celebration. So let's move on to today's event!

Remember how I mentioned sponsor prizes? Well, we're stoked to start our festivities off with an amazing sponsor who has so generously donated a prize for EACH AND EVERY DAY of the month!! Yes, you heard right....we will be giving away 31 prizes from this sponsor!! Wanna know who it is? I know you do!

Rick St Dennis MFA

Seal Beach, California, United States

"Designer of over 100 theatrical productions, Rick St Dennis (Donald McAfee) is also the author of 4 books on decorative painting and contributor to at least a dozen national magazines on crafts and art. He has taught design at the college level as well as seminars and classes across the USA and Canada. He is one of a handful of designers to have designed TWO productions of AIDA, Verdi's massive Egyptian opera spectacle. Currently living in the quiet beach community of Seal Beach, California he writes restaurant reviews and theatre reviews between assignments for web designs, logos and creating art for local shows. Rick has appeared on such TV shows as Home Matters with Susan Powell, Aileen's Crafts and others. He was Crafts editor for Country Folk Art Magazine and sells his artwork nationally through galleries and shows. Among numerous awards he won a presidential commendation in 1976 for his contributions to the bicentennial year including the design of the west coast premier of William Grant Still's opera BAYOU LEGEND. His drawings and paintings are in the collections of Diana Ross, Sandy Duncan, Sammy Davis Jr. and Jacqueline Onnasis amongst others."

We are thrilled to show you this amazing digi set that Rick has put together for 31 Days, and even more thrilled to tell you that there will be a hidden image EVERY DAY for your chance to win it! SO, be on the lookout and when you find it, email smearedinkstamps@gmail.com and let us know where it is!

So now that you're all hyped up on prize info, let's move on to my project for today. I am going to try really hard to make a whole bunch of decorations this year, so you may see very few cards from me. I started with an idea for some of these decorations when Angela Brown, a.k.a. Lady Brayton, presented her Zombie Headshot digi set to us. In case you didn't notice, both Tori and I are part of the set.

It has become a tradition for LB to turn all of us into zombies for our birthdays, and the Sinister Zombie image is actually me! How cool is that!! So, I thought it would be fitting to turn a wooden plaque into a self- portrait of sorts.

*click to view larger

The image is, like I said, Sinister Zombie from our Zombie Headshot digi set. I started with just a plain wood plaque and added in lots of paint layering, layers of newspaper (which are barely visible now ) and modge podge. I colored my image and then layered that in as well, then put even more paint washes! I decided my portrait needed some mossy, moldy looking stuff, so I used Kona Crackle to achieve that effect and then painted over. The final touches were adding on a dark greenish/black glitter outline, the spanish moss, and the nails. Finally I added my hemp hanger.

I will be making more of these to hang as a collection, so be on the lookout for them during the month. I had alot of fun with this one and I love it!! Hope you do too.

So now that you've read my EXTREMELY long post (don't worry, it won't always be this way), it's time for you to hop through all the Wicked Blogs! Don't forget the list is in the sidebar. I know there are tons this year, but just pace yourself and enjoy. You are sure to get eerie inspiration overload, but it's going to be fantastic!!! Have fun!!!

September Bombshell Hop

2011-09-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read that right! It's been oh so long since I've had the time to play with my Bombshells, but I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to join in with the other lovely ladies on the Bombshell Forum and celebrate my favorite holiday!

Alison, the Blog Hop Captain, set out this challenge for September:
"Many of our major holidays are just around the corner. I think we all know what my favorite holiday is...but what's yours? My challenge to you is to make a Bombshell project for your favorite holiday. Bonus points if you make a decoration!!! Use any holiday you want and create something that's going to make us want to celebrate!!! "

Well, I think we can all guess what MY favorite holiday is...and if you can't, well, you just haven't been paying attention or this is your first visit to my little corner of blog land :) I just had to make a project for Halloween!!!!! And seeing that 31 Days of Halloween starts in just three days, I was super excited to make a warm-up project to share. BTW, if you don't know what 31 Days is, please click the link for info or come back and visit on the 1st, it's going to be a fabulously creepy-fun month long blog hop with tons of inspiration and amazing prizes!! You can see the list of Wicked Bloggers in my sidebar, and it is HUGE! Come check out how you can win some awesome prizes from some really great sponsors! (hint: Bombshell is one of them!)

Now that that's out of my system, I'll move back to the hop at hand...I'm just so excited.
For my holiday project I had to work with one of the new costumes from the Halloween Dress Up Set for Bombshell Angel. Once again, I did some digital work, but this time I combined digital with hands-on. I created an artwork piece that will later be added into another project during 31 Days (shhhh, kinda a sneak peek). Not quite a decoration yet, but it will be. Here she is, my wicked little witch, complete with black cat familiar.

*click for larger view

Bombshell Angel is colored digitally, and the background image and flowers are from Itkupilli. I used black canvas cardstock, and some white crackle paint on two different layers. Then I added ink shading all around and finally some fun little letters for my sentiment, ribbon, and hardware. After taking the pic, I went in digitally and added even more shading and texture and my spider webs. Other than the pic being a little blurry, I think it came out wonderful! It was fun to color the angel up in some bright Halloweenie colors, and I kinda made her look like me with her red hair and all (yes, it's red again!)

So, what do you think? I hope it gives you some inspiration, and gets you in the mood for Halloween! Now you get to hop on through to the other participant blogs and see which holiday inspired their creations. Don't forget to stop by the Bombshell Forum to get your fix and sign up for the blog hop next month. And if you're interested in joining in some fun conversation about our 31 Days of Halloween event, swing by the Smeared and Smudged Forum too. Have a great hop!

Bombshell Blog

Alison

Alex

Terra (<---yep, that's me)

Zetti Challenge

2011-09-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I'd like to invite you to come on over to our DT Challenge Blog, Smudgy Antics, and join in our Weekly Challenge! Each week we post a new one, and for this week the theme is Zetti. In case you don't know what it is or haven't heard of it, here's a little descrip:

A style based on the work of Teesha Moore, Zetti is a blend of the ordinary and the fantastic. Blend collage, drawing, painting, stamping, etc, to make one whimsical concoction of elements based in reality and fantasy. Elements can include contrasting textures and patterns, bright colors, black and white patterns (especially stripes), faces and bodies that are mis-matched, animal parts, added body parts/clothes/wings, fantastic hats and crowns, quirky, odd, whimsical combinations of characters, lyrics, poems, handwriting and text. Use any of these, or all of them, but be sure to put your own artistic spin on it!

I actually got the chance to make a sample for this week's challenge, and I must say I am pretty in love with it. It is once again digital as I am having alot of fun with digi work lately. Here it is:

*click for larger view

I used three different Smeared Ink images for my main character. The body is Vivadondra from our Goth Fairies digi set, the head is Candy Creature from our Candy is Dandy set, and the wings are from our retired Praise Angel from Symbology of Angels. The two latter sets will be available in our shop as digis later this week!

I colored everything digitally and placed pieces and parts, and then added hand drawn elements and stripes. I think it's a pretty good first attempt at the Zetti style, and still fits well with my darker side.

I hope you enjoyed taking alook, and if you get the chance, swing by Smudgy Antics to give this super fun style a try!

Grand Prize Package for 31 Days of Halloween

2011-09-25T17:30:00.001-07:00

It's almost time! 31 Days of Halloween 2011 will begin in less than a week and we are super excited! We have 28 participating Wicked Bloggers this year, which is almost double what we had last year; and we are so thrilled to see all of the wonderful Halloween and Day of the Dead projects they will be posting daily!

As always, we will be offering a Grand Prize that you can win as a Wicked Blogger or Horrifying Hopper. Sign ups for Wicked Bloggers have passed, but to be a Horrifying Hopper here's what you have to do:

Hop through each of the Wicked Blogs that are participating and leave a comment on each project. No need to sign up, just start on the first day and work your way through all the blogs.

The Rules for Horrifying Hoppers:

You must leave a comment on EACH participating blog EVERY day in October to qualify for the grand prize drawing. Your comment should be about the project or something related (i.e.-no "Here's my comment for today" or "I'm here!"...these types of comments won't count!) If you miss a day or a blog, you will still qualify to receive a survival button, but will not qualify for the grand prize drawing.

Sounds easy enough, right? Wanna know what the grand Prize is? Well, here it is:

*click for larger view

Prize Pack Includes:

Smeared Ink Logo Tank

Raven Collage Throw Pillow

Faes Magnet

Li'l Grumpies Suck It Up Snack Pack

Li'l Grumpies Black & White Bumper Sticker

Raven Collage PJ Set

As Death Journal

Card Goddess Keychain

Winner's Choice of 5 Smeared Ink Digi Sets

Woo Hoo! The prize pack is worth over $300, and we can't wait to give it away to one well deserving blogger or hopper!

But wait, some of you can't participate all month long, and that's okay! Only Wicked Bloggers and Horrifying Hoppers are up for the grand prize drawing, but if you can't do either of those you will still have the chance to win some Sinister Lurker prizes! We will be hiding sponsor scavenger hunt pictures randomly throughout the month on various participating blogs...if you find one on any given day, you will be put in for that day's prize drawing. It may be a coupon, a free digi, or a Halloween goodie, who knows! We are working on some great sponsor prizes for the scavenger hunt this year, and it will be well worth your time to visit every once in a while. Plus Smeared Ink will be sponsoring each and every Friday!

The Rules for Sinister Lurkers:

Scavenger items will be hidden randomly on the Wicked Blogs, and are not guaranteed to be available every day. You will have to visit blogs to find them. If you find one, you will email and let us know exactly where it was and your name will go into that scavenger item's drawing. Each person who finds the "hidden" picture will get one entry. The drawing for each scavenger prize will be the day after it was posted and winners will be chosen by random number based on who emailed. Wicked Bloggers are able to participate and find scavenger pictures as well, unless it is hidden on their own blog.

So there you have it, all the prize info for 31 Days. We hope you will be able to join us to kick it all off this Saturday! See you then!

New Halloween Hop and Release from Smeared Ink

2011-09-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I hope your week is going wonderfully so far. Today we'd like to share with you that Smeared Ink is releasing some more Halloween images! To celebrate, of course we have to have a new release blog hop!

Our fabulous design team will be showcasing samples today to inspire and intrigue you. We hope you will visit all the blogs to see some great art, and when you are done swing by our shop to pick up your favorite new images.

Before I share my project, here's a look at the newest Digi sets and singles. These are all available in our shop now, and later today you will be able to get the individual images from the sets as singles as well. The great part is ALL of our digis are now instantly available when you make your purchase! If you haven't used the new site yet to download digis, you will love it!

Smell My Feet

Build A Graveyard

Babies of the Damned

Inner Workings

Zombie Headshot

Heavy Metal

Goth Fairies

Hallo Kitty

Elvis Grumpie

So for my projects today, I once again tried some digital work (cause I'm starting to love it!)
I used the Zipped Heart from Inner Workings on my first project. Then I used the Wire Corset image from Heavy Metal and the I Adore You Saying from Smitten in my second project.

*click for larger views

I really love the versatility of these images, as they are not all necessarily Halloween themed. I have so many ideas that I can't wait to share with you! In the meantime, please hop on through the blog roll and be sure to leave lots of comments! Thanks for visiting and we hope you enjoy the new images!

Terra (you are here!)

Our Guest Designer Sara

Pieces and Parts September S&S Member Hop

2011-09-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

It's that time again! Time for the Smeared and Smudged Forum member blog hop. Each month we give all of our forum members a chance to share a project with everyone and hop along for some really fantastic inspiration. We have some newbies joining as well as some seasoned monthly bloggers, so I really hope you enjoy the hop today.

This month our theme is Pieces and Parts, and the challenge was to use at least two stamp or digi images combined to make a "new" image or focal point on your project.

For the first time ever, I have made an all-digital project. Thank you to all those digi artists out there who have proven to me that you can really make some fabulous pieces using all digital work! I must say, it took me just as long to work digitally as it would have to use actual 3-D supplies, and it was super fun!!! The card is pretty simple, but I like it. If anyone has any tips to share after you've taken a look, feel free.

For my card I used images and words from five different Smeared Ink sets. The spider web is from Candy Is Dandy rubber set, the Obsession sentiment is from Heart Wings digi set, the pumpkins are from The Patch digi set, the screws are from Urban Decay rubber set and Lonely Boy and the Halloween sentiment are from Lonely Boy and Puff rubber set.

Before I forget, just let me mention that we are so excited because very soon we will be offering all of our rubber sets in digi form as well! This gives you instant access to some of your faves! If you haven't signed up for our newsletter yet, please visit our store site and sign up; then you'll get all updates and new information first.

So now that that's done, back to my project. There's not much I can tell you about process as it's all digital work, but just know that it took a really r-e-a-l-l-y long time and I hope it shows. I decided to make this a Halloween themed card, cause let's face it, Halloween is all year long in my house and I'm just a little bit obsessed! Plus it's kick starting my butt to get in gear for 31 Days of Halloween (have you signed up yet? Visit the link for all the info!). I used this month's Very Sketchy card sketch for my layout. If you like the sketch and want the chance to win some prizes, visit the forum and check that out as well! You have until the end of the month to enter all of our challenges.

I am entering this into the following challenges:

365 Cards Day 191 So Not Me- Digital work is definitely NOT my style!

CASE Study Challenge #56- I took the blue, orange, and black as inspiration. I'm not sure if digital work counts, but decided to share anyways :)

Crafty Sentiments Designs- Halloween- My card is completely Halloween themed!

Creative Card Crew- Anything Goes

Paper Play Challenges- Use 2 or more stamped images. I'm not sure if digital work counts, but I used four rubber stamped images and two digi stamp images

I hope you've enjoyed taking a look at my project. Below is the blog roll for all of the participants this month, so please hop through from blog to blog and leave them some comments about their work- we all love to hear what you think! Thanks for stopping by.

Terra (YOU ARE HERE!)

Mixed Media/Stamping Books Destash Sale

2011-08-26T18:05:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
I have some mixed media/stamping/arts books from my own collection that I am ready to pass on to new owners. All of them are fabulous in my opinion and I've learned alot from them :) I have listed them below with generic pics of what they look like, along with price (about half off their retail price) and # of pages. All of them are gently used and in great shape. If you are interested in any of them, please email me at zaharstudio@gmail.com and I can send you a paypal invoice for total + shipping. Thanks for taking a look!

Artist Trading Card Workshop- Bernie Berlin
127 pages: $12

Layered, Tattered & Stitched- Ruth Rae
128 pages: $13

Bent, Bound & Stitched- Guiseppina Cirincione
128 pages- $12

30 Minute Rubber Stamp Workshop- Sandra McCall
127 pages- $13

Making Greeting Cards with Creative Materials- MaryJo McGraw
121 pages: $12

Greeting Card Magic with Rubber Stamps- MaryJo McGraw
125 pages: $12

Stamp Art- Sharilyn Miller
126 pages: $12

Collage Cards, Mini Books, Slide Mounts & More- Suzanne McNeill
50 pages: $9

Simple Soldered Jewelry & Accessories- Lisa Bluhm
144 pages: $13

The Pop-Up Book-Paul Jackson
160 pages: $13

31 Days of Halloween- Coming Soon!

2011-08-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the planning stages of 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN 2011! Are you ready for round three? We are super excited to be bringing you our third annual Halloween/Day of The Dead celebration here on Smeared and Smudged, and we really can't wait!

Once again we are recruiting Wicked Blogs to join in the 31 Days extravaganza of projects, so you'll have a plethora of Halloween goodness to feast your eyes on all month long! The challenge for the Wicked Blogs is to participate all month by providing a different stamped project each and every day in October. If they complete the task, they will be entered into the huge prize drawing at the end of the month!

I know I am looking forward to the challenge again, and I hope you are excited to participate as either a Wicked Blogger, Horrifying Hopper, or Sinister Lurker. Here's how you do it...

Wicked Blogger

What You Have To Do:

Wicked Bloggers sign up to make and post one Halloween or Day of the Dead project for each and every day in October. Sign up begins on August 17, 2011 and ends on September 20, 2011. To sign up, add your NAME and BLOG ADDRESS to a comment under this post by September 20, 2011. All Wicked Bloggers will receive a Survival Button at the end of the month to proudly post on their blog.

The Rules:
Wicked Bloggers must post one project each day in October on their blog by 9AM Pacific time in order to qualify for the grand prize drawing. The project must be handmade and stamped with either a rubber or digi stamp. This year we are allowing all digital projects as long as they are the bloggers original digital art.

Bloggers must also post the Wicked Blog list with links to all participating blogs in either their daily posts or on the sidebar of their blog for easy access. The Wicked Blogs list will be posted here by September 25, 2011.

Horrifying Hopper

What You Have To Do:
Hop through each of the Wicked Blogs that are participating and leave a comment on each project. No need to sign up, just start on the first day and work your way through all the blogs. All Horrifying Hoppers will receive a Survival Button at the end of the month to proudly post on their blog.

The Rules:

Sinister Lurker

What You Have To Do:

Some of you can't participate all month long, and that's okay! Only Wicked Bloggers and Horrifying Hoppers are up for the grand prize drawing, but if you can't do either of those you will still have the chance to win some Lurker prizes! We will be hiding scavenger hunt pictures randomly throughout the month on various participating blogs...if you find one on any given day, you will be put in for that day's freebie drawing. It may be a coupon, a free digi, or a Halloween goodie, who knows! We are working on some great sponsor prizes for the scavenger hunt this year, and it will be well worth your time to visit every once in a while.

The Rules:

Scavenger Items will be hidden randomly on the Wicked Blogs, and are not guaranteed to be available every day. You will have to visit blogs to find them. If you find one, you will email and let us know exactly where it was and your name will go into that scavenger item's drawing. Each person who finds the "hidden" picture will get one entry. The drawing for each scavenger prize will be the day after it was posted and winners will be chosen by random number based on who emailed. Wicked Bloggers are able to participate and find scavenger pictures as well, unless it is hidden on their own blog.

Grand Prize Drawing
Doesn't this all sound like fun? I know WE can't wait!!But wait, I know you are now asking yourself "What huge prize drawing at the end of the month are they talking about?" In addition to some awesome scavenger prizes provided by some pretty amazing sponsors, we are offering up a glorious concoction of 31 Days goodies worth over $300! We have the pictures up soon.

How To Win It:

That just about covers all the rules and regulations for this year's celebration. If you represent a business and are interested in sponsoring 31 Days of Halloween by providing a scavenger prize, please contact me us at smearedinkstamps@gmail.com. We will feature your website during the whole month of celebration!

If you'd like to spread the news about 31 Days, feel free to grab one of the buttons below and post it on your blog or website, or email it to your favorite stamper friends. Also just like last year, we have opened up a special page on our forum for all of you to gather and share your thoughts during the whole 31 Days preparations and throughout the month of fun. Please come join us! We can't wait to share 31 Days of Halloween with you, so sit back and enjoy the ride!

Announcing the NEW Smeared Ink Design Team!

2011-08-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

We had so many wonderful applications and want to thank all of you who applied! The choice was a hard one, but in the end these ladies and gentleman rocked their applications, and will now be rockin' the Smeared and Smudged Forum from August through the end of January. Congratulations!

Welcoming Back Design Team Members:

Paula

And Introducing our New Design Team Members:

That’s right! We now have TWELVE Design Team Members! WATCH OUT WORLD!!

Check out their wonderful blogs, and be sure to come by the forum to see all the wicked projects they will have to offer.

Bombshell Hop Day: Color Challenge

2011-07-27T01:11:00.000-07:00

Today I am participating in the monthly Bombshell Stamps Hop. It's been such a long time since I've been able to do anything with the Bombshell gals, so I thought it was about time I go over to their forum and sign up. The challenge for this month's hop was a color challenge. We were given this wonderful pallette of five colors from which we had to choose at least three to use in our project.

I have to tell you my colors are a little off. I looked at the colors, picked the top four, then went off to the other room to create. When I got back I realized that one of my colors is more turquoise-y than it should have been. But, I'm still close so I think it counts. Here's my card:

I used the Growing Hearts stamp set, which is one of my faves. I colored my image with watercolors. The background of the card is done with several layers of paint and Kona Krackle. My image is three layers done up on pop dots.

I hand made the flowers, and the leaves are scraps of fabric.

I had alot of fun making this card although it's not exactly correct on the colors. It was a real challenge for me not to add any black in to the card, and the style of it really made me step out of my comfort zone. I hope you enjoyed taking a look.

The hop list is below and I think you will really enjoy visiting all of the fabulous talent from the Bombshell Forum! Also, don't forget Smudgefest starts Monday and I'll be linking up to the challenges here when I share my projects. (If you don't know what Smudgefest is, please come check it out! It will be a blast!)

Have an awesome day!

Bombshell Blog
Alison
Alaine
Jennie
Kelli
Terra (<---this is me)
Laura
Meredith
Fiona
Ike
Kapree
Cheryl

Pics Finally Up!

2011-07-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

If you visited a few days ago for our S&S member hop, you were either greeted with a blank page or a post without a project. I must apologize for that, but I had so many problems uploading! At first I thought it was blogger, but then after days of no success, I finally figured out it was my browser being difficult. Well actually, difficult is an understatement. After much frustration, I downloaded a different browser and finally got my pictures added into my post below. So, please have a look and thank you for your patience!

S&S July Member Hop- Alterable

2011-07-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to this month's Smeared and Smudged Forum Member Blog Hop. In case you don't know what the Smeared and Smudged Forum is... let me explain. Sponsored by Smeared Ink, it is an online community where rubber stamp and digi stamp artists get together to share amazingly different projects, chat, and just have fellowship with others who have the same interests. We focus on alternative styles, although we embrace and welcome all styles and types of stampers.

We'd all love if you'd give us a visit and join in! And we can't wait to share this month's member hop with you. Our theme this time around was to step away from flat 2-D projects and try using our mojo on an altered 3-D project. The only other rule was it had to use a rubber or digi stamp somewhere on the project, so I'm sure you're going to see a vast array of creativity today!

For my project I altered a birdhouse and used some of Smeared Ink's newest digi stamps from "A Little Bit Batty". I didn't think I would be able to finish a project for the hop because I've had a lot of personal stuff going on, but I've managed to make an amazing decoration for my daughter's room.

We've decided to redecorate her room using zebra print, so that is how I started my birdhouse decoration. I covered it in acrylic paint stripes and let it dry. I n the meantime, I colored up my bats using copics and then cut them. I mounted to the house on all four sides, and then added my hang chain and dangles to the large flying bat and attached to the birdhouse. The final steps were to attach a hang chain to the top and add my inked-up scrap of mesh to the top.

*click for larger pics

We thought the bright colors of the bats would go great in the room, and the girls absolutely love it! No longer a birdhouse, this is our new bat home.

I hope you've enjoyed taking a look at my altered item, so now hop on through the other member blogs to see what they've gotten their mits on! And be sure to leave some love for their hard work. Then swing by the forum and join in if you haven't already. We've got unique monthly challenges, fun tutorials, and lots of fabulous members! Here's the blog roll.

Alex- http://www.paperandstring.blogspot.com/

Black Dragon- http://lynsblogger.blogspot.com/

Kapree- http://kc-consultant.blogspot.com/

Jane- http://jcocraft.blogspot.com/

Steph- http://stephscreativechaos.blogspot.com/

Heather- http://stampdetails.blogspot.com/

Madeleine- http://craftylittlewoman.blogspot.com/

Helen- http://cromscubbyhole.blogspot.com/

Ike- http://suzy-ikesworld.blogspot.com/

Fiona- http://idontdostraight.blogspot.com

Lady Brayton- www.ladybrayton71.blogspot

Halloween Release Hop from Smeared Ink

2011-07-15T01:59:00.000-07:00

Thanks for joining me today; I'm super excited to be announcing the first of two Halloween releases from Smeared Ink! We have so many great designs for you this year that we just can't get them all out at the same time, so we're starting early. We have 11 fabulously fiendish digi sets for you to oogle today, and each member of our Design Team had created a special something to celebrate!

Not only will we be presenting projects for your enjoyment and inspiration today on our hop, but the Design Team had the option to work with several images if they wanted to and those that took extras will be posting projects daily for the next couple of days. So be sure to check back on the hop list each day over the next week, as some will be showcasing even more projects for you to enjoy!

Did I mention that we have ELEVEN sets this time around?!?!! You're sure to find something to get those creepy juices flowing, and we really hope they get you in the mood for the best holiday of the year (Halloween, of course!) and for our 31 Days of Halloween stamping event coming in October. Plus we have an exclusive sneak peek single from one of the sets we will be releasing in our second Halloween Release in September!

Here are the pics of all of the new release sets that you can find in our SHOP today. Don't forget you can click any of the pics in this post to see them larger.

A Little Bit Batty

Calaveras

Creepers

Flower King

Heebie Jeebie

Mistresses of The Dark

Owlets

Sea Skeletons

Zombie Classics

Zombie Pinups

Gross Anatomy

and our preview...

Blessed Be single

So, what do you think? I know I LOVE them all and can't wait to play with each and every image! But for now, I played with an image from the Sea Skeletons set. I made a scrapbook page using the June kit from Scraps of Darkness and also following their June sketch. It is very monochromatic except for the little pop of color on the photo, which match the colors of the actual artwork.

All of the embellishments and papers that you see on the page came from the kit except for the twigs, which I painted black and made into a frame to follow the sketch. Of course I had to add my own textures, so I painted on parts of the papers and roughed them up a bit. The corner images and the one in the middle are from the Sea Skeletons stamp set and I think they just added alot of fun to the layout. I personally thing those images are gorgeous just printed out, so I just colored them a light beige to match.

Here you can see a side view of the gorgeous embellies, including my twigs.

Hope you've enjoyed looking at my page and that it's given you some inspiration. I am still a beginner with the scrapbooking, so please be gentle with your comments ;)

I will be posting my next release project on Saturday evening, so be sure to swing back by here to check it out! Also, as I mentioned before please feel free to visit here each day to go down the hop list and check out what everyone has to offer. Here are the participants! Enjoy!

Terra ---->(me)

Are You Ready???!!!!

2011-07-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

NEW RELEASE HOP TOMORROW!!!!!!

Tomorrow will mark the first of two awesome Halloween Releases from Smeared Ink!!! We will be hosting a hop, starting right here, and featuring amazing projetcs to get your creepy juices flowing!

Please join us!!!!

Design Team Call!!

2011-07-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

Smeared Ink is having a Design Team Call!

Do you have a different way of looking at things when it comes to rubber stamping? Smeared Ink is looking for Design Team Members to join the Smeared and Smudged team.

Smeared Ink is a rubber stamp company that features edgy, unique, wild, sometimes dark, and fun art stamps and digis. We're looking for team members who are not afraid to think outside of the box and express themselves in interesting ways through their projects.

To see some of the current DT members work, visit our Smudgy Antics Design Team Blog at http://www.smudgyantics.blogspot.com. To view the types of stamps you would be working with, please visit our shop at http://www.smearedink.com

Requirements for Smeared Ink Design Team Members:

*You must have an active blog related to rubber stamping/paper arts or mixed media arts where you can post and talk about your Design Team projects.

*You must be or become a member of the Smeared and Smudged Forum on Ning. You can visit our forum at http://www.smearedandsmudged.ning.com

*You must be able to upload quality photos and/or scans of your projects.

*DT members are required to design a minimum of four items per month, including three cards or paper art (scrapbook pages, etc.) and one altered item. Two of these items must use Smeared Ink stamps exclusively. They must be posted on the design team blog AND your personal blog, and also be physically mailed in by the end of each month. (Please note if samples are not received by us each month, you may forfeit your free stamp set for the following month). The other two items can use any stamps and supplies that you like, and must be posted to the design team blog and optionally on your blog.

*DT Members are required to participate in and make a project for Smeared Ink New Release Blog Hops. These will generally occur every three months, but may also include special releases. During months that contain a hop, this will be a fifth required project.

* DT Members are required to submit at least one step by step tutorial per six month term. This can be written out with pictures, or can be a video tutorial. It should contain the use of at least one Smeared Ink stamp. The tutorial can be project or technique based.

* You must actively participate in The Vent group on the Smeared and Smudged forum. A minimum requirement is two posts a week. You must check and actively participate in the Design Team group on the forum.

* You must promote Smeared Ink Stamps thru your blog, and whenever you see an opportunity.

*International Applicants welcome.

Benefits of Smeared Ink Design Team:

* Your blog projects (and of course you!) will be showcased on the Smudgy Antics Blog, Smeared and Smudged Forum, and Smeared Ink Facebook Page.

*Your physically mailed projects will be featured on the Smeared Ink website gallery and also used in displays during conventions and craft fairs.

* We will send you one free stamp set (our choice) per month to use in your projects.

*You will receive exclusive DT Member discounts on non-stamp products, including Graphic 45, Tattered Angels, and any other products that we choose to carry.

* Occasionally, you MAY receive freebie products from our Smeared and Smudged forum monthly challenge sponsors (not guaranteed, as this is the sponsors choice). In order to qualify for these products if they are offered, you must be in good standing with your DT requirements.

* You get to network with other wicked awesome stampers who share the same love for out-of-the-norm stamping and techniques.

* You get to sport a really cool S&S Button on your blog.

To Apply, please email the following information to terra@smearedink.com

Name

Email

Blog URL

Pictures of four rubber stamped projects that best represent your style of stamping. These projects must each use rubber stamps somewhere on the project, and you must include at least one card and at least one altered item. (No all-digital projects allowed). New projects are not necessary, just choose your favorites that represent you and your style the best.

What do you think you can bring to the Smeared Ink Design Team? We want to know what makes you tick!

If you could choose one word to describe yourself, what would it be?

What is your favorite non-stamp product or tool to use in your art and why?

Do you feel you can meet all the requirements listed above?

Please list past and present Design Team experience. (Experience not necessary to apply)

Deadline for Submissions is midnight on Sunday, July 24, 2011

Winners will be contacted by the evening of Tuesday, July 26, 2011

DT term will run for six months starting August 1, 2011

Websites:

http://www.smearedink.com

http://www.smearedandsmudged.ning.com

http://www.smudgyantics.blogspot.com

Get Your Grump On!

2011-06-23T11:15:00.000-07:00

Smeared Ink is having a Get Your Grump On Sale!

We are restocking some of our favorite little characters, The Grumpies!

From today through June 24, order any of the Grumpie sets at 50% off. Sale prices are reflected in our shop. Please be aware that these will ship out in 12-14 business days.

This is a great time to snag up these little guys to add to your collection!

Included in sale:

Unmounted Rubber Sets:

Li'l Grumpies
Occassions Grumpies
Creepy Grumpies

Digital Sets:
Love Grumpies

Here are some of my favorite samples that I've made with the Grumpies characters.

Skull Appreciation Day Winners!!

2011-06-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

We have drawn for the AWESOME prizes from our Skull Appreciation Day sponsors, and here they are:

Quoth The Raven stamp set from Smeared Ink: Tish LaRee
Anatomy 101 digi set from Smeared Ink: Ike
Alas Poor Yoric dig stamp from Delicious Doodles: Susan's Crafty Chaos
5 Stamp Skully Grab Bag from Third Coast: Scrapping Beauty
A Necklace of Your Choice from Black Dragon's Dark Art Trinkets and More: Debbie
Skull Keychain from Nydia at Bringing Up Salamanders: Black Dragon

Winners, please contact me with your mailing address and/or email address (for digi winners) so I can pass the info on to the sponsors to get your prizes out to you! Congratulations!!!!!

If you haven't had the chance to go through the amazing hop, please scroll down to the post before this one and get to hopping through all the superb projects!

Massive Skull Appreciation Day Blog Hop Today!!!

2011-06-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!!! Today is the day, the sun is shining, the tank is clean,....... oh wait, that's Nemo. Today's the day, and all the skulls are out to play! There we go. Thanks for joining me at the beginning of our first ever Smeared and Smudged Skull Appreciation Day Blog Hop! What, what? Yes, you heard me right. Skull Appreciation Day!

Our friends over at Skull A Day started a campaign to get today, June 4th, officially recognized as National Skull Appreciation Day, and we decided to hitch a ride on the bandwagon and show our support by hosting a massive skully-filled blog hop! On today's hop you will find an amazing variety of skull projects featured on 37 different blogs, plus tons of prize winning opportunities.

To start, we have some prizes to give out here on the S&S Blog. To be entered to win, all you have to do is hop through the participating blogs and then come back here and leave a comment on this post telling me about your favorite project(s) and whose blog it came from. (I'd also, of course, love to hear what you think about mine, but that won't get you entered). You have until Tuesday at midnight to comment. We will be choosing winners by random number on Wednesday.

The prizes up for grabs on this blog are:
Quoth The Raven stamp set from Smeared Ink
Anatomy 101 digi stamp set from Smeared Ink
Alas Poor Yoric digi stamp from Delicious Doodles
5 Stamp Skully Grab Bag from Third Coast Rubber Stamps
A necklace of your choice from Black Dragon's Dark Art Trinkets and More
Skull Keychain from Nydia at Bringing Up Salamanders

Also, be sure to visit every blog, cause you never know when another sponsor prize may pop up! Winners for those prizes will be chosen by the individual blog, so pay attention to their criteria for entering.

So, now that you've got the low down on the prizes, it's time to roll out the cranium fodder! For my project I created a mixed media canvas that features the side-facing skull from Smeared Ink's Anatomy 101 digi set.

*click for larger view

My title is The Essential Journey, and the idea behind it is that we all have to go through certain stages in our life before we hit "freedom". The four butterflies are named Birth, Pain, Love, and Freedom. The journaling by her arm, in case you can't read my wonderfully messy handwriting, says "The Essential Journey at the heart of it all".

After taking a long hard look at this one, I think I may come back in later to add a few things, so we'll call this a work in progress. But isn't that an AWESOME skull!?! Just the first of many you will see on today's journey through blog land.

So now I am going to share with you the very impressive blog roll. Don't get overwhelmed, take your time and peruse them at your leisure. Some blogs may feature the whole blog roll, and some may point you in the direction of the next person in line, but if you get lost just swing back by here to find your way again. I hope you thoroughly enjoy sharing this awesome day with us and that you find yourself dreaming of amazing skulls tonight.

Don't forget to come back at the end and leave your comment to be entered to win prizes. Have fun!

Lunar Eclipse Page

2011-05-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

Today I am sharing this post here and on our Smeared Ink DT blog, Smudgy Antics, which is a great blog to follow if you want daily inspiration from the whole awesome Smeared Ink Design Team!

As you all know (or should know), we had a full lunar eclipse on this past Winter Solstice, which is the first time that has happened in 372 years. Unfortunately with me being in one of the rainiest spots in the US, we had overcast skies that night at my house. But, my uncle came to the rescue and shared some awesome pics of the eclipse that he took.

Even though we didn't get to see much of it, we definitely felt the effects. Some say that the "crazy" comes out during the full moon, and I have personally witnessed first hand how some people just loose control the closer the moon gets to being full. It's especially evident in all the dumb decision making (including my biggest pet peeve: stupid drivers) that seem to plague some as the full moon rises each month.

Anyways, I decided to make a scrapbook page that honors the lunar eclipse and the "crazies" that come along with a full moon. This page features my uncle's pictures and the Crouching Wolf digi and Staring at the Moon sentiment from Smeared Ink's Part of The Pack digi set. I do have to warn that my pics are kinda blurry, I will try to take better ones in the morning.

*click for larger pics

I am entering this page into Scraps of Darkness: Darkest/Weirdest Layout Challenge of April/May. I think it's both dark and weird enough. What do you think? I hope you like it and that it gives you some inspiration for your own dark weirdness! Thanks for visiting.

Simply Betty Stamps and Smeared Ink Zombie Hop!

2011-05-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't know, this month on the Smeared and Smudged Forum one of our fabulous challenge sponsors is Simply Betty Stamps. Betty so generously donated some of her newer zombie images for us to work with and we've gotten together with design team members from both teams to showcase these creepy-cute characters! I was lucky to get to work with the Zombie London image.

For my project I decided to try something that I've never done before, and that is printing a digi image onto fabric. I started by attaching cotton fabric to a sheet of paper with adhesive. Then I ran it through my printer, and voila! Instant fabric image.

I used my copics to color it in since I don't have fabric markers. Although I had some bleeding, for the most part this worked to my advantage cause I think it mixed the colors pretty well and made it look zombie-like. IDK, maybe I'm just trying to tell myself it looks good since this isn't my best coloring job, but I think it works for the purpose of a kids shirt. I don't know if this will be washable or not, so I'll probably end up getting some sort of clear fabric sealer for it.

*click for larger pics

After coloring, I ironed on some stiff double-sided interfacing and then cut out my image. I left a slight border around the outside of the image. Then I ironed it into the shirt. I finished the image by adding a black fabric paint border. See the smudge by her foot? My daughter got so excited that she touched it before it dried.

To finish off the shirt, I stamped the words "Zombie Lover" using Smeared Ink's Build A Zombie Alphabet set. I colored it in, and then added small green bows to both shoulders of the shirt.

I think it's pretty simple, but super cute! Here's my chicken-pox infected model, complete with tongue sticking out.

Can you tell she's excited and happy with her shirt? So, now that you've seen my zombie lover, head on over to the rest of the gals and check out their awesome projects! Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to sign up for our Skull Appreciation Day Blog Hop on June 4th (scroll down a post if you don't know what I'm talking about). Happy Hopping!!

Scrappy Betty:

http://scrappybetty.blogspot.com/

Terra (YOU ARE HERE)

http://www.moresmearedink.blogspot.com/

Tori:

http://ndustrial-lemon.blogspot.com/

Alison

http://alisonsrandomthoughts.blogspot.com/

Kelli

http://www.cajunstampingqueen.blogspot.com/

Lady B

http://www.ladybrayton71.blogspot.com/

Kapree:

http://kc-consultant.blogspot.com/

Dianne:

http://dkspinner.blogspot.com/

Paula

http://www.whatspeaks2myheart.wordpress.com/

Helen:

http://cromscubbyhole.blogspot.com/

Cheri:

http://graphicatcreations.blogspot.com/

Nicole:

http://canadiannickelscrapn.blogspot.com/

Jennifer

http://wannabecr8tive.blogspot.com/

Suzi:

http://www.mrsweyremaster.blogspot.com/

Skull Appreciation Day Blog Hop- Join Us!

2011-05-17T14:29:00.000-07:00

<a href="http://smudgyantics.blogspot.com/2011/05/skull-appreciation-day-blog-hop-with.html" target="new"></a>

Do you love creating amazing projects that showcase skully goodness? Wanna get some traffic to your blog and share your obsession? Join us on June 4th for one wild blog hop event! We will be celebrating Skull Appreciation Day by featuring handmade projects that spotlight the much-loved cranium. We will also be giving away tons of freebies during the hop!

How can you participate, you ask? Well, there are a couple of ways to get in on the action. To spread the word, grab our button above and post it to your blog, facebook page, or website and share the info. Then come hop through the amazing projects on the 4th, starting on the Smudgy Antics blog.

To join in, simply make a homemade project or craft that features a skull and sign up to be included in our hop list. This is open to any crafter or artist who would like to feature a handmade skull-themed project. You can sign up on our forum here, or by leaving a comment here with your name and blog address. If you choose to sign up on our forum, you will get your choice of a free Smeared Ink Skull Appreciation digi image to add to your collection.

After you sign up, be on the lookout for the hop list to be posted. The deadline for signing up as a participant is Tuesday May 31, 2011. We will post the hop list of participants on Thursday morning, June 2, 2011. Then just share your project on the 4th along with the list of participating blogs! During the hop we will also be giving away freebies, so that is even more incentive to participate or hop along.

If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the hop with your own freebie giveaway featuring a skull (and get advertising on our forum, blogs, and other hop information posts like facebook shares), please contact Terra here. When you sponsor, we will add your website/button to all of our hop advertising.

Thanks for joining us in this event and spreading the word, and we look forward to a fun skull-filled blog hop on the 4th!

*for more information on Skull Appreciation Day, please visit Skull-A-Day.

Smeared Ink New Release Hop

2011-05-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Welcome to another New Release Hop for Smeared Ink. We are introducing two new digi sets today. Yay! and to celebrate our design team has gotten together to feature some of the fantastic images. Before I forget, let me also mention that we are having a special today only, if you buy any two of our digi sets, you get to choose a third digi set for free!! Just mention your freebie choice in the paypal comments when you check out. Woo Hoo! What could be better than free stuff!!!

So, now that I have your attention, I will show you the new sets. And let me tell you, I adore both of them! The first is a set of little stitched up dolls that are both creepy and cute. Think along the lines of a rag doll with button eyes and mohawks. Here's Stitchy Situation:

I just love these little guys,and you will see several projects today made with them. The next set is gorgeous artwork adapted from 19th century Austrian artist Franz Von Bayros and is called, or course, Von Bayros:

I was lucky enough to get to work with one of these beautiful images for today's hop, and here is my card:

*click for larger pics

It's actually pretty straight-forward for me. I colored with Copics and cut out four layers of the image. The background is peacock feathers layered with stitched cardstock, and I added a die-cut and distressed label that has words from a candle sticker. It says "Exotic Collection" and I thought it fit well with the bold colors of the card.

I made the green embellishments from sculpey, and I also added some spots of glitter and crystal effects to the image, as well as Pearl-Ex powder around the edges of my image and label. Here is a close up of the layers on my image:

Although it looks black, the background cardstock in my card is actually navy blue. I went for something a little different this time with a bolder color pallette, I thought the image looked somewhat exotic and that it fit really well.

So, I hope you have enjoyed looking. Hop on through the DT blogs to see some awesome projects, and then head over to our Shop to get your very own new release digis, and don't forget your freebie set when you purchase two sets! Thanks for stopping by.

De-Stash Sale Round 1

2011-05-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, well it took a LONG time to get this stuff semi organized, photographed and uploaded, but here is round 1 of the things I am willing to pass on to other homes. Please note that the prices don't include shipping. I will put everything into the smallest box possible to ship and let you know how much the shipping total is. If you are interested in anything, please email me and let me know; first come first serve. Also, in case you don't know anything about my stamping style, I am a very messy stamper. Chances are, if I've used it, it's probably stained. But, the staining does not affect the stamped images at all and I am not offering anything that I would not buy myself :) One last note, I had a bad experience with a check last time I sold some of my goodies, so this time I am taking paypal only please. If you email, I will send you a total with an estimate on shipping, and then I'll send out a paypal invoice. I'll also update info as things sell. Thanks everyone! Hope you enjoy my sale!

Oh yeah, also forgot to mention, feel free to make me an offer if you want to buy lots!!!! :)

STAMPS

Bombshell Sacred Heart- $10-SOLD

Witches Set:$10- SOLD

Random Halloween- $10 SOLD

Invoke Arts Catrina Set- $10 -SOLD

Wings Set-$10 SOLD

Monsters Set-$8

Tiny Whymsical Alphabet & designs- $10
Fairies, Flowers, Hearts, & Cute Stuff- $8

Skeletons-$4

Women-$6 SOLD

Domino size Women- (over 50 stamps) $30 SOLD

Domino Backgrounds- $8 SOLD

Invoke Arts Doll Parts-(one thigh is missing but you can use the one included for both sides) $10

Circus-$10

Bombshell Muertas Doll- $10

Christmas set- $7

Rock N Roll Acrylics- $5 ON HOLD

Tiny Alphabet (not sure if they are all there or not) -$1

Puns From The Past- $10 SOLD

Domino Stamp- $1

Shapes- $3

Henna Hands- $2 -SOLD

Flowers- $6 SOLD

Words (they are pretty rough as you can see in the pics, but you can cut them apart like I did on one) -$1

Invitation Stamps-$4

Cupcakes-$6

Tags-$5

Oriental Nature- $8

Large Stitched Tree-$1

Birthday- $4

Bombshell Lucky Bride- $10

Bombshell Homeward Bound- $10

Bombshell Mi Amor- $10-SOLD

Bombshell Sugar Skulls- $10-SOLD

Bombshell Mermaid Treasure- $10 SOLD

Bombshell Rise and Shine- $10

Bombshell Vintage Raceway- $10 SOLD

Bombshell Holiday Accessories- $8

EMBOSSING POWDERS- $2 ea- all of them are at least half way full if not more, lots of them I never used

Rose Crafts Lemon Zest
Judikins Cloisonne SOLD

Rose Crafts Evergreen

Personal Stamp Exchange Copper-SOLD
Rose Crafts Arizona Redrock

Stampendous Saphire-SOLD
Stampin' Up Clear

Stampin Up Gold #1

Stampendous Silver

Stamp of Approval Kaleidoscope

Black Embossing Powder

Stampin' Stuff Classic Pewter

Embossing Arts Sparkles

Creations Unlimited Silver Seas

Stampin Up White -ON HOLD

Judikins Pastilles

Holographic EP

Stampin Stuff Clear

Rose Crafts Lilac Frost

Lg Vertigris

Stampendous Garnet

Personal Stamp Exchange Gold Tinsel

Rose Crafts Ori Silk Pink-SOLD
Rose Crafts Red Sparkle

Stampin Up Gold #2

Rose Crafts Sunset Pearl SOLD

Stampin Up Gold #3

Stampin Up Black

Stamendous Amethyst

Stampendous Carnelian

Judikins Malachite SOLD

Candy Pink EP

Stampn Stuff Black Lame

Silver Sparkle EP

Stampn Stuff Cobalt Blue -ON HOLD

OTHER GOODIES

Craft Mate holder with colored eyelets and brads-$20 SOLD

Color Coach- $1

Stampin Up Perfect Layers Tool- $5

Stampin Pastels- $5 (These are a little rough as you see in the pics, but still lots of chalk left! They need a good home where they will get used)

Essentials Glue Pad w/refill- $2

Small Take Out Box Template- $1 SOLD

Small Cake Box Template- $1

Shapes Template- $1

Pillow Box Template- $1 SOLD

Large Takeout Box Template- $1 SOLD

Shaped Tags Template- $1

Large Pouch Box Template- $1

Pocketbook Box Template- $1

Large Cake Box Template- $1

More Shaped Tags Template- $1

Large Pillow Box Template- $1 SOLD

Stamping Wheels

Large Handle- $1

Small Handle- $1

Small Skull Wheel- $2 SOLD

Small Circle Wheel- $2 SOLD

Small Baby Wheel- $2

Large Leaves Wheel- $3

Small Baby Feet Wheel- $2

Large Hearts Wheel- $3

Large Texture Wheel Speckled- $3

Large Swirly Wheel #1-$3

Small Paisley Flower Wheel- $2

Large Dots and Swirls- $3

Small Boho- $2

Large Swirls #2- $3

Large Dot Rows- $3 SOLD

Large Poinsettias- $3

Small Spiders- $2

Large Texture Rough- $3

Small Vines- $2

Large Straight dots- $3 SOLD

Small road- $2

Small Tire Tracks- $2

Small Watercolor Flowers-$2

Large Ornate Swirl- $3

Large Dainty Flowers- $3

Large Texture Rough Canvas- $3 SOLD

Dies and Punches

Sizzix Big Swirl die- $8 SOLD

Sizzix Big Teddy Bear die- $8

Sizzix Big Petal Card die- $8 (brand new)

Cuttlebug embossing folder flowers- $4

Cuttlebug embossing folder harlequin- $4 SOLD

Cuttlebug embossing folder snowflakes- $4 SOLD

Sizzix sizlets present die- $1

Sizzix sizlets swirl die- $1 SOLD

Cuttlebug tiny leaves die set- $3

Cuttlebug snowflakes die- $1 SOLD

Small Heart squeeze punch- $2

Stampin Up Large Oval Punch- $6

Stampion Up 1 3/8" Circle Punch- $6

Stampin Up squarepunch 1 1/4"- $6 SOLD

Fiskars border punch lace- $3 ON HOLD

Fiskars border punch scroll- $3 ON HOLD

Stampi Up Flower punch- $6 SOLD

Stampin Up large tag punch- $6

Stampin Up 1 3/8" square punch- $6

Stampin Up 3 flowers punch- $6

Stampin Up 1" circle small punch- $1 SOLD

Stampin Up small oval punch- $6

Stampin Up small tag punch- $6

Stampin Up shapes punch- $6

Stampin Up Word Window punch- $6

Stampin Up 1 3/4" circle punch- $6

Stampin Up 1 1/4" circle punch- $6

MORE OTHER GOODIES

Curved Acrylic block (for large stamps to "roll" them onto the paper)- $2

large roll of random flower fabric ribbon- $1

plain white tiles qty 7- $3

large red punchinella roll-$4

large green punchinella- $3

large blue punchinella- $4 SOLD

large gold punchinella-$4

pack of 100 cardboard circles (I was going to use this for bases for awesome banners, just never got around to it)-$3

styrofoam makeup trays- great to use for paint & glues!!! I have four packs, let me know if you want 1 or more- $1 each pack

copper wire mesh- about half of it is left (as you see in the pic)- $2

De-Stash Sale

2011-05-06T08:20:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,
It's been a while since I've had the chance to post here, but I am trying to organize my time and get some major spring cleaning done so I can get back on track with the things that are most important to me. One of the ways I am doing this is to have a De-Stash Sale!! Basically, I am de-stashing all of the artsy supplies that I haven't touched in a while. They are just sitting there and I'd love to pass them on to a new home where they will get used. This will include stamping and papercrafting supplies, as well as other art and craft supplies. I have quite a list going already, and should be done collecting by this afternoon. So, if you're interested in getting some great supplies at about half the cost, please visit me later to see all the goodies!

April Smeared and Smudged Member Hop

2011-04-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

This month for our Smeared and Smudged member hop, Kelli challenged us to make something using metal. You all probably know by now that I LOVE metal in my projects! I didn't think that I would be able to participate in this hop because of other obligations, so I signed up and started a project last minute yesterday.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish it, but I do have a sneak peek for you. I will be finishing the project today and posting the pictures by the end of the day. For now, here's a closeup of the image I have used. It is the Octobat image from one of our newer digi sets, Creature Feature. Can anyone guess what it is that I'm making?

Since I don't have a full project to show you, I figured I'd make up for it by giving away some BLOG CANDY! Since I used one of Smeared Ink's digi images for my project I thought we'd talk about digis. All you have to do to be entered into the blog candy drawing is tell me which of the Smeared Ink digi images or sets is your favorite and what you would use it on. Leave your answer here in a comment and I will draw the winner by random number and announce tomorrow :) The winner will get a small goody bag from me with awesome metal random embellishments and found objects to use on their own projects!

In the meantime, head on down the blog roll list to the other participating members and see what metal-themed projects they have created for you! And don't forget to swing by later for full pics of my project. Hope you enjoy the inspiration!

"Haunted" Scrapbook Page

2011-04-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

Good Tuesday afternoon to you all! I have something to share with you today; it is a scrapbook page that I have been working on. If you know anything about me, you know that I haven't scrapbooked very often because I was always under the impression that scrapbooking had to be one of two things- either cute or vintage.

The first time I tried to scrapbook at a crop, I completely lost interest and haven't really ever taken it up again except for a random page here or there. Well, I must tell you that I am now in love. I've basically said screw the "rules" (like I do with most of my art) and have been scrapbooking my way with lots of paint, untraditional materials, and mess. WOO HOO!!

So, here is the page I have to share with you today.

*click for larger views

It is a page that uses a technique I like to call "ghost" transfers. I will be teaching the really easy technique this Sunday in the Mixed Media University on the S&S Forum. It's basically just a different way to do an image transfer. After I did that with my photo, I used wax to cover it (I'll also be showing how to do that in the class). Here you can see a little bit of my journaling and some of the embossing powder flecks that I added to the wax.

Here's are some closeups of the transfer and my paper flowers

I think this page is really neat looking. It's creepy but not in a traditional way, so to me it adds a lot of character. What do you think?

Here are some of the materials that I used:

Holy City stamp set from Smeared Ink

G45 papers

Papers from The Scrap Factory

acrylic paint

wax

nail polish remover

scrap newsprint

buttons

beads

gold wire

UTEE

Pearl Ex powder

Prismacolor markers

New Release/End of Term Hop

2011-03-29T01:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome back! As promised, I have a project to share with you today. Not only does today mark my return to creating (it's about time, I know!), but today the Smeared Ink Design Team is bringing you a hop to honor the end of our Design Team term. Booooo I say! I will dearly miss those not returning for another term. But, as one last hoopla, we have all gotten together to create stunning projects for you to peruse, and we've used NEW digi images that are available in the Smeared Ink shop today! Woo hoo!!

As if that weren't enough, we've challenged our DT to make a project that features not one, but three different Smeared Ink images. Some may think we're crazy, but we know these girls can rock it out!!!! So, grab your cup of coffee or herbal tea and get ready for some serious inspiration from these fabulous ladies! On to the projects!

For my project I made a trinket box, and I started with a tin can. Yes, you heard right. Just a regular old empty soup can. Just like this one...

I chose to work with the Mad Eyes from our new Anatomy 101 digi set, the Inky Heart from our Heartwings digi set, and the Forever saying from our new Death Cab digi set. When I finished, my trinket box looked like this. The colors in the photos are a little off because these were taken indoors, but you get the idea.

*click for larger views

**UPDATE- Here are some better pics so you can see the true colors**

I started by adding my hardware to the can with industrial strength glue. The feet are screws with a nut, and the top is a broken piece of wood with another screw and casing attached. When those were dry, I started with a paint treatment on the can. It was a very long process, I won't go into too much detail, but it included gesso, lots of color washes, and a heat gun.

I printed my eyes and heart onto a piece of old telephone book paper, then colored them slightly and aged them to match my can. I also tore strips of sheet music that I received from Madness Paper and aged it as well. I attached them to the can with modge podge, and then added more paint washes to get them to blend.

The hanging tag got the same treatment, as well as the Forever saying. The final touch was to color up my butcher's string and attach it to the tag to hang from the top. I also added to the string a paint treated key and some hardware.

So, what do you think? I love to hear opinions, so please feel free to leave a comment. I think it's a neat little trinket box to hold whatever. I hope it gives you some ideas for things you can do with all those old tin cans. Don't throw them away! And now that you've seen my project, it's time for you to hop through all of the other blogs and get even more inspiration. Then be sure to go check out the new digi sets at Smeared Ink. Have fun and thanks for stopping by!

Our Rockin' Smeared Ink Design Team

And our Awesome Guest Designers

Alex

Jane

Sugar

I'm Baaack!!! Almost...

2011-03-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

Hi all my much appreciated followers! You may have noticed that there have not been very many posts here lately. Well, I've had a rough couple of months, and I haven't been around on my blog since the beginning of Feb. I haven't really had the time or energy to make many projects, I won't go into details, but I am starting to find my mojo again and can't wait to share some new stuff with you! This week the kids are off of school for spring break. There will be no (or at least not much) hustle and bustle for me to deal with; so the plan is to relax, drink lots of coffee and herbal tea, listen to really loud music, and make some art!! Can't wait to share with you again :)

New Design Team Blog

2011-02-05T07:39:00.000-08:00

I'm just stopping by for a quick note; I'd like to invite all of you to swing by our new Smeared Ink Design Team blog, Smudgy Antics! Today Lady Brayton is introducing the blog in style with two amazing projects, and a different design team member will be posting there daily with new inspiration. Hope to see you there!

Smeared Ink Sponsors Delicious Doodles-Blog Hop

2011-02-04T00:31:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, welcome to my blog! Thanks for stopping by our Smeared Ink/Delicious Doodles combined Blog Hop. Smeared Ink is sponsoring the challenge today over on the Delicious Doodles Challenge Blog, and we'd like to invite you to go over and participate in today's challenge for your chance to win 5 Smeared Ink digi images of your choice!

For the hop today, members from the Smeared Ink and Delicious Doodles design teams have gotten together to bring you some fabulous projects that feature some of the images from the Smeared Ink digi line. I'm sure you'll get lots of inspiration, so be sure to visit each stop on the hop and leave all of the gals some love for their hard work and creativity!

For my project today, I chose to work with our newest digi image, Aphrodite. Now you may be saying to yourself that you haven't seen this image yet. That's because Aphrodite is not available to purchase in our shop. How can you get her, you ask? Well, she is an exclusive freebie image that we are giving away to those who participate in any of the Smeared and Smudged Challenges this month. Yes, you heard me right, ALL participants can claim this exotic digi, so please swing by the Smeared and Smudged Forum and check out all of the February challenges. Each challenge has it's own theme, and you can find all the links on the left of the main forum page.

On my card, I followed the featured sketch and used some really vibrant background papers. The base is from an old calendar page, and the light textured paper is actually a wallpaper sample that I watercolored and inked. Aphrodite was colored using prisma markers, and the saying is from our new Heart Wings digi set. I added yarn as my back bar, and finally finished with clear beads and some pearl ex powder accents.

You may notice that this card is very simple; well, that's because I don't do so well with sketches, but I gave it a good try and I hope you find some inspiration! Please continue down the hop list to see all of these amazing projects, and be sure to visit the Delicious Doodles Challenge as well as the Smeared and Smudged Challenges. Have Fun!

Terra (me)

Delicious Doodles Blog Hop- It Does a Body Good

2011-01-26T00:01:00.000-08:00

Howdy everyone! Yes, that's my Texas showing through, ugh. Today the Smeared and Smudged Design Team has a treat for you- a blog hop featuring images from Delicious Doodles! You may or may not know that Delicious Doodles is one of our fabulous sponsors over on the S&S Forum this month, and Teri has so graciously let our DT work with some of her awesome digi images.

After you take a gander at all the delicious inspiration we have to offer you today (delicious, get it?) swing on by the forum and participate in some of our monthly challenges where you can have your chance to win awesome prizes from Teri at Delicious Doodles, and Madness Paper who just happens to be Lisa from our own DT!

For my project today I started off with the Love's Faded Memory image, which is a cool vampy skull (see the fangs?) with a rose. I colored with my new prisma markers, and I have to say that it is getting fun working with markers. I know, I know, that's so last year, but I've never used them before so rather than bombarding you with techniques, I decided to just practice my coloring.

*click pics for larger views

The base of my project is a milk carton. There is a store here called Creation Station, and they sell surplus and recycled stuff that they get from manufacturers, companies, etc. Basically they keep alot of stuff out of landfills and the bonus is YOU as the customer get really neat goodies for a great price to use in your creative endeavors, whatever they may be. Anyways, the last time I was there I picked up a whole bunch of these clean, empty, unfolded milk cartons, like the ones you'd find in grade school.

I covered my carton with deco paper, assembled with red line tape, and then inked it up. I added my colored image, some pink brads as closures, and then wrote "Love" on the top. Pretty simple really, but I think it's a cool little Valentine candy holder. Plus I got to practice my mad coloring skills, ha ha! I know the skull doesn't look like much coloring went into it, but believe me, it has layers! ;)

So, I hope you get some inspiration from my project and all the others featured today. Have fun hopping and thanks for stopping by!

Smeared and Smudged Member Blog Hop

2011-01-19T08:24:00.000-08:00

Hi all, today the S&S forum is hosting it's member blog hop, where all of our members can show off a project if they want! The theme today is "New"; try something that is new to you in your project.

Well, for me, I actually have nothing to show you. I know, that sucks! While I was making my project last night, I spilled my soda all over it and ruined it. Yesterday was not a good day for me, you know, one of those ones where everything goes wrong? And I was so upset and frustrated that I just said f-it and didn't restart the card. But, don't fret too much, I will try to get a remake up before the end of the day today.

In the meantime, hop on down the list and see all the new stuff the other S&S members have to offer! We've got a super long list of participants this time around, and I know each blog will be full of inspiration!!! Swing by later if you get the chance :)

Smeared Ink Digi Release TODAY!

2011-01-17T11:36:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone! I know, it's been forever since I posted, but I'm slowly getting over the holiday chaos and getting things back to normal. Today, we are having a fabulous digi image release over at Smeared Ink, and to honor that, our DT is having a hop featuring some awesome projects! I know, my post is pretty late, but I've been without internet since yesterday and wasn't able to get it up before now. Urghh! But, better late than never, heh?

The digi's will be uploaded into the shop in just a bit, so please visit later on. In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the wonderful eye candy that our DT has for you!

For my project, I used song lyrics as inspiration. It's kinda dark, but I just couldn't get this song out of my head to create anything else, so I went with it. The song is about an abusive relationship (perfect for Valentine's Day! tee hee, just kidding). And before anyone asks, no this project does not reflect any relatonships I have been in, but I do have some close friends who have gone through abusive relationships.

Anyways, I used images from our new Heart Wings and Femdom sets. It is not really a card, more of an art piece I guess that I may later add into a journal.

I colored with my new art markers, which I am very new at, so please be gentle on the comments. It's very different than using prisma pencils, so I'll have to get used to the blending. But, I'm not totally disappointed with the results.

The background hearts and wings came from Heart Wings and the bending beauty came from Femdom. I tried to keep her coloring very mute to portray the feelings of being stuck in that type of relationship.

I added crystal glaze to the heart on the bottom, and also popped up the wings. I hope you enjoy looking at my project, and be sure to hop on through the rest of the DT to see lots of cool inspiration for our new digi's! Then head on over to the Smeared Ink shop and pick your faves. Thanks for joining us today!

Tellen's Place Blog Hop- Grinch Dunce Hat

2010-12-22T00:01:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Well, it's been a chaotic spread of days at my house to say the least. Not only am I playing catch up on making and finishing gifts, but Friday night we had someone try to break in to our home at about 3:00 in the morning. Scary!!! I won't tell you the whole story, but nobody was hurt and nothing stolen, thank goodness.

Anyway, in the midst of all of this, I just had to take some time to play with an extremely cool Tellen's Place image for today's hop. It was kinda therapeutic to sit down and make this project; it was a joint effort with my 11 yr old daughter and we just relaxed and had fun with it!

Did I mention that Tellen's Place is one of our fabulous sponsors over on the S&S Forum this month?!?!! Head on over to participate in a challenge and you may have the chance to win an awesome digi image like this one!

For our dunce hat we used Hades, which is probably my favorite image from Tellen's Place, so thank you so much Terry for letting me use him!!!! He's a fave amongst my kids too, and I had to print out several for them to just color up. In my opinion, not only is he a bad*ss monster, but he makes a fabulous grinch!

*click pics for larger views

We started with a paper mache hat that I found at the craft store and painted it with deep red glittery paint. Actually, my daughter did all of the painting while I colored my Hades image. She painted red first, then used some paint daubers, like the ones you use for Bingo, to add the cool looking dots all over the hat. After coloring up and cutting out my image, we attached him to the front of the dried hat. Then we painted chipboard letters to spell the word Grinch and attached those. The final touches were punchinella trim, a hanging ball ornament and red ribbon.

It was a super easy, but extremely fun project to make. And I know we'll be using this image again. I have so many ideas for him! Now, be sure to go check out the challenges on the Forum for your chance to win, and hop on over to the other DT member blogs listed below to see more great projects using images from Tellen's Place!

12 Days of Christmas

2010-12-15T08:47:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to give you all an update... I'm not sure if I'm going to make all the 12 days posts. Things have gotten REALLY hectic w/hubby gone and all the holiday stuff. I still have tons of gifts to finish and such a short amount of time that I am scrambling to finish, plus I got word that we may be moving soon. SO, I am going to try and hit all the days, but it's pretty much going to come down to whether I have the time to make something. I'm so sorry if I am disappointing everyone, but I encourage you to continue visiting the Jolly Bloggers that are listed in my sidebar as they are posting some fabulous projects for your inspiration.