Packing

So I will still be on hiatus for awhile. We do not having a closing date on our house yet, but I am working to pack up all the stuff in my room before we do. I've already packed 7 or 8 boxes and have yet to put a dent in all of my stuff! I'm really excited about having a craft room. My craft room will probably be one of the first things I set up, but I will still be pretty busy for awhile. Expect to start seeing actual craft posts probably after the end of January at the earliest.

I Got a Job!

So I finally got a job. I will be working as a loan processor at a bank about 45 minutes away from where I live. It's a long drive but I desperately need a job. My dad also put an offer in on the house we've been looking at so in about 6-8 weeks we will have a new house that will add about 10 minutes to my drive to work. The drive will suck, but at least I will be able to start paying off my student loans. Hopefully between the extra drive, the job, playing World of Warcraft again, and a boyfriend I will have time to get crafting once we are all moved in. 

Pathfinder Character Cover

Here is the cover I created for my latest Pathfinder character, a Samsaran Inquisitor of Pharasma. 

I used lineart from  who drew  's character. I used alcohol markers, watercolor pencils, acrylic ink, and Lindy's products to color the lineart.

For the background, I started with a plain sheet of blue cardstock and used my Tattered Angels glimmer screens and Lindy's products. I then used another glimmer screen and a silver paint pen and stenciled the flower shape. Finally I took a piece of scrapbook paper with foil and colored it using Starburst Stains and cut the circles using my Cricut and glued them on. I hand painted the holy symbol of Pharasma and the Carrion Crown banner was created using my Circut as well.

Double Embossing Technique Video

Here is the video tutorial I mentioned one of my earlier posts. I love the cool look of my gears using this technique!

Hope you guys like it!

Altered Page Background

So I wanted to share this piece before I post the final project. I love how the background turned out. I started with a piece of black cardstock and stenciled the designs using my Tattered Angels glimmer screens. I then painstakingly colored in the parts using a gold gel pen. Because it felt like it was missing something I added the red paint. I think it looks gorgeous and will need to use it on a card or a scrapbook page at some point. It did get a little smudged on some gold parts thanks to a ferret. I think Shark has an ability called Sense Liquid because she leaves empty glasses alone but always goes for ones with anything at all in them.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday

Well I'm sort of back, or at least feeling a little more crafty. Here is a scrap card I created using bits of scrap paper and one of my Bombshell Stamps. I stamped the image in distress ink then spritzed it a bit for a slight bleed effect.

Scrap Card Dump

So I have been pretty busy looking for a job, looking for a house, and being overall lazy because of not having a job; but I have managed to do a bit of crafting here and there. I don't get as much done just because I've managed to make a giant mess of my supplies due to lack of space. But here are some scrap cards I made using an interesting technique I made up (well it could exist somewhere else but I thought of it on my own). I call it double embossing. I will explain the technique hopefully at a not-too-later date.

Lack of Motivation

So I was working on ponies for awhile, then I cleaned up my room. I also had to start my FBR over again on my G4 pony.

I'm feeling a lack of motivation to work on anything craft related though. I just get so tired of my desk getting horribly messy. I'm tired of having a tiny room to do crafting.

On the good side of things, my dad and I are actively looking at houses. Yesterday we looked at two promising places. One house isn't as big and doesn't have as much land, but the house doesn't really need any work. The other house is huge and has a lot of land, but the basement needs to be completely redone. I am rather partial to the second house because it would mean having a basement all to myself. I would also get the chance to do some serious renovation and redecorating--complete with demo, drywalling, electrical, tiling, and painting. It would be a several months' project to say the least. That property has a few other issues with it, and not sure if some things would pass inspection like the windows in the basement. We also don't know how much the current owner is willing to work on the house or willing to give up on price.

We'll keep looking in the meantime. I am hoping we'll find something soon so I can get started on renovation and remodeling!

New Place to Buy Doll/Pony Hair

So Shannon, aka enchantress41580 is starting up a new online business to sell doll/pony hair as well as lots of retro stuff. I'm pretty stoked, I can't wait to see what kind of hair she's going to have for sale and the cost. I'm all for more competition in the market as it helps out customizers. It'll also be nice since custompony.com went on the fritz awhile back and the hair was more of the restore quality and not something I particularly cared for myself.

Shannon is also having a contest for the grand opening: a drawing for a custom pony. Details can be found on her DA page here: enchantress41580 and the Retro Dolls US Facebook Page.


On a different note, I've been obsessively working on ponies which is why there are no other craft posts by me. I may try to get some scrap cards done here soon, but no promises.

Another Deck Box!

A MTG deck box made on commission from a person on Deviantart. He wanted the white mana symbol on the front and a silhouette of the Platinum Angel on the back. I made this box large enough to old an internal plastic box and holds 75+ sleeved cards. I am open for commissions on these. I can do all the different mana symbols and other possible designs as well. I can paint in pearlescent inks or plain acrylics in matte and gloss. Price for these is $50 and that includes priority shipping.

Altered Art- RP Folder Cover

So after a glorious end to the Age of Worms campaign we have started playing Pathfinder's Second Darkness campaign. I made  a gnome Ranger who thinks she is a seeress, does a bit of ventriloquism, is convinced she's a ninja, and has a dire weasel as an animal companion. Her name is Lini Blinkindurfer.

I created this cover for my RP'ing folder using Lindy's products for the background, DCWV paper from the Chateau Lavender stack, ferret sticker from hayhedgehoghay, some celtic alphabet stamps, flowers by Petaloo, and some plain Testor acrylics for the arch. I colored Lini using copics, Lindy's products, and some watercolor pencils. All in all I think this turned out cute. I think I'm going to start an art folder for my old characters with the cover sheets and character sheets.

A Different kind of Bombshell Project

So I've been AWOL for awhile. I got a bit burnt out on ponies last year and then ended up super busy with school so I didn't have much time or motivation to work on anything.

Here's a pony I started a number of months ago and finally finished it this week. I used a dyed bait I bought off someone awhile back. I printed the wings out on transparency paper and added a bit of glitter. I rehaired her with nylon hair. I altered the pins with glitter and ceramcoat gloss varnish. Her symbol was stamped on with a stamp from www.bombshellstamps.com. I originally tried to use embossing powder but it stuck to the whole pony and not just my embossing ink so I scrapped that. I stamped the image with permanent ink and then painted over it with acrylic paints and inks. I painted the swirls in acrylic inks as well as the eyes with a bit of plain acrylic paint in white. Finally I added some gems around the neck to help with the look of the neck seam, but also to add a bit of sparkle. I added a few gems to the back as well.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday

In the process of cling mounting my stamps and creating covers for the mini binders I ended up with a lot of excess paper. Here are six cards I created with the same main focal DCWV paper and other bits of scraps that I had in my drawer.

Finished Altered Canvas

So I finally finished the altered canvas for my friend's birthday. I was waiting on the Prima Mushrooms I used in my other project. The first batch I got were broken so had to have them send me a replacement. I added a few more bits along with the mushrooms and flowers. I think it turned out excellent.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays Are Back!

So I'm finally getting back into the swing of things. I am trying to lose some weight so exercise time is cutting into crafting time, but I'm trying to force myself to get out of bed earlier in the morning. I fully cling mounted all of my stamps (sans-Christmas stamps) so now I have a ton of extra paper in my scrap drawer. Hopefully I'll have a whole slew of scrap cards here soon. Here is a scrap ATC I made. The paper is all scraps as is the transparency. The only pieces not scraps on this piece is the base card, flowers, and mushrooms.

Materials Used:

Lindy's Starburst Stains

Lindy's Embossing Powder

Prima Mushroom

Portafolia Flowers

Clear Art Stamps

Transparency

Martha Stewart Glitter

Recollections Habitat Paper

Purple Cardstock

Distress Ink

This card was for a swap hosted over at birdnutsmixedmedia. I only had time to make one card, but this month I'm trying for three.

Stay tuned for more finished projects and a special Bombshell Stamps project that I'm finally finishing.

Selling Some Stamp Mounting Blocks

Hello everyone. I'm trying to get back in the swing of things but I also need to do a whole bunch of cleaning an organizing. I've decided to cling mount all of my stamps to save some space so I have a TON of used wood mounting blocks up for sale on eBay. The blocks are in good condition and some are even home made out of high quality oak. So far I have two lots for sale and two more sitting in the wings. Please tell your friends! I need these things gone!

Auction 1

Auction 2

Make it Crafty!

So one of my favorite stamp companies is having a design team call so I just had to pull out some spare time to make a project. Ever since I first saw Make it Crafty stamps I just had to buy some. I also found myself totally in love with their chipboard. This project has a dual purpose. This is for the Make it Crafty DT call and a birthday present for a friend of mine who loves fairies.

Here is the project I created for the DT contest. I started with a watercolor board and decorated it with distress ink and Starburst Stains. I then bleach stamped some mushrooms all over it and bleached the edges. I added a bit of embossed images using Tim Holz Stamps and Recollections embossing powder in copper. On top of that I added a few vine stickers that I got from Jo-anns in the dollar bins. I also added a rub-on from Bo-Bunny. The corner pieces are Make it Crafty chipboard covered in a couple of layers of two tone embossing powder. My inspiration for this piece was the Recollections paper I used behind the fairy. I fell in love with those mushrooms when I saw a video for this particular stack. I framed that using some maroon paper embossed in an embossing folder and with a bit of ink on top of that. The fairy is Make it Crafty and I colored her using Copics, metallic watercolors, and Magic Micas. I actually embossed her in black to see how it would look. I stamped several images of this fairy and colored another one. I decided I liked this one best. Unfortunately I was expecting some embellishments in the mail to create another focal point, but they did not ship when I thought and have yet to arrive. As soon as it is all finished I will post again.

 The whole piece

 Close up of the Make it Crafty Fairy

Embossed chipboard. Love the gorgeous red embossing powder with blue tones. Using some much powder makes it look more blue with red undertones.

Black and Green Deckbox

So here is my second custom leather deck box. This one is for my green-black anti-,ill deck. I did a much better job on the symbols this time and I did a different kind of stitching with wax thread. I like how this one turned out much better.

Leather Working!

So my semester has been insane with the amount of classwork I've had to do. Things are starting to wind down so I now have a bit of time to do some crafting, at least on weeks that I don't babysit. This past week I started my first real leatherworking project. My boyfriend got me back into playing Magic the Gathering and since making a few decks I've wanted to make custom deck boxes for those decks. I started with my favorite deck--my blue and white artifact deck--and created this deck box. This was my first try so it's not as good as it could be, but I'm happy with the result. I used various leather crafting tools to create the raised and indented parts of the leather, painted them with Daler and Rowney Pearlescent Acrylic Inks and sealed it with some leather sealer.

The box holds my deck perfectly and is closed using some magnets. Best of all it still fits in my fat pack box.

 I should be finishing up my Black and Green anti-mill deck box and can show that off later. I also have a project in the works for the Make it Crafty Design Team. Hopefully I will have that finished and posted by tomorrow. And thanks to working cling mounting all of my stamps I have tons of scraps so please look forward to my Waste not Want not Wednesdays to come back.

Lack of Updates

Sorry I've been so AWOL lately. I was expecting to take fewer credits this semester and it turns out that I have to take 16 to get my second degree. I signed up for three online classes hoping that my workload would be lessened with fewer in-class classes. I was wrong. I spend a good portion of my week doing homework  I generally get Saturdays to myself, but I don't always end up doing crafting. My blog will probably be on hiatus, at least until I can get another class's homework completely done for the semester. Hopefully I will get back to the crafting soon with some scrapbook pages. 

A Piece of Altered Art

Retro Cafe Art Galler is having a contest. The contest is to create a piece of art for Valentine's Day art using at least one item that they sell in their store. I created this item with Gold Stickles surrounding the diamonds. I started with a basic canvas from Michaels and added some watercolor primer to create a surface for some Distress inks and Starburst stains. I added a nice pile of embossing powder and stamped with a Tim Holtz stamp in the top corner. I used some Basic Grey rub-ons, gold ink, Jolee's stickers, a stencil, acrylic paint, Prima flowers and some charms covered in Lindy's embossing powder. The letters are from a DCWV stack.

If anyone is interested this piece of art is for sale.

Tag! You're It!

The DT Challenge over at Bombshell Stamps this month is a tag challenge. I created this one here with some scraps I had lying around (except for the tag) and the Butterfly Queen stamp set. I used a no-line technique for the butterflies, coloring them in with water color pencils.