'Child's Shoe' Blog Award

 Ok so this was a little out of the blue, I got a lovely comment from the very tallented  Julia yesterday at http://julialsw.blogspot.co.uk/ saying she has nominated me for a blog award.
 Its for new blogs and seems to be a pay it forward sort of thing. Ill detail it in a minute. For some reason I can find nothing about it online, must be some sort of masonic crafting order ;)
Now I had no idea things like this existed so It was such a fantastic surprise and something that means a lot.

The idea behind it seems to be, you are nominated by someone, you then If you want to, should select 5 blogs that inspire you etc and contact them letting them know about the Child's Shoe award and then they should do the same thing etc, etc. It is a way of socially networking I guess and getting your blog name out there for new people to see.There are some criteria that need to be met, see below.
If that makes sense you are doing better than me.

1. The blog should be in its infancy ie. below 200 followers.
2. The recipient should post about the award on their blog.
3. Include a link to the nominator in your post.
4. Forward the award to another 5 bloggers and tell them about the nomination.
5. Insert these rules into your post.

After a lot of thought I have chosen 5 of the blogs that were probably 5 of the first blogs I came to when I started out earlier this year. They are blogs that I constantly go to to see what wonders they have created and am constantly inspired and amazed by their works.Sadly I could only choose 5 Blogs, there were so many I wanted to include.

Here are my 5 in no particular order.

Mel.................http://theyorkshirefox.blogspot.co.uk/
Elly..................http://ellypirally.blogspot.co.uk/
Fiona..............http://myartfulmuse.blogspot.co.uk/
Anne..............http://bollyanne.blogspot.co.uk/
Alison.............http://alisonbomber.blogspot.co.uk/

If you don't know who these guys are go check out their Blogs,also go and check out the very talented Julia as well. I am sure you will be inspired

It's all a little weird but hey, weird can be good ;)    time for me to let my 5 know, hope they don't mind x

thanks for reading, sorry for no crafty things, but to make up there will be 2 posts tomorrow  (oh yay I hear you scream)    ;) x

Haunted Design House, Great Granddads Merman Heart

 This week over at Haunted Design House  the challenge is 'Chain Me Up'
  Im a little late this week as I have been rummaging through great granddads things in the atic.(for those of you who don't know, my GG was an old school monster hunter) I found this, an old box padlocked and chained shut.Its scuffed tin and metal plate so Im guessing it must hold something substantial. Luckily the lock was old and I was able to break it open and  look inside.

 As you can see what I found was a little surprising, a blue heart, after taking it out and having a closer look the heart seems to have petrified, its a solid glistening semi translucent object, even though
it is solid it has a liquid like look.
Fortunately the box was numbered and I have been able to find some journal scraps that seem to correspond with this item.
According to the page this once belonged to a great warrior of Atlantis.Now unfortunately there are no details I have found as to why GG was anywhere near Atlantis or how he came about this warriors heart, but I can only assume that it is either very powerful or very dangerous, I think I shall lock it back up and wait till I can find out more about it.

Ok boring bit ;)

This started out as a wooden cigar box I was able to get hold of in Vegas earlier this year. The challenge being chained up my mind went to some sort of artefact that needed to be kept under lock and key. To see some other brilliant interpretations of the theme head over to Haunted Design House and have a play with us.
 I was really pleased with how my tag turned out last week and wanted to use the same techniques but in a different way.The box was painted with an Andy Skinner time worn technique and I made four rusty plates to attach to the sides, the chain,lock and fasteners were picked up in Homebase.the lock was coated in a mix of alcohol inks and thinned down washes of paint, the fasteners were also given a rust treatment.
The inside of the box was lined with some patterned paper and some old black cloth was folded for the lining.
As for the Heart, It has pretty much everything I own thrown at it. I started with Fresco paints and then some clear crocco crackle glaze, this was dry brushed with different shades of blue, It got misted with dylusions and cosmic shimmer mists, a layer of wax was added along with some blue alcohol inks that got melted in with the wax, more cosmic shimmer and finally some clear stickeles.  yes i have some of them.
the end result is quite weird, it has a sort of very thick soft varnish look about it, you can see through the layers to the wooden heart underneath.It just proves if your not happy with something add another layer ;)

If you have made it this far then you deserve a medal. I am so greatful to all of you who take the time to stop by and see what I am up to. It's still unbelievable but very much appreciated.
thank you xx

I would like to enter this into the Anything But A Card challenge, the theme is 'Texture'
I would also like to enter this in to the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp And Show   their challenge is 'for the love of sparkle' the heart is my sparkle'y object.  I would also like to say a great big thank you to the guys over at ssss as I was lucky enough to win $100 in their weekly entry draw, I have already spent it and received my stamps.  Thank you xx

Steam Punk Tag Swap with InkyPinky

Thank Crunchie it's Friday. First a big Hello and welcome and also a thank you for popping by.
 A little while back I was chatting with the very talented Trace from Inky Pinky Craft, go have a look at her blog if you do not know who I am talking about, and we decided to do a tag swap, Trace set the Theme 'Steam Punk' and earlier this week we both received our tags.
I really enjoyed the whole swap experience but have to admit to being nervous swapping with Trace as her work is brilliant.Having said that I am actually really pleased with the way my tag turned out, being steam punk it cried out for Andy Skinner techniques in abundance so I threw a few at this project.I started with a tag cut from mount board using the Tim die cut, this was embossed with the diamond plate folder and then given a rust treatment, I then used a different worn metal look for the main image,its meant to look like chipped/scraped tin. The stamp is from Oxford Impressions.I used some embellishments from Tim Holts, The tap and sentiment, the

little cogs are from the bead shop in Brighton. they were all given an aged copper   patina finish to give a little colour contrast.
I am really liking using mount board  over normal card at the moment as it gives a better base for paining and also gives extra depth.
The ATC image was stuck on with double sided pads to lift it from the surface of the tag.





Now here is Trace's tag. Its absolutely brilliant,I love it all, The embossing folder is one of my faves, it really lends it's self to the steam punk theme.What you can't see from the main pic is the crackle texture on the light bulb and all the curled bits of wire that have been attached. Also the wing nut for the eyelet is genius, really cool.
If you click on the smaller picture you should see what I am talking about with the bulb.
The Monty Python hand image has been curled so it is proud of the tag, great little details.
If you look on Trace's blog you will see more about her tag and some other projects that are inspirational.
Also look at all this stuff Trace put in as well, talk about being spoilt ;) loads of die cut cogs and some brilliant embellishments, charms and keys.

A big Thank You from me Trace, I cant wait till the next swap,   something spooky maybe? ;)  stay tuned for swap 2 lol

Also a big thank you to everyone who stops by and leaves comments, It really does mean a lot xx

Right over at Poisoned Peas Please they have a Steam Punk challenge which is mighty convenient ;)
And Anything But A Card have a texture challenge running.
I would also like to enter this into a new challenge blog called Steam Punk Junkies their challenge is Time Travel/Anything Goes.

Haunted Design House 'I'm Melting'

 It's that time of the week again but first a thank you to all of you that stop by, Hi to to the regulars ( how weird is that?) and welcome to you if it's your first time.
 Ok back to that time of the week again, I am of course meaning the Haunted Design House challenge, this week it's 'I'm Melting'
basically create something a little dark/gothic or halloween inspired using the theme melted.You can interpret this anyway you choose, There are loads of great DT pieces to get your creative juices going over at Haunted Design House.
 When I knew we were doing this challenge my mind went straight to my melting pot, I have only used it a few times but I really love playing around with the melted wax. I have found it to be a medium that just lets you play, you can just layer up and layer up until you like what you are left with, if you make a mistake or don't like an area you can just go over it with the next layer of paper etc.

Right, so I chose to do a small canvas about 6''x8'' I started by spraying the canvas with Dylusion sprays, pink and orange going through to green blue and purple, at this stage it was BRIGHT but I new when the wax goes on it would mute it down a little, I sealed that with the first layer of wax, added some streaks of alcohol ink which i covered with wax before it had dried so it smeared and streaked in with the wax (make sense?)
 I stamped one of my new Stampotique stamps on to white tissue paper and layered it on, I was hoping for the tissue to become more translucent but you could still see it so I re stamped the image onto another bit of tissue paper and then sprayed with the Dylusion inks and stuck it down over the top of the first image, you can see the first layer poking out from underneath in a couple of places.I used some Tim tape for one of the edges and corners and stained them with distress inks to get rid of the stark white look. I also used one of my Dyan Reaverley saying stamps 'Until you spread your wings you have no idea how far you'll fly'
Its one of my favourite quotes and fits the Stampotique image really well.I finished it off with a Fleur de lis I cut out of grunge paper using my sizzix die, it was stained red with Dylusions and then embossed and highlighted with distress inks to match the other colours.As it's quite a thick medium it took a liberal amount of wax to get it stuck down but it all adds to the overall texture and depth.
 The pics have not really done this justice, because of the wax I was getting glare like no ones business, If anyone knows how to take these pics please let me know ;) x

I would like to enter this into the Simon Says Stamp And Show their challenge is 'Tape It Up'  I used the Tim Tap in their. Also a big thank you to them, I was so lucky the other week, I won the draw for the $100 Ten year b'day draw.
I would also like to enter this into the challenge over at Anything But A Card their challenge is 'Texture' oh and of course, not a card.  Yay.  they are a new blog, this is challenge No 2  I love not making cards x ;)
Over at Lexi's creations they are also having an 'Anything But A Card'  challenge.

Haunted Design House Challenge. Oh my Gourd

Well its past due that time for this weeks challenge over at Haunted Design House.
I have been a little busy this week so I am making the 'wretched wednesday' posting.
The theme this week is 'Oh My Gourd'  we are getting in the mood for Halloween early over at hdh and we require you to base your project around Pumpkins. Now you can either carve a pumpkin,stamp with pumpkin stamps, paint a pumpkin etc etc etc.  I'm sure you all get the idea.

We have a wonderfully creative and timely sponsor this week!!

Funworld's Floating Pumpkin Hangers

These are called Floating Pumpkin Hanger kits.
Very cool concept and pretty simple to put together.
These look awesome in a grouping and the website has lots of 
photos and design ideas. They are available through Spirit,
Amazon, and possibly other online retailers. A simple Google search
should help you locate them in your area. They even have a Face Book page. 

I have made a very simple tag and atc this week, The tag was made using the Tim Holtze tag die, stained with the orange distress pad and stamped over with a 'cover the card' pattern stamp in vermilion archival ink.The skull and pumpkins were stamped in Black archival and are from the new Paper Artsy Halloween sets.

The bat, cat and pumpkin were given to me by my Blog friend Elly when we swapped some ATC's they were given coat of black distress ink and then clear embossed with UTEE.

The ATC was given the same orange stain and stamped with the same cover a card stamp, the pumpkin image is again from paper artsy. It was then covered in UTEE to give it that glossy look and to really bring out the orange colour under the black.

The pic is not great as it's a glossy surface.

Even though they are simple I quite like them, I normally like to do more but sometimes less works just as well ;)

We would love to see you over at Haunted Design House, there you can see the hangers in action and all the really cool projects from the other DT members.

Thanks for stopping by, x

'Love' challenge piece

Hi very quick post at the moment, as I am cutting the deadline close, the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp And Show this past week is/was 'Read All About It' (And it's my b'day so need to get out for dinner.)
Here is what they have to say about it
'Read All About it: Do you love text patterned stamps and papers? Have a book that you’ve been meaning to alter? Want to cover a new journal front or use a book as inspiration for your next project? Please do share! This week, we’re all about words. Whether it’s from actual book pages or just inspired by, projects with a newsprint accent or that are classic literature inspired - we can’t wait to see what you’re up to this week.'
It is also their 10 year anniversary so a Big congratulations to them and good luck for the next 10 years.


As you can probably guess I have chosen the word Love.
I started off with an off cut of chipboard, I ran some card through the diamond plate folder and gave it a rusty finish with an Andy Skinner technique, I also used the Tim Holtz 'Love' movers and shapers die and slid a bit of alcohol ink stained card behind, to make it pop a bit more, almost a burning furnace look to it?
The big Love at the top was picked up in Brighton and was just a plain white wooden word, I used some watered down acrylic paint and went over it randomly to give a worn and stained look. I also stamped it with a Tim Holtz stamp, just the alphabet in type writer font, sorry can not remember the set.
The heart was also picked up in Brighton, I painted it and stamped it with one of the 'love' stamps from Dyan Reaveley, it was then dry brushed with some brown to pick out the texture and edges, finally sprayed several times with the bubble gum pink dylusion spray.
The Tim Holtz book plate was painted with a copper verdigris finish, again a time worn technique from Andy Skinner, I think it is one of my fave finishes at the moment.
Oh almost forgot after sticking the diamond plate card down I stained up some advertising text paper with blue distress inks, dabbing them onto my craft mat, spraying with water and then dragging the paper through and ironing dry and flat.I then tore away the areas to show the rust and glued it down, it was then covered with the 2 stage crackle medium but I think I got impatient as I was helping it along with my heat gun, ( don't think it helps) instead of lots of cracks I got almost tear like texture going on, hard to describe, to hi light it as much as I could and to give it an even more aged look I rubed some dark brown acrylic paint all over and into the tears/cracks and the wiped back the rest with baby wipes.
the finish touches were the Tim Holtz tickets, they were given the distressed ink pad treatment and glued on.

I would also like to enter this into a couple of other challenges,
over at Challenges 4 Everybody their challenge is anything goes
I would also like to enter this into Anything But A Card  they are a new blog and I have to say Anything but a card suits me as I really do not like making cards at all ;)  their challenge is anything goes as well.
It's also anything goes over at the Joyful Stamper  Inspire Me Friday they also have a great idea for making a pumpkin out of air con duct.  very cool.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comments. x

Haunted Design House. Bare Bones Challenge.

 Well its that time again where over in the dungeon at Haunted Design House we have been whipped until we come up with something viable for the weekly challenge.The challenge this week is 'Bare Bones' basically no adornment's ( no frills, embellishments brads etc) Oh and the usual expectation of it being a little on the dark side even if it is cutesy dark ;)
 Now at face value this sounded easy,and until I sat down to work I was under that misconception. After a few false starts I finally came up with this and I have to say I kinda really like it.I went with the KISS philosophy (keep it simple stupid)
 I started out with a 6''x6'' chunky wooden frame, the back of this is also wood and is a one piece thing.
I used Paper Artsy acrylic paints, first an olive green base and then one of their translucent greens slightly darker put on as a wash.When this was dry I used Deco Arts two stage crackle effect and rubbed some brown in when it was dry, I picked this technique up from Andy Skinner at the Craft Barn demo day. If you have not checked out his work please do, there should be links on the side of my blog. for the inside of the frame I took some white craft card and cut it to shape, I then stained it up with distress inks applied to my craft mat with water added and the paper drawn through it a few times, Its a finish I have used a few times and was then shown just how versatile this effect is by Neil Walker  To finish it all off I got to use one of my new Stampotique stamps. Arn't they just the cutest ;) lol
The other photos are just to show the crackle effect off a little better, my photo skills still need some work.

As always thank you so much for stopping by, I hope you leave a comment as I love to read what you have to say.
Also a great big THANKS for all the support and encouragement.

So all you have to do now is pop over to the Haunted Design House and have a play.Would be great to see you there. x

I have had a good search around this eve for different challenges to enter.

I would like to enter this into the challenge over at Creative Stamp Friends  their challenge is 'distressing'
I would also like to enter this into the challenge at Lexi's Creations the challenge their is 'Autumn Colours' I think drab green and browns have an Autumn feel about them.
There is a brand new challenge blog just starting up, Anything But A Card the challenge their is 'Anything goes' as long as its not a card ;)   My kind of challenge blog ;)  Do I not like cards ;) ;) x
I'd like to enter this into The Artistic Stamper the challenge this time around is 'Splatters And Speckles'
The back ground for the main image should count as speckled and splattered?? x

Craft Barn Die Cutting Demo Day 8th sep

  Hi all, Last weekend whilst I was in my local craft shop,
 The Craft Barn I was asked if I would like to help out and demo the Tim Holtz Vagabond machine at their demo day on the 8th Sep. Now I was asked because they know I have a Vagabond not because Im a whizz of any kind ;)
To say the least I was taken back and after a days thought I decided what the hell lets give it a go.
 Basically on the day there will be several of us showing how each of the main machines work, The Vagabond, the Cuttle Bug, the Grand Calibur , Big Shot, sling shot and pea shooter.  Ok so a few of those may be made up ;)
 All I have to do is show how the machine works with all the different dies that are out there and the sorts of material the machine will cut etc. (not to hard??)
 Oh I also need to make a sample board and some pieces of work giving examples of die cut and embossed pieces.
The first pic is the sample board I have made, It has now been label'd with each of the materials. I have a few past projects I can take along and have made a box and a tag, nothing mind blowing but hopefully they show off die cuts and embossing?

Firstly the tag, I really wanted to make this tag using the same techniques and finishes as an ATC I made for a swap a month or so ago. I used the Tim Tag die and cut out a tag in craft card, two in mount board one in acetate.The craft card was embossed with the metal plate folder from Tim Holtz and painted with a copper patina effect from the Andy Skinner workshop, the 2 bits of mount board were then cut with a craft knife so they became frames, the top one was stained with distress inks and then embossing powders to give it a rusty look, the acetate was stamped with a Paper Artsy steam punk stamp.I also cut a couple of cogs from the Tim cogs die and gave them the same finish as the frame.The acetate was layered in between the mount board so it was raised from the patina effect and recessed from the front of the tag. the cogs were cut and stuck on around the edge. I used a couple of other embellishments to even out the colours a little.
I would like to enter this tag into the challenge over at Catered Crop where their challenge is 'No Stress To Distress'
I think rust and patina'd copper is distressed?? ;)

I would also like to enter it into Card Crafters Circle
their challenge is 'For The Fellas'
And I would like to enter it into Simply Create Too
where their challenge is 'So Old Or Vintage'


And of course there is the DragonsDream Tag It On
challenge 'Art For Arts Sake'










Secondly I made this box, Its a simple little wooden box,I stained the top with distress inks and then stamped over the top in sienna archival ink with a cover a card stamp and the 'love' stamp from Dyan Reaveley. This was then coated with a couple of coats of UTEE. I used the movers and shapers butterfly die, embossed them with a script folder and coloured them with distress inks as well.For the sides I used the on the edge die and used the same colours and stamp as i did for the lid, they have also been coated in UTEE to tie it all together.
For the inside of the box I ran some card through an embossing folder and again used distress inks for some colour but added a little black so it was not quite so in your face. I also added another butterfly for the shear hell of it ;)

Hopefully they show a few of the different dies in use??

If you are about on the 8th Sep and want to see me make a fool of myself pop on down to the Craft Barn It would be great to see you, and if you do know me from Blog land say hi ad introduce yourself x


Thanks for sticking with this post,I do waffle at times. ;)

The Craft Barn. Blog Candy

Just a quick post to let you know that the Craft Barn are having a blog candy give away, they are celebrating hitting over 1000 followers.For all the details of how to be in with a chance of winning all of this follow the link and check it out.Ill be keeping my fingers crossed for this little lot ;)

Haunted Design House Challenge.......'Bad Moon Rising'

 Its that time of the week again.This weeks challenge over at Haunted Design House is 'Bad Moon Rising'
and I hope you will come and check us out let lose your dark sides and have a play in our dungeon ;)
We are sponsored this week by On Cupcake Moon
They do all sorts of custom Invites/cards toppers etc, Definitely worth checking out, They are also giving away $15 of store credit to the winner.
There is something there for everyone.
 Basically the challenge is to include a moon and not make it look to cute ;)
 After 2 weeks of using Copics it was nice to step away and create something a little bit different.      When thinking about Moons my mind jumps to werewolf's (obviously).
I thought it would be cool to change up a simple wooden box and turn it into my werewolf kit.I have some silver bullets, werewolf teeth, a little bottle of Wolfs Bane, on the inside I also have a pic of a werewolf and you can just make out some hair straight from the beast.
Oh and of course I stuck a great big full moon on top of the box.

To make the moon I drew a circle and used Deco Art's crackle paste, this was then stained with blue distress inks and then dry brushed with cream and white acrylic paints, building the colour up as I went along. The main box was coated in Deco Art's texture paint and painted first with a dark brown ( I was going to go for a rusty finish at first, but it looked poo) I then went over with a deep blue and dry brushed with the same blue mixed with white so it bought out all the texture, there are probably 3 or 4 different shades of the blue on there, I kind of mixed as I went.On the front of the box I added a cut down Tando book plate, gave this a rusty finish with distress stains and distress embossing powders, added the word 'Lycanthrope' which is another word for werewolf, also it helps break the blue.
The mini Tim bottle was painted with an Andy Skinner Technique from the elixir workshop.The teeth were also done using an Andy technique, they are a couple of teeth bought in one of those Hippy native american type shops and a funky shaped stone, they were all a bleached white colour to start with.
The bullets I picked up at an army surplus store, all I needed to so with them was paint the bullet part with silver alcohol ink.
Inside the lid I added a pic from the internet, I distressed it with distress ink pads and added a paper clip with some stained string to make it look like fur.

Thanks for stopping by, Hopefully I'll see some of you over at Haunted Design House
Holidays are over now so I shall be getting back into the swing of things and shall be visiting more blogs and making more pieces
Happy crafting and see you soon,    Mark

Haunted Design House Challenge

Evening all, or morning depending on where your at ;)
A slow week here last week, summer holidays and work still getting in the way of some good crafting.
However I have got this done, Its my DT piece for Haunted Design House
  This week our theme is 'Who are you calling a Succubus?'
And we are lucky enough to have KennyK sponsor us this week,They are Giving away 2 designs to each of our Gruesome twosome (top two)
Their Digi stamps are very cool, great characters, lots of styles and genres to have a look at,steam punk through to cutie glam chicks.

 So what's a Succubus???
In folklore traced back to medieval legend, a succubus (plural succubi) is a female demon or supernatural being appearing in dreams, who takes the form of a human woman in order to seduce men, usually through sexual intercourse. The male counterpart is the incubus. Religious traditions hold that repeated intercourse with a succubus may result in the deterioration of health or even death.
In modern fictional representations, a succubus may or may not appear in dreams and is often depicted as a highly attractive seductress or enchantress; whereas, in the past, succubi were generally depicted as frightening and demonic.

I chose the image 'Lady Victoria' from the Steampunk/burlesque set. I thought she made a great temptress?
It was another one of those challenges where I needed to use Copics (dang it) I love them but find it a real struggle, I am quite pleased with the end result but know there is a long way to go, If you check out my fellow DT members you will see what I mean. Some really cool stuff.
As Victoria was meant to be a demon I used shades of blue for the skin and other than a little red i went with the warm and cold shades of Copics for the clothes.
I did not want to do a card so decided to do a door hanger instead (maybe I need more friends who require cards??)  ;)
I am really pleased with the background, I used distress inks to stain the wood, I used the bright oranges and yellows with a tiny bit of red. The image is a 'cover the card stamp', I inked it with Sienna Archival
to give it a nice subtle back ground image and to keep it in the warm colours as the main image is Cold.I then went around the edges with black distress ink just to give it a shadow look and a bit of age.

I printed the phrase off and attached it with adhesive pads just to raise them slightly.Finally I used a red and black feather charm I had and pinned it to the door hanger so as to balance the  main image.

The photo's are not really doing justice to the colours, in some lights it has a really vibrant red sheen to it and in more subtle light it takes on the orange hues.

Please stop by the Haunted Design House and come play in the dungeon with us.  Its always good to let the dark side out for a bit ;)

Thanks for stopping by and or becoming a follower and reading the waffle. I love reading all your comments.
Thanks, Mark

Haunted Design House Challenge

This week at Haunted Design House the challenge is 'Hiding in the corners' basically adorn the corners of your project with something.
We also are lucky enough to be sponsored this week by Stitchy Bear  They are a great Digi art shop selling loads of designs from different artists and with lots of different themes, not just gothic horror but some cute stuff too. Go check them out.
They are also offering $10 to spend in their online shop for this weeks winner.

 So after Fridays news about becoming the latest member of the Haunted Design House Design Team they have decided to throw a curve ball at me from the get go.
Digi Images, Ok, so I know what these are and I have been looking at them going I wish these were rubber (my computer skills are pap) I have no real idea how to use them but I like a challenge. When I found out about the Dt and then got the list of the challenges I booked myself on to a copic's class at the Craft Barn. Just in time too.
This is my forst real play with digi stamps. I made the atc first. the image was scaled down and printed out, I then ran it through the Tim Holtz ATC die. I coloured her up with copic's, going for grey skin tones with just a touch of colour on the shoes and hem of the dress.
I then painted over her with matt glue n seal which acts as a resist I also added some around the edges/corners,I could then go in with the distress inks for some background colour.In the corner of the Atc I used some black brads and some eyelets, to finish it off I used a spider charm that was inked with alcohol
inks and then hung through the top eyelet.
 The tag was done in the same way, I wanted a matching pair, the only addition was the spider web which was made with the Tim Holtz Halloween spider web stamp which I stamped onto shrink plastic and shrank.

 If you want to let your dark side out for a little play come and join us and see what happens ;)

I will be entering this into the One Stitch At A Time challenge blog where their theme is 'Anything Goes'

Thanks for stopping by, always love reading the comments.They mean a lot.

Haunted Design House News :)

Ok so for the last week I have made reference to a bit of news.
I can now share,
 I have been asked to be part of the Haunted Design House  Design team. I am over the moon about this as it's my first design team.
 I have been taking part in their challenges since starting to blog about 3 months ago and it's a great place to visit and take part in their challenges it really lets me let loose the darker side ;)
I'm so happy to be part of their team and very grateful they have asked me to come and play in their dungeon and If you guys ever want to let your darker side rise to the surface please come and join us in the weekly challenges!

This weeks challenge is 'Insidious inspiration'  basically use the picture on the right to inspire your project, whether it's a card,tag, mix media etc
Here is what I made using the pic as my muse.I have gone for an old shop window type of display. I painted the skull and used washes to give him some depth, the shadow box frame has been painted with a technique learnt in the Andy Skinner online workshop, I have also stamped onto the frame with one of Tim Holtz's texture stamps.The Bottles are from Tim and the lables are from & gypsies, they have been scuffed and aged a little with distress inks.
I made a couple of tiny books, these were very simple, I just folded some card, covered the front and back with the Tim sticky tape and stained them with distress inks, I coloured the spines with walnut stain to make them look like old bound Journals.

The inside of the box was covered with a paper from graphic 45 and The apothecary tag is also from one of their sheets. The main background was cut in one piece, distressed and folded to fit inside the box, the tag was also distressed and glued into place.
I have taken the pics while the glass was out as the glare was not helping ;)
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you join us over at the Haunted Design House

I'm going to enter this into Simon Says Stamp And Show where the challenge is paint it up.  both the shadow box frame and the skull have been painted.