Haunted Design House - Steven King challenge

 Happy Monday folks, How is everyone keeping?
 Thank you for stopping by.
Today we start our new challenge over at Haunted Design House the theme being the Legend that is Stephen King, Now we do not mind what aspect of Stephen Kings career you focus on, His comic books, novels or movies, we want to see it all.
  I decided to go with one of his films, (also a Book) the one that scared the crap out of me as a kid and is probably the cause of a nation wide general fear of Clowns, thank you Stephen ;)
 Ive made another page for my little book of dark arts, a posh way of saying fat page.
I started by painting the page of the book with acrylic paints by Deco Art, mainly white but mixing in some subtle greens, Juniper and mint I think also a little bit of fawn, I mixed the colours on the page so they would blend together.I then flicked some red paint across the surface so it looks like some blood splatter.
 I then sourced the internet for a good picture of Pennywise and ran it through Photoscape to turn it into a threshold image (pure black an white, no grey) you can adjust the amount of black to white in the program.
 When I was happy with it I printed it out to the right size and then used a some Transfer paper from Deco Art (it's basically a carbon paper) You trace around the image and it leaves the marks on your painted surface.Once I had gone round the whole image, I painted the black parts black and Pennywise comes to life.To finish off I just painted the 'IT' in free hand. This technique was shown to me on an Andy Skinner live workshop.
 Head on over to Haunted Design House to see what else the awesome DT have created and remember to check back next Monday to see some more inspiration from the rest of the team.
As always we would love to see you join us by getting your freak on ;)

Thank you for stopping by x

De StempelWinkel - Pen Holder

A very quick post today, It's my turn over at De StempelWinkel to come up with something.

A few weekends ago I was at the big craft show at Ally Pally and I had my first encounter with the MDF man, I spent a small fortune and bought several of these really cool pen holders.

For more pics and a little more info on what I have done, head over to De StempelWinkel.

They have daily posts from their awesome DT show casing their stamps and productsThanks for stopping by, It's always appreciated xx

Fun With ATC's - Magic

Ok so I am not quite sure how I keep managing to have 3 posts in a row and then nothing for the rest of the week but it would be a shame to stop that pattern now ;)
 I have no idea where the time is going but we have started our new two week challenge over at Fun With ATC's the theme this time is Magic.
 I have cut my ATC from mount board and I used it to mop up a little bit of the red Dylusions spray, It looked like a blood splatter so I knew I had to keep it. I decided to go for a sinister looking advertising poster type look.
I left the Bg of the ATC white and stamped on the One eyed Gent, he is from DE StempelWinkel they have so many brilliant and different stamps. I also thought the playing card and the mystic hand from Tim Holtz fitted right in as well so I made a mask of the chap, over stamped the card with coffee archival ink, I did the same thing making a mask of the card and over stamping both images with the Hand stamp using pumice stone Distress Ink.To finish I swiped the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink.
 The Atc was then given 2 coats of clear Embossing powder. The letters for 'The Magician' are peel offs from Tim Holtz, to make sure they would not come off and to really make them part of the ATC I gave the whole thing a 3rd coating of embossing powder.

Of course we would all love to see you join us for this fortnights challenge,head on over to Fun With ATC's  to see what the rest of the DT have created for some inspiration. an ATC does not take that long does it? ;)

Thank you for stopping by x

Iron Man 3 Tags for the Octopode Factory

More tags from me today,thank you for stopping by, it is always great to have you here.
 Last week I was lucky enough to get an email from Lily over at the Octopode Factory asking if I would like to do something with the Iron Man Image she has created with the release of the new Iron Man 3 movie this week.Of course I jumped at the chance and made these two tags.If you head over to Lily's blog you can see some more Iron Man art and see what else the Ocopode Factory is all about.   The Iron Man image's were coloured with Copics fussy cut and clear embossed twice.The first one was coloured like the traditional Iron Man and for the second I thought I would have ago at using the colours of the character War Machine.
 For the Iron Man tag I used a technique from Andy Skinners Book Of Ruination to give a rocky steam punk look, the ribbon was coloured with Dylusion sprays.
For the War Machine tag I started with a mount board cut tag using the Tim Holtz tag die. It was given a coat of Gesso and then sprayed with blue Dylusions ink and a light spritz of the White Dylusion spray and blotted dry. I used a sun burst stencil and stippled some white acrylic paint through to give a ghost sun beam, the white paint drew up some of the blue spray.
I then over stamped in white ink some stars with a stamp from the Artistic Stamper, the black stars are from Tim Holtz.
The War Machine letters are from Tim Holtz and have been given a coat of a rub and buff in scarlet. The ribbon was coloured with Dylusions.
 I had great fun creating these tags. If you have never stopped by the Octopode Factory you really must, the images are great, If you have stopped by here before you will probably have seen I use them quite a bit.Lily has some amazing characters from things like The Wizard Of Oz, Alice In Wonderland,Charlie Chaplin, The Avengers even some David Bowie images.                          
Again thank you for stopping by. x

I would like to enter a couple of challenges.

Crafting When We Can are having an At the Movies theme.

Simon Says Stamp And Show are having a Colour challenge. They just want to see bright colours.
My post went up 1:30am Monday but the blogger clock is not set for uk times.

Anything But A Card - Rain

SO how is everyone doing?
First off a great big thank you for stopping by it's great to have you here.
 Ok we are half way through our latest challenge at Anything But A Card and our theme Is April Showers, we would love to see all your rain/water inspired makes, head on over to ABAC and see what the DT have created to get you in the mood.
 I have made another tag, I love making these and there are more to come tomorrow. For this one I gesso'd the tag and used some blue acrylic paint, I also sprayed with the white dylusion spray and the blue to get the mottled BG effect.
The Stamp is from De StempelWinkel I stamped him on to the tag directly but he looked lost so I stamped him onto a plain bit of craft card and fussy cut him, he has been coloured with distress markers.
The rainy swirl has been made using one of Andy Skinners new masks, I have used it with some Dream Weaver paste which has been given a coat of Treasure Golds Topaz rub n buff stuff.
To finish the I have gone around the edges with some black soot distress stain and the ribbon has been coloured with some distress stain and swiped with black soot to grunge it up a little.
The sentiment was first stamped in black and then over stamped with embossing ink and coated with white powder to give a shadow effect.

Again thank you for stopping by and as always we would love to see you over at Anything But A Card.

Dream - De StempelWinkel

Time for another De StempelWinkel Post from me, Just a teaser pic. To see the whole piece and more info on what it is and what I have done, follow the link to their blog.

There is a post on their blog pretty much everyday showcasing their stamps and other products available in the De StempelWinkel Store there is a link on my side bare or you can follow the link on the                                      De StempelWinkel DT blog.

Well worth checking out, I am like a kid in a sweet shop every time I stop by.

Paul                Neil           Me (Mark)

Here is a pic taken at Ally Pally on Saturday, It was my first time at the big craft event and I was not disappointed, although my bank balance maybe ;)

I travelled up with Neil of Neelz Expressionz and we met up with Paul of The Artsider.

Suzanne, Neils wife was also with us (but she is taking the pic)

I think we may have been the only 3 guys that were not there under duress ;)

It was a great day and was good to see some familiar faces and to meet some new faces as well.

Ill be looking forward to the Autumn show now.

As always a really big thank you for stopping by, leaving comments and or becoming a follower I can not tell you how much it means to me, It is very much appreciated.

xx

Haunted Design House - Skeletal Remains

 Happy Monday and another two weeks have passed over at Haunted Design House and that means it is time for another challenge.
 This fortnight we are lucky enough to have been sponsored by The Octopode Factory, If you have stopped by before you will probably have guessed I am a big fan of their designs, so many querky images from Alice in Wonderland And the Wizard Of Oz through to images of David Bowie and some awesome Skellies, and they are offering up a $15 voucher for their Etsy shop.
 So back to our new challenge, we want to see your projects using skeletons.Head over to HDH to see what our brilliant DT have created for inspiration.
 I have used the Valentine St Valentine image and made a tag.
The image has been printed onto some good craft card and coloured with Copic's, it was then fussy cut and given two coats of clear embossing powder.
 The embellishment was made from a heart charm from the bead shop in brighton and a skull charm that was sent to me from a blog budie. Thank you ;) I have used pin flare to glue the bits together and a brad to attach it to the tag.
The back ground has been made using a technique I have learnt on the new Andy Skinner on line workshop Book Of Ruination, I really love the texture this new technique gives.
The letters are the Tim Holtz plastic alpha parts, I glued them down and used some Treasure Gold rub in Spanish Topaz.
The ribbon was stained with Distress stain and a little black soot distress ink was added to grunge it up.

Thank you so much for stopping by and of course we would love to see you stop on by and take part.

I would like to enter this into a couple of challenges.

Eclectic Ellapu are having a 'put a tag on it' basically make a tag or use a tag on your project.

Sentimental Sundays are having a 'tag your it + a sentiment challenge'

The Sunday Stamper, the talented Hels Sheridan is having a 'Paint' theme. my back ground has been done with acrylic paints.

Smudgy Antics are having a 'Tic Yac Toe' challenge, I have used the line with, ribbon,paint and cardboard. mt tag is cut from mount board.

Left Of Centre's theme is ribbon and twine or be left of centre. I generally always aim for left of centre although I did use ribbon.

Over at the Artistic Stamper their April theme is 'Texture'

Fun With ATC's Windows or Doors

Happy Tuesday. Hope your all well?
 Today we have a new challenge starting over at Fun With ATC's with the theme of Windows or Doors.
You have two weeks to get something made so plenty of time and of curse we would love to see you over there where you can see the rest of the awesome DT makes.
 My Atc, as always was cut from mount board using the Tim Holtz ATC die.
The window is from Wendy Vecchi studio 490 range.
The first thing I did was mark around the inside of the window and cut it out from the ATC, The window was glued using Pinflair glue.
 The rest of the ATC was covered in Modeling Paste from Deco Art, I wanted to go for the old plaster falling off of the wall look with the bleached out blu paint and stains, Kinda works x.
The window frame was given a light coat of acrylic paint giving the frame more of a worn look.
 To finish off I used my Edgar Allen Poe image from the Octopode Factory and have him staring through the window. He has been coloured with Copics and gluees to the back of the ATC so there is a nice bit of depth between him and the window frame.

Again Thank you for stopping by, Sorry I have been a bad blogger, I have not been getting around to as many blogs as I would like the last few weeks, the Easter Holls have been manic for me, I hope to get back to normal very soon and I can not wait to see what everyone has been up too. x

See you over at Fun With ATC's

Haunted Design House Bare Bones

So how is everyone doing?
 As always a great big thanks for stopping by and a big welcome to all.

 Over at Haunted Design House we are just entering our second week of our Bare Bones Challenge.
We want to see what you can create in the clean and simple style, No embellishments of any kind.

Now I have a really struggle with these sorts of challenges as I like to work with textures and layers and am never sure when clean and simple becomes not clean and simple, so after a little bit of thought I decided to make some Atc's coloured with copic's and then clear embossed. Pretty simple ;)
All three images are from Haunted Design House's very own Teri. head over to her Delicious Doodles Blog to find these images and a whole load more.

As always we would love to see you over at Haunted Design House taking part, if not it's always worth a visit to see what the other members of the DT have created for inspiration.

Thanks again for stopping by. x

De StempelWinkel Door Hanger.

Ok so some exciting news for me, I was asked a little while back If I would like to be on the Design Team for a company called De StempelWinkel. Now I am blown away to have been asked,Honoured and to be honest I am papping my pants a little.If you do not know who they are please go and check them out, They are a stamp company/shop based in the Netherlands,They sell hundreds of amazing stamps that they press them selves as well as all the essential crafting supplies, Dylusions, Archival Inks etc, there is a very long list. The stamps are amazing and my want list is a mile long. They have everything you could think of, Oriental, Art Deco, Steam Punk,Flowers, Background and Texture stamps, you name it I am sure they probably have it.

They also have an amazing Blog with daily posts from their awesome Design Team so always worth checking them out. 

For a few more pics and a little write up of what I have made head on over to the De StempelWinkel blog. Ill be back with another post for them next week.

Fun With ATC's Writing

Well if you are still with me Thank you, 4th post in 3 days, I should stretch things out more ;)
 Today we are starting our new challenge over at Fun With ATC's the theme for the next two weeks is writing, nice and simple, we just want to see an element of something written, it can be a text stamp or even your own hand writing.
 My ATC as always was cut from mount board, I used a cover the card stamp and heat embossed the image in black powder and used Dusty Concord distress ink to add the colour.
 The script stamp is from The Artistic Stamper and was stamped onto some craft card, torn out and coloured with Distress inks to give it a shabby vintage feel.
 The pen nib is from Tim Holtz and I used a feather charm from the Bead Shop in Brighton. I glued it in place with some pinflare glue and glued it in place with some pinflare as well.

Head on over to Fun With ATC's to see what the awesome DT have created for some inspiration and as always we would love to see what you can come up with.
Thanks for sticking with me over the last couple of days, I shall leave you in peace now. x

Smeared Inks no colourd pens or pencils, GDT

Ok so here is post three in two days.
 This month I have been lucky enough to have been invited to be the guest designer for Smeared Ink and they have just started their new challenge. Use colour but NO copics/pro markers or coloured pencils etc.
You can use inks, paints, sprays,chalks, pretty much anything other than the usual colouring suspects.
 I started out with a plain bisque tile and have used acrylic paints from deco art.
the image is one of my rubber stamps from smeared inks as death set, they also do this as a digi image.
The phrase is from the same set.
.
 The wire mesh stamp is from the Poe set and has been stamped with versa mark ink and had perfect pearls brushed over. The tile was finished off with a couple of coats of satin varnish giving a wet sand in between coats to give a smoother finish.

Head on over to Smeared Ink and check out some awesome inspiration from their Design Team.

There is also a week left of my Guest Designer Challenge on their forum. head on over and join in the fun, they have so many things going on over there it is well worth the visit.

Thanks as always for stopping by, Ive kept it short and sharp today. One more post to come tomorrow and then I shall leave you in peace for the rest of the week ;)
Mark xx

Anything But A Card Spring or Alice in Wonderland

Hello again and welcome back if you have already stopped by today. I was not joking about the buses ;)

Over at Anything But A Card we are entering into our second week of our current challenge which is Spring or Alice in Wonderland.
 I love the Alice in wonderland story and I love the Octopode Factory's images, especially the AiW so it was a no brainer that I would use one. I went for the Mad Hatter and coloured him with copics, fussy cut him out and coated him with clear embossing powder.
 The back ground is a piece of Stamp Board,Im not sure what the top coat is made from but it takes colour brilliantly and really makes the bright colours pop, you can also scratch into it to bring back the white.
 I started by using Dylusion sprays starting with lemmon at the top and working my way down with pink, a little orange and then purple drying each colour off as I went.

 The leaves were stamped with archival ink in black and are from Dyan Reaveley and the doodles along the bottom are also from one of her stamp sets.
The colour has been added using Distress re inkers, mown grass, Picked raspberry, peacock feathers and ripe persimmon. they have been painted on and then dabbed carefully with kitchen towl. I also added some stars with a great stamp from The Artistic Stamper using white ink.
 To add some hi lights I used a scoring tool and scraped away to reveal the board underneath.
I finished of with a sentiment from Tim Holtz.
 Thanks for stopping by, No more posts for today I promise ;) but beware of tomorrow x

The Octopode Factory are having a going green theme, The leaves and top hat are my bits of green.

Over at the Altered Alice they are having a Mad as the March Hair challenge, I have used the mad hatter for my piece.

Smeared Inks Throw Down No 2 Faux finish

 Well my blog seems to be like waiting for a bus recently, Nothing all week and then 3 turn up one after the other, So I hope you bear with me over the next couple of days. As always thanks for stopping by and a big welcome to my newest followers. It's great to have you here.
 Now a few weeks ago Smeared Ink started a new challenge on their forum for Design teams, called the DT Throw Down, this is open to any design teams all you need is a maximum of three people to take part in the theme that has been set, after the deadline the forum members take a vote for the best collection of entries.
 Over at Haunted Design House we jumped at joining in and we were lucky enough to have been voted the winners of the first challenge, as well as bragging rights we got to pick the theme for the next challenge.
 We chose Faux Finishes. If you follow the link to Haunted Design House you will see what the other two members of team HDH have created and of course we would love for you to stop by Smeared inks forum and have a look around and join in the voting, They are a great bunch of crafters and there is always something going on.

If you have stopped by before you may have noticed that I like to use faux finishes quite a lot. For this challenge I made a steam punk inspired book cover from one of the new range of Neil Walkers  Tando Creative book kits.
the top section of shaped chip board was thin enough to go through the diamond plate embossing folder from Tim Holtz and was given an acrylic paint technique I learnt from Andy Skinners Time Worn online course, the second layer of card is to thick so some craft card was cut to shape and embossed with the sheet metal folder from Tim Holtz and was given a Copper Verdigris paint technique from the Time worn course.I added the Tim Holtz key hole and book plate, and again gave them a a tarnished brass faux finish. I used one of Tims tickets and some crackle accents to finish it off.


All the stamps are from De Stempel Winkel if you have not heard of them go check them out, they are a firm based in the Netherlands and have hundreds of sets with pretty much every style you can imagine, stream punk, botanical, oriental, art deco, you name it they probably have it. A lot of the stamps can be bought individually as well as in a set, Jetske presses a lot of the designs herself, she also sells the inks and paper crafting essentials.The plates I have used are Mannen 1 and Nuts and Bolts.
 The Stamps were stamped with archival ink in black, to add the colour and distress I dabbed some blue and brown distress ink pads onto my craft mat and spritz with water, I then swiped my card through and ironed dry/flat again, I repeted this to get the colour intensity I liked, the very dark brown splodge is from the walnut stain re inker. Some eyelets were added to protect the covers over time and the O rings were also given the same tarnished brass finish.

The inside covers and back cover were covered with some design paper that fit the theme and have had a little distress inking around the edges. I have not gone mad here as I intend to add pockets etc in time and as the pages get added.
Ill be using it to collect pages, tags etc but more of that another time.

Thank you for sticking with my rather wordy post.
Hopefully we will see you over at the smeared Ink forum and remember you can see the rest of the HDH entries here.

Over at Sugar creek Hollow they are having an Altered State challenge.

Crafty emblies are having an anything goes theme this month.

The new challenge blog Left Of Centre are starting their 2nd challenge if you are a traditional crafter you can follow their theme or if you are a little left of centre it's anything goes ;)

Haunted Design House 'A Divine Comedy'

Well I'm lucky to be here this week, I have been suffering with the Man Flu. and thought I might not have made it.
 Anyway we have just started our new challenge over at Haunted Design House the theme this fortnight being ' A Divine Comedy' or Dante's Inferno.
 We want you to create something inspired by the travels through the 9 circles that Dante faced. failing that any Hell inspired piece of work ;)
Details on the Circles of hell can be found on the Hdh page as well as some awesome inspiration from the DT.


 For this challenge I made a tag and a little box, I only started to feel human again on Saturday and my mojo seems to be under the weather as well.
I started by doing an internet search for Divine Comedy images and found a couple of Gustave Dore prints I liked, I think they may be etchings for old books. The image for the tag shows all the lost souls circling.I used the Andy Skinner mask Tornado and inked through with yellow and blue distress inks, I then with the mask still in place painted over with matt glue n seal.I then inked the rest of the tag with red distress inks getting darker towards the outside, I then swiped and blended the distress inks with a damp kitchen towl, the glue n seal acts as a resist so the colours come through.
The letters forming Dante are from Tim Holtz and have been buffed with treasure gold.


For the box I used another of Gustave's prints and made a little gluttony box, big enough for a stash of chocolate ;)
I used an image transfer technique over a painted bg, I tried to lay my bg down with the red where the body would sit and some cooler colours to sit behind the main demon.

The rest of the box was covered with modelling paste with some texture added. it was then painted with various reds and dry brushed to pick out the details. it was then finally given a rub and buff with some Treasure Gold in emerald to pick out the high spots. and to bring out the cooler colours in the bg.
the main image was given a coat of gloss varnish but this has made it a b**ch to photograph.







As always we would love to see you over at Haunted Design House and remember we are now a fortnightly challenge so there is twice as long for you to take part. Also head back next Monday to see what other inspiration the Dt have for you.

Oh and this theme was my idea so please play other wise they will gag me in the future ;)