Saturday, September 10, 2011

Quote: The Octopode Factory Friday challenge

Whew boy do I love the Octopodes!

And you all know how I also love quotes: Found and made up ... I'm a fan of inspirational, comical, memorable words strung together and repeated for all eternity.

So, this week's The Octopode Factory Friday challenge of the week, Quotes, is ideal for me.

Then we've got the toys that I collect, new and vintage, and roughly ten seconds passed before I decided to combine a vintage sewing thread ad from Graphics Fairy, the Octopode teddy bear and a phrase that is courtesy an antique embroidery my sister has hanging at her house.

"My teddy bear has a rip and a tear love pours from him everywhere."

You can use it, too: You're welcome.

But not for this exact challenge, please. Though you absolutely must join in at The Octopode Factory Friday challenge.

We'll be sad without you.

What did you do this summer: A Drunken Stampers challenge

Welcome back to another Drunken Stampers post!

We took a few weeks off to catch our breath and let our livers dry out, but we're back now and with a couple of surprises!

First, it's important that everyone have plenty of time to create and then to recover from that hard work before a new challenge, so we'll now only have Drunken Stampers challenges on the second and fourth Saturdays of every month.

Next, and read this one carefully: That strange itch in your ears has been the Drunken Stampers Design Team call echoing in your art space! Go to the link to find out what the very, very loose requirements are and throw your hat into the ring! We'd love to see you 'belly up to the craft bar.

Finally, we've got the first new challenge since the Spring: What did you do this summer?

We bought a hillbilly pool (an above-ground, inflated sides pool) early in the summer and have been happily splashing about, but there's been some much bigger events during the season as well.

I celebrated a birthday and received dozens of wonderful game pieces that my parents found for me at thrift stores! Awesome! Then there was the camping trip to Antelope Lake where we found itty bitty seashells perfect for a little altered art embellishment.

Despite loving paints, from the aroma to the endless technical possibilities, it wasn't until this summer that I returned to creating with dry brushing and globs of color mixed for custom shades and gesso and gorgeous technicolor pallets.

We remembered to get ourselves to some garage sales, too, and the Habitat for Humanity resell store where we found bits and bobs for hanging and dangling and creating.

There was even a class this summer! Although not well-attended by yours truly who could not find the time to watch inspiration videos and read instruction sheets and create, I have since been back-tracking and find learning at my own pace, while not the original plan, is still motivating and rewarding.

All of this, I'm sure, is some part in the most important discovery I made this summer, which I prefer not to discuss at length here, but will say this: Occasionally reassess your life, your self, your world.

Because sometimes we get off track and, if we're not careful, discover that everything that makes us unique and amazing is buried under a blanket of worry and stress and things we can not possibly control.

Ah so, breathe deeply my friends. Life is good!

And we need you at Drunken Stampers!


Wednesday, September 7, 2011

PMS: Haunted Design House

Normally I wouldn't talk in very pleasant terms about PMS, but this week I absolutely must!

Just take a look at what they've got to challenge us with at Haunted Design House Macabre Monday! It's PMS or Psychotic Miss Silver!

See? You knew you could trust me, didn't you? Trust that all of the design team work is worth your clicking over the HDH blog, too!

My own piece features Femdom's Dominatrix from Smeared Ink, a great place to find fantastically fun and dark-ish images!

Our Dominatrix is printed on white stock and colored with Sharpies and colored pencils, and has inked edges courtesy distress ink in broken china.

She's mounted on two layers of different-colored blue stock edge-inked in black and more broken china. Two silver chains accent the entire card and finally we've got a silver-embossed sentiment "Surprise Party" from Making Memories' magnetic sets.

I think our Magnificent Mercedes (yes, I named her) manages to fall nicely into place just between slightly inappropriate and giggly cute, which of course also makes her just like all of us: Slightly psychotic at least once a month.

So, where do thought of PMS lead you? Surely you'd like to share, wouldn't you, with the kind folks at Haunted Design House?