Day 16- 31 Days of Halloween: Black Death Necklace

Ok, you will have to bear with me for this post... I am extremely exhausted right now so I may start rambling at any given moment. Plus I was not able to get any really good photos of my project because I didn't have someone else to hold the camera. So I hope you'll be able to see it well.

Before we go any further, I just want to let you know that there is a pack of werewolves that have been spotted running ramped through blog land, and they may have taken refuge on one of the wicked blogs. If you happen to see sign of them hiding anywhere, don't approach them, just please email me. Those of you who spot them will be put into a drawing for the Smeared Ink Hungry Wolf and Transforming Wolf digi images! I will announce the winner tomorrow afternoon.

Now on to my project for day 16. There is minimal, and I mean minimal, stamping technique on this. But, I thought it would be cool to show you how you can incorporate stamping in a neat way into your jewelry. I don't know if you've seen these things in the beading section at your local craft store, but I saw them today and completely broke my no-buying-anything rule for 31 Days. Sorry folks, I had to have them! But, in my defense, this necklace will be given as a Christmas present so technically even though it's a Halloween project, it came out of my Christmas budget and is not "for" 31 Days. Yes, I'm still trying to justify. Oh well, I digress...

The things I am talking about are these little latched/hinged frames. Not the ones that are for memory glass...no, these bad boys are cut from a different cloth! You'll see what I mean in the pics (I hope). But basically they are frames with glass in them that you can add your own picture to. The neat thing about them is the little latches that hold them shut, and the fact that some of them are hinged to open, like the round one that I used.

Anyways, I basically made a necklace from scratch. I really love the look of wonky, super big and bold jewelry, so although this necklace may not be to some of your liking, I would wear it in a heartbeat!

*click for larger views








Like I said, the pictures kinda suck, but you can see my little frame things. I was inspired by Alison and rather than filling the frames with full-blown colored images, I simply stamped on transparency, trimmed to size, and inserted the images. It gives a really cool clear effect that I love on the necklace! My large frame holds a skull from As Death and the small square frames hold spiderwebs from Lonely Boy and Puff (both from Smeared Ink).

So, I hope you like it, and even though the stamping is very easy, it still took me several hours to make with all the beading. Now I know why I don't make jewelry very often! Ha ha! Have fun hopping through the Wicked Blogs today. See you tomorrow!

Smeared and Smudged Member Blog Hop- June

Hi everyone! Welcome to another addition of our Smeared and Smudged Forum Member Blog Hop! If you're fairly new to following my blog and haven't seen one of these before, I'll explain how it works. Basically, all of the members over on the Smeared and Smudged Forum are invited to participate in a member hop. Any member who wants to can post a project on their blog, and it's just one of the ways that we support each other in our artistic journey. We all hop around like mad rabbits, check out all the cool projects, and leave comments! It's a blast seeing the varying techniques and unique perspectives, plus there are no rules! Members can make anything they want as long as they follow the S&S rule that it is stamped somewhere.

If you have no idea what the Smeared and Smudged Forum is, I'd like to invite you to check it out. Although we tend to lean toward the wilder, darker side of stamping, absolutely everyone with any style or experience is welcome!! We embrace all types of stamped art. The forum is full of very cool and friendly people, and tons of inspiration. You are welcome to join and jump right in to conversations, challenges, and groups; or lurk in the background and take from it what you will. We have all kinds of members, from the very active to the almost unseen, and we appreciate each and every one of them and what they have to offer.

So, enough with my shpeal and onto the art! For my project today I decided, of course, that I had to alter something. And that something ended up being an empty Jack Daniels bottle. (No, not mine...)

I used my Smeared Ink "Faes" stamp set to build what I am calling a Fairy Wish Bottle. Pretty much it's a bottle that you open up and whisper all your wishes into, then seal it up tight so they don't get lost! The fairies keep them safe and work their hardest to grant them.

It was a long process to alter, and you can see from the pics that there is a whole lotta stuff going on! Lots of bling, and lots of girly fru-fru...I don't know why, but I felt very pink and whymsical when I did it. The main feature is the double images- one on the front of the bottle, and one peeking from the inside back of the bottle that you can see through the glass (which is why he's a little blurry).

I won't go into lots of details on supplies cause it would take forever, if you have a question feel free to comment and I'll answer, but I will point out some of the cool features under each pic. Feel free to click on pics to make them bigger.


Okay, so here's the front of the bottle. You can see LOTS of stuff, including my little Fae right in the front. The white stuff that is frosting the bottle is Gesso. There are clear rocks (which you'll see better later) and crystals framing the front. You can also see the background Fae and some butterflies that are dangling on the inside of the bottle. There is also a word embossed on clear plastic on the top right that says "Whimsy", which is from our Faes set.



Here's a closeup of the front Fae- isn't he CUTE!!!!!! I colored with watercolor crayons, and his wings are glittered. There are also crystals in the middle of the flowers.



Here you can see my background Fae peeking through the glass, and one of the hanging butterflies. The background picture is made from a collage of magazine flowers, and this Fae is also watercolored and glittered.

Not a great pic, but here you can see some of the dangly butterflies and dragonflies; there are five of them in the bottle.

This is a close-up of the top of the bottle. I used several types of ribbon and strings to tie around the bottle neck, and added a really pretty metal embellishment that I added a tiny crystal to. The metal chainy-looking thing with beads was a bracelet in a past life, and I added the lock charm. The actual lid is covered with silver glittery paper ribbon, which was also used around the bottom of the bottle.



Here's a shot of the first side, where a key dangles from clear string. You use this to "open" the lock, of course! The sides and back are covered with those clear rocks that I talked about earlier.

Close-up of the key. You can see my clear plastic tag that goes along with it that features the word "Believe" from our Faes set.

The back of the bottle is covered with paper (the background image you see through the front) that I painted with pink metallic nail polish. Then I covered with those clear rocks, and in-between if you look really closely you can see crystals. You also catch a glimpse of that silver ribbon that's wrapped around the whole bottle, and you can see the dangling chains from the cap.

Here's a shot of the second side of the bottle, which is also covered in rocks and crystals.

I hope you enjoyed taking a look at my project. I'd love to hear what you think of it. I know it's alot to take in, but I was feeling the fairy love! I adore it, and so do my kids, so this one is definitely a keeper... although I'm not quite sure where it will go yet.

So, now's the time to go and see all the other fabulous projects that the members of Smeared and Smudged have to show you. Use the list below to hop around, leave some love on their blogs, and come on over to join us on the forum if you haven't already! Happy Hopping!



Kelli

Steph

Lady Brayton

Lisa

Jean

Kathi

Alison

Sarah

Meredith

Black Dragon

Kim

Monica

Tink

Queen of Arts

After a full blown day of stamping cards for an assortment box, I thought I'd do a little something different. I've been holding on to these fabulous deep red and black beads since, oh I don't know, a year and a half ago. I didn't really have a plan for them and then yesterday it hit me! I broke a very pretty green necklace that I had not too long ago and why not make a new one using pieces and parts!?! I've been feeling a little diva red lately...

I have some divine stamps that I ordered from The Enchanted Gallery, see the left side bar for a link, and one image is a gorgeous regal lady with a pimped out collar. Just the right size to fit in one of those rectangular metal frames used for scrapbooking. Soooooo, using my leftover beads, my awesome image, and this frame, I created a brand new stylin' necklace!

I attached the frame and beads using plain metal jewelry pins from Walmart and reused the jump rings and chain from the old necklace. I stamped the image on white cardstock, colored it using markers, watercolor crayons, and my white gel pen, and then attached it to the back of the frame facing out. Of course I had to add some bling to her crown and my word, then covered the whole piece with Crystal Effects, front and back.

Can't wait to show off my new Queen of Arts!