Weekly Inspirational post for Ching Chou Kuik's DT

Hello bloggers, yet another announcement!  All good things happen in threes, and this is two of three!  I was chosen to become a part of Ching Chou Kuik's design team.  I am completely honored and overwhelmed with joy about this as I am a fan of her stunning art work.  This is my first official piece as a member of this design team.  Hope you like her. :)

Today I would like to share with you one of the newer designs found on Ching Chou Kuik's Etsy store called Toadstool head.  She can be found here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/209992502/toadstool-head-digital-digi-stamp?ref=shop_home_feat_4 in the  Ching-Chou Kuik Etsy Store.

The current challenge for the blog is adding ribbon so I added some beautiful purple organza ribbon to complete this piece.

I colored the image with Copics using the Violet and blue green family of colors. The color palette was inspired by my dear friend and DT member Fernanda Oravec.    I added some sparkles that I am so fond of using stickles for the holly leaves and Gelly roll Stardust pens for the "freckles" on the mushroom.  I used a Martha Stewart punch for the wee branches with some added Stickles to sparkle up those leaves.

Have a great day!
Hugs,
Helen
(aka Catz)

Mixed media..someone is learning new stuff!

The best thing about road trips and spending the weekend with one of your dearest friends who you've met for the first time is sharing in good times, and creating with new techniques you haven't tried before.  I had the best weekend in a long time spending the weekend with my dear friend Fernanda Oravec.  I got to snuggle with some of the sweetest fur babies I've ever met, eat wonderful food, shop for crafts and craft to my heart's content.  I was sad to see the weekend go so quickly.  So I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for such a wonderful weekend to Fernanda.  For the hospitality,the birthday gifts, the tips, but most of all your friendship!  This creation is one I did while visiting after Fernanda showed me how to create with mixed media.  I used Ching Chou Kuik's "Enter the woods"  you can find her here if you would like to purchase here from Ching Chou Kuik 's Etsy shop.  I used various stencils with modeling paste, iridescent and glitter decoupage by Martha Stewart.  I also added some fancy papers, ribbons, stickers, and beads to embellish it.  The image is colored with Copic markers.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Hugs,

Helen (aka Catz)

Facebook Elite Design Team

I haven't had the nerve to try out for a design team up until recently.  So I tried out for Rick St. Dennis's Elite Design Team and actually was chosen for a spot on the Facebook team much to my surprise!    I am over the moon excited about this and for the next six months I will be sharing all sorts of makes and pieces I color from Rick St. Dennis, Mfa's awesome collection.  He covers it all from cute to creepy, shabby to glamorous.  His shops can be found in two places, Etsy where you can download most of the digi files right away and Zibbet where if you are patient he is pretty quick to email them to you.  I prefer Zibbet only because the selection there is much larger and a few of the digis cost a little less.  Here are links for you to peruse his shop.

https://www.zibbet.com/rick1949
https://www.etsy.com/shop/RickStdennis?ref=pr_shop_more



Hope you enjoy!  I will share one of my latest creations in celebration to winning this spot.  This glamourous gal can be found here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/200235999/satin-doll-digital-stamp?ref=shop_home_active_17

Rick draws some of the most amazingly clad ladies I have ever seen their gowns are so gorgeous!  Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my joy!
Hugs,
Helen

Birthaversary! :)

I love the fall and unlike most people I generally embrace my birthday.  On Monday I will be celebrating 43 years of life cancer free so far!  I am also celebrating another special anniversary, that of being married 7 years to the love of my life!  He is my sun, moon and stars which leads me to this post.  I am using the Ching Chou Kuik image called "Wishing Stars" that can be found here:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/207372948/wishing-stars-digital-stamp-instant?ref=shop_home_feat_4 

I figure since there's still an "Anything Goes" contest going on with her Inspiration blog which can be found here:

http://cck-digitalstamps-challenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/ching-chou-kuik-inspiration-and.html

Why not submit another entry to increase my chances of scoring some more of Ching's beautiful images!

I truly hope my dear husband likes this card, but either way I really enjoyed creating it and I know he appreciates the effort I put into making a card instead of buying one.  I colored her with copics and used Gelly roll stardust pens for the sparkly effects in her dress and on the stars.  I thought the glitter on the bottom would give a nice soft ethereal effect.  I wrote my own sentiment telling my sweet that I thank my lucky stars that we found one another.  Hope you like! :)

Hugs,

Anything goes

I decided I'd like to play along with the "Anything Goes" Challenge at Ching Chou Kuik's new Monthly Inspirational and Challenge  blog.  You can come play along by clicking this link: http://cck-digitalstamps-challenge.blogspot.tw/2014/10/ching-chou-kuik-inspiration-and.html
I was really drawn to this beautiful image from Ching's etsy store called Christmas Venice Night which can be found by clicking this link:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/206098368/christmas-venice-night-digital-stamp?ref=shop_home_active_3
I really enjoyed doing a holiday card and I have plenty of feline loving folks in my world.  I used copics to color it up and some Gelly Roll pearl and stardust pens to accent the image along with some fun stickers and glittery paper.  Wouldn't be a Christmas card without sparkle!  Hope you like my creation.  If you have any questions please feel free to ask!  Thanks for taking the time to stop by.
Hugs,
Helen

Rick St. Dennis DT call-Cute

Hello again blog landers!  This time I've shifted to the polar opposite of my last post, went from very creepy to a sweet and soft fairy named Pansy drawn by the talented Rick St. Dennis, Mfa that you can find here https://www.zibbet.com/rick1949/pansy-digital-stamp for your crafting pleasure.  I'm a card maker and colorist at heart so I went with my traditional card making for this piece.  I colored her with copics and used the Gelly Roll Stardust pens for the glitter in her hair and wings.  I love how they can make an image look magical without looking tacky.  I used paper from the Mariposas collection and some Jolee's embellies for the accents along with a sentiment from an Anna Griffin pad.  Hope you like her as much as I liked creating her.

Hugs,
Helen

Rick St. Dennis DT call Creepy

So there's this awesome DT call for the Rick St. Dennis, Mfa facebook group and for his EDT (Elite Design Team) and his facebook group design team.  I would love to be a part of this Elite team of amazing crafters.  These women are top shelf as is Rick St. Dennis himself as and artist.  The requirements are to create one cute and one creepy project.  This project is my creepy as you will soon see!  I used 3 different images to make this scene and you can find them here: https://www.zibbet.com/rick1949/monster-clown-digi-stamp
https://www.zibbet.com/rick1949/scary-go-round-digi-stamp and https://www.zibbet.com/rick1949/haunted-carnival-midway-2013-scene-digi
in Rick's Zibbet store.  Once I composed the project I drew in a dirt and gravel path and added some fly away trash papers to give a deserted feel.  I also wanted to achieve a long time abandoned effect so I chose colors that would give a somewhat vintage feel.  I changed the sign to read Carnevil as if someone spray painted over the letters to maybe give a hint as to why the area was deserted.  I just love the Monster clown as well, what evil place wouldn't be complete without a zombie right?! I used copics to color this with chalk for the background and some Gelly roll stardust pens for a little sparkle.  I took a picture frame and painted it with black then white Tim Holtz crackle paint. So without further ado, I present to you Carnevil!

Belle et Bete September progressive challenge

Hello Blog friends, this image will be for the second installment of the Progressive challenge over at the Sparkle and Glitter challenge blog for Rick St. Dennis, Mfa which can be found here:
http://sparkleandglitterwithrick.blogspot.co.uk/  The image for this month is Belle et Bete and what a wonderful image to work with.  If you should be interested in purchasing this lovely here is a link to the etsy store for Rick St. Dennis:  https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/205314047/belle-et-bete-digi-stamp  for your shopping pleasure. I colored this with copics using one of  my go to skin combos of E50, E51, and E11 to keep her skin soft and pale as a princess should have.  For her dress I used Y02, Y15 and Y38 plus a little RV66 for the accents.  I used of my favorite hair color combos for her of E71, E74, E77 and V99 for shadows.  For the Bete, I used E31, E57, E23and R20 for his pink inner ear.  For this clothing B91, B95 and B97.  I pulled some accents from a Bo Bunny collection of bits and pieces for the background and the words plus a few small paper roses.  Hope you like!
Hugs,
Helen

Christmas cards already?!

Okay, so I'm really not so ambitious to be making Christmas cards for myself at the moment.  I have a dear friend who ordered 30 of my handmade bests.  I will showcase this little cutie on my blog because I haven't blogged about one of my favorite artists in a long while Mitzi Sato-Wuiff of Stamps by Aurorawings.  I purchased this darling little image from here etsy site here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/170324591/digital-stamp-instant-download-baby?ref=shop_home_active_1&ga_search_query=penguin
Such a darling little image and just perfect for Christmas cards.  Hope you like! :)  I colored with copics, any questions please let me know.   Thank you Mitzi for showcasing this creation, I am truly honored!  Thanks for stopping by!
Hugs,
Helen

Beauty through grief

I sit here a little stunned by the day I had today and a bit grief stricken at the loss of a BRCA sister and amazing woman.  She left a legacy through these projects:

The Semper Fi fund, http://semperfifund.org/

The Scar Project http://www.thescarproject.org/

flatandfabulous.org http://www.flatandfabulous.org/

I also found out another friend has been attacked by the nasty "C"  it doesn't even deserve to be spelled out...they know who they are and I love them so much!  

Being the person I am grief and angst (which is probably more common than you think among artists) brings out some creative energy.  I have to pour all of these emotions into something and here is today's creation.  How appropriate a piece when thinking of love and loss is the Phantom of the Opera?  

This image was created by the amazingly talented Rick St. Dennis, Mfa.  Should you want this image to add to your digi collection it can be found here: 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/204911764/phantom-digital-stamp

I colored this using copics and added some cuts from one of my favorite paper stacks along with some embellies from my Cricut.  If you'd like more details on those just let me know.  

Hugs,

Helen