Karen's Muse and Musings

Black and White Pumpkin

 

Recently my friend Jackie sent me several links to cool Halloween projects. That's how I found the Ink Stains blog and the directions to make a cool stamped and decoupaged pumpkin. I loved this project! I did half of it last night and had to let it sit and dry before I could do the other half, and all night long I was kept waking up and thinking about finishing it. That's how much I loved it. (However, I didn't love not sleeping well!) I won't give you the technique here since it's not really my technique, but you can find detailed directions here.

I used these rubber stamps by B-line Designs, Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous and the cool vampire bat in the center is from Paula's Kit Club. Here's a close-up.

 

Gothic Arches Challenge — Text

We are just coming into the peak of fall color here in the Atlanta area, and I so enjoy the spectacular colors as I go for my walk or drive doing errands. So, it was only natural that I was in the autumn mood when creating this arch. This week's theme is "Text". It could be any sort of text. I used a stamp of Italian text in the background, and then the quote, "We do not remember days, we remember moments." I have always loved that quote. It was one of the first rubber stamps I ever purchased.

Do you recognize those leaves? They are the leaves I picked up on one of my walks last week and scanned. See, they come in handy!

The girl in the swing is an image from PaperWhimsy. I also used Tim Holtz Distress Inks and masks in the background.

 

The Butterfly Effect Link

I just discovered that the link to The Butterfly Effect in my last post does not work. Click here.

The Butterfly Effect

 

I recently found out that my friend Trudi from Two Dresses Studio is sponsoring The Butterfly Effect for a great cause. Click on the link below to find out more about it, and perhaps (hopefully) you will join us.

The butterfly at the top is my first attempt for my entry. I like it, but there is text and music in the background, and I had wanted the color more transparent. So, I think I'll make another one. I do really like the texture in this one though. The black dots are fresh water pearls that I dyed with black alcohol ink. I discovered that if you really want to, you can scratch it off, but as long as you're gentle with the pearls, the ink will stay on.

You can see my very talented sister Lauren's butterfly here. My mother is making one also. She doesn't have a blog, but I'll share hers when it's done.

(I am very proud of myself that I managed to type butterfly correctly each time — at least I think I did! I tend to type butteryfly, which I have decided I really like.)

Sunday Postcard Challenge — Witch

I am so glad I found this challenge. I love the proportions of a postcard, and it's such a fun and relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon. So here she is — my little witch.

(Background is done with Adirondack alcohol inks, rubber stamping and rub-ons, tree is painted by me, images are from my private collection.)

Sunday Postcard — Scary Fairies

I just found this Sunday Postcard challenge a couple of hours ago, and I was totally inspired by this theme. I don't know why this sweet little Paper Whimsy image is scary, but she is. I've used her several times in eerie settings. I cut her wings out of some really cool flocked paper from Paula's Kit Club from last year or maybe 2 years ago. I showed the paper to Warren and said, "Don't you think this would make cool wings?" You should have seen the look on his face!

I love autumn!

I prefer the word autumn to fall. It's just a lovelier word. Each year I look for pretty leaves that have fallen on the ground. (Slows the pace of my walk down since I keep stopping to turn over promising-looking leaves!) I bring them home and scan them so I'll have them forever. I found the two beauties above lying on the street a couple of days ago. I've done this since 2001, I believe. A few years ago, I printed some of these out on fabric and made a quilt. I gave it to my sister. I'm thinking I need to make another just for me!

Warren and I took a little shopping trip to Home Depot today. I have these jack-o-lantern luminaries on our front porch.

Each year I put little tea lights in the luminaries and worry about the trick or treaters catching their costumes on fire as they walk up the steps. So while at Home Depot we bought some of those little battery-operated flameless tealights. We get home, I start opening the packages and dropping them into the luminaries, and I accidentally drop one. There's a very small chipmunk hole next to the steps, and wouldn't you know it? It falls right into that hole! Warren had to dig it out for me. What a good husband!

Here's a recent photo of my 2-year-old grandson Bobby taken by his mom. Isn't that expression priceless?

More Skinny Halloween

Gotta do this quick. It's past time to start cooking supper, so here is the flip side of my Halloween skinny page.

So this is my lighthearted haunted house. The fun part of this is the Photoshop work I did to the house. Before Photoshopping, the house looked like this.

The Skinny on Halloween

So once again it's time to do a skinny book page for the swap on my OhMyGothic group. When we began this swap, we each chose a theme, and Betsy chose Halloween. I am so lucky that it's my turn to create a page for her, and it is actually October! She wanted lighthearted Halloween, so I did my best to accomodate her. The little witch is from a vintage postcard, and using Photoshop I replaced her face with the sweet little face of Nellie (from one of my collage sheets). I used Color Mists from Outside the Margins on pages from an old German textbook for the background, and then I used Distress Inks to grunge it up a bit. Color Mists create a beautiful shimmer that doesn't really show up in the scan.

Another project done!

My friend Kathy is sponsoring a fall banner swap, using fabric and spelling out the word W-E-L-C-O-M-E. I have the O, and  I decided to use a pumpkin to represent the O. I can't wait to see what the other players come up, and I look forward to receiving all the letters so I can hang up my banner.