My Design Team Toot

So, I am so excited to share that I was selected to be a Design Team member over at The Paper Mixing Bowl!  This will be a first for me and I am delighted to start with them, such a cool concept and challenges.  I hope to see all my amazing artist friends join in on the fun with us!  A big Thank You to Sarah for the vote of confidence in me, I am honored!

Jimmy and Marilyn LO

OK, so I used to be a smoker....before my brain developed and I realized I was killing myself. I quit, I started, I quit, I started. get the picture? Anyone who smokes or used to gets it. It's an evil I LOVED. It was MY time, MY solitude. MY break from chaos and I miss it. However, I do not miss the way I smelled, my teeth yellowing, the ick I tasted in the morning. So, when I came across this picture of Marilyn and Jimmy (oh, I love that bad boy!) smoking on the top of this building I was taken back to that time. You know it, it's that breaking point in the day where nothing is right and you RUN as fast as you can. My go to was outside to have that little break from crazy. "Treasure the Moment" was a good sentiment here for me and I did every time I lit up. On the flip side of this addiction I now know how wretched smoking was for me and those around me. The real eye opener for me was watching my bio father die slowly from drinking and smoking. There is nothing in this world more awful than watching someone die after years of smoking. There is nothing worse than the smell of their lungs dissolving in ICU. There is nothing worse than hearing their last gasp for air as they die and leave us behind to miss them everyday. Vivid and painful are those memories, but they changed my love for smoking into a ball and chain that I fought to be rid of for a very long time. I can happily say I won the battle, gained a few pounds and miss the "moment" frequently. With that said, I will never go back to it even if I slowly lose my sanity along the way (insert cackle here). This lovely set of scrap goodness is from our "Karma" kit at Scraps of Darkness and is just so lovely, join us, we would love to see you there! Hugs and magical wishes to all!

Remember This Moment

From the "Karma" kit from Scraps Of Darkness.  This is my submission for the Sketch challenge for Charlotte's (AKA Suepup) sketch this month.  Love this kit, lovin all the Bo Bunny!!  This is a pic I took of Caden last December when we were in Denver for his 2 week treatment at National Jewish.  After long days at the hospital we went on pancake hunts, it's his favorite!  Despite all the testing and long days we had such fun just he and I.  So Thankful he is so much better now and finally gets to be a kid!

2 New LO's!

From the "Karma" kit at Scraps of Darkness.  I used my new toy from Martha Stewart on this, the circle die cut tool.  Such an awesome thing that is, can't be more simple!

Jack Is Unraveling...can you see it?  This is paper from the "Morticias Wish" kit at Scraps of Darkness.  I colored up some gauze, and used some india ink that I made blood red for the drips.

ATC for Monica

I just realized I never posted this!  This is the ATC I made for Monica over at Scraps of Darkness.  We are having trades for ATC's and Tags and it has been so fun so far!  I love getting pieces of art from others to add to the ambiance in my scrap space and love making them for others just as much.  This was a blast to make, the base is a mix of red and purple alcohol inks with a few microbeads mixed in.  I then die cut the oval frame, embossed and then inked it with some barn door distress ink.  The raven has been "flocked" with black flocking and then an eye of silver liquid pearls.  He is hanging out on a little nest of black gauze.  Mr. Poe was fussy cut to fit and topped off with a black feather for a bit more texture.

A Good Deed and My Girl LO's

This is my Round Robin Lift of Violent Kitty's LO over at Scraps Of Darkness for November.  Lee did an awesome LO with big mustaches and it made me think of this flourish I have been hoarding for about 3 years LOL!  Of course my Sister Mary Kitteh gets to be the real star here, such a beautiful baby she is.  I went back a bit and used some more of my True Romance kit, it seems like it is neverending, it was so jam packed with goodies like all the rest of the kits, I wonder if I will ever use it all!

My DD taking a pic in the mirror of herself here, I am hearing that they all do this, weird kids, but probably not as weird as we were.  I chose the Morticias Wish kit for this since the color and texture was perfect for Anna's edited pic.  A little weaving of papers and black gesso chevron masking add to the drama.  The burlap flower was a bit too bright so I toned it down a bit with Timmy's heirloom gold perfect pearls mist.  Hope everyone is having a magical weekend and don't forget the blog hop over at Scraps of Darkness, see you there!

Scraps of Darkness Blog Hop Today!

Scraps of Darkness is having another blog hop starting today, hope everyone hops along with us!!

So Cherished Tag For Miss Marianne!

This is the tag I made for Marianne over at Scraps of Darkness.  We are having such fun exchanging our work with each other!  The background of this is an embossed stamp and ink technique, such a cool effect!  I began by coating the tag with a white acrylic paint, then stamped the lettering with some archival black ink.  After this I coated my flourish stamp with embossing ink, stamped randomly on the tag and then added a clear embossing powder.  I heat set the powder then used some distress ink and foam stamper from Timmy to go over the patterns.  The big paper flower you see is from Jenifer over at SOD that she did a tut on months ago called Hearts a Glow.  I made a couple of them and stashed them away until I found just the right project.  Voila!  TFL!

Scraps Of Darkness ATC Swap...Monica's gorgeous gift to me!

We are having an ATC swap over at Scraps of Darkness and this is round two.  My dark sister Monica from Arkansas and I were paired up this time and this is the AMAZING card she sent me last week.  The skull she used is a 3rd eye Stamp and she have carefully covered it with seed beads.  The background is way cool with a couple of 3rd eye cardiogram stamps in it as well.  The picture does not do this piece justice, it is even more STUNNING in person!  A big thanks to you Miss Monica, I will treasure this little guy always and forever as well as our friendship!

Our new addition!

This is our new fur baby daughter, Daria.  She is a second chance baby and we adopted her today.  She is 2 years old and the most amazing rescue baby I have ever gotten.  We brought her home and she settled in as if she has been here all along.  She is just meant to be for our family.  The oddest part about this is that Jerry and I went to the shelter last week and could not decide, so we took all of the kids today and every one of them chose her.  I have never had them all agree on anything, ever.  She is beautiful with her crooked face and crossed right eye and we will treasure her always!  Thanks to Second Chance Sanctuary for taking in these babies until they find their forever homes with those of us who are destined to be brought together!

Listen

My second LO from Morticia's Wish over at Scraps Of Darkness. I spend much of my time not being who I am or want to be so I listen to everything, intently.  This picture is how I see myself so much of my life.  I am sure there is something to the wish I have of the mountains as they afford the luxury of solitude.  I am at my best in that deep thoughtful place that has often been describes as my own little world.  As for the LO, I used some felt for the Tim Holtz die cuts.  The felt allowed me to manipulate the shapes and give the appearance of vines if you will.  I suppose the vines are a representation of the vast thought process I seem to conjur up on any given day.  Wishing all a magical weekend -Jenny