Magic Circle by Waterhouse

I am finally getting started on my Morticias Wish kit from Scraps of Darkness and it is divine  This is the first of many to come I hope from this kit and is also my version of the sketch challenge from Suepup for the month.  Her sketch had so many elements to choose from, the layers, the circle, the pin etc.  My view took on a life of it's own as I created the gesso circle with the ink and microbeads.  I ripped the page in places, poked some lace in, let some ink drip and distressed and rolled my way to the final page you see.  Close ups are shown below and thanks for looking!  Lots of Magic wishes and love to all!

I spy.....Marianne's Amazing Tag!

My sweet dark sister from Norway, Marianne and I are paired up for the first round of the tag trade over at Scraps Of Darkness and I received mine from her on Monday.  Isn't it just so beautiful! Thanks sweet girl, I will cherish it forever! I have just finished my semester up so I now have a little breathing room and I hope to get to a few projects done.  It is time to begin decorating for Halloween, make Marianne's tag and get to creating a few magical dark pieces for Scraps of Darkness and the challenges set before us.  So happy that I did this semester in 8 weeks rather than 16 as it will afford me more play time for Halloween and the upcoming holiday season.  Have a magical rest of the week one and all!  Hugs, J

My Sweets from The Scraps of Darkness "My Guy" kit.  This is my entry for the round robin for October at SOD. The pic is my little crew of kiddos with my Grandmother.  I cut out a chipboard base for the first layer of the photo grouping followed by a paper piece, a cardboard piece, another paper piece and finally the photo itself.  I put on a layer of gesso, then stamped and spread a bit of alcohol ink on the dusty attic chippie and topped it off with a little prima bling from the kit.  The balloons are accented with some liquid pearls, I also stamped and added a little gesso to the main paper background to add a little interest.  This is my take of Kathy's LO that I am lifting for the month.  Thanks for taking a look and having a magical week!

Boreas by Waterhouse.  This is another LO from the "My Guy" kit at SOD and the sweet little bird on the cage is a RAK from my sweet friend Mish aka Bubbachooka.  I used faded blue jeans distress ink on the DA chippie and went over it with a moonlight embossing powder from Lindy's.  The flowers are from the kit, feathers from my stash and I sprayed a little blue shimmer mist on the gauze.  Little secret, I totally hosed the bottom of this LO with my punch so I HID it LOL.  Thanks for looking and have a lovely magical week everyone.  Halloween LO's are next, let the darkness begin....insert banana dance here.....

Layout of The Month Toot!

So since this is my first Layout of The Month, I wanted to share!!! I am so incredibly honored to have the girls at Scraps of Darkness choose my "My Boys" layout, thanks so much to Melinda and the design team for constant inspiration, you are so fabulous.  For anyone who hasn't checked out Scraps of Darkness, please come visit and join in on the fun!

The Apothecary Bottles Are Done!

This is from the "My Guy" kit over at Scraps of Darkness this month, I just love the papers and colors we have this month!  I also broke into my Inkadinkadoo Stamp kit I WON from the Scraps OF Elegance blog hop, and used one of the stamps behind the clock face.  What a fun prize that is, can't wait to use it more and experiment.  A big thanks to Melinda for such an awesome gift!  This is my DH and DS in one of those amazing moments they share together, I love these guys more than life itself!

My sweet Annabelle on the beach for the first time, she had so much fun. This is from Jamaican Sunset at Scraps of Darkness.  I used lots of flowers and the netting is a find from Hobby Lobby, just went perfect with this kit.

A little sneaky peaky of the Witches Apothecary I am working on for Halloween.  This label is one from The Graphics Fairy.  Stayed tuned, more to come as I finish up the whole wicked collection. 

A gift from Lisa AKA Raining

We are having a fun ATC swap over at Scraps Of Darkness and Lisa (Raining) and I were paired up first. I was so excited to come home last night to this from the Lovely and talented Lisa.  She has layered and inked and glittered her way to a mini masterpiece.  I am HONORED to have this in my craft room and look forward to collecting from all the amazing girls I have the privilege of having in my life.  For anyone who has never been to SOD it's so worth a look, I hope you will join us for lots of fun and inspiration.  Finally, I huge thank you to LISA, the ATC is perfection as is everything you create my friend! Hugs, Jenny

New treasures for me!

A new poppet for the Kitchen!  Hopefully she will make my cooking better :)

Picked this up at the bookstore today.  By far the funniest book I have gotten in a long time, I think I surpass shitty , I am grand poo-bah!  LOL!  Must read, your tummy will ache with all the laughter.

A little find on Etsy via The Magic Bean by Laineybean.  I fell in love with this set and finally ordered. Can't wait to see it in person!

My Sam 3 years ago playing on the beach.  He had this moment of hesitation as he explored the beach and ocean for the first time.  This lasted about 5 minutes and then there was no stopping him.  I have used "Jamaican Sunset" from Scraps of Darkness here.  A bit of mixed media, some fussy cutting and stamping from Tim Holtz.

Doisneau's L' Enfer circa 1952 in Paris France was a perfect fit for the papers from our Scraps of Darkness Sakurabana kit a couple months back.  This is my take on CraftySprinkles LO titled "A walk in the Woods" for the Robin Robin team two this month.  I am going second this month and am lifting from her, always a pleasure!  Mandy's LO features the tears midpaper and it inspired me to use this pic with these papers as it resembles flames to me, hence L' Enfer.  Gosh, is it halloween yet????  My favorite time of year!

Scraps of Elegance Blog Hop Today!

http://scrapsofelegancekits.blogspot.com/

I wanted to share a fun hop for everyone that is going on today and tomorrow for Scraps of Elegance. While I am a Scraps Of Darkness girl, SOE has amazing, beautiful kits to feed your elegant side and the girls always do such beautiful work.  I hope you check it out and hope you join the hop, there is lots of inspiration, prizes and beautiful art to admire. Click the link and have fun!
 Hope everyone has a magical weekend! hugs, jenny

"Wise" details and rumors of a Haunted Halloween

A little traveling back in my Archives of Scraps of Darkness for this "Wise" kitty. A bit of paper from Victoriana, a smidge of Needful Things, a lovely Dusty Attic Raven from the SOD store and lots of lovely misting inspired by Finnabair adds to my little collection of Dark Art.  I am hearing the tap tap tap of my favorite time of year, enchanting Halloween.  I have begun the preparations for the Cemetery, the Witches apothecary is nearly complete and will be ready for the little spooks (and big ones too).  We may have a bit of a spider problem this year with the fresh graves in the yard.  Who knows what else the creatures will come up with this year.  I have heard rumors of a foggy night, strange glowing eyes peering through the windows and skeletons trying to escape.  Hmmm, whatever shall we do?

update on Caden

We are finally there, Mr. Caden Thomas is getting ready to start kindergarten in less than 2 weeks!  We are so happy that he has made it through such trying times and we are so grateful to all of you for the prayers, love and support on this difficult journey.

We are scheduled to meet with his future teachers and caregivers at school before classes begin to discuss his needs and make a plan to enable him to receive the best education and care possible.  Jerry and I are so excited for him on this new journey and are anxious to see him learn and grow, hopefully with some new friends and a positive experience.

We are, of course, worried that some children may try to pick on him since he is different than others, but the plan is to educate the families in his class about his condition and help them to understand what a brave and amazing boy he is and has so much to offer to this world.

Wishing everyone a magical weekend,
Hugs, Jenny

August Round Robin at Scraps Of Darkness

"Maichiru" is a term used by the Japanese people to describe the cherry blossoms as they fall. The term simply means "dancing blossom"  I have used the "True Romance" kit from Scraps of Darkness here with some dusty attic chippies from the kit and the SOD store.  The Japanese religion "Shinto" says that all features of the natural world acquire their own innate God or spirit and that once a tree has it's own God dwelling within it can house the spirits of the dead inside.  They are such a spiritual people and so resilient, I just found this belief so beautiful!

Here I have layered some Webster's Pages bling with an MS punch and topped it off with a few Prima flowers from the kit.

Dusty Attic Corner Flourish #3 from the Main kit here.  I first used some Black Soot ink then embossed with Lindy's Ruby Midnight Obsidion Embossing Powder.  The color in person is stunning with the pinks and blacks in the LO, but so hard to photograph!

I first inked the DA cherry blossom with white acrylic from tim Holtz, then brushed on some Shimmerz hottie pink, dotted the centers with some black soot acrylic and topped off with Sparklicious and hit it with the heat tool.  The emerging blooms are bark are simple ink colors from my colorbox pallet.

 A LO of Anna and Grandma from the "True Romance" kit from
Scraps of Darkness.  Lovely Carta Bella Papers, Kaisercraft
"Tea at Elsie's" rub-ons and loads of Prima flowers among many
other treasures are part of this months drool worthy kit.  I layered
a bit of toile, stamping, microbeads, Lindy's mists and
some distressing with Barn Door ink.

"Don't Forget Your Nunu."  This is inspired by Mandy
AKA Crafty Sprinkles and Her LO "Life Is Good Today"
This is my Anna and Nunu.  Some of my last bits of my
Summer Breeze "browns" went into this from Scraps Of Darkness.
I created this to frame for Annabelle in hopes that she will
never forget the amazing woman Nunu was and how much she
adored each and every person in her life.  We miss her everyday!

I have been moody lately and this came from that dark place
we all have sometimes.  I am fascinated with this picture, the sadness,
the darkness, the color, it's just fabulous.  Scraps Of Darkness
"White Rabbit" kit here with some gesso/stenciling/inking/dripping fun!

Once Upon a Time Layout

A close up of the chippie I used from by fabscraps from
the SOD store.  I used some blue zing embossing powder,
white ink, rudolphs nose red lindy's, and topped it off with
utee for some shine.

"Once Upon A Time" from the White Rabbit kit at Scraps of
Darkness for June.  The papers from 7dots by Finnabair are
my fave so far of anything I have worked with.  I added a queen's
crown for the evil queen, wretched naughty girl, I love her!  The second
pic of her I altered in elements with a filter and the flowers are petaloo.

Another close up, this time of Mandy's handmade pin and a couple
of fabscraps playing cards that I inked white for the base then
embossed with a brown ranger powder and blue zing.  I then finished
them off with a clear rock candy coating.

Lindy's Flat Fabio, my new wish list addition!

So, this is a new Lindy's coming August 15th.  I'm
so anxious for this one, the colors are awesome.
Not sure how I feel about no shimmer, but
definitely worth a try!  Of course, the title
"Wizard Of Oz" makes it even more irresistible!

This is my biological father with my biological grandfather
just before he went to Vietnam.  This is my interpretation
of Charlotte's (aka Suepup) sketch for the White Rabbit
kit from Scraps of Darkness.  I used a clock stencil with some
puffy paint on two of the clock faces and the third is black soot
from Tim Holtz.  The Dusty Attic chippies and also inked
with black soot ink.  I have titled this "Lost" because although
George came back from the war physically, he did not
return mentally.  He was heart broken, worn, torn, and
forever tormented until his last breath and for that I feel such
grief and sorrow for him.  God has a plan for everyone, but I
am still waiting to understand the plan for George and what
it was supposed to do for those of us who also loved and lost
where he was concerned.  I am so grateful everyday for
the man who became dad to me, so thankful to my mother
for giving me the gift of family in the form of an adoptive
dad who also came with grandparents I adored, and the
addition of a brother and sister whom I can't imagine life
without.  I feel honored to have so many that love me and
try everyday to not take advantage of the moments I am
given with each and every one of them.

More from Scraps of Darkness and the White Rabbit kit.
This is my DSD and my son Samuel, gettin his Jim Carrey
geek on, see the crossed eyes and hair, HAH!