Sin City Stamps Sugar Skull Blog Hop!

Hello!

Welcome to our Sugar Skull Blog Hop for Sin City Stamps! Get comfy and grab your favorite beverage, are you ready to hop along and be inspired? The team has made so many awesome projects to share today and inspire you to create!

This post contains links to my shop Sin City Stamps and my Challenge blog Dream in Darkness.

The star of our Hop is the wonderful Sugar Skull sheet designed by our very own Michelle Frae Cummings!

So off you go, hop to it! We have teamed up with the Dream in Darkness Challenge team and the Sin City Stamps Inspiration team to bring you loaddddsss of eye candy!

Leave some love along the way and you will have a chance to win a prize! Details here:

"The premise of this blog hop is for you to meet our in house Inspiration team members along with a few guest members, discover more ways to create with these stamps and possibly win a set for yourself!

No matter where you have started, to qualify to win your own Day of the Dead Sugar Skulls stamp set, (we are giving away 3!) we ask that you visit each of the blogs participating, leave a nice comment and then come back to the Sin City Blog and let us know which blog projects you liked the most and why.

The blog hop will end on the 27th and the 3 winners will be announced on the Sin City blog and on our FB Fan Group on March 28th.

Blog Hop Participants:

Sin City Stamps Blog

Michelle, the stamp designer!

Katie Lamb

Chris

Irit Shalom

Shilpa

Sharon

Jenn

Monique

Adam

Kim

Granne

Anne, Dream in Darkness

Now on to the show!!

Please click each photo to see it a bit bigger.

I made a mixed media canvas to share today. The substrate is an upcycled dollar store MDF plaque.

A bit like Monique, who used clay to stamp into, I covered the base with DecoArt Modelling Paste. Once the surface was spongy, I was able to stamp into it with my Sin City Sugar Skull stamps.

Once totally dry, I started to layer up DecoArt Fluid Acrylics in many different colors. I edged the canvas with DecoArt Carbon Black and Prussian Blue. I also used Prussian Blue over some of the surface texture. The highlights are DecoArt Fluid Acrylic Gold.

The layering and dry brushing helps bring out all the fabulous texture!

The last step was to apply DecoArt Antiquing Cream to get the nice patina. 

I stamped the Sugar Skull with Ranger Archival Ink onto Bristol Board. She is colored with various gel pens. 

That's it from me!

I hope you enjoy this Hop!

Check out the Sin City Stamps store HERE

Join the Sin City Fan Group on Facebook

Sin City Stamps Inspiration Blog HERE

Have a fabulous day!

hugs

~kim

By Michelle Frae Cummings available HERE

Lost Coast Designs~Day of the Dead Challenge~Milagros Postcard

Hi!

Sneaky Peek of my post over on Lost Coast Portal to Creativity this time around! Up to November 15th, link up your Day of the Dead makes with us, use any company stamp and have fun!

October 30~ 31 Days of Halloween Wicked Blogger Challenge Day 30~Calavera

eeeekkk Thursday!

zoooommmm and here we are at THURSDAY!

Welcome to Day 30 of 31 Days of Halloween! The Smeared and Smudged 31 Days of Halloween Challenge is to create a daily project using a stamp, rubber or digi, and run from there. Remember to pop over HERE to Terra's blog to see the daily Scavenger Hunt prizes donated by our awesome sponsors and find the daily clue. You can also see all the rules there, too. For your reference I have the Wicked Blogger Hop list on the right sidebar:) Love Mr. Neon Skele!

Another Day of the Dead themed image today. Today's focal point is a stencil by The Crafters Workshop. Love this Calavera, Sugar Skull.

Please click the pictures to enlarge:)

The manila tag started as just a play with Dylusions sprays. I used lots of yellow and red. Then I found the stencil and it was a must have:)

I used my texture paste through the stencil and let is dry overnight. I chose to only use a bit over half the stencil, I liked the partial image.

Once dry, I played with more sprays on it. The base color kinda pulls up into the paste, it does not stay pure white. It was not coming out anything too special, then I tried a bottle of Lindsay's Stamp Gang Starburst spray, Sweet Violet Purple Teal. I had used it before and it was always a bright nice purple. I sprayed and let it pool and drip. As it dried it sorta separated and left the blue sparkle around all the edges of the paste. Once I put it in bright light, I loved the sparkly sheen it left. 

The Spooktacular sentiment stamp is Unity. The filigree is Hampton Arts.

Happy Halloween Eve!

~hugs~

~kim

October 29~ 31 Days of Halloween Wicked Blogger Challenge Day 29~Payaso de Muerte

Wednesday!

Whoa way too fast this week!
Welcome to Day 29 of 31 Days of Halloween! The Smeared and Smudged 31 Days of Halloween Challenge is to create a daily project using a stamp, rubber or digi, and run from there. Remember to pop over HERE to Terra's blog to see the daily Scavenger Hunt prizes donated by our awesome sponsors and find the daily clue. You can also see all the rules there, too. For your reference I have the Wicked Blogger Hop list on the right sidebar:) Love Mr. Neon Skele!

A Day of the Dead themed image today. I have been having fun practicing coloring, it is an awesome change of pace. I used a digital stamp by Rick St. Dennis, Payaso de Muerte that I was fortunate to win at the 31 DOH Scavenger Hunt. 


Please click the pictures to enlarge:)

I wanted to stay with the festive nature of the stamp, it feels like a carnival, hence El Carnaval. I kept it simple, coloring with a mix of Sharpies, Bic Mark It  and Distress Ink pens to get enough colors and be bright! I love color!

Happy Wednesday! Enjoy your day!

Thank you ever so much for all of your kind thoughts, feedback and visits!

~hugs~

~kim

October 23~ 31 Days of Halloween Wicked Blogger Challenge Day 23~Danza de la Muerte

Hi Happy Thursday!

Welcome to Day 23 of 31 Days of Halloween! The Smeared and Smudged 31 Days of Halloween Challenge is to create a daily project using a stamp, rubber or digi, and run from there. Remember to pop over HERE to Terra's blog to see the daily Scavenger Hunt prizes donated by our awesome sponsors and find the daily clue. You can also see all the rules there, too. For your reference I have the Wicked Blogger Hop list on the ride sidebar:)

Today's exploration comes from more banner play. This time I fell in love with a banner project made by Diana Trout and it was on her post and contest that I won the set of the ArtistCeller stencils, Danse Macabre. I used one stencil on a tag earlier in the month HERE


Click to see it bigger if you like:)

I made a long post....I hope you don't mind! 
Warning TEXT and PICTURE heavy!

I made the banner using deli paper, the same paper they use in sandwich shops to wrap up your sandwich. It is sold in the restaurant supply shops. I found some here at Smart & Final, a box of 500 sheets for about $8. It is called dry wax paper. 

I love how the light and shadows play here:)

I used Distress Paint right on my craft mat and sprayed with water. Then I pressed the deli wrap into the paint and pulled it slowly off. I made a lot of sheets, so fun to play.

Once dry I picked out the sheets I liked the best and tried the papercutting. The papercutting is just like cutting snowflakes! Fun!

Once done with cutting, I placed the dancing dead stencil where I wanted it and sponged on acrylic paint. I added more flowers using an Inkadinkado flower stamp dipped in Distress Paint. If you use paint on your stamps, make sure you wash them off as soon as you are done stamping:)

Now I wanted it to be more, lots more festive. I knew I wanted ribbon and flowers. I had ribbon that was easy. I don't have a flower stash and I really like using what I have on-hand. Besides, handmade is so much more fun.

There are lots of sources of how to make paper flowers. The easiest one is to cut up a bunch of flower shapes or even circles in whatever size you want. You can use any sort of paper too. Book pages are lots of fun.  Just cut up a bunch all basically the same size pieces. You can use a paper punch, freehand it, or use a flower die if you have a die cut machine.

I used my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and cheap tissue paper I had on-hand. I folded and re-folded the tissue till I had a lot of layers then placed it on the die and cut. Bit easier on the hands to do them this way.

I used the smallest flower in the set as I wanted the flowers to be close to a Marigold.

Take a stack of the cut "petals" and staple them in the middle. You can also use a brad if you like. Now starting with the top layer, gently pull it up and crunch it up, ruffle it. Proceed through each layer until they are all ruffled. It will be like a tight bud when you are done, so just ease them apart until you have the shape you like.

Along the way I found out the flowers that I had not pulled carefully off the cutter, (I dropped them all over the place) ruffled up much closer to a Marigold. The ones with all the layers aligned are still awesome but a totally different look!

I used the Dylusions spray to get the orange flowers since I did not have orange tissue. I like to spray outside on cardboard 'cuz I am a messy crafter and well the spray ink kinda goes all over.

Long winded, but I really love these flowers and wanted to share:)

Dance like no one cares!

Thanks for all your awesome visits and such wonderful inspiration to play and craft away!

~hugs~

~kim

Sharing this with the flash linky party at Stamplorations: HERE


I am entering this into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:Anything Goes
And I am entering this into the Mixed Media Monthly October Challenege:Ribbon

October 13~ 31 Days of Halloween Wicked Blogger Challenge Day 13~APCC Week 6 Card 2

Monday!

Day 13 of 31! Love it!!!

SMILE we are almost half way there! I am thinking I will be sad when Smeared and Smudged 31 Days of Halloween is done:( What do you think?

Please visit Terra's blog for the details of the challenge and the daily Scavenger Hunt clue.

This is my second altered playing card for week 6 in Claudine's 26 week ongoing play along for altering an entire deck of playing cards. You can see this week's inspiration HERE and to join us go to this PAGE.

I made a Day of the Dead inspired card today.

The inspirational technique is to use a napkin. I found this Sugar Skull at a $1 store. I have always loved sugar skulls and have slowly collected small things. The bird underneath the skull was stamped on tissue. I adhered both with watered down gel medium. Really fun and effective, I love playing this way.

Hope you are having a great day!
~hugs~

~kim