International Fairy Day Blog Hop!

Happy International Fairy Day Everyone! Welcome to my annual Blog Hop celebrating this fantastic occasion! This blog hop is dedicated to all things Fairy! I am often asked where did International Fairy Day began? This quote from FaeNation sums it up: 

"The most important day in the calendar, June 24th – this day is the second ever International Fairy Day. Founded by artist Jessica Galbreth, Fairy Day is a holiday for believers, collectors and the young at heart to celebrate all that is Fae and reconnect with their imagination and child-like wonder. It is the perfect day to glamour bomb, make a fairy altar, take a walk in unspoilt countryside or even just reread your favourite fairy books. See the Fairy Day website for more ideas."

I have collected some of my favorite bloggers and crafters to join me in this fun celebration! I hope you enjoy the projects we've done. Below you will find a list of bloggers..be sure to hop from project to project--keep my screen open as there may be one or two without the list on their blog. 

Today I'm creating with some of my new and favorite toys and sharing a quote from the fairytale man himself Hans Christian Anderson : "Just living isn't enough," said the butterfly fairy, "one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower." After the month of rain and floods and storms that we've had this just seemed appropriate! We all need a little sunshine, freedom as we approach our celebration of independence here in the states and a "little flower!" While my word of the year is sparkle, I will forever be marked by the word bloom and all that it means. I hope you enjoy my project. I created a little plaque for my work area. I started with a spritz of water and some Ken Oliver Crafts Color Burst in Pthalo Green on Mixed Media paper! This is an AMAZING little product and I can't wait to get the new colors in July! That one little bottle has all of those colors in its little bottle...just a touch of powder, a little more misting and a little patting and voila! an amazing background! I stamped a little field of daisies in the corner. I printed the Hans Christian Anderson quote and stamped a light music background over it. The pages were trimmed and mounted on some black and shiny sequins and beads were added for a bit of sparkle! Love it! I hope you do too!

Now hop along and see what my amazing crafty friends have shared!

Twitter at @leslierahye | Facebook at leslierahye.| YouTube at leslierahye | Pinterest at leslierahye | Instagram at leslierahye

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March Monthly Smeared Ink Blog Hop | Alice in Wonderland Madness!

Good Morning Smeared and Smudged Family! This month I'm participating in the Alice in Wonderland Madness Members Blog Hop! Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite subjects to art. SO MUCH FUN! I'm using a rubber stamp from Viva Las VegaStamps today...it's a stamp created from the illustrations of Sir John Tenniel--they have several made into stamps at VLVS.

 I created this little fat book page on a piece of canvas paper...I began by swirling on distress ink with my beautiful Enchanted Vine RebeccaBaer.com Collage stencil...the same stencil is later used to get the diamond pattern on the bottom right and the Swirl at the top left. I recently joined the Rebecca Baer Design Team and get to share with you often these awesome Mixed Media tools!! Her Stencil Brushes are AMAZING...more about that at another time! You're here to HOP!  The image was stamped on a piece of scrapbooking paper made to look like a dictionary page. As the image was bigger than my 4×4" square, I altered slightly to get both the Cheshire Cat and Alice on the page. The cat and Alice and a piece of the branch were colored with Prisma Pencils and then painted with Ranger Perfect Pearls Mist in Pearl to add SHIMMER. The cat needed some googly eyes to finish him off.

Below are details of this fun tile! Enjoy!

detail of the stenciled swirls and emboss pasted stencil.
copper creams were lightly brushed over the top of the raised stenciling.

detail of the swirl in the upper left.
again, copper creams were brushed over the swirls to help them pop

Cheshire Cat

Alice

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my project!

Be sure to hop to the rest of the Blog Hop Smeared Ink Family!

March Monthly Member Blog Hop

Black Dragon | Kristy | Nan | Teresa
 Leslie Rahye | Maureen | Susan R. | Lisa

Sarah | Leigh | Susan S. | Jenn  | Ike | Fiona

Twitter at @leslierahye | Facebook at leslierahye.| YouTube at leslierahye | Pinterest at leslierahye

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31 Days of Halloween | Day 22

During the month of October I am participating in a month-long blog hop with some amazing artists. Everyday you will find a new Halloween project on all of the blogs listed below. Each project must have stamping on it, be it digi or ink. There are prizes to win, be sure to check out all the rules HERE and information on the daily scavenger hunt is posted there! You must go HERE to find the item/s you are looking for the scavenger hunt.

Welcome to Day 22 of the 31 Days of Halloween hop with SmearedInk.com! Today I'm sharing this quick "Poe" ATC with my raven and the sentiment "nevermore." The pattern paper has a bit of distressing and misting through some Tiny Circles Mesh which is also echoed as the actual mesh under the sentiment. The edges are distressed with a pattern marker, some brown chalk, some brown distress ink and some pen scribbles :) The whole front is then mounted on a piece of Black ATC card stock and the Raven receives a bit of black bling for his eye!

I hope you enjoyed my card! Please come back tomorrow!!

Smeared Ink Wicked Bloggers 2014

Terra | Black Dragon | Lyneen | Maureen | Rebecca

Julia | Lisa | Teresa | Keren | Renee | Alison

De-stempelwinkel Designers Blog | Jane

The Nanny (Sue) | Sarah | *leslierahye* | Jessica

Kelli | Karen | Airless Chambers | Sara | Kapree

Shoni | Altered Pages | Shell | Art Jypsy | Alex

Dreamweavers Stencils DT | Kim | Nanette

Erin | Susan | Creepy Glowbugg | DominoART

Steph | Sandy | Sarah | Stefanie | Barbara

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You!!!

Twitter at @leslierahye | Facebook at leslierahye.| YouTube at leslierahye | Pinterest at leslierahye

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31 Days of Halloween | Day 17

During the month of October I am participating in a month-long blog hop with some amazing artists. Everyday you will find a new Halloween project on all of the blogs listed below. Each project must have stamping on it, be it digi or ink. There are prizes to win, be sure to check out all the rules HERE and information on the daily scavenger hunt is posted there! You must go HERE to find the item/s you are looking for the scavenger hunt.

Welcome to Day 17 of the 31 Days of Halloween hop with SmearedInk.com! I first want to thank you all for the outpouring of well wishes and kindness that you all offered. You're intentions were felt and appreciated! Thank you. My appointment went well and except for some soreness I came through fine on the other side. We will know more next week as to the results of the tests.

...AND now on to my tag! The sentiment with the moon and cemetery scene were created using 3 stamps from Viva Las VegaStamps. It was layered on a piece of burlap, a piece of embossed purple core card stock and a piece of orange Bazzill. All pieces were distressed and inked with my favorite Frayed Burlap! A bit of white chalk pencil doodling and pen stitching and a simple bow completed the tag! I hope you enjoy my project! Please come back tomorrow for more!

Smeared Ink Wicked Bloggers 2014

Terra | Black Dragon | Lyneen | Maureen | Rebecca

Julia | Lisa | Teresa | Keren | Renee | Alison

De-stempelwinkel Designers Blog | Jane

The Nanny (Sue) | Sarah | *leslierahye* | Jessica

Kelli | Karen | Airless Chambers | Sara | Kapree

Shoni | Altered Pages | Shell | Art Jypsy | Alex

Dreamweavers Stencils DT | Kim | Nanette

Erin | Susan | Creepy Glowbugg | DominoART

Steph | Sandy | Sarah | Stefanie | Barbara

Twitter at @leslierahye | Facebook at leslierahye.| YouTube at leslierahye | Pinterest at leslierahye

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31 Days of Halloween | Day 16 and a bit of a personal story

During the month of October I am participating in a month-long blog hop with some amazing artists. Everyday you will find a new Halloween project on all of the blogs listed below. Each project must have stamping on it, be it digi or ink. There are prizes to win, be sure to check out all the rules HERE and information on the daily scavenger hunt is posted there! You must go HERE to find the item/s you are looking for the scavenger hunt.

If you are looking for my Delightful Challenge Post it is here.

Welcome to Day 16 of the 31 Days of Halloween hop with SmearedInk.com! Happy Thursday everyone--warning this post is an overshare and might not be suitable for everyone...that's okay, I understand. Just look at the tile and read no further. I promise, I will not share a valued technique today. This is a personal story and rather the madness behind the tile.
Today I was "scheduled" to do a tag but I changed my mind. Let me tell you why and what's behind this strange tile. I am having a biopsy today for my thyroid...let's back up. Before my daughter turned 2 (she is now 8), I was diagnosed with Thyroid disease...I had Hypothyroidism--think thyroid in hyperdrive to produce--not making enough. As a condition of this you sometimes have a swollen thyroid, sometimes you get goiters [think lumpy balls] in your thyroid. When I was first diagnosed I was diligent in taking my medicine--not. The only daily pill I had been on ever was a birth control pill and it had been a good 9 years since I had taken one of those. I did not want to take a daily pill. I was not good at remembering. After a few years of attempting to remember my medication I just finally gave up and went into a 6 year period of denial where I did not take it and I did not go to the doctor--EVER.
After a difficult year medically with my son and my husband, I had promised my health would take center focus...if only I knew then.... So I started this journey with the new year--my word was THRIVE, right? I was going to THRIVE in every aspect of my life. A checkup led to more invasive doctors visits....a diagnosis of high blood pressure--score 2 pills--a diagnosis of diabetes--score a pill and a lifestyle adjustment--a diagnosis of hypothyroidism--score that stupid little pill I didn't want to take to start with and more invasive tests.
This summer I went through a horrifying sonogram with a crazy technician that had me convinced I had thyroid cancer. She was inappropriate and we hope wrong...we will know shortly. I got sent to a specialist last month to discuss "the next step." That is what we're calling the biopsy..."the next step." Basically this is to prove without a doubt that there is no cancer but rather some benign gunk in my thyroid in little goiters that can stay in me as long as they do not become a problem with my swallowing, breathing, etc. While I have tried the denial of stress thing for the last few months, those close to me know that this is killing me inside. This is evidenced by the explosion of fever blisters across my lips today [written Wednesday].
So Wednesday night before my biopsy, as I looked at my cut tag and thought of what I wanted to add, I kept thinking how frightened I was of not knowing, how the doctor would be poking me with various skinny long needles and making slides of the goo that she pulled out...I really felt like I would look like Dr. Frankenstein's Monster as I laid there while the doctor held her sono-wand in one hand going from lump to lump and sticking needles in my neck. So as I worried and relieved some stress, I misted and stenciled and stamped and embossed and ended up with my Frankenstein's Monster Tile. There you go...the method to today's madness.  I hope you enjoy my project! Please come back tomorrow for more!

Smeared Ink Wicked Bloggers 2014

Terra | Black Dragon | Lyneen | Maureen | Rebecca

Julia | Lisa | Teresa | Keren | Renee | Alison

De-stempelwinkel Designers Blog | Jane

The Nanny (Sue) | Sarah | *leslierahye* | Jessica

Kelli | Karen | Airless Chambers | Sara | Kapree

Shoni | Altered Pages | Shell | Art Jypsy | Alex

Dreamweavers Stencils DT | Kim | Nanette

Erin | Susan | Creepy Glowbugg | DominoART

Steph | Sandy | Sarah | Stefanie | Barbara

Twitter at @leslierahye | Facebook at leslierahye.| YouTube at leslierahye | Pinterest at leslierahye

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31 Days of Halloween | Day 8

During the month of October I am participating in a month-long blog hop with some amazing artists. Everyday you will find a new Halloween project on all of the blogs listed below. Each project must have stamping on it, be it digi or ink. There are prizes to win, be sure to check out all the rules HERE and information on the daily scavenger hunt is posted there! You must go HERE to find the item/s you are looking for the scavenger hunt.

Welcome to Day 8 of the 31 Days of Halloween hop with SmearedInk.com!  Today I created an ATC using this great background set that looks like a shelf full of bottles and concoctions! I stamped the image with archival ink and then smeared brown distress ink over the entire image. I hand painted the bottles with crystal lacquer to add some shine. I added an embossed frame with a decorative corner over the top. I lined the edges with a PITT brush pen. I added a small corked bottle of crystals tied with some twine. I love this little ATC! I hope you enjoyed my project! Be sure to check back tomorrow! 

Smeared Ink Wicked Bloggers 2014

Terra | Black Dragon | Lyneen | Maureen | Rebecca

Julia | Lisa | Teresa | Keren | Renee | Alison

De-stempelwinkel Designers Blog | Jane

The Nanny (Sue) | Sarah | *leslierahye* | Jessica

Kelli | Karen | Airless Chambers | Sara | Kapree

Shoni | Altered Pages | Shell | Art Jypsy | Alex

Dreamweavers Stencils DT | Kim | Nanette

Erin | Susan | Creepy Glowbugg | DominoART

Steph | Sandy | Sarah | Stefanie | Barbara

Twitter at @leslierahye | Facebook at leslierahye.| YouTube at leslierahye | Pinterest at leslierahye

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31 Days of Halloween | Day 7

During the month of October I am participating in a month-long blog hop with some amazing artists. Everyday you will find a new Halloween project on all of the blogs listed below. Each project must have stamping on it, be it digi or ink. There are prizes to win, be sure to check out all the rules HERE and information on the daily scavenger hunt is posted there! You must go HERE to find the item/s you are looking for the scavenger hunt.

Thank you VERY MUCH for your patience today! My son's hand is badly bruised but not broken and will heal slowly. I appreciate all of your well wishes...and now without further waiting...

Welcome to Day 7 of the 31 Days of Halloween hop with SmearedInk.com!  Today I created this card with this sweet stamp of two children looking in the jack-o-lantern. I stamped with Ranger Archival Ink and hand colored with Spectrum Noir. I then created sparkle in the tutu skirt with some prisma glitter. The image was layered on some Echo Park and some Authentique papers! Love them! And a bit of twine and pearl bling finished off the card! I hope you enjoyed my project! Be sure to check back tomorrow--I'll be on time, promise! 

Smeared Ink Wicked Bloggers 2014

Terra | Black Dragon | Lyneen | Maureen | Rebecca

Julia | Lisa | Teresa | Keren | Renee | Alison

De-stempelwinkel Designers Blog | Jane

The Nanny (Sue) | Sarah | *leslierahye* | Jessica

Kelli | Karen | Airless Chambers | Sara | Kapree

Shoni | Altered Pages | Shell | Art Jypsy | Alex

Dreamweavers Stencils DT | Kim | Nanette

Erin | Susan | Creepy Glowbugg | DominoART

Steph | Sandy | Sarah | Stefanie | Barbara

Twitter at @leslierahye | Facebook at leslierahye.| YouTube at leslierahye | Pinterest at leslierahye

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31 Days of Halloween | Day 6

During the month of October I am participating in a month-long blog hop with some amazing artists. Everyday you will find a new Halloween project on all of the blogs listed below. Each project must have stamping on it, be it digi or ink. There are prizes to win, be sure to check out all the rules HERE and information on the daily scavenger hunt is posted there! You must go HERE to find the item/s you are looking for the scavenger hunt.
If you are looking for my Globecraft & Piccolo post it is here.

Welcome to Day 6 of the 31 Days of Halloween hop with SmearedInk.com! I love this cute little image and decorative paper. I stamped this Viva Las VegaStamps dancing skeleton's image with Archival Ink and distressed the edge of the paper and rubbed yummy distress ink over the top. I added a bit of raffia to the base mat and layered on the papers and cardstock to finish the card. 

Smeared Ink Wicked Bloggers 2014

Terra | Black Dragon | Lyneen | Maureen | Rebecca

Julia | Lisa | Teresa | Keren | Renee | Alison

De-stempelwinkel Designers Blog | Jane

The Nanny (Sue) | Sarah | *leslierahye* | Jessica

Kelli | Karen | Airless Chambers | Sara | Kapree

Shoni | Altered Pages | Shell | Art Jypsy | Alex

Dreamweavers Stencils DT | Kim | Nanette

Erin | Susan | Creepy Glowbugg | DominoART

Steph | Sandy | Sarah | Stefanie | Barbara

Twitter at @leslierahye | Facebook at leslierahye.| YouTube at leslierahye | Pinterest at leslierahye

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31 Days of Halloween | Day 5

During the month of October I am participating in a month-long blog hop with some amazing artists. Everyday you will find a new Halloween project on all of the blogs listed below. Each project must have stamping on it, be it digi or ink. There are prizes to win, be sure to check out all the rules HERE and information on the daily scavenger hunt is posted there! You must go HERE to find the item/s you are looking for the scavenger hunt.

Welcome to Day 5 of the 31 Days of Halloween hop with SmearedInk.com! On Sundays I like to do a mixed media piece with leftovers from previous projects....I keep a box lid with discarded pieces and bits just for this. 

I love the size of a fatbook page for this project--it's traditionally 4×4" square. Like ATCs these little pieces of art are to be traded! I adhere the bits and pieces to the square with gel medium/

I then apply a layer of Gesso to the entire surface and a light coating of orange acrylic. 

Next I drybrush on some brown paint. This is when things really start to speak to me. The highlighted textures are my favorite part of this technique.

Now that my base is complete, I stamp the skeleton image with embossing powder adhesive and heat emboss with Black Detail EP. Next I stencil the word SKELETON on the page with Dylusions mist and finally heat emboss a border around the page and highlight the chunkier pieces on the page with vintage black EP.

I hope you enjoyed my fatbook page project! Please join me again tomorrow!

Smeared Ink Wicked Bloggers 2014

Terra | Black Dragon | Lyneen | Maureen | Rebecca

Julia | Lisa | Teresa | Keren | Renee | Alison

De-stempelwinkel Designers Blog | Jane

The Nanny (Sue) | Sarah | *leslierahye* | Jessica

Kelli | Karen | Airless Chambers | Sara | Kapree

Shoni | Altered Pages | Shell | Art Jypsy | Alex

Dreamweavers Stencils DT | Kim | Nanette

Erin | Susan | Creepy Glowbugg | DominoART

Steph | Sandy | Sarah | Stefanie | Barbara

Twitter at @leslierahye | Facebook at leslierahye.| YouTube at leslierahye | Pinterest at leslierahye| D

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