Meet Kelli!

Kelli is one of our new Bombshell girls, who has a distinctive, edgy, and fun style.

You're going to want to know more about her, so read her interview!

1. Brief info about yourself, including your name, where you live, your family (if you want), etc.
I am Kelli, a 38 year old stay-at-home mom of two. I live (currently) in Newport News VA but a move is in the very near future as hubby is retiring from the Navy-.My third child is my little bassett hound, Rainey

2. How long have you been stamping and/or crafting?
I have been crafting since I can remember. My mom always made everything, even the flower bouquets for my sister's wedding out of paper ribbon!!! So she is who gave me my passion. I picked up my first stamp when I was 23 and quickly put it down because I didn't enjoy it at all. Then picked it back up again in 2002/2003 and have been going strong since then!!!

3. What are your favorite Bombshell sets and why?
My favorite sets are Man's Ruin and Butterfly Queen. They were my first, so I guess you could say they popped my different/edgy-stamping cherry!!! LOL! I love Man's Ruin because honestly how many of us wish we had that big of a cocktail glass handy?!?!?!?!? and I love Butterfly Queen because of the wings.

4. What kind of projects do you like to do?
I love to do everything really -- cards, mixed media, altering, jewelry, I'll try anything once. I don't scrap as much as I used to and honestly almost 99% of my scrapping these days is digital!!!

5. What are your favorite coloring mediums?
I am a copic ho too. Although I do cheat on them every so often with my prismacolor pencils or watercolors, I always go back to them!!!

6. Describe your crafting "style"..
Crafting "style" hmmmm. I would have to say I am a edgy, alternative, gothic crafter. I am totally in love with things that are not for the "normal" person. I like to tell people that if they don't like it, then give it to me cause I will love it!!!

7. Describe your crafting process. Do you start with a stamp set? A sketch? A technique you want to use?
Quite honestly my projects either come from music or dreams. Now what that means is that the type of project you get from me on any given day will depend on the type of music that is playing when I am working on that project! What I mean by dreams is just that, I have literally woken up in the middle of the night and rushed to the craft room to make something. If we are in the car going somewhere, I will totally draw something out in the air that I just day dreamed up and then totally put it on the back of a receipt or something!!!

8. Do you have any other hobbies?
Isn't stamping enough??? LOL Seriously, I love to read, make big huge decorations for my house, and renovate old houses!

9. Free for all including little facts, etc. about you.
Little tidbits about me.... I love hot tea, snowmen, and dark chocolate. Those are my vices, if you want to call them that, I call it living in Kellitopia!!! I love to grow things and cook. I like to eat too, but cooking is the best!


Here are three of Kelli's favorite Bombshell creations!






Now that you've seen some of her work, I know you'll want to visit Kelli's blog and her Bombshell Gallery!

Faux Metal Tutorial

Hey Y'all!!! It is Alaine, aka Ms. January, here again with a little tutorial I have put together on making paper look like aged metal.

Steampunk is all the rage right now. A few days ago I had to make a card for my Sister In Law who loves everything Steampunk, and I didn't have a background base that I really liked. I had purchased the new Cuttlebug Gears Embossing Folder which is really cool, but it still looked so plain after I had embossed it. So I started experimenting.

What do you need -
Medium tone textured brown paper (or hey - - maybe grey would work too)
Embossing Folder
Glimmer Mist, Spritzers or something else similar
Copper or Silver or Gold Pigment Ink Pad
Rag - I  used a dried baby wipe I had laying around (and I mean one used on stamps for cleaning and left out to dry - - not used on any actual babies)
Clear EP

The first step is to randomly spritz the brown paper with the glimmer mist or shiny stuff. Not only does this add a background of sparkle, it also makes the dry embossing of the paper take better. On the sample below I used Glimmer Mist Rose and Key Lime on the left using the gears embossing folder and plum and silver on the left with the metal plating embossing folder. You want these to be uneven applications to give it interest.

Once you have spritzed run it through the embossing folder then dry it (the paper will still be moist from the spritzing). After that is done - - take the rag and dab it onto the metallic colored ink pad and then swipe it over the paper. I rubbed in different directions, and some places heavier. This is shown below:

On both samples, I used three different colors of ink to show you how they will come out different on the two different samples. The top in both cases is Brilliance Cosmic Copper, followed by Versacolor Gold in the center, and then VersaColor Silver at the bottom. Notice how on the paper spritzed with purple, the top has a more rosy tone to it? By wiping the ink on with a rag, it leaves the darker areas below. And some of those will be different colors because of the spritzing with the Glimmer Mist.

Once this is done, then you sprinkle the clear embossing powder all over the paper and heat emboss. If it isn't shiny enough for you, sprinkle, and heat emboss again. This ends up looking like this:

 

To me it is amazing that you can make the plain brown paper look like the different types of metals. Mix it up, Match it up... smudge silver with copper with gold ink and make a mess. It comes out really shiny and cool. I used a piece of the paper I metalized  using the cosmic copper ink with the Man's Ruin skull holding a rose on this bookmark I made.

 I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. Have a great day, and come back and visit us again really soon.

~~ Ms. January 2011 ~~  Alaine

January Challenge - Snow Bunnies!

Hello All! I hope you are having a great New Years celebration, and it continues for the rest of the year!

My name is Alaine, and I am really PSYCHED to serve as Ms. January! WOO HOO. That means I get to prepare the monthly challenge.

Since January is cold and icy, I thought it would be fun to do a theme of Snow Bunnies. Add to that, I just learned yesterday that this is the YEAR OF THE RABBIT! It is obviously meant to be!

Not sure what y'all think of when you think of bunnies. Some may think of cute, fluffy, and white little rabbits like the Easter Bunny and want to make the card fluffy. Others may want to go all out with the ski bunny idea (my dear hubby says he thinks of blonde hussies (my word) on skis in really, really, really tight outfits ). Possibly you turn all DARK and CRAZY and use the bunny from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog) as your inspiration - you know - the one with the big pointy teeth. Or just maybe all of your Bombshells multiply like bunnies!

My first take on the challenge is to do a card with a Playboy Bunny on it. Ever since I first saw the Bombshell Angel stamp, I have imagined her as a Playboy Bunny. Now I get my chance to dress her up like one.

I have chosen to do her in shades of icy blue and snow white, with silver highlights. I masked the Bombshell Angel's flower, and then added the detail to her hair. After coloring her with Copics, I drew in the bunny ears.

I realized after I was done that I did not put on her little wrist cuffs and neck collar and bow, but that just means I get to do another one sometime in the future to correct my mistake.

Please check out the challenge over on the Bombshell Stamps Forum! If you participate you have a chance to win a fabulous prize!

I hope everyone joins in and participates in this challenge! I can't wait to see what you all are thinking up.

For inspiration - Look at what lovely things have been created so far!

Kelli

 Ms. January - Alaine

Meet Cheryl!

Cheryl is another of our latest full-time Bombshell Girls. Cheryl's cards always feature top-notch Copic coloring skills and great multi-layered designs.

Let's get to know more about her via an interview!

1. Brief info about yourself, including your name, where you live, your family (if you want), etc.
Hola, I'm Cheryl Valadez and I live in sunny Albuquerque, New Mexico, smack dab in the middle of The Land of Enchantment with my husband, who resembles a thinner John Goodman (seriously, he gets that ALL the time) and three furry faced feline babies.

2. How long have you been stamping and/or crafting?
I've been stamping roughly 13 years, but it wasn't until the past two years that I decided to get adventurous. I set goals for myself to start a card blog, teach card classes, sell cards, and join a DT or two.

3. What are your favorite Bombshell sets and why?
'Til Death is my absolute favorite! It is just so freakin' awesome I can hardly even find the words to explain "why", but I will try. For me, there are so many subtle messages embedded in the image and the banner saying. I love the image of the skull kissing the lovely Bombshell. It gives a wink and a nudge to the delicate balance of "life and death" and how one really cannot exist without the other. On the other hand, it playfully conveys the humorous opinion that some folks feel marriage is a "death sentence" of sorts. The way it is illustrated is not fussy or whimsical, but rather bold and very straight forward, which is contradictory to how most people feel about death. They like the reality of death to be diluted and secretive to make it more palatable, because it is a subject with which most folks are not comfortable. AND finally, the cherry on the sundae is the banner that reads "Til Death do us Part" and that message perfectly captures the irony and symbolism of the image. The whole set is pure genius!

4. What kind of projects do you like to do?
I'm a cardmaker at heart. Cards provide just enough space to allow me to have fun with ideas and techniques, yet the canvas is not so large that I am overwhelmed by thinking about how I am going to fill up that space.

5. What are your favorite coloring mediums?
Copic Markers changed my cardmaking life. Coloring an image used to intimidate me, so I avoided using a lot of detailed images in my cards for many years. Now, if I create a card that I don't use my Copics on, it makes me just a little bit sad. I tell you, they are like crack...LOL!

6. Describe your crafting "style".
It varies a bit from card to card, but for the most part, I like LOTS of paper. The more layers, the better. Oh, and a pretty good number of embellishments, too. If it costs less than two bucks to mail, then I have gotten chintzy.

7. Describe your crafting process. Do you start with a stamp set? A sketch? A technique you want to use?
Yes, all of the above. The starting point is always different. It might be a new stamp, or some paper I forgot I had, or maybe I have seen a new technique online. Sometimes I have a distinct image in mind on what I want to make and other times I haven't a clue. If I'm stumped, I like to just pick an image and start coloring. Whatever happens after that is up to the crafting gods.

8. Do you have any other hobbies?
My husband and I are big time foodies. We love trying new restaurants, experimenting in the kitchen, cooking for friends and family, etc. We also love movies and I like following the work of not only certain actors, but directors. Quentin Tarantino is the movie maverick of my generation.

9. Free for all including little facts, etc. about you.
Believe it or not, I have the sensibilities of a teenage boy. I have a potty mouth and love to interject funny and crude comments into conversation, always looking for that cheap laugh. I don't care for rom coms or chick flicks, they are my least favorite movies. Instead, give me a mind bender, bloody shoot 'em film, Asian kung fu flick, or black and white classic and I am a happy camper. I drive a pick up truck and can't imagine tooling around town in a 4-door sedan. BUT, on the other hand, I have a few guilty pleasures...I love a good cry and anything can set me off, the movie Elf sends me into sobs, because it makes me so happy. I secretly watch chick flicks when I'm by myself and have seen My Fair Lady a dozen times. Along side the alternative grunge rock my husband loads on my iPod, I have more than a few Barry Manilow songs to keep them company. Ssshhhhh...don't share that last one ;D

Here are three of Cheryl's favorite Bombshell cards.







***

Now that you've read Cheryl's interview and ogled her cards, do yourself a favor and go visit both Cheryl's blog and her Bombshell gallery. I guarantee you'll be happy you did.

Icy Day- Great Day to Stamp!

I'm off from school today because of ice...so, thought I'd spend my day catching up on some stamping. Here's a card I made for my 14-year old great-nephew's birthday. He's too old for "kiddie" cards, so I thought I'd make him a hot rod-themed card. Bombshell Stamps has some fabulous hot rod (AND motorcycle!) images.

This image is from a set called Speed Shop. I wanted to use the newsprint patterened paper and decided to go with an "ebony and ivory" color combination, so I decided not to color the image. I'm happy with how it turned out, now I hope my nephew likes it!!

Have a great day and stamp happy! :D

Playing Catch Up!! December sketch

I KNOW it's a little late but I had a terrible time over Christmas with the dead computer (gulp!) and so  I wasn't able to download this from my camera until now!

This was Kathi's cool sketch!:

Supplies:

Girl's Ruin Bombshell Stamps

Copic Pens

Glossy Accents and Glitter for the shoe

Papers: Graphic 45 (Steam Punk Debutante) October Afternoon

Embellishments: Florist holly leaves and berries, Idea-o-logy Trimmings, idea-o-lody Tissue Tape

Tools: Nestabilities Lables 14, Quickutz 12" scallop die

Love GlitteryKatie xxx

Meet Alison!

Alison is one of our newer full-time Bombshell Girls. A true Bombshell, she does wonderful stuff with the stamps!

I was going to feature her first since alphabetically, she's the first of our three latest full-time Bombshell Girls. But I just realized today's her birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Alison!

Here's her interview:
1. Brief info about yourself, including your name, where you live, your family (if you want), etc.
My name is Alison and I live on Long Island, NY. I have lived in the same town all my life. The only time I moved, I went from the house I grew up in to the house next door when I got married! My husband, Gene, is my soul mate and together we have two of the cutest kids in the universe! Phoenix, my son, is four and my daughter Rhiannon is two. We also have two mysterious black cats and a beautiful dog.

2. How long have you been stamping and/or crafting?
Since I came out of the womb! My mother is insanely talented and crafty. Thankfully, she passed that gene on to me! I honestly don't remember a time that I wasn't crafting!

3. What are your favorite Bombshell sets and why?
My absolute favorite is Pirate's Life. I love pirates! She's just a cool and tough Bombshell. My second favorite is Bombshell Angel, because it is so versatile.

4. What kind of projects do you like to do?
There aren't many projects that I don't like to do! I have an art degree and I like to put it to work! Of course I love card making, but scrapbooking and silversmithing are deeply rooted in my soul as well.

5. What are your favorite coloring mediums?
I just love to add color! My favorite medium would be my colored pencils. But I also love to work with markers (especially watercolor markers), Twinkling H2O's, Distress Inks, Glimmer Mist, and acrylic paint. I'll try anything when it comes to color!

6. Describe your crafting "style".
I always have a hard time with this question... My stamping style is eclectic, inky, distressed, and a little unexpected. I put ink on everything. I love to age things and tear up papers. Plus I love to work with unusual color palettes and weird pattern combinations.

Of course, I love anything creepy and spooky! Halloween is my favorite day of the year and I can never really “put away” that part of me! Yeah, you’ll see me doing cute things here and there, but my roots are definitely in the realm of the freaky! I really enjoy going for looks that you may not have originally thought would work together. I like to keep ‘em guessing!

7. Describe your crafting process. Do you start with a stamp set? A sketch? A technique you want to use?
It really depends on what project I am working on. If I'm working with silver, I rarely sketch. But for cards I run the gamut with the processes I use! When I am working with Bombshells or other images I need to color, I always color the image first, then pick out all the other stuff later. Because I like to use all sorts of colors and pattern combinations, I never have a problem finding the othher elements I need to finish the project. I find that if I plan too much, I lose focus. I work better under pressure and organically. I need to let things just fall into place.

8. Do you have any other hobbies?
Aside from all of the different types of crafts I do? ;} I love to read, play video games, and play with my kids. Is playing with your kids a hobby???

9. Free for all including little facts, etc. about you.
• I am a vampire fanatic. I love all things vamp.
• My current favorite genre of books is paranormal romance. Think vampires and werewolves...not Fabio. May I recommendd the Black Dagger Brother hood by JR Ward, please?
• I am a firm believer in life after death. Ghosts are our friends!
• Some of my favorite TV shows are The Cosby Show, Friends, Storm Chasers, NCIS, NCIS LA, The Vampire Diaries.
• Favorite movies: The Crow, The Lion, Chronicles of Narnia: The Witch and The Wardrobe, and Legend.
• I have 2 tattoos. One is a dragon's silhouette, and the other is my Dad's signature. I hope to get several more soon. The next will be one for my kids.

***

Feast your eyes on three of Alison's favorite Bombshell projects.







Now that those have inspired you, go check out Alison's blog and her Bombshell Gallery for more eye candy!

Bombshell Love Tokens

I had fun playing with my Melt Pot and my new Sacred Heart Art stamps the other day!

I decided to make some cute love tokens

First of all I added some UTEE (Extra thick embossing enamel) and melted it down.

Now UTEE is clear so I added some colour to it using special dyes.

I took a cookie cutter and stood it on a piece of foil and rub some clear embossing ink around the inside of the cookie cutter to help the UTEE come free

Now carefully pour in some UTEE into the mould

now this but takes a bit of practise-you need to pop the stamp (first coat it in clear embossing ink so it won't stick) onto the UTEE BUT you don't want to do it too early or the UTEE is too liquid and the stamp sinks in too far! You need to wait a few seconds before placing the stamp on the UTEE.

The great think about UTEE is if you get it wrong you stick it back in the Melting Pot and re-use it!

Like this!

Pop the stamp into the UTEE

I added some gold ink to the stamp on this one

Leave the foil in place and cut it close to the edge, if it comes loose use a little clear glue to keep it in place as it gives a nice metallic sheen to your token.

And there you have some cute tokens that you can give as gifts or use as decorations. 

Remember you can change the colour of the UTEE, add microbeads or glitter and use different shapes of cookie cutters!

Happy crafting!
GlitteryKatie XxxxX

Butterfly Queen Bracelet

I have a fun project to share with you today that I hope will inspire you to make things other then cards with your fabulous Bombshell Stamps. You may recall that the Bombshell Design Team had a challenge in December to make a project for you to vote for. I had made a bracelet. If you'd like to see my original blog post, please click HERE. I had gotten a great response from the bracelet, and I loved making it, so I wanted to make another. This one was a gift for my friend, Alex.

I started off with a plain wooden bracelet. I stamped my Butterfly Queen images on paper (not cardstock) with Staz-On ink. I Mod Podged the heck out of the bracelet and applied the torn out images. More Mod Podge. Lots more. After it was dry, and I liked the amount of coverage, I moved on to the really fun part!

I broke out my Distress Inks and started to play. First I swiped Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo on the whole bracelet (using a cosmetic sponge) to make it look old. Then I used my Cut-N-Dry Nibs to color in my images. I used Broken China, Tattered Rose and Mustard Seed. I applied it in layers, to build up the saturation of color.

After that, I added some rhinestones that were matte finish, so that they wouldn't stand out too much. They were applied with Scattered Straw Stickles.

Here is the bracelet in my hand so that you can see the size. It's about 2" wide. I think it came out really cool! I plan on making a lot more of these! Have an inspiring day!!!

Meet Ms. January -- Alaine Medio!!!

After a week's hiatus, let's get back on schedule with our interviews!!!

Meet our January Pin-up, Alaine Medio!!! Here's her interview!

1. Please furnish a brief info about yourself, including your name, where you live, your family (if you want), etc.
Hi all, my name is Alaine. I live in Knoxville TN, in the heart of all things Orange. That is kind of difficult for the Deep Maroon in me. I graduated from Texas A&M University in 1990 with a degree in Bioengineering. I work for a medical device company preparing documents and providing all the information to the government (ours and others) to get clearance to sell and ship these devices. I have two daughters - - one who just started college and is doing amazing, and one who is a 6th grade clogging dynamo. My husband encourages my creativity daily... mainly because it keeps me from pestering him to stop playing World of Warcraft every night. :lol:

2. How long have you been stamping and/or crafting?
I have been crafting all my life. I have ALWAYS loved to color. I remember getting the long tubes with the coloring posters and coloring them with markers as a child. They gave you about eight markers and we had to go buy more because that wasn’t enough. When I had children (OMG – it has been 19 years ago), I bought coloring books and crayons for them, then spent more time coloring than they did. LOL. I began scrapbooking about 12 years ago. For several years I scrapbooked. It was a creative outlet and was more than the memories saving… it was the way I could relax.

3. What are your favorite Bombshell sets and why?
Man - - this is a hard question, yet not. I love Butterfly Queen, with the flowy dress, and Retro Cowgirl with the boots and hat. Then there is the Bombshell Angel and all of her possibilities. But, WOW... the one set I tend to use the most is Sugar Skulls. I think that they are so very versatile, especially since I have a college daughter who loves all things tattooey. I have used these for a beautiful letter decoration for her room, cards, and most recently Christmas ornaments for her dorm room.

4. What kind of projects do you like to do?
I tend to make cards. And then not mail them. They are in a huge basket in my "office". I give them away to friends and family occasionally for them to send out. I like to make Christmas ornaments and other "artsy - non-card things", but I tend to do the cards the most.

5. What are your favorite coloring mediums?
A couple of years ago, I took a Copic class and I was hooked. I bought a “starter set” and went home. Like many, I discovered a new obsession and I had ordered about 20 new Copics online before the first night was out. About 3 months later I found out that they had a Copic Certification class about 2 hours away from me that was open to crafts people. YAY! I took that class and then went home and practiced, practiced, practiced. I have progressed to 222 markers (uh… not counting those I have accidentally purchased twice – my cousin loves me – or my refills I have bought). So I guess that would be considered my favorite coloring medium.

6. Describe your crafting "style".
Hmmmmm. My crafting style. Do I actually have a crafting style?? Psychotic? Frazzled? I think that the closest I can say is that I must have balance and symmetry. I like more clean straight lines, and distressing is somewhat distressing to me. This question confused me. So I took a quiz... LOL... Apparently I am simple and classic, with hip and modern backed up by sophisticated and elegant.

7. Describe your crafting process. Do you start with a stamp set? A sketch? A technique you want to use?
I start with wanting to color a particular image. Occasionally a sketch challenge or theme kind of thing happens, but even then I start with an image. I then think what colors I want to use. Because of my Copic addiction, I now think in terms of B21 or YG63 as opposed to blue or green. Even when I am using a different medium like Stickles to color with. SIGH.

8. Do you have any other hobbies?
I cross stitch occasionally -- and by occasionally I mean every two to three years. But when I do it, I do it. Television is a major hobby. MAJOR. LOL... Other than that, I read a lot of romance novels. Not the stuffy "thoughtful, meaningful books"... just my lovely smut books that always have a hunky hero and a happily ever after no matter how nitwitted the heroine is!

9. Free for all including little facts, etc. about you.
• I freaked out my 11th grade English teacher by writing a paper on the Salem Witchcraft Trials and blaming it on LSD. (the trials and witchcraft craze - - not my writing :lol: )
• I have to have the tv on while I am crafting, and while I am cooking, and while I am reading, and while I am going to sleep, and basically all the time.
• I have killed Cacti and Jade Plants - both of which I have been told are unkillable plants!
• I LOVE romance Novels and LOATHE chick flicks!!! Yet, I cry every time I watch Armageddon. Like a baby!!!!
• IMO the best movie EVER is The Empire Strikes Back. It has EVERYTHING! Romance, Action, Humor, Hotness, drama, everything!!!

Here are three of Alaine's favorite Bombshell pieces!




For more inspiration, be sure to visit Alaine's blog and her gallery over at Bombshell Stamps!

January Sketch!!!

Happy New Year!!! Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, prosperous year filled with love, laughter, and loads of craftin' mojo!

Here's a New Year's card based upon my January sketch for Bombshell Stamps. Since I wanted it to be especially festive, I used a lot of glittery accents, which makes it qualify for the Glitter is Glam challenge at Moxie Fab World.

Here's the sketch (Feel free to use it and share over at the Bombshell Forum.)


Here's my card:


Since I wanted to use the Party Pin-up image from the Man's Ruin set by Bombshell Stamps, I had to turn the sketch 90°.

I stamped the image twice and used Copic markers to color both images. I used a VersaMark pen over the parts of the pin-up that were in the glass and the glass itself, added clear embossing powder, and heat set the image to give it dimension and shine. The beauty of this was that I was able to just sponge ink over the whole thing to create a background, then I just wiped of the excess ink and voila! The second colored image was cut and adhered to look like she was outside the glass.

I bet the above made no sense. Oh well. I know what I did. Hee.

I used Stickles on the rim of the glass which also served to cover up the seam. Glittery Alpha stickers by Making Memories added some bling to the year. The brown ribbon and tinsel are also glittery. I hope you can see that.

The patterned paper is by Fancy Pants from my stash!

Thanks for visiting and Happy New Year!!!