I {heart} Poetry

I really enjoyed making my Poe-inspired book box & keychain for Lost Coast Designs' Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Day Blog Hop & Challenge, but I wanted to try something a bit more out of my comfort zone. Here's my Poe-try wall hanging:

click to enlarge

I started by inking a piece of watercolor paper with purple inks. The I stamped a feather & inkpen (both rubber stamps) onto tissue paper, tore out the middle to create a frame, and glued it onto the textured paper with Mod Podge. I added more ink, some glitter spray, a sprinkling of bronze enamel, red embossing powder, & mica chips to finish the background. I made the eyelashes for the googly eye form black paper. The anatomical heart stencil was cut with my Silhouette, inked onto the background shape with red ink, and heat-embossed in red powder. The Poe Bust by Ikesart was printed on shiny cream paper and backed with white cardstock. The tree stamp was stamped onto Shrinky Dink plastic with green distress ink, shrunk in my toaster oven, and inked with a lighter green. I also made Shrinky Dinks with the inkpen & feather stamps. I handmade the tiny book, using a scoring to create "pages" on the top portion. TO hang the piece, I tied on some string with help from a small branch.

Inspiration:
Lost Coast Designs: EAP Appreciation Day (2nd entry)
Quoth The Raven #52: Anything Poes

Thank you for visiting & may your days be filled with poetry,

Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Day Blog Hop 

Main link-up is at Lost Coast Designs. Wow, can you believe all these gorgeous Poe projects?!

An InLinkz Link-up

Charmingly Poe

Lost Coast Designs is hosting an Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Day Blog Hop and is challenging us to link up Poe-inspired projects that include rubber stamping by January 23. Although I've made many Poe-inspired items, somehow I never included rubber stamping! I have lots of great rubber stamps...but not the one I wanted, you know? And then the mail arrived...and I received a fabulous RAK from Elisa at Cards und More that contained rubber stamps of feathers, how perfect is that! Thank you Elisa! From there, I knew what I wanted to make for the Hop. Here's a Book Gift Box containing a Poe-inspired keychain:

I recently purchased this cute Hidden Compartment Book Box by Lori Whitlock at the Silhouette Store. I've made Book Boxes before, but using SVG Attic's discontinued Nevermore set. I like this new set, but I did add cut lines on the "pages" to mimic the old file. I made this box from white paper, inked it with 3 purple inks, and added some purple patterned paper & silver stickers. I used a new feather stamp (by Stampin' Up!) to add 3 feathers to the front (the silver one in the middle doesn't show well in the photo). I stamped the feather in black on some tissue paper and tucked the keychain inside. The box keeps closed with magnets.

inspiration

The silver charm with chains was a groundscore I found while on a walk the other day. I used printable, white Shrinky Dink plastic for the handmade charms. I printed the Poe Bust by Ikesart on one side and the words "Raven Lunatic" on the other. I made a purple gradient background for both. The sentiment is inspired by a T-shirt my mom sent me the last time the Ravens won the Super Bowl. This piece was cut with a label die (from Stampin' Up! & part of Elisa's gift; the holes were made with my Crop-o-dile. I inked both sides of more plastic with purple inks, stamped feathers on one side, and cut them out with deckle scissors. They shrunk quite nicely in our toaster oven. After baking, I coated the pieces (except for the feather sides) with Glossy Accents.

Thank you for visiting & may your days be filled with poetry,

Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Day Blog Hop 

Main link-up is at Lost Coast Designs. Wow, can you believe all these gorgeous Poe projects?!

An InLinkz Link-up

Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Day

Just this year, our mayor declared January 19th Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Day. As a poet in Baltimore, I've had my share of Poe-tastic experiences and so was pleased to see it being celebrated around the world! I've been inspired by the "The Raven" many times over the years, but here are the ones that that feature Allan Poe himself:

Poe Book Box

Pop-out Poe Card

Lost Coast Designs is hosting a Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Day Blog Hop and is challenging us to link up Poe-inspired projects that include rubber stamping by January 23. Guess I'll be inking up some stamps today!

Thank you for visiting & may your days be filled with poetry,

Grateful Ravens

So the other day I asked my husband for some crafting inspiration (he's my favorite muse). He suggested "Uncute Animals" and my mind immediately came up with this slightly unusual thank-you card:

I live in Baltimore (infamously known as Edgar Allan Poe's final resting place) and studied creative writing at the University of Baltimore, so Poe is one of my favorite go-to historical pop-culture icons.

The design is based around the "Poe Bust" digi stamp by Ikesart. It's printed on a shiny paper. I colored Poe with Copics. I cut the column on my Silhouette Cameo using a clipart file I found online. The pieces are cut from the same shiny paper. I made it a pop-up (see photo on right), so the card closes flat but stands up as well.

The ravens are all from the "Poe Bust" digi stamp, but I took the file into SCAL and cut them from a shiny black paper on my Silhouette. I used a ZIG glue pen to cover the ravens with glitter black flocking.

I had the perfect yarn for the "brain" but it was light yellow, so I died it with Pure Pink Copic ink.

If you look closely, you can see that the white background is embossed with little hearts (forgive the pun!) I added loopy red trim to the sides.

I wish I could send this to my teachers/coworkers/mentors at University of Baltimore; they taught me so much, especially the need for a creative sense of humor!

Challenges/Inspiration:

Ike's World Challenge #38: History
Perfectly Rustics: Pop-up
Quoth the Raven: Raving Ravens + Poe

Update: This was chosen as a Top 3 for Ike's World History Challenge!

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting,

Purple Poe

You still have a week to join the Purple challenge at One Stitch at a Time (OSAAT). 

I had so much fun making my purple book box last week that I decided to make another, smaller version to hold a copy of "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe.

This box is roughly 2.5 x 2.125 inches, and features "Poe Bust" by Ikesart. I printed Poe on shiny ivory cardstock, and printed the raven on a regular white paper. I colored the bird with black & glitter gen pens, fussy-cut it, and placed him atop the pallid bust.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Challenge Up Your Life: Box

Craft It Up & Link It Up Linky Party by Craftin Desert Divas: 3D Projects
DoubleClick Skittles #14: Use a bird

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at One Stitch at a Time,

UnstampaBelles October Challenge - Time + Shabby Chic without Stamping

I'm very proud to announce that I'm the newest member of the UnstampaBelles Team! Their monthly challenges are unique: Aside from a theme, you cannot use any stamps! Quite a challenge for me, but I'm really looking forward to it.

The UnstampaBelles October challenge is Time + Shabby Chic. We're sponsored by the wonderful company Flourish with a Bling, and you can link up your projects until the end of the month.

I decided to make a card slightly inspired by "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe, which seemed like a fun way to incorporate both themes.

I used papers from Graphic 45, and a lovely script-printed adhesive cork. I added some black lace behind the cork strip, and distressed all the edges with a distressing tool and Antique Linen ink.

The raven die is from Tim Holtz, and I cut it with black paper & painted it with a black glimmer paint. The "Nevermore" piece & clock are painted with clear crackle paint and ink-distressed with more Antique Linen. I couldn't resist adding this cute wooden ink well, which I painted with black crackle paint.

I've been familiar with "The Raven" for most of my life, but when I moved Baltimore — the home of Poe's gravesite, the football team named for the poem, and even an apartment complex named The Lenore — it gained more significance for me. I ended up studying Creative Writing at the University of Baltimore, and one of my favorite memories is going to a poetry reading where we started by reading the poem. One of my professors looked over & saw that my husband (not a UB student) was reciting it from memory. Man, I got a lot of "cool" points for that! I also take pop-culture pride in introducing my favorite poetry professor to the version of the poem as presented on The Simpsons, and I think she still uses it in her classes.

Many thanks to the UnstampBelles for inspiring this card!

Creaine #41

Challenges:
Craft and Smash: Gothic
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper October Challenge: Patterned Paper (3rd entry)
Creaine Challenges: Sketch #41

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at UnstampaBelles,

Ravens everywhere!

So this morning I decided to make something for this week's Fresh Brewed and Midnight Madness challenges, so I ask my Baby for advice, and he said, Ravens. Perfect, I thought. I'll do something Halloweeny but kinda grown-up, as is the MM sketch. I was envisioning raven cutouts, but ended up making a broadside with the first 8 stanzas of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. Living in Baltimore, both have become synonymous with Halloween.


However, as I finished up this pretty purple poem I realized that the Ravens were playing the Patriots. Oh, I thought. Those Ravens. Perhaps the color challenge of purple and black, which I had told Baby, is related to all of this. What? I like the color combo, regardless of our home football team's famous colors.
I finished the first project just in time to watch a very exciting overtime in the Ravens game. The Patriots won 23-20, but Ray Lewis always makes me swell with as much team pride as I'll ever manage to swell with. So, I made this ridiculous 3x3 card for the clean&simple sketch #112:


The image on the left is supposed to be "offense", like "off [the grass]" + "fence". What? The only thing I know about football is that a great defense is worth nothing without a good offense. And I didn't want to leave anybody out.