Challenge #54 Cute, With a Dark Twist

Wow, what can I say apart from we are absolutely overwhelmed at the support you have given us with 543 entries to our relaunch challenge; and as I was hosting I have opened up every last one of them! I wasn’t, unfortunately, able to comment on every entry I opened because I would frankly still be here at Christmas, but I have studied and come up with some Winners and Top 5s. Yes I did say Winners plural. There was only the one prize on offer but because we have had such an amazing response and because you guys just made it impossible to choose just one I have come up with a couple of stamp sheets from Kanban to give away as an extra prize. I am also having a Top 10 instead of just a Top 5! Just because I can ….. Sadly a few entries had to be discounted for either the prizes or from the two Top 5s because they didn’t follow the rules. Please check the rules carefully before entering.
Original prize

Extra Prize - Claimed

So for my winners:-

120 Tine - Extra Prize

290 Esther - Original Prize

And my Top 5 x 2 are

23 Nataliya

49 Tamra M

103 Natalie Z

135 Micki

142 Shelby

203 Pat Frank

262 Lisa Sparkle

481 Iulia

540 Craftdee Donna

543 Wendy Bickford

Please feel free to display your winners or Top 5 badges. 

Now onto the new challenge for the next two weeks. Quelle Suprise! as it’s nearly Halloween– Cute, with a Dark Twist! Hosted by Sarah. As you can see below the team didn’t all go for halloween, but you can clearly see that they teamed cute with a dark element and we would love to see the same from you.
We're sponsored by the lovely who is offering a £10 voucher for her online shop which is crammed full of goodies with new stock arriving all the time! Thanks once again Joanna!

If you are in need of inspiration here is what the team came up with 

Sarah

When it came to be my turn to choose the challenge, I knew straightaway what I was wanting to pick! Any visitors to my blog will know I love playing about with darker stuff and I have a phobia of Tilda, but I have been working on that! So what better to use for my challenge than a Tilda, usually a cute range of stamps (if you find faceless children cute) but give more features... So here she is. I think she certainly has a little more character now! Bwahahahahaha! I hope you enjoy playing along! 

Lin

I have used a digi called Priscilla, from Crafts and Me, which I coloured with Flexmarkers. The background paper is from my digital stash, the bats and bat corner are cut on my Robo. The other bits are black peel offs. 

Kimx

For this challenge I have made an Easel card. This is definitely a favourite of mine if the card needs to be a little bit special. I have used stamps from Penny Black Spooky and Trick or Treat T for Transparent sets. The background has been created using Weathered Wood and Stormy Sky distress inks, some glimmer mist, and the trees and birds are by Clarity. Time to celebrate is from Lili of the Valley. 

Fiona

For my card I have used a Tickled Pink digi stamp called Lil Lolita Lylah (coloured with PMs as usual) The papers that I have used are from Pink Paislee, My Minds Eye and Prima. I have used my Deckled rectangle spellbinders die to cut the mat for the image and the border.Flowers ,sentiment,lace and gems all from my stash. 

Doreen

For my card I used the cute stamp from Belles 'n Whistles called "little witch with a broom", which I colored with Distress Ink. The Background paper is from Stampin Up as well as from Creative Memories. I distressed and inked it as usual. The fabric is from my christmas decoration.I used the metal die "picket fence" from Whiff of Joy and the flowers are from Prima. 

Jackie

I'm not usually keen on halloween, but I have a friend whose birthday is on 31st October, so I usually send her a "witchy" card each year. This year's card was made on black base cardstock and is using a background from Serif craft artist (it was one of their kits) which I overlaid with a paper lace strip. The small girl dressing up was a clear stamp (origin not known, but it may have been a freebie with a magazine) and I coloured her with Spectrum Noir pens. I'm not totally happy with the outcome - I think after all that I do prefer my promarkers!! The Happy Birthday sentiment was stamped with versamark and embossed with silver, and the three small black gems came from my stash. 

Jack

What could be cuter than Little Miss Muffet. For my Dark Twist I rewrote the Nursery Rhyme and had her put the spider in a box. Such a cute spider too, all made out of crystal and silver beads. 

Josephine

I found this challenge quite hard, and finally decided to look at it from a different direction. So, I hunted through my image stash looking for something with a dark twist, and realised that most traditional children's tales have a dark element. I came across this image which is one of Dover Books Freebies, which represents a scene from The Pied Piper of Hamelin, so there's definitely a dark twist to a picture of innocent fun. 

Carole

This one was a real challenge for me too, as I don't really do cute - and to then add a dark twist!! Well, I was in a quandry!! But, I came across this "Too Cute to Spook" digi stamp from Pink Gem Designs, and felt that the Halloween theme of this cute pumpkin would give me my dark twist. I have used watercolours on the image - another challenge, as I rarely colour things in! 

Beth

For my first ever challenge for the design team I chose to make a large 8" x 8" card. The main characters are digital stamps from Polka Doodles "Sundae of Seasons" CD which I edited in my graphics program so I could print them out on top of the backing paper which I found as a freebie on the web somewhere. I coloured the characters with promarkers and added some glitter to the spider's web, cat, sentiment and bat's wings for a little bit of bling. 

Sally

For my first DT challenge card I used a Meljens freebie Cute Corner Spider & gave him two gems for eyes, Doodlebug papers & Papermania Sunshine Collection card. I printed the sentiment on my pc, added a couple of hand drawn spiders & a pumpkin sticker. A strip of orange ribbon & three orange gems to finish. 

Feebsy

For this card I used two digi stamps from Make It Crafy, Mini Gothilia and Spooky Graveyard. I coloured the images with a combination of Promakers and Coloursoft pencils, the sky was created using chalks. I stamped out the sentiment using a combination of Hero Arts and The Greeting Farm stamps, then added some sparkle to the dress and sentiment using Rock Candy Distress Stickles. 

Susie

My card is pure Pink Petticoat with a little American Crafts Thickers thrown in.The designer papers are from the Spooky Doodlies Collection with does girlie so well! The back ground is printed onto good quality card strong enough to use as a card base.Then I just layered and stitched! 

Eiglas

Here's my own Eiglas 'Count Catula' who I think may come into the 'cute' category, but has a slightly dark aspect as he's a vampire kitty! All elements (apart from Catula) digitally created by various artists. 

Jenni

I used a Stitchybear Stamps image called Edward and Bella (from Twilight) which I thought was quite cute and used it to make a Halloween card - as I've said before I don't generally do much for Halloween but as I have a couple of craft fairs before the 31st I thought it might be useful to have a couple of cards to display. I have used Promarkers to colour the image, distressed all the edges of the patterned papers and doodled a little cobweb which is perhaps a little small for the spider crawling out from behind the sentiment (it's half hidden because one of my cats had chewed off one of it's legs!)
Melly

  

I always find this theme a wee but hard but once I started looking for things to create, was easy!

I made this wee card using Mini Headless Horseman from Make it Crafty coloured with my promarkers! The papers are a real oldie from my stash, K& Company I think! I added a wee Halloween tag from Sarah Hurleys digi range, some ribbon, pin and beads and some candi to finish
 Jennifer

I coloured in a digi stamp with Prismacolor Colored Pencils and laid it upon cardstock from Bazzill.  I decided to use an acrylic stamp on the side for the sentiment and used emboss ink for the base and on top brushed perfect pearls.  I also used stickers from my stash.  I used these stickers because the design resembled the creases or veins/muscles in the wings of the digi stamp.


 

So there you go folks, please add your link below, and don’t forget to PLEASE CHECK THE RULES before entering.