Halloween Fun...

I have been having fun making things for this upcoming Halloween... nothing like a bowl of witches fingers to set the mood.

 Oh my gosh, these were so easy to make. Here is a quick tutorial on how to whip some up yourself.
Supplies:
White paint, glue, clothespins, glue on finger nails,  black ink pad, a thin line black marker and hot glue.
If your like me, you'll have everything on hand except for the glue on finger nails. The glue on finger nails I found at our local dollar store, 12 to a box. 
The first thing you'll need to do is drag a black or brown ink pad over the clothespin, this will give the finger a nice aged look when the paint crackles. You don't need to completely cover the clothespin, just age it a little bit. I didn't do that in this example-- ooops! Anywho, once that is done, go over that area with a coat of white school glue.....
 Once you've done that, immediately take another paint brush and go over the wet glue with a coat of white paint. When the glue dries it creates a cracked finish to the paint. So much faster than using a crackle medium.
 You can see in this photo the clothespin drying next to one already dried....spooky.

 You'll want to do this same procedure to every side. Once everything is painted use hot glue to adhere the finger nails to the ends of the clothespins. Draw on some cuticles and knuckle lines and you've got yourself a fabulous witches finger perfect for clipping onto a halloween card, tag... or closing up a small halloween treat bag.
I have made 20 of these so far, with another 10 to go.

 I think if I whip up another batch of witches fingers, I might try using green paint. I think that would be adorable!

Words Of Me Project

I haven't worked on my art journal in a while... so I decided to join in on the fun over at "Words of Me Project"...  Six Words in six weeks. Just what I am needing, something to keep me on task! The first word of the six week challenge is "courage."

"Have the courage to scream! Yes. To SCREAM. Have the courage to voice your convictions... even if you have to scream. Be courageous enough to let down your inhibitions and raise your hands and scream as you go on lifes roller coaster! Don't be passive, have the courage to be you, no apologies. Have the courage to scream :-)

These two journal pages were created on top of a crackled patina....
 The metallic colors of green and pearl gray were added in a way to create a burst from the word "courage." Looks much better in person...
 
 I used rubber stamps and paint to create the rest.....

The next word challenge is "Embrace"...
 Very thought provoking subjects..... I like it!

Change of Weather...

Today is the first day that I actually believe the weather man when he says that the long hot days of summer are behind us. To celebrate the coming of Halloween, and the cooler temperatures *woot-woot* I made this little magpie fairy wearing a witches hat sitting in a wire shoe~

 She is trying her best to be spooky looking, but just comes off as precious :-) She sits upon a bed of moss surrounded by pearls, flowers, leaves, bits of vintage lace, vintage sequins... and a little broom.

 The little fairy is actually my husbands great grandmother. I can see a slight resemblance to my grand daughter in her little face......






I love to pull her out and use her in my art.

Spell Books...

Here is the newest faux Spell book I've created.
 The front cover....

 the backside....

and the book open...

The idea first came about when I spotted these 3 dimensional window stickers at the dollar store....

  I immediately saw the potential of them.....  

 Those spooky shapes and some old books....
Equal Spell books of course!

Here is how I did it if anyone is wanting to make one. Firstly, I cut out one of the spiders from the excess plastic that was surrounding it--- Here you can see in the photo below the spider partially cut free from the clear/sticky trim.
 
I traced the spider on the book cover, and drew a spider web with a sharpie...

 I fired up my glue gun and traced the web design with glue....

After that, I hot glued the spider onto the cover of the book. Next comes the fun part. Creating a faux leather finish for the book. You can see my original tutorial for that here. Basically, its just Mod Podge and tissue paper.....

 go around the spine of the book.....
to completely cover both the front and back of the book.
 Then its just a matter of painting your book. I painted the entire book brown, globbed on some black paint around the edges.... ran my finger with white paint over the raised spider web, that was it. So easy!
I finished up this spell book with some brushed on gloss sealer.... easy peasy. I have a lot more of the spiders left and a skeleton face and hands to play with as well.

 I see more spell books in the near future...

Yard Sailing....

my-oh-my... it was a great weekend of treasure hunting. I got a lot of jewelry... for fa-ree!! CrAzY! A lot I can repurpose.....

Along with some junque jewelry.... for pirate loot...

I got seven unopened boxes of tie dye kits and three packages of tie dye markers. New, the boxes were $12.99 and the markers were $8.99 for a total cost of: $118.00. I paid three dollars for all of it. Next summer, I see some tie dyed bed sheets, t-shirts... and whatever else my two grand kids want to tie dye!

A lot of fabulous cook books for baking cupcakes and cakes...

and some craft books, these two piles for only $5.00!
Thirteen sets of brand new alphabet rubber stamps,
and an assortment of brand new chalks, chalk brushes, ink pads, molds, embossing powders, a pile of stickers, more stamps and 3 rolls of washi tape. I got everything shown above and below for only $10.00.

Fun times, fun times... now to find the time to play with all this new stuff!

Do You Moo?

Recently, I took the plunge and ordered some professionally made business cards... I didn't search through the pages and pages of samples to choose from---  I think this style was on the very first page. I am going to use some spray adhesive on the backsides of some of these and add some vintage sheet music...


There is an ad on the television right now for 250 business cards for only $10.00 from Vistaprint.com. BUT... if you go to their website and click on the tab at the top that reads "Business Cards" under that heading there is a "free business card" button. Click on that instead and get the same 250 business cards for only $7ish.... that pays for the shipping fee. Now, here is the sweet deal.... once you get to the check out... they offer you another 250 business cards for only $3.00 more. Soooooooooooo you get 500 business cards for only $10.00 instead of the 250 they were trying to sell you initially for "the great price of $10.00" (I blocked out my phone number *wink*)

Do you Moo????? Here is a great deal on Moo cards....
 It seems Etsy and Moo have come together to offer everyone who has an etsy store 100 free cards. You do have to pay for shipping, I think the shipping for my order was $5.00. This is a great deal, they normally charge $14.99 plus $5.00 for shipping for 100 Moo cards. So, your saving $14.99! The only draw back to "free" is--- you have to have the word "etsy" printed on them and they do not come in a glossy finish.  Also, they photograph/show really well on my blog--- but they charge another $3.00 to add a glossy finish to them. In person, they are very dull/flat looking...

 If your wanting to order some, when you create your mini Moo's--- it will show you where the word "etsy" will be when it is printed, so you can move your image so it won't be covering something cute. *wink* Besides, you can always cover the word "etsy" with a smidge of tea dyed lace and a old millinery flower... ta da..... instant cuteness!
 The backside of these have printing on them as well as the photo on the front... I have my blog address and my etsy address on the back of these. I made a small hole at the other end of the Moo card with a grommet punch and used some floss to make mini tags....
I don't think I would ever order Moo cards again--- Maybe if I saw them all glossy and gorgeous I would... but like I said, they are very d.u.l.l. looking~ But, it is fun to get things in the mail!

Murder....

Last night I came home at around 9:30ish from an evening with some girlfriends.... as I pulled up to my driveway I looked across the street to the vacant foreclosed home and spotted a small white truck parked slightly inside the backyard gate. *GASP* Soooooooooo playing it cool-- you know, I turned into my driveway and parked inside the garage and closed the garage door. I made a b-line to my husband--- who was already in bed sleeping--- and told him to call 911. From the time he called, and the time I called all the neighbors to inform them... and to ask them to call the police too... the person in the truck had closed up the gate and was idling on the street in front of the house. It sat there for about a minute and then clicked on its lights and drove slowly away. The police showed up about 5 minutes later.....When the police showed up, I recognized the officer as one I had met a week earlier. His family lives down the street. Anywho.... I had a huge flashlight, I followed the two police officers into the backyard all the while just chattering away. Who does this? Um, yea- me.... I know, I know... I was totally expecting to see copper pipes or the pool filter in pieces ready to be hauled away at a later time. What I didn't expect was the police officer that was directly in front of me to pull his gun from his holster and turn to me and ask me, "Can I have you leave the property please?" At that very moment I had shined my flashlight on a huge pool of blood on the ground... then a drag mark.... and another huge pool of blood. "No problem, I'm outta here!"
After a night of no sleep what-so-ever watching the comings and goings of the police, the end result was finding out that a body had been brought to this foreclosed home to be "dumped." I didn't see the person who did this, I couldn't describe the truck other than it was white..... I was pretty impressed with the neighbors who all came together. We have a really tight group of "nosy neighbors" who think nothing of calling the cops if need be~

On the drive over to visit with my friends last night, as I sat at a red light next to the church that is by the house I was going to. I was watching for the lights to change when I glanced down to a small statue I have of the Virgin Mary on the dashboard of my car. I don't know what came over me---- but all of a sudden I said the Hail Mary about 20 times in a row... Weird.... whatever brought that on, I had no clue. But you know, in retrospect--- maybe that was my "protection" for what laid ahead of me that night when I got home.... just sayin' the power of prayer people. Believe in it! Even though this was a scarey situation, I felt- and still feel safe. okokok... a little weird-ed out-- but safe :-)