Halloween Give Away!

My friend Tracey over at Glitterbug Studios and I have decided to do a dual giveaway. To celebrate Autumn & Halloween we have worked on two little paperclay and fabric figures. Tracey made a fabulous witch. You can check it out at her blog: www.glitterbugstudios.blogspot.com

Look who I found stalking through my flower garden!!! He's a pumpkin goblin and he's what I'm giving away!

His head has been hand sculpted with rigid wrap and paper clay. Just look at that mischievous look. There's no telling what kind of trouble he's planning to get into.His 12 inch body is painted fabric and his arms and legs are bendable. He sports a felt cap and a skirt of autumn leaves and fibers. He's waving to YOU and saying "come enter the drawing for me!"

I'll draw the winner on October 10th. So to be in the drawing, you need to just leave a comment and if you're not a follower please consider becoming one by signing up on the right. If you have a blog it would be really groovy if you mentioned this give away and a link to it too.

I have no idea what his name is so maybe you can help me out and leave a name suggestion!

Works in Progress, Halloween Decorating and a Give Away!

Hello! Happy first day of Autumn. I love autumn....the colors, the smell of leaves, the cooler weather and the start of decorating! These little guys are part of my autumn celebrations. The head on the left is going to be a pumpkin goblin and the one on the right is going to be a kid dressed up as a leopard! I will choosing one of the them for a giveaway coming up soon so stay tuned!I put up the Halloween tree this past weekend. I made most of the ornaments on the tree, some friends have either given to me or I've bought. I think I like my Halloween tree better than my Christmas tree!

My mom and I made the pumpkin guy topper many, many years ago. We've always crafted together! The little beagle on the bench is the perfect dog.....he doesn't bark, doesn't need to be walked and doesn't move!

A shot of my mantle, shooting from one end to the other.

Not only am I celebrating the glories of the fall season but I'm celebrating the end of my back pain. For almost 4 months I've had a terrible pain in my upper back/shoulder area and have had a lot of pain when breathing. Long story short, finally found a dr. yesterday that found out what it was........

Two dislocated ribs!!!! He popped them back into place and instantly I could breath and the pain was much less in my back!

So to celebrate finally not feeling terrible, I'm offering one of my vintage altered key necklaces!

To be entered in the drawing, just become a follower and leave a comment. If you already are a follower, then just leave a quick comment and give me shout out on your blog with a link to this post. I'll draw the winner on Wed. (Sept. 29th).

The vintage key has been painted orange and wire wrapped with orange wire, embellished with a vintage starburst and 2 danglies of glass beads. The handmade fabric cord measures 18 inches long.

A Day of Crafting!

Hey, I haven't posted in a while, I've had computer problems.....I had two laptops come down with a bad virus to the point that they wouldn't even work. I'm seriously considering getting a Mac!

Today, my good friend Tracey from Glitterbug Studios came to visit me for a day of crafting!

This is the pumpkinman I made........his name is Angus. You can check out Tracey's pumpkinman at her blog. She went with a black/white theme and it's pretty darn cute!

First we started by covering my dining room table with every imaginable art/craft supply from our stashes!

Here's Tracey with the plain muslin dolls we started out with. We bought them at the Pat Catans. They're 12 inches tall and bendable......the dolls not Tracey.

The head started out as a plain old plastic pumpkin, you know the kid you get at the dollar store. I then covered it with Rigid Wrap (I got this idea from the current Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine). It's a roll of fabric covered with plaster that you can cut into strips, dip in water and smooth onto just about any surface. After the rigid wrapped pumpkin dries hard you can add a nose and cheeks with Creative Paperclay.

We took a break to have chocolate mousse........with chocolate sticks.

I took a break to try to create a mummy costume........not really, just kidding!So here is Angus sitting on a wonderful stack of black and orange books with a cute tag and ribbon that Tracey made for me. I think he likes it perched up on that pile of books.

Look at Tracey's pumpkinman.....he's actually a white pumpkin/gourdman. She has a such a creative mind! We're laughing because my husband took the picture and said, "ok, smile you little freaks"! Well, we had a great time and we're already planning on making more and having a giveaway....maybe even as soon as next Saturday so stay tuned!

Mail Art?

Do you know about "Mail Art"? Mail art is art which uses the postal system as a medium. The term mail art can refer to an individual message, the medium through which it is sent, or an artistic genre. It's also known as postal art or as Correspondence/Mail Art.

I'm in a Halloween Envelope mail art swap and this is the front of my "Junkyard Pumpkins" envelope. This past week I've seen a lot of roadside stands with pumpkins for sale so I was inspired by the orange spheres of Halloween joy! The person's address goes onto the face of the middle pumpkin and my return address in the corner in the little pumpkin. I bet the mail carrier gets a kick out of the envelope!

Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend. It's time to say "Bye summer, I'll see you next year"!