Two Dapper Gentlemen.....

This is the top of the tin when it is closed.....

These two dapper pumpkin gentlemen are ready for the Halloween costume party. They are a copy of a vintage Halloween postcard circa 1920s and are slightly two dimensional due to 1/2 inch foam dots behind them. A full harvest moon looks on as the two rougues make their nightly plans for trickery and mayhem! Decorative papers and text adorn both sides of the orange painted Altoid tin. It is available at the HoneyGirl Studio Shop.

The First Snowflake of Winter.....

The snowflakes twirled lazily to the ground in a silent yet beautiful symphony of white. The baby sat snug as bug in her snowsuit, legs splayed, toes straight up and finger tips in the snow in front of her for balance. She lifted her blue eyed gaze to the heavens, slightly parted her lips, stuck out her tiny pink tongue tip and waited for one of the magical flakes to land on her tongue.....the first snowflake of the winter! This piece is so precious in it's simplicity. We can all relate to catching a snowflake on our tongues no matter what age we are. The vintage photo has been backed with heavy chipboard and book text, hand colored an aqua blue and then dusted with a pale blue glitter (difficult to see in this photo). She sports a pair of semi transparent silver glittered wings. The snow pile in front of her is bespeckled with aqua sequins, silver and white snowflakes, a silver bell and silver tinsel all dusted with white ultrafine glitter. The base is heavy duty chipboard covered with a red polkadot vintage print of decorative paper. The entire assemblage measures approximately 5 inches high and is enclosed in a glass cloche which is removeable. She is available in the Honey Girl Studio Shop now along with other aqua, red and white ornaments!

Back of baby........

Aqua, Red and White Christmas Goodies.....

Aqua, Red & White...........oh boy!

I am working on a new line of one of a kind Christmas ornaments and decorations. Here is a teaser of what is to come................... glitter, silver tinsel...........red and aqua........white.... stay tuned..............

White Pumpkin Fairy Cloche

He sat in a relaxed pose perched upon the black glitter outlined leaves of the white pumpkin, his black curls bobbing in the breeze, cool as a cumcumber......or should I say "cool as a gourd"? I snapped the photo and then the little guy smiled. This pumpkin fairy is absolutley precious! He is a copy of a vintage photo which I embelished with color and wings. He is secured to the pumpkin with a pick so he appears to be sitting on the pumpkin leaves. A paper tag backed with cream felt reads, "fragile, handle with care, precious cargo". The foam pumpkin has been painted a light ivory and speckled with black paint. The pumpkin has been secured to the scalloped cream felt in which tiny stars have been cut into the felt. A glass cloche covers the whole assemblage giving the look of a captured fairy. This is an awesome piece if you are a Halloween traditionalist.......black, white and orange being your 3 colors of choice for the festive fall season! Available now in the Honey Girl Studio Shop.

Forgotton Memories of Autumn

She sat completely still on the top board of the weathered whitewashed fence, her piercing blue eyes squinting at the horizon, her faded orange dress slightly rumpled in the last rays of the late afternoon sun, a thin film of dust covering her high button boots, her newly created pointed paper hat perched perfectly on her head......she was waiting........but what was she waiting for????? Well the autumnal equinox of course silly, also known as the first day of autumn! This cardboard shadowbox tells the story of forgotten autumn memories......a little girl waiting for the beginning of autumn and Halloween with her new paper hat! This piece measures 5 inches square and is full of charm. Available now in the Honey Girl Studio Shop!

Well Dressed Pumpkin Girl Tin

Growing up in Western Pennsylvania you always bought your Halloween costume at least 2 sizes bigger than your normal size because you never knew if it was going to be 70 degrees or 30 degrees wth a dusting of snow on Oct. 31st! That's why I decided to make Pumpkin Girl dressed in her orange fur trimmed winter coat! Let's just call it a tribute to my childhood trick or treating in PA! The assemblage was created inside of an Altoid tin.......I have the freshest breath of any crafter out there.......I've eaten a lot of Altoids the past few weeks. Pumpkin Girl is available in the Honey Girl Studio Shop and she would love to come live with you!

Top of the tin when it is closed......

I Can't Find My Clipboard!!!

I once had this boss who told me that if you wanted people to think you are busy, carry around a clipboard because it makes you look like you are doing something! Well, I really do do something around the work place and I carry a clipboard to keep my papers together, however I often lay down the generic brown clipboard at which time it is never to be found again. I'm often saying outloud to myself or anybody who will listen, "I can't find my clipboard". The other day I was looking at some flickr photos and saw a chooched up altered clipboard. It was awesome, colorful and full of whimsical style. It was the kind of clipboard that everyone in the work-place would know. So I made such a clipboard this weekend and can't wait to give it a test drive tomorrow. I think everybody will know my clipboard within a matter of a few days or perhaps even a few hours! The picture of the class is a copy of a class photo from the late 1960s. I just love the look on the teacher's face and I just know that she is jamming her thumb into the back of the kid acting goofy standing next to her. And how about the little girl with the glasses in the lower right hand corner, you know she was the spelling bee champ of the entire school. I thinking that the boy with the glasses in the upper left hand corner probably grew up to be either an astrophysics professor or a stalker. Kind of makes you wonder what the kids in that 1960's class grew up to become. Just for fun pick out a kid and tell me what you think they did with their life in the comments!

Back of clipboard........

Autumn Harmony and Canning Peppers

With her arm raised and finger pointing, Harmony is directing the honey bees to their hive for the fall in this altered tin. There is a certain type of harmony of nature in the fall......geese fly south, insects and some mammals begin their hybernation, people can peppers. Yes I said people, like yours truely can peppers (my husband helped). These are mild hot peppers from my garden. Both are easy to do, the red colored ones have to be cold packed but the yellow ones are refridgerator peppers and require no cold packing. Both are delicious and so easy to do!

Refridgerator Peppers Recipe (also known as LuLu's Peppers)

11 pint glass jars with lids and rings
Cut up a peck of hot peppers and set aside
Finely chop up 7 cloves of garlic
Have dried oregano ready to put in jars



Pepper Juice:
Mix together the following in a pan and bring to a boil then set aside
1 quart of white vinegar
2 quarts of water
2 Cups of sugar


Put peppers in a big pot, just barely cover with water and bring to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, boil for 4 minutes then take off heat and drain on collander.

Put a 2 teaspoons of chopped garlic and one teaspoon of oregano in the bottom of each jar. Pack peppers in the jars to the top. Pour the pepper juice into the jar to cover the peppers. Place the lids and rings on and tighten. Turn upside down and let them stay like this over night. In the morning place in the refridgerator. These will last up to 6 months. These peppers are so yummy on sandwiches or crackers!

The Harmony altered tin is available at the Honey Girl Studio Shop.

Dapper Boo Boy Pennant

Dapper Boy Boy is looking pretty snazzy in his spatz, purple bat wings, pointy hat and long black frock coat with pumpkin buttons. Don't you just love the look on this kid's face? Just the way he is standing you can tell he thought he was quite "the man"! This Halloween pennant was so much fun to make because my goal was to use a lot of colors, textures and subject matter and I think I did all three. The back of the pennant has a hand painted pumpkin on orange polkadot paper with surrounding collage. It's available to purchase in the Honey Girl Studio Shop.

Librarian Witch

Complete with the bun on the top of her head, the librarian witch keeps a hawk-eye watch over her magic and potion books. Her piercing blue eyes scour the tables and stacks for those who dare to utter even one barely audible word ready with cat like reflexes to zap the noisy offender to toad-like status! And don't even think of bringing in an overdue book! Yes, she is the scary librarian witch who comes out but one night a year...........on October 31st.




This assemblage is created inside a 4 inch diameter tin, painted orange with an overlay of black paint. Decorative papers in complementary Halloween colors grace the inside. A copy of a vintage photo, moon and witch bottle have been hand colored and applied with dimensional foam dots for a layered look. Four decorative paper backed glass marbles (moon stones) are secured in front of the witch librarian. The definition of a librarian was cut out of a children's dictionary dated 1960. Black ribbon with white polkadots is wrapped around the outside of the tin. The bottom of the tin rests inside the top of the tin on top of a burnt orange flower with a paper center. This one was fun to make as it was a custom order for my dear librarian/artist friend in Canada! I hope she likes it!

Don't mess with the books and turn the pages quietly!

Dora Duncan's Pumpkin Patch

I have entitled this assemblage, "Miss Dora Duncan's Pumpkin Patch". It has all been carefully layered inside a small painted tin adorned with decorative papers and a vintage photo with a black velvet hat. It is available at the Honey Girl Studio Shop. I just love making these little theatres of art. You can really pack a lot of things into a tiny space to tell a little story.

Here's a great recipe for pumpkin cookies!

Outside of the tin (closed)

Fairy in a Jar Give Away..........

In honor of canning season and the beautiful Ball jar, I am creating a series of "fairies in a jar" for the upcoming autumn season. These little buggers were quick and hard to catch and I think one even bit me (I'm not mentioning an names but I think it might have been bat boy). The ornaments are 4 inches long and made of sturdy chipboard sandwiched between vintage book text and cardstock. To read more complete descriptions of each ornament please go to the Honey Girl Studio Shop. All are lined up on the cupboard and are available in the Honey Girl Studio Shop now. I use Ball canning jars, especially the wide mouth ones to keep stuff organized in my studio.........buttons, small paper pieces, alphabet letter, etc.... What do you put in your mason jars? I'd love to hear from you! Leave a comment and I'll pick a winner on Sat. The winner will receive one of these ornaments!
Smiles-
Tootie

Zelda's Bat Education 155 in a Tin

Today was another rainy day! The weather guru says we got close to an inch of rain today but it feels more like 10 inches. So I puttered around the house looking for something to get into which just happened to be a nap on the couch until an hour and a half and 3 interruptions by the phone made me go to the studio as the ill-fated nap was not to be! This what I came up with from an Altoid Tin. I'm calling it "Zelda's Bat Education 155". I bought an old Audubon book (great source of pictures and text for collage) a few weeks at a used book store and found a whole section on bats. Amazing little creatures but what really freaked me out was that there is a South American fruit bat with a wing span of 5 feet and they sleep upside just hanging in the trees! (Here's another tidbit of useless information: Audubon was a big loser and died almost pennyless but the guy sure did have a passion for painting birds and mammals!) So I took some of the text from the book and incorporated it into the assemblage! The little girl, Zelda, is a copy of an antique photo and the bats are cut out of decorative cardstock. Here's the story on the tin color............first I painted it with gesso.........then another coat of gesso..........then a third coat...........then a coat of orange acrylic..........then another coat of orange acrylic...........then 2 coats of black...........then lightly sanded it so the orange would peak through here and there..............gosh what a process!

Anywho, there's a lot going on in this little piece and I think it turned out really cute. Best of all, it's available in the Honey Girl Studio Shop under Halloween Goodies and Fall Offerings.

This is a picture of the tin closed (lid top).

"Bats are crepuscular", now there's a term to amaze and stupify your friends and family!

The one bat she is holding on a wire leash, but don't worry the other is securely glued down!

Finally some studio time!

Summer will officially be over for me next Tuesday when I start back to school......therefore I have been absent from blogland this past week trying to do all the things to the house in the last two weeks of freedom that I really had all summer to do! My husband and I scrubbed, painted and sealed inside and outside of the house just about every surface to be found. Today was a grey rainy day and I finally got to head to my studio and create a few things..........ATCs available for trade..............

Halloween Ride

Fall Friendship

Witch Emily

Pumpkin Ben