Wish Fairy on a Spool

Everyone can use a little wish fairy in their life, yeah? Here's one on a vintage wooden spool. She's ready to go with her little watch hand wand, and her ampersand party hat.

 Here's her back:

Make a wish!

Time Card Holder for the Craft Room

I love using repurposed items in the craft room. My parents, knowing this, sent me a wonderful old time card holder. I love the letters and numbers on it. I hung it on a skinny wall in the craft room and placed some photographs, postcards, old letters and atcs in it. I think it looks great! Thanks, Mom and Dad.

Halloween Potion Bottles

Alpha Stamps is hosting a Potion Bottle Swap. (For more details, click here.) Here are the sample bottles I made for the swap. I love the background paper I used. The image on it is muted green flowers, but to me it looks like bubbly poison.

Here are some larger pics of the individual bottles. I think my favorite part of these bottles is the metal-looking flourishes I used as "fumes". I purchased these a while back, knowing they'd come in handy sometime. I never dreamed they'd be used for bottle art!

I also really love the labels. They were all cut from this scrapbook paper. I have stocked up big time on it. I also used pieces of it for the trick or treaters on spools.

I'm going to be sending these out for trade in the Alpha Stamps swap. I can't wait to see what I get in return.

Trick or Treater Hanger

I'm always wondering what I'm going to do with all the lids I remove from all those Altoids tins. I took this one and made a little Halloween hanging. I covered the front and back with heavy scrapbook paper, added an altered photograph of two little girls. Before I added the orange tinsel to the side, I punched a couple of holes in the top of the tin so I could wire a beaded hanger. At the bottom, I used a "trick or treat" icon and a gold bat charm.

I had the hardest time photographing this tin. The background behind the girls is actually a nice solid black. I need a desk top photo studio! Hopefully I'll get one for my birthday, which is coming up very soon.

Here's another try at getting that background to show up correctly.

If I get that tabletop studio, I'll try to get a better photo.

Three Little Kittens

I have a hard time keeping the Vintage Cats in my etsy store around this time of year, so I made a few new ones. It's funny to see how the faces have evolved in the last couple of years. I had started making their mouths so huge! When I pulled out the original cat this year, the difference was really striking. Here's the first cat I made, back in 2007.

And here are the three I just made. With this set, I made the mouths smaller than I recently have been, but they're still way bigger than this original.

I think the newer cats look less constipated, don't you?

Skeleton Shrine

Here's what else I did with a plastic skeleton: I severed all his limbs, put him back together, and stuffed him into a spider shrine.

I crowned him King of Halloween, and gave him a pumpkin.

Here are the back and sides of the shrine:

And the front, with the door closed.

If you'd like to decorate a shrine like this, you can find it here, at Alpha Stamps.

Jack Boney

Why should kids have all the trick or treat fun on Halloween? Jack Boney wants to join in the celebration. I dressed him in a festive collar made from silk flowers, a paper party hat, and a glittery mask.

Then I handed him a trick or treat banner and a tiny jack o'lantern, and perched him on a decorated spool.

Coming up later this week: another skeleton perched in a spider shrine. Stay tuned.

Little Trick or Treaters

I love figures on spools. When I saw some cute Halloween spools made by Lynn Stevens, I thought, "Why have I never done trick or treaters?" I loved what she did so much that I set out to make my own version.  I took figures from various Alpha Stamps collage sheets and dressed them up, adding hats, masks, rhinestones, and glitter, and then gave them all tiny pumpkins and a "trick or treat" flag.

Here's the first one I made. Let's call her "Patsy".

I found that pencils fit in the spool holes perfectly, so that is what supports each figure. The flagpole is made from a bamboo skewer, and glued in place with E6000 glue. The wings are actually bat cutouts, also from Alpha Stamps. 

I loved making that first little trick or treater so much that I had to make a few more. Here's Benjamin:

And Margie:

And Anna:

And a group shot:

This little fellow didn't make it to the group shot, but still wanted to be seen. Here's Charlie. He's a little shy.

Trick or treat!