Halloween decorations



just a couple recent weekend crafts...

This was for a craftster swap, it's knitted ghosts made from split cotton yarn, Polyclay tombstone and sluggies. First wire tree I've made.

tiny day of the dead shrine, front



inside the shrine-it doesn't close.

Something weird

These are for a swap I did recently and my partner received so now I can post some pictures. The swap was a faux taxidermy theme, and my partner liked fantasy creatures and requested something original, and she also had a thing for eyes and teeth...so here is what I came up with...

Group shot

glow in the dark

I thought of it as the Nightmare Moth

Cocoon

Something cute and creepy--mask is inspired by Plague Doctors masks

I was really excited as I made these, the moth for instance was something I got inspiration from in a lot of different places but I think is pretty original. One of the "inspirations" came from a story mom told me about a rumor on Guam: there was a moth on the island that could kill you. Whaat? Now that moth was supposed to look like regular moths I think, but I thought of what would be scary, so it has teeth for a face and an eyeball on the tail. I also really LOVE the sock yarn I used for the body. It took forever to get the body ready and in the end I had to knit around a pipe cleaner, stuffing as I went.
My original idea was to have the whole project as: caterpillar to cocoon to moth to some weird evolution into a cannibalistic fairy, but that is a little big and I'm not sure I could have made a good doll/fairy creature. Sometimes it's best to stick to what you know when there's a deadline. Just getting into the clay work alone was pretty fun for this project.
So now I can't wait to make more monsters... :) Maybe someday there will even be a moth evolution into a scary fairy.

Craft swap items I've made

It's been what, a year...13,14 months? I have been really busy crafting though, just not writing...There's these things called craft swaps over at craftster.org and I have been making and sending and receiving items...it's pretty addictive.
Keep in mind I get a lot of ideas from pinterest...
These photos are just what's on my newer computer...

zombie bunny egg cozies, some perler bead magnets and a Wonder Woman shopping bag for a nerdy easter basket swap
 

felt skull garland for a skull swap
 

felt skull embroidery/applique

knitted prayer flag-robin and nest (one of the things I am most proud of)

penguin pin and device cozy

enchanted forest shadow box

batty tarot pouch and wand

close up detail of wand, that's tangerine quartz and amethyst.

knitted bat

solstice pillow filled with lavender

antlered headband

Moving

We did it, we finally decided to leave the current apartment complex (New Soviet Russia, I call it) and apply for a new place, a duplex a block or so away on the exact same street. It has 2 bedrooms and a washer and dryer, and RED CARPETING. Red carpets to me were a little weird at first, but then I thought: Twin Peaks themed living room. We didn't tell anyone about appling for a while out of superstition, AND we GOT IT!
Now all we have to do is clean. And pack. And clean some more. It's 11 days til the apartment is available for us to move in, and another 5 to get the current place cleaned up for the final walk thru. For normal people it probably wouldn't be panic time but I know me and my tendency to procrastinate, so I'm trying to pack and dispose of things now so that we can just up and walk things down the block come the first, then spend the weekend doing the final cleaning. It's funny to watch me go, I'm sure. I do 5-10 min of sorting, packing into various bags or adding to a give away pile, and then 5-20 min on the computer, facebooking or pinning, sometimes with the excuse of looking up tricks to pack stuff or what-have you.
I've blogged about being something of a hoarder, and lazy to boot, and different cleaning projects I've taken on in the last year or so, but there's nooks and crannies I've overlooked for a while, and it's been awesome and annoying, this journey I've taken. For example, finding all sorts of crafting supplies I bought on a whim and squirrelled away: both annoying and awesome. Clothes that don't fit. Clothes that fit. Finding a whole $10 roll of quarters and some cool books I thought were lost forever. All awesome. Except having too many books now. UHG. oh, and finding a million hair doodads and like 10 pieces of old nicotine gum, which I haven't needed for 7 months or so. (Cigarrette free for over 9 months now!)
Then there's the shoes. I won't start on the number of shoes that I found under a chair, covered in dust, that I really like even though I haven't touched some of them in over a year, maybe even 2...They're in the washer in today's "craft project" which is how many pairs of shoes can one wash in the washer without breaking/ruining anything. I took advice from this page, so hopefully they'll be alright.
Oh my goob, look at me, procrastinating yet again. (I'll include any photos I find hilarious, but as long as they're not too embarassing.)

Just some things I've been working on

Sorry, we've been watching episodes of Deep Space Nine obsessively, and I've been pinning again, since we got better internet, so yeah, I've been lazy. But every now and then I get a bug, and then there's crafting frenzy. I try to remember to take pictures.

Knitted bangles. Easy I-cords. I try to connect the ends in the bind off.

Mini pies! Links to recipe for the crust and the inspiration below

Cherry and mixed berry filling, by the way.

Stencil paintings to add to the creepy/cute wall of art. Not that these are creepy...*shrug*

Right: my pies. Left: half of a thin sliced pork sammy from Shut up and Eat

Mini pies: I mixed berries with a bit of sugar in one bowl and pitted fresh cherries with a bit of sugar in another bowl. Eyeballed it all. The only thing I measured was the ingredients for the crust, as it's the first time I ever made pie crust. After a few hours of everything chilling in the fridge, I pre-heated the oven to 375 degrees, like the inspiration pies, cut out and filled them, sprinkled a tiny bit of sugar over the tops, let them chill for about 5 min. in the freezer, and baked them for about 19 min. Since I eyeballed the cutting out, and in the interest of not over working the dough, I didn't pinch the tops to the bottoms like real pies. Oh well, they still taste amazing!
Crust recipe
Inspiration

Wonder Northwest Photo Dump!

I didn't do the LSP cosplay, more on that later.
WNW was smaller this year with more focus on cosplay and artists booths. There were still some comic booths, there was a cute "soap in the shape of cute things" booth, couple of game & toys booths, but everywhere I turned there were artists selling prints, paintings, drawings, zines, or awesome bags...The people attending all seemed younger too, hence all the cosplay. So I *think* some of the art for sale was not being sold. On Sunday when I was getting ready to leave, one person eating outside said, "Oh my god, my friend was so happy you bought her bag!" Whoa, for a minute, I had no idea what she meant, then found out that I was the only person to buy one all weekend...Same with this cool clay/painting thing below, from a table that always sells buttons and magnets. I guess the market was different this year? All in all, it was still fun, but in the future, I think instead of a weekend pass, we'll just get there early Saturday morning.
And even though I used to dress up all crazy as a teen, for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to dress up as a lumpy space princess.  Sad...
On to the photos!

Wrapped in Plastic, 7 issues. The gentleman who sold these to me gave me a 50% price cut. I should have bought them all...

I figured it's best to buy issues of comics in bundles now. Unless I'm searching for that ONE issue of whatever...

First, "Just another Snake Cult" bag. Conan the Barbarian reference. Artwork by Adrienne Tilley Illustration. Links below.

Oh my god, Gir, cupcakes and candy, all crocheted. I don't buy knitted stuff because I can usually figure it out, but crocheted? I'm buying. Chibi Sayuri's Shop of Cute.

Left: sharpie art. I forgot the artists name!!! Right: thedancingbrothers on etsy.

They took a picture of me when I bought this! Anyway, one of the arms fell off in transport, we superglued it back on to the best of our abilities.

Dream King, from the guy who sold me the Twin Peaks mag.

The card in the top left corner is "Nicolas was..." Neil Gaiman's christmas card. 

Links:
Snake bag: adriennetilley.com
Crocheted cuteness: etsy.com/shop/chibisayuri
Clay on Painting: etsy.com/shop/TheDancingBrothers (currently an empty shop?)

Seeing the clay painting thingy made me want to create a wall with cute kitchy, cute/creepy things. Why have I not thought of this before? The crocheted goodies need a candy bowl or cool pastry plate, near the wall of creepy cute art. I don't know what to do with the Neil Gaiman Christmas card. Any ideas?

New melt and pour soap

So far I've made a few batches of melt and pour soap. I have yet to be super pleased with my results, but every time I'm a little closer to awesome.
This is layered soap (honey!), with benzoin and fullers earth clay, colored purple, with various things peppered in. Lavender and rose buds came from the awesome Stone Cottage. This is also the first time I've used this mold.

top two are rose buds, bottom left is lavender and right is dried mandarin orange. that was a last minute idea.

I should make little cloth bags for these so the herbs don't clog up my drain.

closer look at the layers. Should have waited a little longer to pour the second (top) layer.

I melted the soap in glass jars placed in a pot of hot water instead of in the microwave. I used red and blue coloring to make a purple soap. This is also the first time I've used white m&p base, as well as clay. Didn't use any scents, figured the flowers would be enough.
Also found some grapeseed oil, and am infusing rose petals right now.

My next idea is to use the left over calendula and rose buds from the infusions in the honey soap too.