Twisted Sister Halloween Package arrived

As I mentioned in an earlier post I worked on handmade gifts for a Twisted Sister Halloween swap, hosted by Autumn, on An Affair With Art Yahoo Group that I belong to. My package was received and well liked by Kathy W.  in Tennessee. The package I received was very well liked too.

My package came 2 days ago, but I am just now getting photos uploaded to share.  In the big box I found body parts. Yes, body parts. Don't worry,  they weren't the  real things. Whew!  There were glittery skulls, ribs, and bones.. leg/feet and arm/hand nested in gold mylar shred and tissue paper. Also in the tissue was a plastic skeleton and a skull.  Several spider and bat rings too. Lots of loose candy bars were also nestled in the tissue. Yummo!!! You know I just had to taste test them right away. :-)  Also nicely wrapped, I found a hanging witch hat filled with more candy. How fun!

Then I found a lovely handmade Halloween card in a hand stamped Halloween envelope.

The gift that I unwrapped is just awesome. I love it, both the front and back.  Then a wonderful canvas frame that was decorated on the front and back. The front ended up the back and the back was the side that was decorated. I just it.  Painted frame, rusted key, dyed cheesecloth, hanging silver disc that has the word creepy. Spider cardstock background, a watch face, great skeleton and man with skull in his hand, and a bottle of poison. Skeletons in the closet. Isn't this decorative piece wonderful?

  back used as a shadow box

front of canvas used as the back and nicely decorated.

Dawn, thank you so much for the wonderful mail day. Your package put a big smile on my face.  This was such a fun swap.

Mod Podge light switch plate

I have a sister in law who loves roosters. Well, too tell the truth, so do I. :-)
I often will pick up rooster items  when I see them. Since I had a package of beverage sized rooster napkins and a extra light switch plate, I thought I would cover the switch plate with a rooster napkin and mod podge. I wish the rooster image would have been a tad larger, but the one I had worked out okay. One of the screw holes is where the eye is suppose to be. I still need to give the piece another coat of mod podge.
 
I have looked in Michael's and A C Moore for fabric mod podge, but didn't find any in either store. The next time I go in Wal Mart, I will look to see if they carry it.

My Thrift store finds from 10.11.10

I took a photo this afternoon of my recent thrift store bargains that I mentioned yesterday. I found the following items at two different thrift stores while I was on the Cape over the holiday weekend.
A Tim Holtz DVD for a $1.00 at the VNA thrift store in Yarmouth. I was so excited when I found this. As I continued to poke around the shop the DVD was tucked securely in my arms.  Yahoo!!!!
I saw a couple of rubber stamps in the shop, but I already had them or they were something I wouldn't use.

The following items below I found in a church thrift store.
2 vintage doilies for $1.00 each. Oops, I see that one of the doilies scallop is tucked under in the photo.
5 small, old ,wooden spools of thread  from Coats and Clark with thread on them, and 1 small flat wooden spool of thread...I bought them all for 50 cents. I like the spools with the company name printed directly on the wood the best.
The pages that were torn from old books were $1.00.  Alice in Wonderland chapter pages and old poems/stories with lovely pictures. The pictures on the pages are beautiful.
I just love digging and poking around thrift stores, because you just never know what you will find. Ah, the thrill of the hunt. :-) Do you like yard and thrift stores? I must admit, I'm addicted. :-)

Winner of Skull Earring Giveaway/ earrings mailed out 10/13/10

On October 6th, I posted a skull earring giveaway. I went away for the long holiday weekend, and so am just now getting to drawing a winner. I bet those of you who left a comment would really like to know who won a pair of earrings now wouldn't you.

Well, guess what? I decided that I would send all  six of you who left a comment a pair of the skull earrings.
I will try and get them mailed out tomorrow so that you will have them in time for Halloween.
Winners:
Liane C
Gloria K
Jean B
Barbara R
Connie H
Ann S.... I need your address so please email me at EAkers@aol.com.

Holiday weekend doings

Since our cranberry harvest is still going on and my husband is working long hours; I decided to take off to the Cape for a mini vacation. I left meals in the refrigerator for Tom and  packed my bags. The weather turned out  to be absolutely gorgeous for this time in October, with warm temps and lots of sunshine to make for a awesome long Columbus Day weekend.
After crossing the Bourne Bridge I traveled down Rte. 6 A.  I stopped at Tumbleweeds quilt/fabric shop in Barnstable. I bought some fabric, and then drove to my cousins in Yarmouth.
We had to check out the  new Michael's store that opened in Hyannis at the mall. I had some 50% coupons for the store and they were burning a hole in my pocket. :-)
Then, I had to go check out what was new at Colorful Creations scrapbook/stamp store on Main Street  since I was last there. I bought several  Tim Holtz inkpads in colors that I hadn't found in Michaels.  I was a very happy camper. I also bought a Zentangle book that I saw as I was cashing out.  I need all the help I can get with doing those Zentangle's. I have tried and my tangles never look good to me. More practice needed I guess. I'm hoping the book will help me get the hang of doing those. They are suppose to be so stress relieving, but so far that hasn't happened for me.  :-)
Next stop was to  A C Moore.  I bought some stickers and 12 x 12 scrapbook papers.
Yesterday, was Columbus Day, and so my cousins and I took off  for a ride  down 6-A to the lower Cape. We stopped at some of the beaches. It was fun to see children  sitting on the warm sand  building sand castles, some were flying kites and the adults were soaking up the sun's warm rays reading or trying to get a tan.
We then meandered further down route 6 A to Brewster. In Brewster we stopped at the Old Brewster General Store. What a fun place that is to shop for products from the past or see lots of antiques displayed throughout the store.  I could have kicked myself, because I forgot my camera at my cousins house. Then I remembered the camera on my cell phone. Below are two photo's that I took in the country store. I fell in love with an antique wood thread display with drawers that originally held spools of threads and notions. I would love to own it. There are so many drawers that pull out for storage and I love the clock that is attached to the top of the cabinet. The store had embroidery floss in the drawers and also thread on the spool holders. The photo below is only the left half the cabinet. The first photo is the top and the second photo has the drawers.
                                                        Also in the general store I found packs of Clark's Teaberry gum. I loved that gum as a child, and now it is so very hard to find. I bought some to bring home for my son's, because they both love that gum too. They will be surprised. Have you ever chewed teaberry gum? I love it and it brings back many memories from my childhood when I would go to the bogs and pick the red teaberries and eat them right teaberry vines that grew in the woods.
After the stop at the General store we continued down 6-A. We continued on to Wellfleet thru the town and down to the harbor. On our way back we stopped and had seafood for dinner at Cooke's.
I also hit a few yard sales and thrift stores during the long weekend. I bought some corning ware small casserole dishes. I found some neat pages from old books including Alice in Wonderland. Old small doilies and old wood thread spools from Coats and Clarks. Some of the spools still had the thread on them. Haven't figured out how I will use the spools in my art yet, but I will.
This morning we went to the Pancake Man in Yarmouth for breakfast, then went to the VNA thrift store. I found another small handmade doilie for $1.00, and a Tim Holtz DVD..The Journey Continues Inks, Powders & more for $1.00.  That made me smile. :-)

I decided to drive back home this afternoon instead of leaving tomorrow morning, as I have a 9 a.m. physical therapy appointment for my wrist.
On my drive back home I saw turkeys feeding in a few areas on the edge of the road.
Since we've had a few frost nights the trees leaves are starting to turn color and many leaves are already dropping. Pretty to look at, but then a long blah winter ahead. :-(
When I pulled into the yard  my kitty came running over to greet me. He wanted to be patted and have his ears and chin scratched. I guess he missed me. I missed him and his funny antics. Now to unpack. Hope you all had a nice holiday weekend too.

More Earrings

I made 2 more pair of earrings for gifts.  I had a hard time getting a good photo.

(L) green and blue Czech glass   (R) Czech glass with Swarovski crystals. Both have sterling ear wires.

Hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend. Drive safe and have fun!  Elaine

Tags and leather magnet

I just wanted to make some really quick and easy tags this morning.  I used $1.00 stamps and Tim Holtz inks.                         
For the Bones tag- I dyed the tag with walnut ink last night.The ribbons I found at Michael's.

Below:                                                                                                                More Crows...
Another simple crow tag and a stamped leather disc.                                                                                                                               I stamped with Memories ink the crow image onto a round leather disc. I added a magnet to the backside of the leather piece.     Many years ago, I bought a barrel of  assorted sizes of leather discs at an old family run  fabric store.  I  have stamped onto the discs and made them into convention pins, ornaments and pieces to glue into altered books.  The discs are fun to stamp on.

Never Ending Journal

I recently signed up on AAWA, a yahoo group run by Jeri Aaron, for a Secret sender Twisted Sister Halloween swap.  A database was set up for everyone who wanted to sign up for the swap  to create a Halloween bio, of our likes and dislikes.  We were to make one spooktacular creation going by our partner's bio. My partner left it up to me to create whatever I wished. We had to make a one of a kind creation for our partner that will knock her witchy boots off! 
This creation was to be a time consuming  project of our choice. We also have to wrap our creation beautifully, and include a handmade Halloween card, and selection of treats for our partner, all gathered wonderfully into a fantastic package for her and get it in the mail on October 10th.  

I've already made a few other Halloween items  for my package, but I wanted to make a handmade journal for my Twisted Sister in the swap. I left the journal bare bones so my Twisted Sister can decorate the book to her liking and whatever theme she desires. I finally finished my journal yesterday.

I cut my book board so the book would be 6 x 9 with a 1 1/2 inch spine.  I chose some large coordinating handmade papers for the cover and inside of the book. I used  8 1/2 x 11  cardstock folded in half for the signatures. I made the book slightly larger than the pages so I wouldn't have to cut the pages down to fit inside the covers. Much easier that way and I like a bigger space to work on in my journals. I used decorative cardstock for the front page of each set of signatures and plain cardstock for the pages. Each signature is 9 pages. 

The wonderful thing about this book is that the signatures slip in and out. So, as the pages fill the signatures can be removed, tied off and new pages slipped inside the book. That is how I came about giving the journal it's name the first time I made it.  Envelopes can be added to the signature pages, the back cover can have a pocket added. Anything goes.

I haven't made one of these books since I taught friends how to make these book in Rhode Island several years back. I've used these books for recipes, photos, journals, art techniques, nature, whatever.
 I enjoyed putting this book together as I love to make books. In my picture trail album you can view the Never Ending Journals that I've made in the past. Never Ending Journals

Here are some photos of the book I just finished creating.
rubber stamped front cover
spine with binding with a dangling magnifying glass charm

inside front cover with library pocket, blank tag, and small envelope (typewriter and word write were rub on's.   (R)  first signature in book.

first signature and 2nd signatures

back of 2nd and 3rd signatures

signature page with an envelope to store ephemera

back of 3rd and 4th  signature
Whew, I seem to have spurts of creativity. Doesn't seem to be any in between for me.

Skull Earrings Giveaway

I happen to like skull beads. Don't ask me why I am drawn to them, as they aren't pretty at all, but when I see skull beads I have to buy them. I have some wooden skull beads, but at the moment I can't find where I stashed them or I would have made a pair of earrings using those beads too.  The earrings that I made today- one pair is made of glass and the other of bone.
Halloween is fast approaching and so is The Day of the Dead holiday in November.
 So, I decided to have a giveaway of a pair of skull bead earrings.  So to win...leave a comment on why you need to own a pair of skull earrings.
Leave an email address so I can contact you if your name is drawn. Thanks!.
 (L)white/black skulls are glass and (R) bone

A Favorite Recipe to share..Grape Nut Custard

Fall is here and I love to bake and an added bonus while the oven is on it also warms the house. I hate putting the heat on until a little later in the month.
My girlfriends birthday was yesterday, and she loves custard, but as a widow she doesn't often bake for herself.
So, when I made the custard recipe below this morning  I divided the mixture into two dishes.One for my friend, Shirley and the other to bring to my parents. Then when I got back home I baked another dish of grape nut custard for Tom and I. My dad dished himself out some right away. I thought he would have it for dessert tonight, but I guess he couldn't wait. :-)

I have used this recipe for the past 42 years. It is so simple to make. I found the recipe on a box of Grape nut cereal when I first got married.  I have made this custard so many times in the past few weeks to bring to family members. I thought I would share it with all of you. It is really simple to make.

GrapeNut Custard:
 Preheated 350 degree oven.
 Place a large metal baking dish  into the oven while the oven is preheating. Add 1 - 1 1/2 inches of hot water into the large metal  baking dish. The custard baking dish  will be baked in the larger pan in a water bath.

Recipe:
4 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar or baking sugar substitute
dash of salt
2 3/4 cups milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
dash of nutmeg
3/4 cups of grapenut nugget cereal
1/4 stick margarine or butter melted
 add the grapenut nuggets (do not use the flake grape nut cereal) to the melted butter and mix well.

In a bowl beat the eggs well, add the rest of ingredients to the beaten eggs mixing well. Then add the butter/grapenuts to the egg mixture and stir. I just use a wire whisk. I also like mixing everything in a large bowl or quart measuring cup with a pour spout to mix my custard in, as it is so much easier to pour the liquid custard into the baking dish. Pour mixture into a 1-2 quart glass oven proof baking dish.

While  your oven is preheating  place your large pan in the oven and add hot water. Then place your baking dish into the water. Pour the custard mixture into the glass baking dish. Bake custard for 30 minutes and then stir your custard mixture. Cook another 10 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center of the custard comes out clean. Remove the dish of custard from the oven and out of the water bath. The custard can be eaten hot or cold. Enjoy!

I Love Mod Podge

Do you use Mod Podge? Gosh, the way I go thru bottles of the stuff I should own stock in Plaid, the company that makes it. I prefer to use the matte but do use glossy and sepia at times. I use it on canvas, paper collages and  wood pieces to attach my papers. I also use it as a protective coat to finish my pieces.
Last night I started working on a few more clipboards and this morning I did a couple more of the 6 x 9 clipboards to give as gifts.
Again, I used napkins, tissue paper, rubber stamps and pieces of scrapbook paper. If anyone wants to trade some large decorative napkins or the guest sized napkins. Let me know.

   

Photo of my oldest son with his 2 girls. My granddaughters (L) Lily and (R) Katie.
Tommy is holding Bella

Fall and Halloween projects

It has been very windy and we've had rain on and off for most of the day. A perfect day to stay in and create some art.
Before starting any art projects this morning, I put a Boston Butt pork roast in the crock pot. We will be having pulled pork for supper tonight. The smells coming from the crock pot are wonderful.

Here is my first project for the day.  Decoupaged 6 x 9 Clipboard  in a fall theme using napkins. The words Fall Colors were rubber stamped.

Next, I decided to paint an oval box black. When the paint dried I glued ribbon around the lid. Then I cut out a piece of scrapbook paper and glued that to the top of the lid. I didn't know what to use for a decoration on the lid and finally decided on a sticker with the face of  a victorian woman that changes into a skeleton face. I found the stickers on sale at Michael's. There were 4 stickers in a package, and the company that made them is Recollections. They can be found in with the Halloween things. I believe they are still on sale this week. Anyway, I thought they were pretty neat.

Oval Trinket Box

lid with sticker of victorian woman

  with movement a skeleton appears instead of the woman's face

Halloween Tags

I decided to work on some Halloween projects this morning as I was in the mood to stamp. I created 3 medium sized tags. I have a few other Halloween projects that I am still working on, but they aren't finished yet. I had fun making these tags.

I used the following Tim Holtz ink pads on my tags...Dusty Concord, Black Soot, Peeled paint, Tea Bag, Broken China, Frayed Burlap, and Spiced Marmalade. I used the Ink blending sponge applicator tool from Ranger to apply the ink to the tags. Also clear $1.00 Halloween stamps that I bought at JoAnn Fabrics. The Halloween pumpkin and ghost are die cuts that came from either JoAnn's or Michael's on clearance last fall, but I noticed that they are selling that same package again this year.

Celeste..let me know which tag you would like for your September Halloween tag swap from ArtHaven so I can get it mailed out to you. Thanks!!!

Fall is time for Apple Crisp and Candy Coated apples

Yeah, I know, I've been posting a lot of recipes lately and not a lot of art. But, this is the time of year that I like to bake. I don't turn my oven on in the summer at all. Also, many go apple picking this time of year or just to the local supermarket and buy paper tote bags of fresh apples from this years crop. Nothing like a fresh, crunchy, red, ripe apple for a snack.

When I was in 7th grade, many, many, many years ago in my first home economics class we made things like brownies, custard, and my all time favorite dessert, Apple Crisp. I have used the recipe below since then. It is my families favorite. If you decide to make it; I hope that you and your family will enjoy it too.

I use Macintosh or McCoun apples for all my cooking as I like ending up with soft apples after my dessert is baked. I don't like hard apples in my pies or crisp, but use the kind of apple that you like best.

Apple Crisp
5-6 cups peeled/sliced apples
 3/4 C. quick oatmeal (not instant)
 3/4 C. br. sugar
 1/2 C. flour
 1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
 1/2 C. butter/margarine
 Dash of salt
 Grease 2 qt. baking dish or pan and put in your sliced apples. Combine all the dry ingredients, cut in the butter, and mix well. Now dump the dry ingredients over your apples. I mix this in a little.
Bake 35-40 minutes in 350 degree oven until apples are soft. Serve hot or cold. You can top your crisp with whipped cream or ice cream if desired. Enjoy!

Recipe for Hard Red Candy Apple Coating:
Wash and dry 12 red apples (I like using McCoun's as they don't turn brown inside and they stay crisp)
 12 skewers or popsicle sticks
 3 cups sugar
 3/4 cup corn syrup
 1 cup water
 few drops red food coloring to desired color
 Stir until sugar is mixed well
Cook mixture to 290-300 degrees on candy thermometer
Set pan over boiling water while dipping apples
 Place apples on greased baking sheet to harden.
And, then get ready to enjoy your yummy candy coated apple.

Little Bella at the Cranberry bog

These two photos were taken today at my aunt's cranberry bog.
 


It must have helped wearing the Patriots gear, because the Patriot's won their game today.
Bella is growing so fast and I can't believe she is now 4 months old. How time flies.

It's a Jungle out there

Well, not really, but it sure seemed that way as I was in the garden picking tomatoes this afternoon.  Can you imagine, my husband, Tom, planted 54 varieties of tomato plants that he started from seeds.. What the heck was he thinking??? :-)
Tom plants his tomatoes in tall wire cages that he made.The cages are suppose to keep the plants contained. Yeah, right!!!  That so didn't happen. The plants got so big they sprawled out the sides of the cages, and up thru the tops and it makes it hard to get in between the rows to pick the ripe tomatoes. It felt like I was in a jungle while picking tomatoes.

just a sampling

The wind picked up this afternoon, and it got dark and cloudy,  the temperature dropped, as we are suppose to get rain tonight. If you leave the ripe tomatoes on the vine after a heavy rain the tomatoes split open and spoil.  I picked a couple good sized baskets of cherry tomatoes, and several baskets of the big tomatoes. Tom grew tomatoes that are yellow, green, green striped, purple, pink, black, red, orange and shades in between. They are all good tasting even the different colored ones.

Tom didn't get our garden planted until the 4th of July, and so we still have lots of tomatoes that aren't anywhere near ripe yet. Thank goodness he has an irrigation sprinkler in the garden that we can turn on when the night temperatures reach freezing, and we can extend the growing season. Hopefully to harvest all the tomatoes. You can't really tell the size of the garden, or that the vines are loaded in the pictures below. These photos are only a very small portion of the garden.


Tom also planted green beans, zucchini, summer squash, broccoli, and cucumbers. We are still picking green beans and squash.

Ghost earrings

Booo! Now don't be afraid. These little ghost's won't harm you. Halloween is creeping up on us faster than we know.  I saw these little handmade lamp work glass ghost beads, and  I  just had to buy them. This morning I made them into a pair of earrings. Aren't they cute? Not scary at all. I think they must be related to Casper. :-)  I also made another pair of pumpkin earrings.

This morning I took a walk into the woods to find a branch to display my earrings on so I could take a photo of them. Walking in the woods, I couldn't believe the amount of acorns that had fallen to the ground and made lots of crunchy noises as I walked along searching for just the right branch.
Here is  a photo of a tree that's leaves have already turned color.



The background fabric in the photos; is  fabric that I bought yesterday at JoAnn's.  I plan on making a small pillow featuring the haunted house section. Unfortunately you can't see the whole image in the photo. The small skeleton fabric beneath the earrings is also a piece of  fabric I bought yesterday. Fun stuff!

I also took a photo of the strands of beads I bought yesterday at not simply beads. It was very sunny and I kept getting shadows. Drats, I hate when that happens.
The first strand is olive, brown and a greenish turquoise, a strand of multicolor bell flower shapes to be used as angel bodies for earrings in purple, green, blues, dark pink/maroon, a strand of rust colored, green with navy (love these), and lastly, purple Czech glass discs.