Too Early for Halloween? Never!

It might be too early for YOU to think about Halloween, but it's never too early for a Halloween-lover or a crafter, or the subscriber's to Kari Ramstrom's private Sweet and Sinister blog. Kari http://artsymama.blogspot.com was swamped with requests to join her second-annual Sweet and Sinister swap and/or to subscribe to her project/idea blog- so much so, that she had to create two blogs!

I was thrilled when she contacted me to ask me to be a guest designer for this blog and swap. So, natch, I made some haunted houses, one of my favorites from last year, too. I love getting the plain cardboard house forms and dressing them up for any holiday. Priscilla http://sweetremembrance1.blogspot.com and I swapped winter houses last year.

Anyway, I can't give you my step-by-step instructions or more pics for my houses. You'll just have to watch for Kari's swap next year and hope to get in! I'm giving away one of my houses this year on her private blog, but check below for a give-away in honor of my blog-aversay here (until Aug. 15).

Bunnies and Chicks and Eggs, Oh My!

This really isn't a hodge podge. It makes perfect sense to me anyway. I'll call it a visual chronicle of my weekend. You don't see any eating or sleeping pictured here, do you? First off, we have Ma Bunny and her baby bunlets paper mache'd into an egg for The Shabby Cottage Studio Design Team February project. You can find the lovely papers and collage images here http://www.shabbycottagestudio.com/ as well as projects from my Seven Shabby Sisters. Congrats to Shabby Sister Carole Dawn Brinkley http://cdsartisticendeavors.blogspot.com/, who just found out she is to be in the next Artful Blogging magazine by Somerset/Stampington http://www.stampington.com/ and Shabby 'Mom' Gail Schmidt, owner of SCS, will be featured in Stampington's Digital issue coming out any minute. Stars*Go*Blue's Debora Lockard http://www.artbydebora.etsy.com/ will also be featured.

Vintage Vavoom by the editors of Romantic Homes magazine is pictured because I am in the process of reading and reviewing it for my new gig on http://www.vintageindie.com/, run by the fabulous Gabreial, whom I met on the Cottage Style Street Team for Etsy. Search by the acronym CSST on http://www.etsy.com/ for wonderful treasures. I'll also be writing about great little vintage indie shops found along the way in my travels, and reviewing other books and mags.

Next up is the darling chickie box I received from Vivian Neroni http://vivs-whimsy.blogspot.com/ in our own little swap. The chick is hand sculpted paper clay, and the inside of the box bears a treasure. I just love it!

Finally, here is the handmade journal for the ZNE Artists and Poets group journal swap. My assignment was to make a journal for Allison Berringer http://musingsofnosilla.blogspot.com/ of Canada. I chose handmade paper for the cover and inside, stamped birds and feathers on the cover, and a feather motif on the inside pages. Then, I embellished the cover with paper flowers, brads, glitter and feathers. I bound this myself with my new Zutter binder. Never you mind that I assembled it with the cover upside down the first go-'round. To complete the journal, I added fibers and beads to the spine, and put two poems inside. One was Trees by Joyce Kilmer for nature-lover Allison, and one was to be a favorite of mine, which I will leave you with here, by e. e. cummings.

anyone lived in a pretty how town

by E. E. Cummings

anyone lived in a pretty how town

(with up so floating many bells down)

spring summer autumn winter

he sang his didn't he danced his did

Women and men (both little and small)

cared for anyone not at all

they sowed their isn't they reaped their same

sun moon stars rain

children guessed (but only a few

and down they forgot as up they grew

autumn winter spring summer)

that no-one loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf

she laughed his joy she cried his grief

bird by snow and stir by still

anyone's any was all to her

someones married their everyones

laughed their cryings and did their dance

(sleep wake hope and then) they

said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon

(and only the snow can begin to explain

how children are apt to forget to remember

with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess

(and noone stooped to kiss his face)

busy folk buried them side by side

little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep

and more by more they dream their sleep

no one and anyone earth by april

wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)

summer autumn winter spring

reaped their sowing and went their came

sun moon stars rain

Paper Box Has a Bad Hair Day

It doesn't really go together, but this paper whimsy box was created with background inspiration from ABC's "Private Practice" and "Dirty Sexy Money." I think Tim Daly, Donald Sutherland and Peter Krause were my muses tonight. Such serious eye candy on mindless TV.

The box is a paper-covered wood box with two different sizes of aged rose florals. The face is courtesy of Sandra Evertson's book, Fanciful Paper Projects. I decoupaged the face to a wood ball that I had painted dark pink. Thinking I would make a hat or hair, I spent about an hour curling tiny strips of paper, only to end up with frills that look like they belong on turkey legs, or feet, or whatever it is that sticks up.

So, then I tried to make a cone hat, which of course made her look like a Conehead. So I started to draw on black pincurls but stopped myself from going black by using a gold marker, thinking I could always go darker later. Not sure I am happy yet, but I sprayed on some gold glitter for good measure and will study it in the a.m.