Speckled Egg Hat Swap

This lovely chapeau has now been completed for the Speckled Egg Halloween Witch Hat Swap. A lot of people made paper cones, but I found this satin-like hat for $1 (sorry, recipient Jen). I then added fabric stiffener (didn't even know this existed in a spray bottle- thought I would have to use liquid starch). Once this was done, I attached a large crow, which my cats had tried to abscond with. I also added skulls, bones, black roses, and gold glitter. Through the point I added a removeable silver wand for emergency spell-casting. The wand is embellished with gold glitter and black fun fur. On top of all this is a lovely black veil and orange feather pouf. Now, how to mail, how to mail?

That Peaches & Cream Complexion

Here is a copy of a recent collage using some of my vintage magazine finds from Better Homes and Gardens and McCalls from the 1930s to 1950s. I see I didn't do the best job copying or scanning, since I cut off a couple of key comments, such as "All they ever wanted to talk about was her crow's feet" and "Are you really lovely to love?" Well, clearly not with all these crow's feet- kind of all over, huh? Collage doesn't have to make any sense- that's why I like it.

I am now going to try my hand at making a glass charm similar to those in my book club book "Pretty Little Things." I had the silver foil tape and now I have my glass squares. This can be done without Flux and a soldering iron, although it won't look as nice. I also now have both a stuffed crow (on a crow kick, non?) and a stuff rat, and either will look divine on my witch hat, which gets mailed off to someone else. Come to think of it, all the good stuff gets mailed off to someone else, hmmmmm.

However, one lovely thing did come to me yesterday, and that was a silver soldered charm by Kris Hubick of Retro Cafe Gallery (see links at right). She did a great job-so smooth and the bail is placed so nicely. I just got a chain for it today as I decided it was too big for my charm bracelet, as I am afraid the others I have ordered from Sally Jean will be. Hard to do dangly when you're on the computer all the time.

I also hope to squeeze in another post tonight about Home and Color for both my ZNE assignment and my Caat assignment. I do take these seriously; I must have been a good little school girl. Were you?

New Halloween Trading Cards

I can't believe how many hours I just spent to make 10 Artist Trading Cards! It was over an hour per card. Then it took me another hour to photograph, upload, list on ebay, list in my groups, and now here I am! While listing them on ebay I realized my listing fees were more than my asking price! Talk about a smart business move! But in truth, I make them for fun, and I am amazed every time someone buys one. All the cutting, pasting, gluing and decorating are all just like playing to me. (The subject of our CaaT blog this week). They are listed under hpsgsmith on ebay, or click my link at right. Sorry, I can't bear to part with the "Little Witch." I raided my own vintage photos for that one, and by that I really mean MY own. So, I know it's a vintage photo of over 40 years old-ouch!