Happy Hallowe'en!!!! Day 31

Today's the day!

I can't believe we made it!

I feel good that I pushed myself to finish, even though

I really wanted to just quit and sleep. A few times. 

Glad I made it to the end.

I wanted to share a smattering of my actual Halloween-type shirts.

The three are from Toxic Toons/Eric Pigors, and the Jack Shinnington

shirt is from Fright Rags. The chick in the coffin glows in the dark. Bonus! 

I had been dying to make these pumpkin spice cupcakes. 

That is until I was halfway through making the buttercream frosting by hand,

and realized that this was way too labor intensive for me! But I was almost

done and wanted to try the pumpkin spice frosting and the cupcake together. 

So here is a great shot of my crappy piping skills.

Good thing this isn't chocolate frosting....

Despite their slightly 'rustic' appearance, they were/are delicious!

And they photograph pretty well, also. 

Have you heard of the "Busy Mockingbird"? She is an artist

who draws gorgeous faces and heads of people or whatever,

and then she lets her young daughter 'finish' the drawing in her 

own style. They both are some amazing ladies. 

As if that weren't enough, she has begun to sculpt these adorably

creepy, and kinda fugly, Monster Puppies!! 

I chose this one to come and live with me. Isn't he sweet?

This one is actually a brooch, but she makes necklaces and actual

plushies with these kinds of faces.   

I just wanted to share this photo because it is beyond

cool! And beautifully shot.

Here is the final page of that Halloween themed paper bag album

I have been working on all month. I still have some fine tuning to do,

but pretty much like Halloween, this thing is done. I just need to add covers

and add ribbons to the binding edge. 

I used a cool raven image (from parts unknown) and a Happy Halloween

image from Stampin' Up. I clear embossed the 31 after I colored it orange

using Copics. Then I used some distress inks to finish off the background.

I'm happy it's done, and I'm proud of the work I put into it. I couldn't have

done it without these Halloween hops. Lots of work, but great fun.

I hope to see you guys lurking and whatnot in the future.

I'm going to go hibernate for a week or two....  

I will leave you with a couple of snapshots of my squirrel baby, 

Foxxi.

I'd say she is feeling 100% better than two weeks ago.

Gabbi is 100% as well, but declined to have her photo taken. 

Diva.  

Thank you again, for all of your kind words and prayers.

I am positive it made a huge difference for me, which in turn,

helped my babies.

You guys ROCK! 

   

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!!! 

Sexy Winged Beast Day 26

I must say that I have enjoyed better Octobers.

This has been a rough one. And by the time it's over

I'll be ready to enjoy it. That's why all the decorations

will be out until Thanksgiving. Well, there are a good amount

that stay out all year long, but you get the idea.

Check out this schmexy chick from Rick St. Dennis.

Her name is 'Batty Bettina'. Pretty cute, huh?

I colored in non-traditional Halloween colors for a change.

I was beginning to bore myself with the same old lime green,

orange, and purple color schemes. It was difficult to find papers

that looked okay, though....

I am almost completely done with this Halloween themed album.

Three more pages, and the covers, and I am done. Finally.

It has been fun though. I have no idea what I'm going to do with

it once I'm done, but I'll figure something out. 

Thanks for sticking with me so far. 

Not much longer now, and we can get back to our

regularly scheduled lives.  

Be sure to check out these month

long blog hops going on right now!

31 Days of Halloween 

Countdown to Halloween  

PARVO UPDATE:

Both the girls are on the mend!! Foxxi is doing very well. We are so

proud of her progress. She even felt well enough to model her fall sweaters 

for us yesterday. Gabbi is eating solid foods, and is happy she doesn't need a 

sweater. I think we're going to be okay. Can I cry now? What a week.....  

Trick 'R Treat Frankenstein Day 25

The days are really buzzing by lately.

Time flies when have none.

I wanted to share this incredible replica of Sam's sucker

from 'Trick 'R Treat'. I purchased it through a shop called,

Candy Corn Apocalypse 

run by a funny and talented fella named, Anthony Rapino. 

Anthony sculpted the original design and then cast it in 

this great translucent resin. I bought the aged bloody variant.

'Cause I'm a sick puppy like that. Did ya see what I did there? 

Check out Anthony's shop and see all the cool Trick 'R Treat and

Leslie Vernon magnets he has also sculpted. I bought a set of 

unpainted magnets of Sam with, and without his mask, and a 

masked Leslie Vernon, as well. I still need to paint those...

I made another page for that pesky paper bag album.

I made a Frankenstein themed page, complete with pocket and insert.

I used a cute Frankenstein image from Mashi Muffins (Wendy Chew).

 I really like her style of art. I also really like candy corn colored hair. 

It makes my purchase feel validated when a craft item 

has multiple functions. I just picked up this icicle border die 

from Cottage Cuts and I used lime green cardstock to resemble 

green ooze. Add some Stickles and you have fancy green ooze.  

I needed something to break up all that candy corn. 

Here is my insert. I used some cool old film poster images,

but most disturbing is the strange photo of Frank as a

small child. At least he finally grew into that wrecking ball

of a head of his.

I'm still hanging in there and am hoping to maybe get a jump

on next week's projects this weekend.

Wanna see some cool Halloween posts? Check out these month

long blog hops going on right now!

31 Days of Halloween 

Countdown to Halloween  

Quick parvo puppy update:
Foxxi was greatly improved yesterday. She was a hungry, happy tail girl.

She received a well needed bath and spent some time drying in the sun.

Yesterday was not a good Gabbi day. Hopefully, she's in the last stages of this

horrible disease. Still no appetite, but is drinking water on her own. Kind of.

She's only three/four days into this, so we're hoping for a better day today. 

Thank you again, for all of your well wishes and good vibes.

I think it's working. :)

The Elusive Halloween Spider Day 17

Looks like I've gotten my second wind, and none too soon.

Here we are at Day 17 of the 31 Days of Halloween and the

Countdown to Halloween already. Time sure flies when you

have to wait all year for the best holiday ever.

Every year it seems to sneak up on me earlier and earlier.

I have yet another fabulous paper bag album page for your

viewing pleasure.

This time I give you the elusive Halloween Spider.

She only comes out of hiding four to five weeks each year,

and it's exclusive to October.

This is the insert for the actual album page. I have used the 

Rick St. Dennis skulls rubber stamp from the Morte set,

available only through the rubber club at Smeared Ink. 

I colored the background image with Distress Inks and splattered 

some inks in white and black to break it up a bit.

The star of the show is the tarantula digi image from Smeared Ink. 

She's all dolled up with Copics.

Here's the album page with the pocket on the left.

I used coordinating papers from an old paper pad from

Recollections (maybe?). I used an EK spider web punch, and

bridged the gap between the papers with a glittery spider tape,

definitely from Recollections.     

This is the insert peeking out from the pocket.

Isn't she beautiful? I am rather fond of how she turned out.

And is there any doubt it's a girl with that glorious coloring?

Insert all tucked away safely inside the pocket the end flap

of the paper bag provides. Just a bit of glue on the top and

bottom to seal it off and complete the pocket.

I think I spent most of my time searching for just the

right label. I think I found it.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Have you entered my giveaway found here?

You have until the 25th to sign up.

Mixed Media Mania Day 9

Being that I have Halloween on the brain 365 days a year, I'm sure it's no

surprise that I have a few (hundred) unfinished projects lying around.

That doesn't include all of the projects I have been "collecting" things for,

and the ones still bumping around in the ol' nugget.

Always on the look out for possible makeover pieces, I picked this up at

the Dollar Store. Cute, nice size (4"x7"), and a solid frame/shadow box.

I have been wanting to make a mixed media shadow box using

various eclectic findings in a Halloween theme. I began by flipping the box around 

and using the backside as a frame. I glued in some Abigail Larson wallpaper 

(freebie from her facebook page) in orange.

I used the scraps to add interest to the sides and top of the box.

   

And then it sat for weeks. Weeks. 

I kept adding stuff to the box until I figured there 

wasn't anything else to throw in there. And I had

better get busy before it was the end of October.

This is the final result of my chaos.

I think I LOVE it.

I distressed a Dollar Store skeleton lady cameo with TH distress paints,

and strung some seam binding through it. I used a cool button from a dear friend

(thanks, Lynne!), a silk flower, some cheesecloth, a key, and a sprinkling of 

Martha Stewart Jack-o-lantern glitter (thanks, Celina!).  

The wooden medicine bottle is from Porkchop Show on Etsy, the other

two bottles I made myself, and the skull is another Dollar Store find.

More Porkchop Show pieces for the moon, bat, and grave marker.

Some black paper roses with some Rock Candy Stickles added for 

sparkle. And one of those cool spiders that I highlighted with Inka Gold.

Someone had to be responsible for all of that webbing (cheesecloth).

I'd like to share this with the following challenges:

Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes

Punkyou Girl - Anything Goes/Halloween

Recycle, Repurpose, and Reinvent - October Halloween Fall

Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Halloween or Not 

Inspiration Emporium - In Disguise

I can guarantee I will making more of these in the future.

I had too much fun! And I think I found all of my schtuff to 

make them with. That's progress right there. 

Speaking of progress, this is a paper bag album that I started last year.

I got as far as the cover and a couple of inside pages, but never added to it

until this month.

The cover has a pocket with a blank piece of green

card stock with a pretty tab on it. 

I stamped and sprayed the bejeezus out of that card stock.

I used a cool, new skull stamp my friend Kristy sent to me for my birthday.

She's working with a new Spellbinders sister company. Check it out here.

I finally dusted this set of corner stamps off and inked one of them up.

I believe they're wood mount from Inkadinkado.

My secret for almost fool-proof stamping is to use Versafine pigment ink 

in black, and then clear emboss the image. Nearly perfect every time, and

a nice dark image. The Versafine picks up the tiniest of details and the embossing 

powder must be ultra fine to hold those details. The grain is much smaller than 

standard embossing powder. 

I spritzed the page with white and black Dylusions inks to break up all of 

that lime, and to camouflage a boo-boo. Did you see it?   

Here is the little tab using a Stampin' Up tab punch,

a spider brad, and some bright ribbons.

Thanks for dropping by today.

I'll be back tomorrow with more Halloween awesomeness to share.