Bird ornament Swap.....

Stacie, Oliva and I have been working on bird ornaments together...Stacie's are all done and packaged. Here is a little peek........

Olivia's are half done and then we will do mine on Saturday......

I haven't made too many bird ornaments but I can show you a few......

A painted bird gourd.....

Little sewn Bird Magnets, but with a hanger they could be ornaments.

Merry Christmas hooties.

A paper and glittery bird

And a bird in his fabric birdhouse ornament.

I love inspiration. Before I make something, I love to google and see what else other people make. I thought it was really cool how Val showed some past birds. Here is my contribution to the idea pool!

giveaway........

I missed out on Vanessa's Halloween blog hop....so busy this year!  I had intended on using my zombie pincushion as a give away....but am giving it away on my regular blog instead.
If interested, pop by my blog starting tomorrow and leave a comment!

Thank you Spring!

  I am posting using my Mom's blog just in case you get confused. Also sorry for the delay, I have been picking up extra shifts at work and haven't been home much.
 Spring, your package came to my Mom's house and she called me at work to tell me it was here! I was so excited I rushed to her house first instead of going home. This was my first swap ever so I was pretty happy to get a "present" in the mail. Mom tried to help me with the tape and I had to tell her to "back off!" hahahaha
 Everything is wonderful.....

The tablerunner I immediately fell in love with. I don't have one so it was perfect. I love the teas and the little journal too. (you cant see it very well in the picture.)

And my VooDoo pincushion? Love it! She is a hipster for sure with all the peace signs.

Thanks again Spring for making my day! Stacie

just thinking.......

hmmmmmm.....is there time?

Birdies it is!

The vote is in and we are sticking to birdies for the 5 and 5 ornament swap!   We have 3 openings left so if you are going to join, do it now!  

Here are a few birdies I've made in the past....











now to do something different!

Thank you Susan!

There was a voodoo doll package waiting for me when I arrived at home today. 

Susan sent me this cute voodoo doll. It's on a glass pedestal. I think the idea of putting a voodoo doll pincushion on a pedestal is brilliant. I wish I had thought of that for the one I made. 

Susan also included some tea for fall, a potholder, pins and a Halloween themed table runner. Doesn't the runner look nice with my Halloween bowl?! All I need is to buy a few pounds of chocolate bars to fill up the bowl.  Thank you Susan I love my voodoo package.

Delivery confirmation says my package was delivered so I'm sharing a picture of the pincushion I sent my partner.  I forgot to take pictures of the tuck-ins I made. Thank you Val for satisfying our cravings for zombies and voodoo dolls. It was fun!

Speaking of zombies, this was the tire cover on the car in front of me this morning.  I couldn't resist taking a picture. I think it should say don't get bitten, but that's just me. I like zombies but I don't want to become one.

For The LOVE Of Little Halloween Dolls ...

Sarah K, you are one AWESOME swap partner .......
I received a totally fantastic swap package today .... Thank you, Thank you, Thank you .... I LOVE it :-)

 Here is my package in its entirety ..... Don't you just LOVE it !!! The little owl tote bag is lined and all super cute .... perfect for keeping a little "on the go" project safe.

 My sweet little voodoo pincushion ..... he's a wrist pincushion. I can't wait to use him :-)

 I adored the whole package, but THIS beauty is my absolute favorite ....she is phenomenal !!!! Her face is beautifully embroidered, and her hair has beads in it ....... her button eyes are just perfect !!!!

She has taken her rightful place alongside her Halloween friends, under my Halloween tree. My cute table runner, will be taking it's place under the tree pot shortly ..... I just needed to take its picture first.

Thank you SOOOOOO much Sarah for spoiling me like you did. This package was a precious treasure trove to receive :-)

BEST EVER!!!!!

Debbi's artistic endeavors found there way to my door... wow...jaw drop...happy dance...

Isn't she awesome!!! Look at those hands!! Wow!! Debbi also sent some wonderful tuck ins. A lovely Halloween Tin filled with candy corn, a beautiful little orange mercury glass candle, some ouija board mints and some hot cocoa. I feel spoiled! Thanks you Debbi for making my month!!! I need name suggestions for my new little friend here so if you have any please let me know. ;0) xoxoxoxo

it was me...

 

 

 

   little messy miss posted about the Day of the Dead pincushion she made because her swap partner liked DoD. I really hoped it was me she was talking about... and IT WAS!!!!! ((insert happy dance))

   I can't tell you how excited I was when I saw her name on the box. It's a DoD dream come true, especially since I'm not spending money on "unnecessaries". Messy Miss made it possible for me to add three new handmade pieces to my collection, a drawer to add small items to, if I can bear to not show off the sides, a felt sewing kit and the most awesome voodoo pincushion  e.v.e.r. She was so thoughtful, she even sent me a heart shaped rock because she knew I collect them.

        Thank You little messy miss for my box and Thank You Val for hosting. I'm ready for next year!

 

 

TTFN,

Chris =]

I finally found him!

A big thank you goes out to Melinda!  The delay with the post office was a bit tense, but the wait was so worth it!  My little doll is too creepy-cute to describe!  She made this awesome decoupage box and even added purple glitter to the pins!  I love it all Melinda!  Thank you thank you thank you!

Meet Dead Donald

A few years ago I did my first zombie doll swap right here with Val & Friends.  I saw a cartoon about zombie rehabilitation where the zombies were re-trained to do work by hanging a stick with a dangling brain in front of them. You know, dangling the proverbial carrot only in this case they like brains.  The idea intrigued me so I created Dead Fred.  I was so sad to see him go. I've often thought I'd like to make Dead Fred again for myself. When the zombie challenge was issued, I immediately thought about Fred. I dug up pictures so I could  re-make him, but true to myself I had to change it up a bit.  This time he's made from recycled wool sweaters and coats, one of my favorite mediums.

 Meet Dead Donald the newest zombie in town.  Like Fred he's part of the Zombie Rehabilitation program. I have his brain all made I just need to rig it up on the stick.  Even though he's not quite finished I couldn't resist sharing him. He's much bigger than I planned but I like how he turned out. I think we'll go sit down on the couch together and read the second book in the Alice in Zombieland series.

Voodoo Swap Tote Bag - Thank You Again!

When I wrote about the package I received from Kerry I was so overwhelmed with things going on in my life that all I could do was love the beautiful Voodoo doll and the other amazing gifts included with it. The week that I received it my boss's mother was hospitalized and my co-worker was stricken with a kidney stone which she will finally be having removed tomorrow! I have been holding down the fort at work, worrying about my boss, her amazing mom, my co-worker and to make it ever worse, I found out (that same week) that my Dad has cancer again and he began chemotherapy last week. Needless to say I was a bit frazzled! After two long weeks I am happy to say that there is good news on most fronts. My boss's mom continues to improve,  my co-worker will hopefully be back to work by Thursday and my dad is not suffering from any side effects from the treatments. Whew!

This weekend is the first time in over 2 weeks that I could sit and be hopeful. So, today I was finally able to relax a bit and I got to play with my pincushion swap goodies! When I did I realized that not only is the tote bag I received hand painted and embroidered, it was completely hand made by Kerry. So I had to post about it again!

As you can imagine, the package truly made my week and now that I am able to sit down and enjoy it I am just in awe of the beautiful work that went into my gift!! Kerry, thank you again. I really, truly appreciate the amount of hard work and skill that went into the gift you sent me!! 

Here She is...

Here she is. She's being a little dramatic, but then she's been that way during the entire process. I'll admit,it was all my fault. Originally I thought she was going to be a boy, she absolutely refused that and insisted that I immediately add a bow to what was left of her hair. She hated the first outfit that I so lovingly created so I made a second, and then a third :0) She is a very particular pincushion. I hope her new mom enjoys her. She is really looking forward to helping her with all projects that require pins and needles. She is filled with a mixture of fiberfill and crushed walnut shells which will sharpen the pins and needles. Her arms and legs are fully bendable and if you position her just right she'll stand on her own but I recommend sitting her down when in use.

Here is a look at the package that is going to my partner

Once again I had a great time creating for this swap!! A big thanks to Val for hosting and organizing these great swaps for us!!!

Annual Handmade Ornament Swap

It is time for my annual Christmas ornament swap!  As always, this swap is for handcrafted ornaments.  

This year the theme is "Birds of a Feather!"  

Everyone was happy with last year's swap so once again, we are doing a "5 for 5."  
What this means is that you will be sending 5 handmade ornaments in and receiving a variety of 5 ornaments back. Last year we had a wonderful assortment of ornaments.  Once you join, I will send you the flickr info so you can upload photos of your finished ornaments.  You can also post on the swap blog.
You do not have to have a blog or webpage to join this particular swap.

To sign up, send me an email at valpowery(at)yahoo(dot)com with your name, mailing address and blog or flickr link/info.  
I will close registration when I have 10 participants or October 26th.  I may allow additional participants but am keeping the swap small due to my work schedule!
This will be a USA only swap.

Please create something you would love to receive and be sure to package your ornaments in a nice, re-usable box so I can mail your new ornaments back to you in it. Try to keep your ornaments light in weight.  Last year we had a few ornaments arrive slightly banged up so please take care when wrapping and make sure they are cushioned, etc.  We want all our ornaments to arrive in pristine condition!

Shipping: Last year I learned that the amount I suggested for shipping back to you was on the low side so please send in $10.00 to cover the cost of sending ornaments back to you.  This will also cover tracking.   Please include a return address label already filled out.

Ship in time for me to receive them by Thanksgiving.  I would suggest November 9th.  This will give them 1-2 weeks to reach me.  That way, I can get them in time to mail them out by the first week of December.  Sadly, I can't guarantee you getting an exchange box if your ornaments do not reach me in time.  (If that happens, I'll gladly return your own ornaments to you using the money you sent for shipping.)  
Shipping funds are important!  If you forget to include shipping, your ornaments can't be sent/returned until you have sent me the funds to send/return them to you.

If you finish your ornaments early, feel free to send them to me early so I can start organizing them.

If time gets away from you and you need to back out, no big deal, just drop me an email and I'll remove you from the list.  

I'm asking all participants to post about the swap on Dec 21st to show off the lovely ornaments they received!  I will link to everyone so no one has to hunt for people's blogs.  Just stop by mine and blog hop from here!

Also, don't forget to grab the badge to put on your own blog to spread the word!

stick me

Here is the little pincushion I sent Susan.   
I went with cute instead of creepy.  I attached a little jar of pins so they would always be handy for those "stick-me" situations!

I added some additional pins and a few other goodies as the tuck ins...

I've not heard from her so I hope she likes it!

Zombie Mania !!!

I may just have gotten a few very strange looks in Barnes and Noble this evening ....... I guess the little shriek of excitement I let out, kinda deserved it !!! But hey, this type of find just floats my boat, and makes me extremely happy !!!
My family don't fully get just how excited I was to find this book, BUT you, my zombie loving swap friends, are sure too ....

 Just look at this book ..... crafty, literary perfection !!!!
They are knitted in such a way, that the pieces are interchangeable, allowing you to create over 1000 different zombies ..... oh the challenge that presents !!!!

Just look at these ... and there are many more !!!
I'm going to try REALLY hard to get one knitted before Halloween, to add to my Halloween Tree table (the one I decorated today), BUT, I think 2014, may have just become, the "See How Many Zombies We Can Knit In A Year" year ....

deja boo

It's Zomingo 2 ~ run for the hills!!!

 

  This time it more of deconstructing (ie: destroying) a perfectly harmless toy. It's so much fun, since it's a zombie no matter what I do, it's not wrong. This time it will have more blood splatters.

 

TTFN,

Chris =]

I made another zombie.....

This is my version of the White Rabbit. I call him Zombie Rabid. Because he is kinda crazy that way.bids

 I kind of took pictures of the steps because I thought it might help someone if you ever wanted to try using
polymer clay for a doll.

Here is Zombie Rabids polymer clay parts. I used pink clay, not white because I had no white. It is going to change anyway.  I love his funny teeth and eyes.  So you have his head with a neck, his hands and his feet plus a pocket watch. Anything that needs to be stuck in the body I put in a floral wire stem. I used two little beads stuck in sideways. I baked this at 240 degrees for and hour then shut the oven off leaving the pan in the oven to cool.....the packages of clay call for way less time, but then the pieces are soft.

Here is the body all ready to go......(This is how I did Malice too.) First I cut off part of a leg of panty hose for the body and I stuff it. Then I tie off the top and botton and I have a body. To make the clothes I use a hot glue gun and a sewing machine. I covered the body with the small black and white stripe and glued it in place.

For the vest I cut two triangle and pressed the edges and then sewed them. Then they went on with hot glue as did the buttons, and the chain with key.

The jacket I just randomly cut out three pieces and sewed the hems first then sewed the side and sleeve sides.

The pants I cut out two pieces and sewing the crotch pieces and then straight up and around the leg. Then I stuffed the pants.  I always use the eraser side of a pencil to stuff. It doesn't pierce the fabric that way if you really need to get it stuffed heavily.

at the waist leave room so you can stuff the lower part of the body into the pants then hot glue the pants onto the body where they touch.

Glue some trim to hide where the body and pants meet. 

Glue the jacket sides down.

The body is ready freddy.

After the clay pieces were dry I just used my finger and some Halloween makeup and went over the pieces. Then I used a high gloss topcoat.

When that was dry I worked the head, the hands and the feet into the stuffed body. Once I had the hole made I put hot glue on the floral wire.

Last step, glue a ruff around his neck.

Meet Rabid the Zombie

Rabid the the Rabbit wanders the hall.

Chasing his victims he hopes they fall.

With his shuffling gait and rotten face

no one would say he moves with grace.

He wants to eat you, he really does.

Because what you were, you now are what was.