The Castle Lights are Growing Dim.......

Here's our Halloween trick or treat night in a nutshell. 

It was soooooo rainy and windy but we still had loads of kids!

It was great fun!

Frankenstein and his Bride Costume Build

This year James and I were Frankenstein and The Bride! Thought I'd share how we got the costumes thrown together. It was the BEST year ever! So many creative ideas and fantastic costumes..... Don't know how we're going to keep up next year.

Santa's Trousers, Pattern and Instructions

This Santa is created with STAEDTLER Fimo and Puppen Fimo and is featured in this winter's PolymerCafe Magazine. 

As promised in the issue, here are the instructions a pattern for his trousers. His jacket, cloak and cap will follow with full tutorials of their own.

I'll help you through pattern drafting process as well as fitting the wee clothes to your doll.

A Dress Shirt Pattern for Santa

This jovial fellow is created with STAEDTLER Fimo and Puppen Fimo and is featured in this winters PolymerCafe Magazine. 

As promised in the issue, here is the first of his outfit pattern posts.

I'll try to help you through pattern drafting process as well as fitting the wee clothes to your doll.

Please use the comments section at the bottom of each clothing post to ask questions. I'll be on daily to help you all through the process. 

I made the shirt pattern in the middle of my body construction. Before I added the head permanently. It's much easier to make the pattern and dress the doll without the pesky head getting in the way. Stretch the arms out sideways and lay the doll on some brown paper. Trace around the dolls body giving about a 1/4 inch on all sides to make sure there is enough fabric to wrap around the body. We'll add a seam allowance later.

Our Retro Santa is a Cover Boy!

I know we're in the middle of Halloween preparations, however this couldn't wait!

I'm pleased as punch to announce that our Retro Santa made with STAEDTLER's Puppen Fimo has made the cover of PolymerCafe magazine for December 2013!

Follow the link to grab your copy and stay tuned to this blog to get step by step instructions on pattern construction to make his outfits. 

Yes there are two outfits!!

One long coat and hood for a Father Christmas 

and one cap and jacket for a traditional retro Santa Clause!

The shirt will be up next week and the other clothing items will follow weekly so you can have your own little classic Santa ready for the Holidays!

#PicMonkeyBOO Halloween Contest!

PicMonkey is holding a Halloween contest!!!

The prize is a years worth of their advanced photo editing tools. It's a free Royal membership for a year if you win!

Here are some of my entries. 

I'm having a ball with these tools.

Myself as a ghoul....

Mummy Hand Tutorial

This is a really great way to pre-make some bandage wrapped hands for a costume, so you won't have to take time from your makeup on the event night to wait for the glue to dry....

I used some of our torn cotton sheet sets for this. I cut them into roughly 1 -2 inch strips. I started wrapping at my fingertips and worked my way down each finger. I used Fabri-tak fabric glue from Beacon adhesives because it has an amazingly fast grip.

Upside Down Apple Pie Cake

We've been completely swamped with seasonal projects these last few weeks. I'm finding it hard to keep up. We were gifted some delicious apples last week and are trying up new recipes to use them all up. 

This happened. We cooked up some sliced apples with cinnamon, sugar and pear syrup until they were a golden brown. Then we mixed up some plain cake batter and poured it over top the apples and baked it just like that.

I highly recommend this! The cake was sooooo moist when we turned the cake out the apples soaked right into the soft hot cake. We ate it all before it even had a chance to cool.

Do you have a favorite apple recipe?

The Creature

Here's a fast step by step on how I use my STAEDTLER Karat Aquarel watercolour pencils. I'm continuing on with my Monster theme for the season, but you could use these techniques with any subject matter.

I start by sketching out my basic design on a dry sheet of watercolour paper. After I get the design straight I can use a wet brush to blend the outlines. I scribble some of the colours I want to use onto a scrap piece of watercolour paper and call it a pallet. I can use my damp brush to pick up some of this scribbled colour and add it to the piece. 

Here's the creature with most of the work done.

I scribble background colour onto another pallet paper and wet my whole background down with plain water. Then I add some of the scribbled background colour and watch it run.

Background done!

Lastly, after the piece has completely dried, I use my STAEDTLER pigment liner 0.5 to outline the detail and sign the piece.

Hope your having a fabulous fall so far!!!