Computer Trouble

Unfortunately, my very good and faithful friend Lappy the computer has breathed his last breath. I'm awaiting a newly built computer to house his memories. Sorry for the brief post and my time away. We'll be back very soon with a new year full of fun projects and experiments.

Aunt Janet made us these BEAUTIFUL ornamnets this year and I had to share them with you.

The Santa is felted. Isn't he cute!!??

These are FIMO Air Light discs that have been stamped and coloured and coated with FIMO Deco Gel

Soooooo Pretty!

Happiest of Holiday wishes to you all.

Some Christmas Baking

We've been having a load of fun getting the Christmas baking started.

Lily's helping by picking out some recipes.

These ones were pretty good. They're cherry cheesecake biscuits.

We made Grandpa George's saltine cracker toffee and added some reindeer.

We also made some lime cordial cookies. I think these are my very favorite. They're just plain icebox cookies with lime zest and a bit of juice added to the batter. I glazed them with a simple icing sugar/ powdered egg white and lime zest and juice glaze. They're a bit tart. but they are a great change after all the sweet/

Giveaway Winner!

First, before we announce the winner (I know, I know you're very excited to see who won), we have to show you what we got last night while we were sleeping!

SNOW!!!

Ok..... Here we go!

And the winner of our fantastic STAEDTLER colouring for grown ups giveaway IS!!!

Congrats Bev!

Bev said, "Hoping I win Kellie!!! I'm missing colouring. Was noting that to my Kelly just the other day. Would LOVE to work with such nice quality tools!!!"

I'll need you to write me with your mailing address and phone # for the shipping slip.

(My email can be found on my contact page.)

Thanks to everyone who entered.

This grown up colouring thing is fantastic!

We'll see more of it soon I'm sure.

STAEDTLER Colouring Giveaway!

Contest Closed

Winner will be announced Soon!

Follow our Blog and leave a comment on this post to enter!

Enter to win a STAEDTLER Coloring Set! 

Prize includes one 20-piece set of triplus® fineliner pens, one 24-piece STAEDTLER colored pencil set and a copy of the new Johanna Basford “Lost Ocean” coloring book. 

Retail value of this set is $60.00. 

Open only to residents in the US and Canada.

The giveaway will be drawn on the 22nd of November.

Good luck!

Snowman Snow Globe Pendant

It’s cuteness overload. Create this mini snowman in a glittery water-world in just a few easy steps. The

package will make tons of these so you might want to have another idea ready for the rest of the clay. How

about some flat ornament shapes cut out with cookie cutters? Visit www.fimo.com for more project ideas.

materials:

 1 package FIMO air basic, 8100-0 white

Staedtler Lumocolor permanent marker, Black

 White rat tail or any thin smooth white cording

Aquarium sealant

Glycerin

Clear or white glitter

Mini glass bead vials or tiny jars emptied and cleaned

Orange seed beads

Wire

tools:

Double round nosed jewelry pliers with cutters

basic supplies:

Clear nail polish top coat, Distilled water (or previously boiled and cooled water) white glue

Remembering

Expressing gratitude to all those who have served.

My Grandpa George (Frank) Mitchell, Uncle Walt and Uncle Benny.

My Grandma Maggie sending her 19 year old boyfriend off. 

(This is Grandpa George from the above picture). 

This picture was taken by Grandma's brother Uncle Fred. 

So very grateful we got our boys back. 

There have been too many who never came home.

Thank you isn't enough.

Halloween 2015

Breakfast was peach and blue cheese pancakes with extra thick cut bacon. Halloween (everyday) coffee mug made by Big Duluth Creative Studios.

Halloween baking was delicious. We had red velvet cupcakes with orange flavor icing and peanut butter and sea salt cookies.

We had some delicious spooky pasta shapes with meat sauce and cheese for our lunch

Our spider egg sack potatoes turned out very well this year. We put them under the broiler to brown up before we served them.

Two arachnid roasts made it to the table and I'm sorry to say there were absolutely no leftovers this year.

There were a heap of pumpkins to carve and everyone had a go. Sebastian got to gobble up some stray pumpkin bits. They're his favorite treat.

Lily loved to pull the seeds out of the pumpkins. Sooooo gooey!

Some of our frightening jacks that made it to the porch.

We are having some spectacularly lovely weather. Hope you're having a fantastic fall too!

Fascinating!

My favorite time of year for food. Love me some home made soup. This one has pumpkin,squash, sweet potato and carrot with a goat cheese and pumpkin seed garnish.

Yum!

We're getting ready for the big night!

Hair accessories are made and ready to share.

Lily has picked out even more pumpkins!

Must make sure there will be enough to go around.

We've got the costumes all finished and fitted. 

Somebody's pretty excited to find out what all the hub bub is about.

Haunted Neighborhood Houses Planter in Craft Ideas Magazine

Our Haunted House Planter made from STAEDTLER Fimo 

was featured in the Fall 2015 issue of Craft Ideas Magazine!

They were loads of fun to design and make and they add HEAPS of spook to your Halloween decor.

Get your copy today!

All patterns are available through the Craft Ideas site.

The instructions are in the Fall 2015 issue.

Here's a look at the cover.

Great Magazine!

Pin Up Ghoul on STAEDTLER's Cover Page!

So happy to see this little ghoul again!

She's being featured on the STAEDTLER cover page with the product of the month!

You guessed it!

FIMO!!!

Happy October!

Little G the Goblin Bowl Featured in Craft Ideas!

We are pleased as punch that our STAEDTLER FIMO Air Goblin candy bowl 

has been featured in Craft Ideas.

It was a super fun and easy project!

Hop on over to CRAFT IDEAS and try it out for yourself!

WitchiPoo, Jimmy and Freddy the Flute from HR Puff N Stuff

James and I chose to be Witchipoo and Jimmy with Freddy the Flute for Halloween this year. James made Freddy the flute while I was a floor down sewing. He used a single piece of glitter foam and the hot glue gun. A fantastic job! His costume was a yellow, large collared shirt, brown pants and a belt and a mop wig.

 I wanted to share the prosthetic process with you.

 I do also want to mention that if you ever really want to mortify yourself and take your ego down a notch then take some pictures for a make up tutorial. Jeeze Louise! This is why you don't regularly see many pics of me on the blog.....

So...... here goes! 

Hope this helps  you Halloweenies!

I started with a clean dry face. It helps the spirit gum and liquid latex to stick if you get rid of the surface oils on your skin. Oh, it's very important to test the products on your inner arm (or some place sensitive and out of sight) just to make sure your not sensitive to the products. I used the spirit gum to glue a cotton ball to the end of my nose and my chin. (I walked around the house like this for a bit just for shits and giggles.

I gave the cotton a coat of liquid latex. It's important to use a soft paintbrush that you don't mind pitching.There is NO WAY you will ever get the latex out of the brush after. I keep the brush in the latex pot when I'm not using it so it doesn't dry out as I use it. A wet with latex brush won't stick to the cotton, but a dry one will.

I dried the latex with a hair dryer and applied two more coats, drying between coats.I added single layers of loo roll (toilet paper) torn on the edges to the top layer.

Here's the work shaped and drying. Don't try to rush this by using the hottest setting. You'll end up burning your skin. Slow and steady! Be careful!

I painted on some opaque foundation and let it dry. 

Next I brushed on a very small bit of green mineral powder. Witchipoo is a wee bit green. It's subtle. I set the whole thing by dusting it with cornstarch.

I sketched in the eye shapes with a grey liner pencil and filled the eyes in with white cream makeup.

This is cream eyeliner that you apply with a brush. It won't smudge or bleed until you take it off with remover. I have those pesky wrinkle things and have to be careful of makeup bleeding when I smile. And I smile a whole lot!   :D

I added the rosy cheeks and a tiny blush to the nose and chin.

This was the hardest part. I trimmed off a hunk of the wig at the back of the nape and used it to make her eyebrows. I already had some cream foundation on my eyebrows, so I figured it couldn't hurt to just spirit gum those bits of hair right onto my own substantial brows. Brave of me, Huh? It was fine! I used a warm soapy cloth to soak them right off after the party. Came off a treat but I did have some spirit gum remover on hand just in case. Remember to take care when using the remover near your eyes folks!

I used a STAEDTLER permanent marker to add black stripes to my red tights. 

(shameless product plug. But I do love me my STAEDTLER!!!)

Green poster paint worked a treat to make the green stripes. Painted them right on while I was wearing the tights. No need to worry about the mess of my legs after! 

I drafted a dress pattern for this one and forgot to take pics. It was a basic empire waist full skirted thing with leg of mutton slashed sleeves. The dress was made from thrifted curtains and cost a total of two dollars.

All things considered, having started only 24 hours before the party.I think it turned out well. Heaps of folks actually knew who we were! Even sang us the theme song!

Happy Costuming Folks!