Soul Journey Halloween Blog Style

10/29 @1:41 am ... and the winners are:

Chris @ Prism Trail

Emilie @ Bunch of Scrap

&

Melissa @ Holiday Queen

10/28/08 @ 8:08 pm ... I've been slow on the uptake and haven't pulled the names for the drawing, so I only think it's fair to toss in all the comments (that worked in the word "wicked" to be elligible) received until right now ... winner(s) will be announced soon!

Great! you've made it ... and just in time to get on the Boo Bus Express to the Halloween Fair!

It shouldn't take us long to get out to the farm, so relax and enjoy the ride.

Look! it's Ms. Goat ... she says we're almost there!

Here we are ...

It really is a lovely day ... where should we start? the Pumpkin patch? OK ...

there are plenty to choose from ... we should grab a few extra for the Pumpkin Cannon!



WOW! that was seriously crazy.

I'd like to rest my feet for a minute or two. Would you care to see:

That little ghost sure was amazing ... I had no idea he'd know how to tap dance!

Looks like the next show is at:

I'd rather not wait, if you don't mind.

What is Malificent doing up on the roof?!? I hope she doesn't fall.

Shall we head on over to Madama Furtunata's place? I have been sooooo looking forward to seeing her.

It seems she has a new pet ... don't get too close, this emu looks a bit possessed.

How nice, there aren't any lines. Did you remember to bring a gift? That sounds perfect!

Madame Fortunata was in an extra good mood today ... it's not often she invites us to go along with her to a party!

... and a Soul Journal Halloween Blog Party at that ...

Alright everyone, let's pile back onto the Boo Bus Express for Collage Diva's

Click the image above to visit Kathryn Party and all the guests that are attending

I hope you've enjoyed your visit ... you're welcome back anytime.

Special Notes:

All paper toys (the Boo Bus, the Ghost Show & Madame Fortunata's) are free downloads from the Toymaker's Halloween Section - go check out the plethora of cool paper toys she's made available: HERE

All photographs were taken by me (on our recent homeschoolers trip to Hunsader Farms).

ps - if you've made it this far, you might be pleasantly surprised to learn that I do have a giveaway for this post ... shhhh! it's a secret (not really, but it is a mystery prize). If you would like to be included in the drawing, please be sure to leave a comment & work the word "wicked" in there somewhere ... I've been on a dorky "wicked cool" kick lately and I am thinking if I see the word enough, I just might let it go. :)

All eligible comments posted by 6:00 pm EST tomorrow (Monday, October 27th) will be entered.

Spooktacular 'Anything Goes' Party

10/20/08 Update:

First, I would like to once again thank Vanessa for hosting such a fun (if not EXHAUSTING) event - that girl sure knows how to throw a party!

I would also like to thank every single one of you for taking the time to stop in and leave me a comment. It does a soul good.

Without further ado, the giveaway winners are ...

Mock Sugar Skulls: Marilyn Butler, Sara at Pipscrap

& Sandra Evertson

Kitty: Sabii Wabii

Disclaimer from the beginning: Rather than wait (till after work) and show up to the party in the early evening, I decided to stay up way too late (and show up to work on the groggy side of me) ... nice to know my priorities are in the right place ... lol ... be patient with the one of little sleep. :)

Thank you, Vanessa, for hosting the Halloween Anything Goes Party!

As is very common for one such as myself, I had all these grand intentions of telling spooky ghost stories & decorating as if I were a slightly twisted version of Martha Stewart (on crack, no doubt), but it seems I lack the necessary time management skills to properly execute my grand visions ...

Don't fret too much ... I WAS able to produce two firsts for all of you pretties. I sure hope you enjoy the treats ...

First up - Mock Sugar Skulls! I spent a lot of years in Phoenix, Arizona and was exposed to Day of the Dead at a fairly young age. I was always drawn to the celebration with all the fantastic traditions, altars and skeleton art that went along with it. This year I was thinking that I would paint my face like a sugar skull ... which lead me to thinking that it would be cool to try to paint some as Halloween decorations. Here's my first batch:

I was thrilled when I found little bags of small plastic skulls. I coated the skulls in Gesso. Initially I had used markers on them, but quicky learned that the markers I had didn't stick - the littlest moisture and they were all smeared beyond recognition. Next I played around with paint and a tiny brush. Much better. I couldn't resist doing a few in simple black on white (go figure, right) and then I let Sadie pick out a set of colors for the other two. Below are close-up's of the five pictured above ... three of them are part of my Halloween giveaway ...

And that's not all. I have also sewn my very first plushie! I found a free pattern "Pointy Kitty" by Hillary Lang, a Wee Wonderful original pattern (free as in: make one for yourself, your kids, your friends & neighbors, but please do not sell toys made from this pattern - seems more than reasonable to me).

The pattern was easy to follow & I am really happy to introduce you to kitty:

Kitty hasn't been named, yet. I'll leave the naming to the other winner of my giveaway.

So, that's four winners in all. Three will get a Mock Sugar Skull and one gets Kitty. Leave a comment if you would like to be included in the drawing ... and have a most Spooktacular time visiting all the party pit stops. Hope to see you again soon!

10/18 update - All comments posted up to 6:00 pm (EST) Monday, October 20th

will be entered in my giveaway drawing.

Results ... Update ... Reminder

That's right, it's official! The Pink Artists Project has come to an end ...

$3,028.34

was raised to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure

.

.

.

How about that update on the Red Art Project?

After my last post I ended up painting over all the sponging in solid red ... I am happy to see the umbrella's pop again:

The piece is still in progress, so stay tuned ...

... BUT ...

... I am forced (I admit it, willingly forced) to take a pause on

The Red Art Project

What?!?

What could possibly pull me away from it?!?

Did you forget?

.

.

.

This Saturday is:

And I have a few suprises in store for the PARTY!!

Come back on Saturday

... you just might win a PRIZE ...

Soul Journal - Days 7, 8 & 9 ... Plus a Charmed Sneak Peek

Did you think Sadie and I had thrown in the towel on our Soul Journals? Nope, just put them on pause for a bit.

Day 7

We were instructed to journal (in small writing with a ball point pen) on two pages using the prompt, "I forgot to tell you". Once done, we covered the entire two pages in tape (Sadie and I used plain masking tape, blue painters tape and duct tape). Somehow I forgot to take a photo at the completion of Day 7 ... oh well.

Day 8

We sanded the tape to scuff the surface, put a light coat of gesso on and then painted (with a dry brush) and wiped off the paint - I used yellow and pink to make some sort of seriously Easter egg-ish washy finish. After the paint dried, we sanded the pages some more. This is how mine ended up:

oh! we also picked a flower and pressed it somewhere in the book ... hmmm ... wonder where it is.

Day 9

Time to revisit the pages started on Day 6 ... we were to add a lighter color (I actually chose three - magenta, a really light powdery blue and a glitter paint) - wiping and dabbing along the way. Once the paint was to a point that we liked, we had to grab a pen or marker and write: 8 words describing your pictures, circle one picture, draw a messy square around four, draw a dotted line around two and draw a broken "stitch" line around one. Work them till satisfied ... I started off with my handy dandy fine point Sharpie. I thought I was done when I finished the prompts ... UNTIL ... I saw the white Uniball that Sandy had sent along with the Mad Hatter Winning Package of goodness ... oh, I do believe that I am in LOVE ... ok, here's Day 9 fini:

and a close-up to boot:

... and it should also be noted that Sarah asked how many of us found and put together the word "ART" ... uh, guilty (yes, I have been known to state the obvious on occasion)

And for the Charming sneak peak

... this is where I am with the Michelle original designs/glass/Sculpy prototypes that I am working on for possible inclusion in Amber Dawn's latest Black and White Charm Swap:

Not so easy to photograph ... If they don't end up working out (or making the cut for the exchange) I know that I can easily turn them into little tiny magnets ... something about them appeals to me.

... Remember ... you can click on any image to see a larger version ...

... and all Large Itallic words (except these two) are actually links ...

Here's hoping all is well in your little universe!

Party Favors

I had a great time putting together the party favors for my big 4-0.

Above is a photo of goodies that were included in each little box: stickers, temporary tattoos, a few plastic beads, a mango scented candle, plastic drink critters (for use at parties - each person gets a different critter to help remember who's glass is who's), a God's eye, a mini loaf of lemon poppy seed bread, a beaded bracelet (swarovski bicone crystals beaded on elastic thread), an assortment of 2"x2" washi chiyogami papers, a paper crane and a two sided pendant. Not pictured: a glow in the dark skeleton key ring and a dark chocolate truffle ... that I really should have known better than to send - I received word that at least three melted somewhere in transit ... ick. Hopefully they didn't cause toooooo much of a gooey mess!

Not too long ago I made a beaded God's eye that wasn't quite so simple and was more time consuming than I had anticipated. For the party favors, I decided to get back to basics. I used little skewers and 100% cotton embroidery thread. Making them brought back a lot of good memories and were quite relaxing to do. Here's the complete set that I made (only 5 were actually shipped out; I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to embellish the remaining five ... time will tell).

I also wanted to make name tags for my guests, so wrote their blog names (with the exception of e.beck's - couldn't resist gettin "groovy" on hers) on a 4x4 piece of Bristol Board and doodled all around their names with my handy dandy fine point Sharpie (a favorite past time, dontcha know). Once the doodles were done, I decided that it would be cool to add a lil sumpin, sumpin ... I stitched over their names with embroidery thread. I think it added a cool little element:

Finally, I had so much fun making my first set of charms for the Black and White Charm swap that I wanted to try my hand at another charm type thing. I decided that a pendant would be good. Each pendant is two sided. The image on one side is a Sharpie sketch that I had done of Audrey Hepburn's eyes and the other side is the first Mandala I painted:

If you are interested in the steps, it was pretty simple. The squares are pieces of craft wood that I cut to size and sanded the edges smooth (slightly rounding the corners). Next I painted both sides with Mars Black acrylic paint. I attached my miniature artwork (just printed on 60 lb high gloss paper) with Modge Podge (believe it or not) and then applied about three coats of high gloss varnish. Once the varnish dried, I poked holes through the wood (with a needle), added the jump ring and strung it on the black cord. Viola! Simple and yet effective. :)

10,000 Thank You's

A super huge heartfelt Thank You to everyone that took the time to stop by and wish me a happy birthday. I can't begin to express how much it has meant to me and just how wonderful this birthday month has been. I feel such a depth of gratitude ... it's likely going to take me 100 years to come close to repaying the joy that I have been given. I promise to give it my best effort ... who knows, if I try hard enough maybe I can do it in 50. :)

UberSpouse and I had a date tonight, so critter-child was with gran till about an hour ago. I couldn't keep her up to draw the names for the party favors, so ... I assigned everyone that left a comment on "It's My Party" with a number (starting at the top - I didn't include myself):

1 - Scrappy Jessi
2 - Janet (Lavendar Loft)
3 - e.beck
4 - wahm922
5 - Janet (Fond of Snape)
6 - Marilyn
7 - Barbara
8 - Sandy
9 - Cindy
10 - Donna
11 - Marlou B.
12 - Janet (Fond of Snape)
13 - daydreamstudios
14 - mermaid musings

Then I went to http://www.random.org/ and set it up for 4 random numbers between 1 and 14 ... drumroll, please ... and the winners are:

Congratulations Marlou B., e.beck, Donna and Cindy. I'll be sure to leave a comment in your latest post asking for you to email me your addess.

Thanks again to everyone for helping make this the BEST birthday EVER

Two more birthday highlights to mention:

First, S&D had an extra special gift for me today ... may I introduce Chili:

She's the first "plushie" S has ever made (D did help, but from what he's told me, she gets all the credit for designing it and shares a lot in the execution). They stuffed it with coffee beans, so it smells really good.

AND

The mom-in-laws final pressie arrived for me today ... it was from my ESTY wish list.

This is Bubo:

Bubo was created by Janell M. Berryman of Pumpkinseeds Originals ... I simply adore Bubo! If you like what you see, check out her ETSY store (last I checked two other lumpy's - Peep & Howie - were still available)

It's way past my bedtime and it's a school night and I need some beauty sleep, so I'm off.

Ciao! ~M~

lil Teaser

Remember the Pink Artists Community Doll Project?

And the plethora of square after square after square and the the final reveal?

WELL:

The drawing details are in the works!

I'll be sure to post them when their are finalized.

Remember to post a comment here if you'd like to

be included in my birthday give-a-way.

It's My Party!

10 days from today I'll be 40 ... and i feel like celebrating ... by having my very own give-a-way! between now and the 29th I'll be putting together lil goodie bags ... a little of this, a little of that ... maybe one of those, too ... and then, sometime on the 29th I'll put everyone's name in a hat and will let my awesome-critter pull out a name or two (or three or four) ... hehe ... I'm excited just thinking about it! If you'd like your name in the hat, please leave a comment ... share a favorite birthday memory or gift ... share a joke ... tell a story ... or just say, "I'm in" ... feel free to let you friends know it's a party, after all, so EVERYONE is welcome!

Cheers! ~M~