Avast ye! It is National Talk Like a Pirate Day! Chaircat Mao, that ol' seacat, is ready to hornswaggle me outta some kitty treats.



Grab yer pegleg and batten down ther hatches, and be ready to pillage all day long! Aaaarrrgggghh!



Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

I started this guy waaaaay back, maybe a year or more ago, and for some reason pitched his wee unpainted head in my Bin of Doomed Things. (That bin is kinda full of body-less heads for some reason.) After rummaging through the bin, I rediscovered his paperclay noggin and decided to finish the poor thing, thus creating Pumpkin Guy.



His body is a wire armature that is wrapped with wool roving and then covered in a wool felt oval. I basically made a wire armature then sewed a "football" from wool felt over the armature, and stuffed it with wool roving. Then clothing was hand stitched over the body form. Guy (he's French, BTW) needed a buddy, so I needle felted CeeCee, the cartoonish kitty with a candy corn tail.





Only 6 more heads in the Bin of Doomed Things. Yay!

I used a cute little house kit, the same one rackycoo used for her sweet house, and made a Halloween House for lindyv321. It is covered in glitter, has candy corn trees, and a little visitor inside.







I wanted the ghost to light up, so I built a tall enough base to house a flickering tealight. There is a hole in the floor just wide enough for the "flame" of the tealight and the ghost is glued over that.



It was worth having glitter on all the things!

A few silly hip hop ATCs that were sent to lindyv321. I kinda giggled while making them.







There are shiny mica flakes on the bottoms of the cards and now that I look at them, the mica could be autumn leaves. Happy accident, I suppose!

I made a few Halloween ATCs with some neat border frames from Alpha Stamps. There is a solid back that is ATC sized and a decorative overlay so I just threw something in the middle and called it a day. 







The pumpkins are actually erasers which made them incredibly easy to cut into and turn them into stands for the cards.



If I hadn't run out of erasers there would be a bunch more of these, all over the house.

Ever have a total harebrained idea that actually worked out? Of course you have, you're a crafter! My recent crazy thought was turning a chipboard playing card into a miniature bed for a witch. It is made from the card, various pieces of craft wood, fabric, and batting. That's it!



Here is what the chipboard playing card looked like prior to me chopping it (image belonging to AlphaStamps):



After making the bed, it needed a mattress:



Then sheets and a pillow:



And is currently awaiting the arrival of the witch.



The instructions for making the bed, mattress, and sheet can be found on my blog but you will have to find your own witch!

School is in session! Only one week in and Chaircat Mao has already spent time on the dunce stool seat. Chair (the cat) has seven other holiday hats that can be seen here.

I was recently partnered with the fabulous cmarion3 in the Junker Jane Swap and after several tries at a "sendable" doll, I ended up with Tilly. She is a wild thing, always happy, and loves to dig in the dirt.



Tilly has a classic Junker Jane style about her, but she decided she also wanted to sit comfortably,  so I gave her a round bottom vs. the classic pancake style of JJ dolls. I think the use of my great-grandmother's buttons completed her. That and the use of lots of inks, water, tea, and coffee staining! She smells kinda nice, though. 



Thanks for being a super partner, cmarion3!

Here's a little project using an ATC sized shrine and half scale Gothic fencing from Alpha Stamps:





And the back, which says, "Wednesday's child is full of woe" (not "wee")  :



Halloween is on its way!

I got a really, really cool (it is that cool) Matchbox Cabinet Kit from Alpha Stamps and made a dollhouse sized cupboard that is chock full of pantry goodies. It is old, well-used, and TINY. I gave the cabinet a chicken wire door (tulle mesh colored with a silver Sharpie), a teensy spice rack made from basswood trim, bitty peaches in a jar (polymer clay, made by one of my kids!), and a cute cocoa container.



The cupboard itself was glued together, gessoed, painted beige, then coated with white glue and white acrylic to achieve the aged appearance. Knickertwist has an excellent tutorial on how to do this.





All of the collage sheets are from Alpha Stamps, so making a handful of cans, jars, and bottles was a snap.



I have a Greenleaf dollhouse kit that has been waiting for me...maybe Aunt Tess's cupboard will make an appearance later on.