Boo!

Cookie recipe and design from Family Circle magazine, 1996.  Made by Tamdoll 2010.

Artful Thursday – DIY Candy Bar Card for Halloween

When I saw this adorable Candy Bar Card project*, I knew I had to make one.

Of course I had Halloween paper in my stash: I also still had my package of glues and scissors from the Elmer's® Crafters' Campaign (being a BzzAgent, I occasionally participate in different campaigns and share my opinion about products that I receive). This project was really quick and easy once I joined Paper Craft Planet and printed out the templates. 

Once I cut out the templates it was really easy to glue things together: My adhesive stash will NEVER again be without this glue pen.  Never. I loved it.  I am usually so messy, putting glue on projects with my fingertips.  That fine tip was perfect.  (And yeah, I have an adhesive “stash”.  A whole drawer of different glues for different materials… doesn’t everyone?)

Next, back to the handy tape runner for skinny spots that I wanted to stick instantly and not have to hold-in-place… but I got a little carried away and glued the opening closed!  So, here’s a tip: baby/talcum powder will coat the sticky stuff and make it ineffective:Whew.  Thank goodness for that.  There’s a reason a trial-sized powder is always at my desk.

Insert candy bar:It’s almost funny how no one in this house really notices the projects I’m working on until a chocolate bar appears on my table.  Everybody wanted to know what it’s for – I had to finish this project quickly!

I thought the card could use a little more embellishing – so pulled out the X-Acto® scissors and Corner Round Punch from the BzzAgent campaign kit, and stamped some Halloween images on scraps of paper:

I will admit that decorative scissors, in general, are not one of my favorite tools to use.  I’ve had many, many brands of these and am never thrilled with how bulky they feel in my hands, so I usually avoid them.  These did a good job cutting, sharp and accurate.  The corner rounder gave a nice cute finish and worked fantastic – best part, no jagged edges where corner meets edge.  If you’ve used a corner punch before, you know what I’m talking about.  If you haven’t – what I’m saying is: This did a good job.  A few dabs of ink and:

Stuck these embellishments on with Glue Spots that came with the Elmer's® package to raise them up & give them some added dimension.  Mysteriously, after some school projects this week, I only have three left – I guess the kids found them handy and put them to good use for their crafts, too.  Added a ribbon tie and that’s it!

*Template, design & project © Leigh Ann Baird.

Happy Artful Thursday!

Do you do anything crafty for Halloween? 

I loved reading Jane P’s comment about the Hungry Ghosts Festival, it’s really interesting to learn about different customs.  Thanks for stopping by!

Sewing Do-Over to Get it Right

Flowers from my husband.  A nice blast of color in the house.

Thanks for your comments over at the hand-sewn skirt post.  Thea, here’s the kind of sticky thimble I used to try before I found the leather ones - Colonial brand ... finger pads. Jane, the fabric is jersey knit, t-shirt material, so I hope it holds up well under gentle washing!

And thanks for the horror-movie post comments!  Jacqueline I will have to check out those films when I get a chance.

Been working on handbags, and trying to get things “just right”.  Started quilting the outside of this one when I realized the bobbin thread was white… and I wanted the inside to look nice, so took out a few rows and did it over.  Before:

After:

Now I just have to add some handles:

Love this fabric:

I bought yards of this a long time ago, thinking to make it into clothing for my girls, but never got around to it.  Will try to tackle handles today.  Do you have any luck with things you buy for one purpose and end up using for another?

Blog Carnival – Horror Movies

I was thinking about an Artful Thursday project this week… didn’t get to it.  I’ve been working on adding a “Shop by Category” feature to the EtsyChai blog and expect to get that done soon.  Been cooking and baking a lot.  Eating a lot, too.  Halloween crafts have been brewing in my head for a while but nothing really is coming out great – so I’m going to give up for this year.  So… it’s a good thing I have the EtsyBloggers group to keep me on task with a blog post!

Blog Carnival for 10/22 hosted by Mystic Wynd (the entire Carnival with everyone’s answers will appear next week).

1. Halloween is just around the corner. What is the best Halloween costume you've ever worn or designed for someone else to wear? What made it so special?
2. Tell us about your top 3 favorite horror movies. What is it about them that scares you?

  

Well #1 is a bust for me.  As crafty as I am – I refused to make costumes for my kids when they were little.  For all the time it would take me to create something, compared to the fleeting time they’d be wearing it [under a coat, dragged through grass], I never wanted to make the investment of effort.  Well, maybe there was a cape or two over the years – but those were super-quick.

So, for #2… I LOVE horror movies.  My favorite type are the not-real ones.  Like Hellraiser.  It scares me with shock, not real fear, is gory, and I’m pretty sure things like that just can’t happen.  No thank-you to films of chainsaw massacres, teens in cabins alone for a summer, or cannibalistic doctors.

Then there are the stories that are scary and make me think, like Frailty.  Let me tell you, I wanted to turn it off right after the beginning, but it was worth sitting through.

Lastly, I like post-apocalyptic stories, and most recently, 28 Days Later.  It’s not the zombies so much that I love, but seeing how people survive after a disaster. 

Do you like horror movies?  Have any favorites to recommend? 

As much as I don’t like to watch television, there’s nothing like a film, sans commercials, to get a knitting project finished.

Hand-Sewn Skirt

I’ve got to get back into the swing of things!  I’ve been creating and photographing, just not blogging about any of it. 

Here’s a skirt I’ve been hand-sewing for a while & it’s almost complete:

It’s a shortened version of the skirt in the Alabama Stitch Book. (My girls insisted that they wouldn’t wear anything past their knees, but you can be sure they won’t leave the house without a nice thick pair of tights on underneath this.)  The hand-stitching wasn’t hard to do, didn’t even take that long, so I’m encouraged to try this again.  The only thing left to do is stitch down the side seams and add an elastic waistband.  I’d like to make one of the tops from the book for myself, may try that next.

I never thought I’d enjoy hand-stitching that much, but it was relaxing.  I think it helped that I had a new sharp needle and a comfortable leather thimble that just about covers my finger (the Clover Natural Fit Leather Thimble).  The glue-on kind, or even the rubber ones for a fingertip didn’t work well for me. 

Have you ever done a sewing project entirely by hand?  I’ve found it so rewarding, and am pretty confident now that I can do this again.

Fall Foliage and Hot Peppers

Part of my walk each morning:

It’s really nice out, cool crisp air and pretty to look at, just like an autumn patchwork.  I won’t mention that all the leaves eventually fall and need to be raked up, or they cause horrible leaf mold and yucky allergies along with smothering the grass that we try to grow every summer.  

Jane P, that’s pretty interesting/funny that applesauce = baby food.  I guess it’s just a tradition here to preserve the apples that way when there are too many.  I have one daughter that can’t eat fresh fruit – she gets an itchy mouth – but when they’re cooked, she can have them!  I’d like to dry them one of these days but that may take too much electricity & I’m afraid that if I put them in the sun to dry, the animals will devour them.

As far as bread baking goes, if you make bread & it’s too hard it means there’s too much flour.  Slightly sticky dough is ok, you just have to hold it gently and not squeeze it (just knead gently) so it won’t stick to your hands.  This way it will come out tender. 

Thank you anonymous friend – I found my View Master & will get a chance to look at the slides & story this weekend.

Hot peppers strung to dry with thread and hanging in a cool, shady spot of my kitchen:

Love spicy food, and this is the one plant that thrived, so I have an abundance of peppers.  Actually, I moved 2 of the pepper plants from my garden into my kitchen, so I’m hoping they will keep producing over the winter – or at least survive to get an early start next spring when the weather warms up again.

Thanks everyone for your comments and emails.  And for your patience these past few weeks! 

I’ll Be Back

I’ve had lots going on these past few weeks.  I’ll be back to crafting soon, taking pictures of what I’ve been working on and what I’m going to tear-out and start over.  Probably tomorrow.

Thanks to my cousin Stuart, here are Lessons from and words about my grandfather.

Autumn Applesauce

I usually make pink applesauce by cooking the fruit with the skins on.  It’s just easier that way and the peels separate easily after cooking.  This time, Mr. wanted “regular, chunky” so he peeled enough for me to get four jars of sauce with enough leftover apples to bake a pie this weekend. 

It’s pretty easy canning fruit, I don’t have fancy equipment – a spout to get it into the jars and a lifter to hold the hot jars in and out of a giant pot full of boiling water.  The hardest part was prepping the apples, so I’m glad I had someone to help out this time.

It’ll be nice to open up one of these on a snowy winter day and remember the summer flavor.   Kind of like a squirrel hoarding nuts for the next season.  Do you do anything in the fall to hold onto the summertime?

A Mystery – Was it YOU?

I received a package in the mail with no return address or city/state markings:

I can’t wait to find my View-Master (I know it’s around here somewhere) and check it out, reading the story along with the pictures… but it’s a little creepy.  Not because it’s vampires, but because I don’t know who it’s from!  Please leave me a comment or send an email if it’s you (tamdoll – at – comcast – dot – net).  (Please don’t think I’m ungrateful if this was a purely crafty sharing package, but I’ve had stalker-ish things happen in the past and it freaks me out a little to not know where this is from.)

And because last week I had terrible pictures of the completely flat bread I baked, here’s a shot of this week’s bread for you – much better this time:

 

No Artful Thursday this week for me.  I’m working on a half-dozen projects (as usual) and will take pictures and post more as soon as I can!  Thanks for all your comments over the past week, I love reading your messages and visiting those of you who have blogs, too. 

Looking forward to squeezing in some crafty time this weekend.