a man who limits his interests limits his life - vincent price

The intention this year was to craft a whole bunch of Halloween decorations and although I started out of the gate strong with my re-purposed Halloween-y flower pot (see photo below), I haven't done very much Halloween crafting at all.  However, I cannot complain; the time was otherwise very well spent entering a few craft challenges and visiting with my dad and brother.  And my dad's birthday card post is just getting some final touches before it hits the blogisphere.

Alex, mr. everythingshetouches and I did pull out our Halloween decorations a little while ago and created a little Halloween heaven (hmm how contrary) including the scene below.  Alex and I found, near the soccer field this summer, two large branches both with interesting personality.  And much to mr. everythingshetouches' chagrin, the branches became part of our household decor with intent to be modified and integrated as we see fit.  The branches, for example, have made an excellent perch for my ravens and black rose this Halloween season (don't mind the blinds; home decor is a work in progress).

Halloween Re-purposed Flower Pot

October was a very busy and fun-filled month.  Still to come: PJ November Challenge (November 1), my dad's birthday card and a little chalkboard project I would like to share.

Thank you as always for the support and kind words.  It is very nice to receive such positive feedback.

it's better to travel well then to arrive - buddha; a birthday wish

I really wanted to make something extraordinary and special for my awesome, amazing friend, however, when I set out to design his birthday card I didn't have a plan.  Isn't it much harder to be creative without at least a bit of a plan, or is it just me?  It took a while to decide on two items: the Parisian street map and the city scape die cut and once they were on the table the rest fell into line.  I went with a city theme: street map, skyline, birds on a wire, a novel to read as you travel and a balloon ride.  Oh my goodness, I'm such a dork trying to make it all come together but I'm a sucker for cohesion.

The background of the card was stamped with a large script stamp and the whole card was distressed with Tim Holtz vintage photo. Some of the script was embossed to increase texture.  I randomly Modge Podged torn book pages and gave the card a good spray of Ranger Dylusions calypso teal Ink Spray.  The ink blotches are diluted acrylic paint added with a pipette and heat set.  I love ink blotches.

The balloon and Parisian street map stamps were stamped onto torn watercolour paper which I first ran through Tim Holtz tea dye.  The border was hand-drawn.  I think the border adds authenticity and grounds the image.

The Memory Box city scape die is one of my recent favourites.  I have an idea for a chalkboad/city scape card bouncing around in mind which I will attempt to tackle once I finish up some other priority projects:  my dad's and my brother's birthday cards and the November PJ Challenge.

a memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen - edward de bono

In my past life, while living in Montréal, I worked for a watch and jewelry distributor.  We imported our merchandise from overseas and shipped them to boutiques and large vendors (Costco, Walmart) across Canada.  Our jewelry was imported from Murano, Italy and I instantly fell madly in love with glass hand-crafted jewels.  Sometimes, if I was lucky, a bracelet would arrive in less than stellar condition or our merchandise would be out-of-season and I would, for pennies a bag of beads(well, almost pennies; Murano glass is expensive because each piece is hand-crafted and often includes silver and/or gold foils) get loads of materials to create my own pieces.

It's been a long while since I crafted with beads, however, I find that it's really nice to exercise the fingers and mind in a different direction every so often.  I created this bracelet with a mix of Murano beads, pearls, quartz and seed beads linked onto chain.

I really do love designing and making jewelry so I think I might set aside some time to make one new piece once a month.  Stay tuned!