BRENDA AND BELINDA - THE BAGKEEPER ZOMBIES

Well that turned out to be an unexpected, long blog break .......
Sickness, huge amounts of cookie baking, and just the general madness that the Christmas Season brings, are all to blame!!!!
I thought I would squeeze one last 2015 post in, before 2016 dawns and hopefully with it, all that is good.

I'm sure some of my regular readers think I'm a little odd ...... I'm talking zombie doll odd !!!! Truthfully it is so much fun to just sit and create with no rules - these cute, little critters allow for just that. Thankfully we have a group of crazy ladies who all understand this - Our Yarnigras Zombie Doll Swap Group !!!

I have made two awesome and great friends through this group (we also belong to other groups). One of the ladies I've met in person, the other I WILL meet at some point for sure. We've developed this really great friendship, that is very special to all of us ...... you should read some of our group texts :-)
I wanted to make them each something totally different for Christmas ..... Something they could use .... and something that represented the three of us as friends .....

Taa Dahhhhhh ...... Bag Keeper Zombies !!!!

First we have Betty Big Ears .....

Each of them have their own little poem, that tells their story. Poor Betty Big Ear signed up for a journey to space, and came back somewhat changed .... she's a kind hearted little lady though, as long as she gets her daily portion of fresh, squishy brains !!!!

Next up, is Belinda .....

She is one sassy, little lady ..... 

She was invited to a tea party, woke up on a train, and at some point in that event, developed a taste for brains !!!!

Both of these ladies have a plastic ring attached to the back of their heads, so that they can be hung up. They're great keepers of those grocery sacks we all like to keep, and use to line our trash bins.

I still have to make one for myself ... then we'll each have one, and what better motivation to get my "office" cleaned up, after the Christmas rush, and before the New Year, for which I have so much planned !!!!

Enjoy what's left of 2015. Make some memories that will last you a lifetime !!!!!

THANKSGIVING COOKIES .....

You just knew this post was inevitable .......

 My Thanksgiving 2015 Cookies :-)

Tomorrow the cooking begins ...... Desserts and Appetizers are my contribution this year :-)
Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American visitors - May your Thanksgiving be filled with Family, Fun and many Blessings.

FROSTY THE SNOWMAN ...

And the Bad Blogger Award goes too ........ I know, where did the time go !!! Halloween came and went, Boy Child turned 15, and Thanksgiving is only 3 days away !!!

For the past few years (quite a few in fact), my friend Val has hosted a Christmas ornament exchange. Each year she selects a theme, we make 5 of the same ornament, mail it to her, and in return we get 5 treasures, made by some lovely ladies. My Christmas tree is decorated entirely with these ornaments now .... Sure, it's not a huge tree, but my collection of handcrafted ornaments is very near and dear to my heart.

This years theme was traditional .... Santa, snowmen, gingerbread men, wreaths, all things red and green ....
My medium of choice this year was Sculpey. I've been having a whole lot of fun with it, of late.

Excuse my fake snow prop :-) ..... unlike a large portion of the US, here in Texas we didn't get any of the white, fluffy stuff this past weekend :-(
I thought they'd be so cute, if I sat them on a big rusty jingle bell !!!

I dusted their bases with diamond dust (very coarse, very sparkly glitter), and gave their little, snowy bodies a coat of glossy varnish.

Such dapper chaps !!!

For anyone that knows me, presentation is a BIG thing  ... can't help myself !!!!
I made these red boxes with acetate windows, using a 12"x 12" sheet of scrapbooking cardstock. I nestled them into their boxes with shredded paper, and then threaded their hanger through the box lid, so that they don't bounce around in the mail. A die cut snowflake and a stamped Christmas tag finish the boxes off :-)

Another week, and it'll be time to put up the tree ....... I'm excited to see what treasures arrive in the mail for me, that I will be hanging on my tree :-)

AND THE WINNER IS .......

Happy Halloween ..... wishing you a Bootifly, Spooktacular Day (and night !!!)
My kitchen is busy .... busy ..... busy today !!!!
Spooktacular Sugar Cookies ..... Puking Pumpkin ..... Cockroach Crunch Cake ...... All in preparation of tonight's festivities !!!!

Well, it's time to announce the winner of my Witches Tea Party 2015, party favor giveaway !!!!
And the lucky person is .....

Magaly Guerrero

Congratulations Magaly. Please could you email (kerry_james@verizon.net) me with your postal address, and your favorite candy treat, so that I can pop your goodies in the mail.

Thank you all so much for visiting my Witches Tea Party. As a first timer, I was a little nervous, but y'all were so sweet and welcoming. I LOVED reading all of your comments - they were very appreciated !!!!

Time to head back to the kitchen ..... my cauldron is bubbling ... time to cook up some more wicked treats !!!!

WITCHES TEA PARTY 2015 ....

This popped through the mail box a few weeks ago .....

Such anticipation and excitement for what is sure to be "The Event " of this magical time of year.
The Zombie Patch ....... no better place to host such a party !!!!

Our hostesses for this most spooky event - Ermaline and Amelia, the two trendy witches, who live in a little rickety house, deep in Boggy Hollow. Gracious hostesses they're sure to be.

The table is set and the sun shines bright - there's a gentle breeze blowing in the trees ....

Welcome to The Zombie Patch ....
Please sign The Visitors Book upon your arrival ....

Then make your way down the curved path, where the witchy duo are waiting to welcome you .....
The guest list is impressive - the perfect day to catch up with longtime friends ....

 Maggie  - the sweetest little zombie girl ....

Oh look, there's The Old Woman Who Lived In The Shoe, Mathilde, and Peggy Sue (dressed in her party tutu) ....

Eye-ara, and Zombilena have come too .....

Jack SkellingZombie !!! So glad you could join us ....

Mr SkellyBones - love your party hat ....

So much chitter chatter, and so many treats ....

Cookies with a cup of Witches Brew ....

 Chocolates and Cupcakes ....

The guests had plenty to eat ....

They laughed and they giggled ....
 The dapper Mr Skellington even danced with Peggy Sue ....

The party continued as the sun began to set ....

As darkness crept in, candles were lit, and party lights were turned on,
and the party continued into the night, until the last sweet zombie guest was gone !!!

No party is ever complete without a party favor - so I've decided that a giveaway, would be the perfect Witches Tea Party Favor (a red and white polka dot lined zombie tote, and a witchy candy jar, filled with your favorite Halloween candy treat) ......
If you'd like to be entered into my giveaway, please let me know in the comments section.
Please leave a blog address or email address in your comment, so I have a way of contacting you, if you're the winner.
Tell me what your favorite candy treat is, so I can be sure to fill the little Halloween Candy Jar with some candy love :-)
I will draw a winner on Halloween (next Saturday, October 31st)

A huge Thank You to Vanessa, for hosting an amazing Witches Tea Party. For so many years I've watched from the sidelines as she's hosted one each year, wishing that I'd signed up to take part. This year I decided I would take the leap, and join in ..... I am SO glad I did !!!!

All of my zombie dolls are dolls I've either created myself, or are dolls that I've been gifted in an annual zombie doll swap group, that I've been part of for the past 5 or 6 years. They are creative treasures to me, and make an appearance on my mantel each Halloween.

Thank you for visiting my Witches Tea Party - now hop on your brooms and fly on over and enjoy some witches brew with the other witches at their parties .....

STATE FAIR OF TEXAS 2015 ....

The dust has settled ...... many thousands of people visited ..... and for 3 weeks Fair Park was a hub of activity !!!
I always love Fair time...
 At entry drop off time - the fair grounds are a hive of activity. Stands and stalls being made ready ..... the excitement and anticipation is palpable !!!.
During the fair - the atmosphere, the sounds, the smells ....... it's "fair" to say that I'm a Fair junkie !!!!
At winners pick up time - the post Fair tear down is going on, and it feels like it's all being put to bed until next year.

Today, we collected my entries and ribbons, so I thought I'd share my entries with y'all ....

My elephant amigurumi won a first place ribbon in the Crocheted Toy Category. Here he is on display during the Fair.

My crocheted Wildflower Bag. This bag was a 3 part CAL that happened, back in the Spring. It was a great pattern to crochet :-) I made it using I Love This Cotton yarn, from Hobby Lobby ....... it is such a silky, soft yarn for a cotton - definately my new favorite cotton yarn. I lined it with duck cloth, to give it body, and I lined the strap too, to avoid any stretching. To save wear and tear on the base of the bag, I used 4 bag feet ...... they work a charm.
I won an Honorable Mention Ribbon for this, in the  Other Crocheted Items Category.

I love everything about this tote ..... all of the details, as well as the fabric, but, it was not a fun project to make !!!! Truth be told, I'm not even sure why I felt that way. Maybe, it just felt SO bulky at times when I was trying to sew it.
I won another Honorable Mention Ribbon, in the Machine Sewing - Tote Bag Category.

Lastly, this cute little outfit. I always enter a child's apparel item, and I make it to fit my niece. She has a January birthday, so it usually becomes her birthday present :-) I'm going to send it to her ... she LOVES dresses though, and seldom wears pants, but hopefully she'll get some use out of it.  I had to dye the anglaise that I used around the hemline of the pants, because I couldn't find anything else that I liked, and that matched - it turned out really well - Ritz Fabric Dyes are the best (and no, I wasn't paid to say that :-)
I won an Honorable Mention Ribbon, in the Machine Sewing - Child's Apparel Category.

All in all, it was another great year for the Fair !!!
I'm toying with the idea of entering completely new categories next year ..... we'll see though, I have some time now, before State Fair Of Texas 2016 !!!!
So until next time, I'll leave y'all with a picture of the man himself ...... Big Tex !!!!

A GIRL WITH GREAT TALENT ......

They're creepy, little brain eaters BUT they can be useful too !!!!
I wanted to send a little "Thank You" gift to my special friend Val. She's the Queen of Halloween, and does such an outstanding job of hosting our annual zombie doll swap, that our group of swappers has come to love !!! We look forward to it every October :-) I wanted her to know just how appreciated she is, by us !!!

I wanted to give her something useful, but still in keeping with our theme ....

I decided that a needle book might fit the bill. I appliqued a little Prim zombie onto the cover :-)

I love including a little poem with my zombie dolls .... I'm no poet, but I like it as a way to tell the little zombie's story. Little Miss Zoe Zombie is an accomplished seamstress ...... with a dark side !!!!

This is the card I made her, to go along with the gift. It was made by layering a variety of ink colors over a stencil ..... I really do love the effect it gives. The results you can get are so varied depending on how much of each color you sponge over each area.

Now, I know I promised to show you the WONDERFUL zombie doll that I got from Debbie ...... then I promptly forgot to do it !!! She is so super awesome - I LOVE her !!!

Her tutu is fantastic ..... it so appeals to the girl girl in me ...and those dainty, little feet, with their purple bows :-) I love her from the tip of her tufty hair to the tip of her dainty toes, and her stumpy arm in between :-)

This was one of my tuck ins ...... A Jack Skellington Clock ..... perfection !!!
Debbie, you outdid yourself .... you are one amazingly talented doll maker ... thank you SO much !!!!

HALLOWEEN COOKIES .....

If you've read my blog for a while, you know just how much of a sucker I am for decorated sugar cookies ..... LOVE them !!!!

It's time for ghosties and ghoulies to come out and play ........

Here's a peek at this years Halloween cookies ..... So cute, if I say so myself :-)

Mr Skellybones ....... Keeper of the Cookies !!!

They were a ton of fun to make ..... I really don't think that I can pick a favorite this time.
Frankie makes me smile ..... Mr Skellybones is oh so cute ..... Happy little bats .... Smiling Jack O Lanterns .... ghosties and tombstones !!!!

And just because I had an extra skull cookie, and zombies are a particular Halloween favorite of mine (as you can see from my previous post), I created a zombie cookie ........ Yum, just delicious !!!!

ZOMBIE SWAPPIN TIME .....

Tomorrow we flip the calendars, and it's October (where oh where has this year gone !!!!) .... it's haunting month !!!!
Time to exhume my little Zombie Doll Collection, and put them on display for all to see. This was the 7th Annual Halloween Swap, that my lovely friend Val has hosted ..... that girl is the Queen of Halloween for sure.
My partner this year was Debbie ....... she is a doll maker extraordinaire, and all round crafting genius !!! Now you see, I can do cute ..... I love cute ...... not a problem :-) Debbie, on the other hand doesn't do cute ..... she prefers scary .... cute would not be happy in her home !!! This to me is the beauty of Swaps, we are pushed outside of our comfort zones, made to take our blinkers off, and see things from a different angle .... and Oh Boy, was this a different angle !!!
Our theme this year was Primitive Zombies (made in the primitive style) ... if you've read my blog for a while, you'll know I love that style, and have done quite a bit with it. At first I wondered how Prim and Scary could possibly marry up ..... but I discovered they can, and they can do it well !!!

So, without further addo, let me show you the Prim Zombie I made Debbie .......

He kind of reminds me of Gene Simmons from Kiss !!! He has the usual fabric body that Prim dolls have, but in order to get scary, I felt I needed to make him a sculpey face (a mask). I was SO happy with how he turned out ... I mean bolts in his head ... how could I go wrong :-) He turned out better than I could have imagined .... I was quite sad to see him go !!! I just hope he was scary enough for her.

What's a swap without tuck ins ? The challenge was to send 3 tuck ins. These are possibly my favorite part of any swap ... time to try something totally out of the box !!! And I did that this time, for sure .... and learned some new techniques along the way :-)

This turned out awesome !!!! It was an old vitamin bottle (guess who'll NEVER throw another one of those out again !!!).

I found THIS TUTORIAL on Pinterest. This was SO much fun to make !!! I added some spanish moss and a drawer pull to the lid, to give it the perfect finishing touch. I did go ahead and finish the bottle off with a coat of matte sealant, and I'm glad I did - that paint job wasn't going anywhere with it on.

I filled the bottle with some dark chocolates - Debbie's favorite treat.

Next up, the super spooky journal that I chatted about in my previous post.

And lastly, a hand towel that clips over the handle of your oven ... not the best photo, but it was the best of the bunch. 

THIS TUTORIAL, is the one I used to make this hanging towel. It's a great scrap buster, as it uses such a small piece of fabric and half of a dishtowel.

Here the package is, all together ..... Oops, I forgot to show you the card I made to go with it .....

This was a new technique for me too ... masking off an area (the moon), while I sponged different layers of color onto the cardstock, to achieve that spooky looking sky :-)

I hope Debbie liked the package, as I had a ton of fun making the goodies and putting it together. Tomorrow I'll share with you, the goodies Debbie sent me ...... Oh, you wont want to miss it ...... it is cuteness overload ...... it was amazing !!!!

JOURNALS .....

Journals and journaling ...... it's one of those things that I think you either love or hate, there's not much middle ground. I love them, but I will admit to struggling to put my thoughts into words sometimes (for fear of sounding silly, I think), yet when I do, I find it very cathartic.
I'm drawn to "special" journals (a bit like I'm drawn to stationary ......... Man, I just LOVE it !!!) - no plain composition books for this girl !!!!

I came upon a new technique, while browsing through Pinterest, looking for some useful, non candy Halloween Gift ideas ... there are some extremely clever, and talented people out there, and I'm so glad that the internet has afforded us the ability to share our ideas :-)

THIS IS THE TUTORIAL that I used ..... lucky for me, I even manged to find the exact same spooky toys she had !!!! I used a cheap hard cover journal that I picked up at Walmart. Are these not brilliant .... Brittany tried to claim this one !!! She settled for me making her an exact replica ...... that sweet girl of mine :-)
I love the old leather look ..... who knew that good old kitchen paper towel could look so awesome !!!!

Have any of you heard of Bible Journaling ...... it was new to me, until a few weeks ago .... what an awesome form of worship !!!! There are Journaling Bibles that you can buy, they're quite pricey though, and I find the print a little too tiny for my 40+ year old eyes !!! I take plenty of notes in my Bible during sermons and Bible Study, but I'm not an artist, by any stretch of the imagination, and illustrating in it, just makes me nervous. I also find a lot of encouragement in the words of some of the songs we sing at Church, and I'd like to include those too.  So I thought that a spiral bound, hard cover sketchbook,might do the trick ..... remember - no plain books for me .....

I used the same technique, but used wooden elements instead of the plastic toys ... I love the metallic effect :-) The wooden elements give you a much more raised edge - they're thicker. I'm not sure about the strip along the side, and may still replace that with a plain purple strip.

I'd love to make more of these journals - I'd like to try "drawing" with my glue gun to give the raised edge, I think that could be fun too.

Fall is upon us, and it's time to start thinking pumpkins and things ..... the ideas are whirring around in my head. I think a mantel of sweet forest creatures may be on the cards for this year ..... what do you have planned ?