Hope your HALLOWEEN is Purrrfect!!!

Hope you're enjoying your Halloween. Thought I'd share this adorable witch cat that Hullabuoy sent me at the end of last year.  It's taken me SO long to post it, because I was still tweaking the witch hat we added to it.  I'd been delaying posting it, because I thought it would be a nice Halloween post.  Leave it to me to wait til the day of!  So, without further ado, here is Crookshanks, the witchy kitty. (Daughter named it, of course).

She hand painted this kitty on a styrafoam buoy with a decorated wooden wand and fabric ears attached!  The wand is removable.  Cathi (Hullabuoy) possesses mad painting skills!  I enjoy seeing all her work, especially the buoys.  You should definitely check out her facebook page at Hullabuoy and Mcathi Designs on Etsy.

The hat was made with the usualy cereal cardboard for the brim and newspaper cone top, all paper mached so that it is really stiff.  We had to cut slits to be able to place it on the kitty's head over the ears.  Best part, is Cathi had the forethought to supply the decorations that we added to the hat.



We love it!  It sits on top of our Harry Potter themed book case all year long.  Thanks so much, again, Cathi, for sending it to us!  So proud to have a piece of your talented work!

Here be Dragons!

Well, I was going to attempt some fairy wings for the daughter and I to wear to faire in a couple weekends.  But in my first experiments, I somehow managed tiny dragon wings instead...hmmm...it's all good, cuz I'm going to an event this coming weekend where the theme is "Here be Dragons".  Love those "happy accidents"!!  :)



And the coolest part is they GLOW IN THE DARK!  Neat, huh?!



Isn't that cool!!  It will be really great, if there are lots of blacklights around.  Glow-in-the-dark works best under the blacklights.  I also love how the light can pass through the membranes.



I used hangers for the main frame that fits into the back of my bodice/corset and thinner 19 gauge steel wire for the fingers.  The tape extends about a 1/2" past the tips, so I can nudge people with them and not take out an eye.  They're are a small set at about 14" long.  This will be a good size to practice traversing crowds in, if we plan to make larger wings for fairies. 



These were pretty easy to make and feel realy cool.  I started by wrapping masking tape around the wire frame, adding extra tape at the knuckles. I covered the tape in glow-in-the-dark fabric paint, which is rather translucent and gave a nice bone color.  I accented the joints with a brown marker. 

  

Then, I used Mod Podge to make the membranes. Who knew mod podge was so stretchy!  They turned out really flexible.  Won't be easy to tear these.  The trick is to paint the Mod Podge onto paper and when dry, rub off the paper with water.  The brush strokes add a kind of veiny effect close up.
Hope you've enjoyed this post.  I'll be away most of this month having fun.  Until I get back, keep bein' crafty!