The Impatient Crafter : October 2011

Day Eight of Halloween FaBOOlosity: Baba Yaga Necklace

I can't believe it! Halloween is here! Huzzah! Hooray! My favorite holiday!

For my final piece, I am sharing one I have shared several times before. Why? Because of all of the many, many projects I have made over the years, this is by far and above my favorite. I put more of my heart and soul into this piece than any other. It is an exploration of the archetypal crone witch figure, the wise woman who can be terrifying or comforting as she chooses. The Baba Yaga is a figure from Slavic Folklore. She lives in the woods in a house that stands on chicken legs. She flies in the air on a giant pestle and kidnaps and consumes small children. In that function, she is a very scary figure indeed. Yet she is also a source of wisdom for those who seek her. That dual nature makes her a most complicated and fascinating creature.

When the Create Your Style with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS team invited me to design pieces for their Brazil Russia book, I knew immediately that I wanted to create designs inspired by Slavic fairy tales. Mythology fascinates me and that Joseph Campbell/Jungian inspired archetypal lens is very resonant for me.

When I made this piece, it was a moving meditation. Each of the 75 handcrafted polymer clay chicken bones, every knot, every crystal moon and star, every bone skull I added reminded me that the crone comes for all of us. That we will, if we are lucky enough, one day become the crone. That was a powerful meditation indeed. It isn't easy to embrace the crone, she is quite frightening, but in allowing her in, allowing for the duality of joy and sorrow, of loss and triumph, of bitter and sweet, we can become whole. When you embrace her fully, you will be overwhelmed by her beauty.

Follow this link for the 411 on how to make your own Baba Yaga Necklace.

Happy Hallowe'en.

Goulishly yours,
Madge

Halloween FaBOOlosity Day Eight: Halloween Hootenanny Card

It's Day 8 of Halloween FaBOOlosity at The Impatient Crafter Blog. Today's offering is a fun little invitation that can easily be customized to suit your style. Owls have become so iconic over the past few years they seem to be staying around. Woot woot! Or is that hoot hoot? Wah, wah. This could easily be made into a cat if you aren't an owl person.

You could use any variety of papers to make this an every day card. Follow this link for the instructions!

Halloween FaBOOlosity Day Seven: Crystal Web Necklace

Today's Halloween FaBOOlosity is currently the most popular download on my blog. I made this way back in 2008 for Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements. This necklace took patience, but the idea was such fun my excitement overrode my impatience. I get a little obsessed sometimes.

Follow this link for the instructions!

Hauntingly yours,
Madge

Day Six of Halloween FaBOOlosity: Glitterati Skull Earrings Video!

What the what? Can it be? Day SIX of Halloween FaBOOlosity?! Huzzah! Today's spookcraftular selection is a video we made way back when...one of our first...and it has perhaps about 57 too many sound effects. There's a fun dance break and Avalon makes an ADORABLE cameo. Now that I know more about UTEE, I would not recommend stirring it like I do in the video and I would suggest adding some UTEE Flex. Though I still have the jewelry I made that day and it all looks great!

Lots of stuff happening here at Studio Madge, so stay tuned!

Spookily yours,
Madge

Day Five of Halloween Faboolosity! Morticia Invites Miss Havisham to Tea Invitation

It's day five of Halloween Fabulosity...and only yesterday afternoon did it occur to me that it should have been Halloween FabOOlosity. Duh. Oh well, you get the point either way. This is part two of the Morticia project (I ran part one two days ago.) I have a particular affinity for narrative design, because I'm a writer and I love telling stories.

Follow this link for the instructions to make this tombstone inspired invitation. Join me tomorrow for Day Six! You will be able to click on the image in the original post to see it in close up detail.

Hautingly Yours,
Madge

iLoveToCreate Teen Crafts: Hallowe'en Jack-o-lantern Earrings

Hallowe’en Jack-o-lantern Earrings
Margot Potter for Avalon Potter for iLoveToCreate

Avalon was busy with school this past week and I had some free time, so I agreed to make her project for her. We love Halloween around Casa de Potter, but Avalon isn’t into scary stuff. These little vintage jack-o-lanterns were so cute; they seemed like the perfect fit for a flirty seasonally apropos pair of earrings. Permission free images are easy to find and decoupage on Grungeboard allows you to create water resistant and lightweight jewelry. A little touch of Collage Pauge sparkly and some Glam it Up Crystal accents add the perfect dash of sparkle!

Materials
Grungeboard plain sheets
Permission free jack o lantern (image can be downloaded from here)
2 Small Glam it Up crystals
2 10mm silver tone jump rings
2 silver tone ear wires
Traci Bautista’s Collage Pauge sparkly
Traci Bautista’s Collage Pauge glossy
Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue

Tools
Hole punch (I used a Crop-a-dile)
Sharp craft scissors
Foam paint applicator tool
Computer with publishing software
Printer

Download this permission free pumpkin image to use for your project!

1. The image should be sized correctly, but if you want to print multiples you can size it and put it into publishing software before printing. Print a sheet with at least two jack o lanterns on it. Cut out two.

2. Use glossy decoupage medium to attach images to Grungeboard. Smooth any wrinkles gently with finger tip and allow to dry.

3. Use crop-a-dile to punch a hole in the top center of each jack o lantern.

4. Use sharp scissors to cut out dried jack o lanterns.

5. Paint two thin layers of sparkly decoupage medium on each earring. Allow to dry.

6. Adhere crystals to eyes using glue. Allow to dry.

7. Attach ear wires to earrings using the jump rings.

8. You can decorate the backs of your earrings as you wish, I painted some sparkly dimensional fabric paint on the back of mine.

Halloween Repost: Morticia Invites Mrs. Havisham to Tea Choker

Today's dose of Halloween Fabulosity is dished out with Gothic Style courtesy of an imagined meeting between Morticia and Mrs. Havisham. This is part one and part two will be served on Thursday.

Follow this link for instructions to make the Morticia Invites Mrs. Havisham to Tea Choker. I don't think these pendants are out there anymore, but it should be fairly simple to whip up a little mixed media pendant to go with using some clear acrylic tiles and decoupage medium.

xoxo
Madge

Halloween Repost: In Case of Emergency Necklace

Today's Halloween fabulosity is the sequel to yesterday's design. This is one of the most downloaded projects on my blog. I like that the tables are turned on the villain here and it was fun writing short stories to go with the projects. These first two are actually springboards for a novel I have been working on since.

Follow this link for the instructions to: In Case of Emergency.

xoxo

Madge

Halloween Repost: Drop Dead Gorgeous Necklace

Dang. Halloween got away from me this year. I have been feeling so lousy, that although I said to myself, "Self, let's re-post some great Halloween projects on the old bloggy." I did not post them.

Until today.

For the next eight days I will post a link to one of my favorite The Impatient Crafter(tm) Halloween projects...except for Wednesday when I will post a new project by Avalon for ILovetoCreate.

It has been thusly decreed. 'Oh frabjous day...calloo, callay!'

Today's link is to a short story and project with a Vampire theme...

Hauntingly yours,
Madge

Cake Teen!

AWESOME AVALON AND HER STAR 102.1 CAKE ENTRY!

I wanted to share something with you today. My kid never ceases to impress and amaze me. As you may know, she loves making cakes. She hasn't had a single class in cake decorating, but from watching Cake Boss and other cake decorating shows she has figured out how to make some really cool looking cakes. I can take not even a shred of credit, this is all her. She spent the entire day yesterday working on this cake for a contest on a local radio station Star 102.1. Her dad drove her down there this morning to enter. The Cake Boss is coming to Knoxville and she really, really wants to meet him.

Some of you might remember that we drove to Hoboken once to go to Carlo's Bakery, here is a pic from that trip, but Buddy was in PA doing a speaking tour. Avalon made him a 3d card we handed to Mary, but she never heard from him. I am sure he gets a lot of presents. So flash forward to today, she was the only kid to enter this contest and I was really hoping she'd win, but alas she did not. I think Buddy would be blown away. She held her own against professional bakers. YAY AVALON!

You know, we have to try. We have to keep trying. If we keep focused on our goals and we keep working hard, we get there. It may not have worked out today, but Avalon will meet Buddy one of these days and when she does, I think he will be duly impressed. She's a smart, kind, funny, talented and amazing kid and I am blessed to be her mother.

Truly.

Rock on, Avalon.

Love

Mom