It's Creepy and it's Spooky!

Hey everyone! I hope you're all enjoying these wondrous Fall days! Cooler temps, glorious red and gold leaves, the Harvest moon, displays of mums and pumpkins...oh I could go on! These are my perfect days....

I wanted to share something really special with you that I stumbled upon while perusing some pages on Facebook. I've been researching different areas where I want to eventually move to and so far I've narrowed it to two states; Utah or Colorado. The reason? Skiing of course! Not to mention the beautiful four seasons as well. So while searching, I found an amazing photograph that is so perfect for this time of year and especially Halloween. I think this artist captured the perfect image for the season. Take a look at this!

OMG just looking at this photograph, I envision Michael Meyers (Halloween) hiding behind the tree, or a terrifying scarecrow or Pumpkinhead! I can FEEL this photo. The mood of it is just captivating. The amazing photographer is Johnny Gomez of J2B Photography in Colorado. All his work is glorious but this has to be my favorite!

Here's a few of my own favorite Fall and Halloween photos, some from when I lived in Washington State and others just part of my favorite picture collection. Enjoy!

Paint Yourself in Stars Hallow

If you're fans of the Gilmore Girls and wish you too lived in Stars Hallow, you could very well be a fan of folk art and not even know it! I've always envisioned myself living in some quaint and charming New England town with salt box houses and gas lamp streetlights, horses trotting up the road, pumpkins on the porch in Autumn, and sailboats lining the bay in Summer. Can't you picture it?

I've always loved the art of Charles Wysocki, as he depicted that type of life in his paintings, and now I've recently discovered several other artists whose work I equally admire; Cheryl Bartley, Johanne Cassia, to just name a few very talented folk artists.

Charles Wysocki

Cheryl Bartley

Folk art is a more simplistic form of painting than fine art. I can't do fine art. As much as I try, it's just not my style I guess. I love bright colors, a more surreal look than classical art. Perspective and proportion are not a big deal in folk art.

Hiro Yamagata is one of my all time favorite artists. Known more as a contemporary artist, to me, his paintings capture a similiar folk art style with bright colors and less use of perspective/proportion as well. I was lucky enough to see some of his original work on display in San Francisco awhile back and I was absolutely wow'd and just fell in love with his style and use of bright colors.

Hiro Yamagata

Folk art style is something that I would really like to explore further in my own work because I think I fall somewhere in the middle; definitely not fine art and not too cartoon-ish, just fun and naive.

Snowmen with his friend Red bird

I love crows and pumpkins, and Fall of course!

Halloween and holiday art has long been a subject of folk art paintings so often depicted on wooden plates, tinder boxes, or other readily available surfaces, as well as canvas.

Maybe I'll paint myself in my own quaint New England village, with crows and pumpkins of course!

Fall is Magic!

Oh how I love Fall! It's not quite here yet in Tennessee, at least in our region of the state where it's still over the average temperature, but I know it's on it's way cause I can see the color change in the trees and you can feel it in the air. That certain something. The dry wind, the little whirlwinds of leaves that swirl in a circle at your feet. I remember those from when I was a child and still feel the same "magic" I did then.

Decorating for this magical time is something I look forward to and this year is the first I've done that since we moved to our little farm in Tennessee. Last year it was too hectic with the move and getting all settled, so this year it's a treat to get started! TJ Maxx and Marshalls are a couple of my favorite places to pick up Halloween and Fall decor and that was no exception this time either! I got an ADORABLE large decorative bucket, orange with small white polka dots and a blocked out area that's chalkboard painted for writing your own message. Thinking out loud in the aisle, I said, "hmmmm what will I do with this?" and a friendly customer who overheard me said, "put mums in it! It'd be perfect!" and so I did, and it is! I've also put up orange lights on top of my white-washed French armoire that holds our TV, and has a garland of dried berries on the top. Mixed with the orange lights? Magic! 

Next, pumpkins! Lots and lots of pumpkins! Enjoy the season everyone!!

Harvest Pumpkin Cupcakes with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

Ok all you Cupcake War fanatics (that's me!), in the spirit of Fall and Halloween, I've been looking for a great pumpkin/harvest time cupcake recipe to try this season and wanted to share this one with you.  There's nothing like the smell of baking and spices of the season to cozy up your home.

Harvest Cupcakes

Ingredients

2-1/4 cups all purpose flour, sift before measuring
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, softened
1-1/3 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten until frothy
1 cup mashed cooked or canned pumpkin
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in eggs. Blend in mashed pumpkin. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk, blending until batter is smooth after each addition. Stir in nuts. Spoon batter into well-greased and floured, or paper-line muffin tins. Fill about 2/3 full.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool completely before frosting. Highly recommend my Fluffy Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting!

Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes

Fluffy Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup purchased thick caramel sauce (in ice cream aisle usually)
1 teason vanilla extract
3-1/2 to 4 cups confectioners' sugar

Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy. Add the caramel sauce and vanilla, beat until well blended. Add 3-1/2 cups of confectioners' sugar and beat on low speed until blended. Add more confectioners' sugar if needed for thickness. Increase mixer speed and beat on high speed for 2 minutes.

Makes about 3 cups of frosting, enough for 24 cupcakes

Don't forget to dust with cinnamon or some festive black and orange sprinkles! Yum!

Handmade fondant pumpkins! Cute!

Of WIPS, and Fall, and Candy Corn! Hooray Halloween is on it's way!

I look forward to Summer every year...time to thaw out from the long, bone-chilling winters of the Northwest, where frost-covered lawns make way for lush gardens, and planters are filled with pretty blossoms!

But my favorite time of year? Well Fall of course!

What better time to display one's favorite Halloween art?!  And create new works-in-progress as well! Right now I'm working on some paintings; all different sizes of canvas, from 4x 5 to 6x6 and maybe larger. I've just finished a few skelly paintings which you saw in the previous post and now I'm doing a few more of those plus some new Halloween-themed mixed media as well.

Note to self: Must get onto some sculpting! I have a few pumpkin folk on the drawing board. And do you remember this little sculpt I did last year? One of my Woodland Winter collectibles. And such a sweet face! My dear and favorite fan AND BWOS blog-stalker (lol), Janelle from Texas, got this as a Christmas gift from her hubby. How thoughtful of him huh? I think she's been waiting for me to do some more in time for this Christmas...I'm on it Janelle!

 

I'll leave you now with some very "spirited" Halloween photos to get you in the mood.. I'll be back shortly with pics of my new work!  Till then...unpleasant dreams!

Halloween Creepy Craft

Of course I love October! It's Halloween silly! There's just something magical about the month don't you think? A certain feel to the air......


So with just a couple weeks away, I thought I'd share with you some wonderfully spooky, and frightfully kooky Halloween ideas for decorating this season!


Treat bags courtesy Martha Stewart

Rubber stamping of course is one method for making some cute Halloween cards and decor, but have you ever tried potato stamping? It's an easy way to add a bit of spookiness to treat bags, gift tags or anything else you might want to creep out...

All you need are a few items:
Potato - I use Idaho since they're larger and firmer
Paring knife
Carrot or apple peeler
Small melon baller (for eye sockets) but you can use the end of one of the peelers as well
Acrylic paints (whatever colors)
Item you want to stamp (cards, bags, tags...)

Anywhere you cut away or scoop out, will be the part that doesn't make an imprint. So if you scoop out eyes for example, those will remain white or whatever the background of what your stamping on is. Get it?

Let's get started! After determining your pattern, cut the potato in half. Then I like to draw my pattern onto the raw potato (Sharpie pen or outline with the point of a skewer, whatever...). Next, start "carving" away the design. Remember - the raised portion will be what gets printed onto the card, tag, etc.... Once you've finished carving, brush your acrylic paint onto the potato and stamp away! Easy and fun!

Here are a few ideas of what to stamp to get you started:

Bats
Skulls
Pumpkins
Candy Corn

I used this technique (waaaay before Martha ever got hold of this idea!) on black satin drapes I made and then stamped them with white skulls and hung them in my windows for Halloween. Truth be told, I had them up all year actually because.... everyday is Halloween!!!

Favorite Fall Things

Fall is peeking it's head around the corner up here in Washington. The leaves are slowly changing from bright vivid green, to just a touch of autumny orange and gold. Big puffy clouds are high in the brighter-than-blue sky and there's that undeniable crispness in the air. It's going to be warm this week, maybe in the 80's I heard, but it's still got the feel of Fall.



Fall brings my favorite month with it; October. My birthday, haunted houses start their yearly seasonal appearance, then Halloween! Decorating my front porch with pumpkins, gourds and other Fall ephemera is something I look forward to each year. Every year I get at least 1 new Fall/Halloween item to display. And being the Halloween Queen that I am, of course my display is up all year!!!



What are your favorite Fall things? Here's a few of mine:
Sweaters and hoodies
Vegetable soup with seasonal vegetables
Orange and red leaves
Hot apple cider
Candy corn
Candy apples
Horror movies and endless reruns of my fave: Halloween
Pumpkin patches
Whirlwinds of leaves that blow along the ground...

What are some of yours?

I leave you with this lovely song about Fall. You've probably all heard it. It's an unmistakable melody - very haunting and melancholy - just beautiful. This was my father's favorite song. It was originally recorded in French as Les Feuilles Mortes (means The Dying Leaves) with lyrics by poet Jacques Prevert.

Autumn Leaves (Johnny Mercer)
The falling leaves drift by the window,
The autumn leaves of red and gold.
I see your lips, the summer kisses,
The sun-burned hands I used to hold.
Since you went away the days grow long,
And soon I'll hear old winter's song,
But I miss you most of all my darling,
When autumn leaves start to fall.

Idle Hands are the Devil's Workshop

One of my mom's favorite expression when I was a kid. Guess I was always into something. LOL!

These hands have not been idle lately. I've been enduring a grueling schedule in my "technical" class at cosmetology school and I'm plum worn out! Last week was days of "foiling", this week it's been nothing but perms, perms, perms. This Saturday is another test, then I've got finals in another week. Non-stop I tell ya!

Good news on the craft-front: I do have some Halloween items in the works, a swap in September with Rabbit Hallow Prims, and I'm planning on doing a local holiday craft bazaar in November as well, so I will be creating shortly. And once finals are over, I'm going to start busying my hands in clay and paint, instead of perm rods! LOL!

Mostly, I just wanted to touch base with my loyal following who have been so patient with my non-creating lately. Thanks for staying with me and checking in. I'm lonely not creating and hearing from you, so please drop by anytime to just say "Hi!" Take care, Jeannine

"ScaryCat" Watercolor - Meet "Hexter"

Do you all remember me previewing my first ScaryCat sometime ago? It was stitched of muslin and painted? I really loved it but I just haven't had the time lately to sew more of them. I even took out the fabric the other day cause I had a "vision" of one that I wanted to whip up, but realized I just didn't have the hours in the day.

Meet Hexter! I painted him in watercolors and did all the doo-dad details in pen and ink. I'm quite fond of him! Sitting atop his pumpkin, holding on for dear life, he just looks like a "Hexter"! I found an old black rustic wood frame that I think suits him well too. He measures about 5 x 7-1/2 and he'll probably be matted as well - maybe.

I think I want to do a bunch more of these whimsical little paintings since I just enjoyed doing this one so much. Be on the lookout!

Come to the Halloween Carnival!

Welcome to the Halloween Carnival!
UPDATE: This piece has been sold. Didn't make it to Etsy before someone snatched it up! Thank you!
Here is my long awaited canvas I've been working on for several months now. I had no idea when starting it, that it would take so long to complete but I'm glad I endured the process. I found I could only paint one section at a time while I had the "picture" in my head. As I got visions in my minds-eye, then I'd move on to the next section. There are 6 sections; each one depicting something Halloween-ish.

It's also a bit of a different type of painting that I've ever done too, as I incorporated elements of altered art (which I really enjoyed!), and different textures of papers, glitter, and painting techniques.

I've titled this piece "Halloween Carnival", as it reminds me of when I was a kid, the local park would put on a Halloween Carnival. Everywhere you'd look, there was something different and festive happening; costume parades, games, a haunted spook house, and either a play or puppet show. The air would be scented with the sweet smells of candy apples and cotton candy. Candy wrappers would be strewn on the ground serving as paths to the next booth.



I remember being so excited at all the Halloween festivities going on around me, overwhelmed at where to go first, meeting up with other neighborhood kids, trick or treat bags spilling as we'd make our way through the crowds ridding ourselves of our adult chaperones hurrying to catch up with us. Seems like just yesterday.....Hope you like it!

Decorating with Halloween Collectibles

Did you know that decorating for Halloween is second only to Christmas decorating and the gap is rapidly closing? And although many vintage or antique Halloween pieces are both rare and expensive, that doesn't need to stop you from finding lots of fun stuff to collect and display!

In Washington state where I live, there's a little town called Sumner, that luckily for me, is right down my hill about 2 miles. It's a main street of little shops featuring folk art collectibles, antiques, Saltbox prims, and shabby chic. It is one of my favorite places to find pieces to add to my Halloween collection.

This summer while shopping at a small antique store, I stumbled upon an old candy tin shaped like a pumpkin which I picked up for a song. I'm always on the look-out! Right now, I'm finding that I really enjoy the handmade items lovingly created by other artists. I know the work that goes into each piece, so I try to buy them when I can to support my fellow artists.

When I bought my rustic black buffet to go with my old farm table, I realized it was the perfect place to display my Fall and Halloween collection all year long.

The top is decorated with bittersweet berries and papier mache pumpkin people

A Dan DiPaolo collectible, amongst candles, metal signs, crows, pumpkins and witch hats!

And don't forget about the porch!

Of Halloween and Snowmen

A Spooky Halloween night!

I've been less than crafty lately. Been waiting for Spring and of doing "Spring things"; planning my gardens, envisioning how they'll look this Spring and Summer when all the perennials come back, where I'll put the Coneflowers and Black Eyed Susan's, how many Zinnia plants to put in my rusted wheelbarrow, or should I put Lavender? Maybe some herbs too?

The wheelbarrow in my garden

And then of course there will be horse things to do. Lots of riding this time of year once the ground dries up a little. Here in Washington, Spring and Summer is the time we fellow equestrians wait for all rainy year to ride.

Which brings me in a rather round about way to Halloween and Snowmen. Two of my favorite things. I'm thinking ahead to future projects and where I'll focus most of my attention. What sold for me the best on Etsy and what buyers have been asking me for is what I'll make the most of. I'm going back to my roots so to speak. I love painting. And I especially love painting snowmen by Plum Purdy Designs. Oh sure, I have my own too, but Renee Mullin's provides some wonderful patterns and I think I'll go back to them for awhile. I've been painting them for years and I never tire of them. And snowmen ornament with twig arms. They make me happy.

A snowman paperweight and wooden sled I painted for a craft show last year

There are fleece angels to be sewn as well. With glittery wings and halos of gold stars. And many pumpkins to be painted, sculpted, and stitched. And witches to be sculpted with pointy noses and pointier chins!

Maybe if I start planning and making a list, I will actually begin to be more crafty. Better get started now!