Happy Hallowe'en Dear Friends

MY Little Minion....

It All Started With a  'Fart Gun'

  It was the first of September and she was with me grocery shopping.....and there it was. The most annoying thing I think I have ever seen.....the 'Fart Gun' from the movie Despicable Me.  If you haven't  seen the movie, Gru asks Dr. Nafario to make him a 'Dart Gun' , but Dr. Nafario is olde and cant hear well, so he made him a 'Fart Gun' instead. That was what she wanted for her birthday!!!  She just had to have it, didn't want anything else. I still cant wait to hear her tell her own children she wanted & got a fart gun for her birthday one year.... So anyway.....she decided she wanted to be the little one eyed Minion that carried it around in the movie for Hallowe'en this year.   Hmmm.....how does Mum make a Minion suit.....I know~ I will let her make her own Minion suit! YES!  So I went and got a big scrap of cardboard, she went and found a rubber ball larger than she was wide.... and she covered that with a plastic garbage sack.

 She made her glue for traditional mache from flour and water

We tore strips of old newspapers for the mache

Traditional mache is really fun, but way messy~ best done outside!

Strips of paper were laid on to cover her little form evenly~

Just a thin single layer for the first time~ then we let it sit out int eh sun a whole day, and in the house another week to wait for the next coat on the next weekend.....and then another a weekend after that.  She built up three coats of mache

Then the next weekend we cut the holes for her arms and face to see thru. Right here I had just cut the pilot hole so I could see how big to make the monocle...I think she looks like a demented rocket.... she went off zooming around the yard~ I was sure she was going to trip and break a leg

Here she is with her cherished Fart Gun and holding little Minion in her other hand

First on a couple coats of bright yellow~ we had this left over from her Sponge Bob suit we made last year....

A big smile and pair of overalls,  and Minion is complete!...well, sort of~ he still needs his goggle made...OH! And we cant forget the hair!

Black pip cleaners poked in thru the top for his 'do'

The goggle is a round of cardboard covered over in duct tape, held on with a big elastic band. Baggy trousers to match his overalls, and a quick make up of 3 finger gloves complete her suit.

 There is nothing more fun than making one's own Hallowe'en costume!

A Marvelous Miracle of Artistry!

Can You Guess?

  Oh. My. Golly.  Thats all I can say at this moment. Things have a way of finding me.  Can you guess what this is????  I bet not....matter of fact, I would wager money on it!  It took me nearly 3 hours to stand and carefully unpack. Each little peanut's removal revealing a something more wonderous and magical than the last. Simply amazing~ I cannot wait to share them with you~ you wont believe it!

New Tuck Comb on eBay this Week

Navette

 If you love the early antique wooden Grodnertal, or Tuck Comb dolls, Navette could be just for you! She is available this week on eBay~ you can see her here, or click the link on the right to my eBay specials.
 She would make a Beauty of a Christmas present for that special someone!

Padded Mirror Case Travel Cases Available

 For those who have purchased a reproduction 17th c Padded Mirror Case, I have made a travel case specifically to fit it. Weather traveling to a show, an embroidery guild meeting or just traveling to a shelf for storage, its wonderful to have a pretty handmade case to keep our precious things in~ in this case, a Padded Mirror Case!

 I designed the case to follow the form of the casket cases~ it is fit with all solid brass hardware~ hinges, working lid lock with two keys, Queen Anne side pulls and escutcheon

 As pretty on the inside as the outside, a fitting home for your mirror case when not in use or on display. I really am in love with the function of this case~ as the lid lifts up, the front falls open at the same time, for ease in sliding the case in and out. After have made this one, I am in awe why all cases & boxes do not open this way! I love it! If you have purchased a Mirror Case and are interested in purchasing a travel case, they are available on the class blog, www.ForTheLadye.blogspot.com

Trickin' Out my Trinket Box.....

 I have been so busy around here lately~ trying to fit 'my' things in around dollys and mirror cases and making Halloween costumes....there's just not enough time in the day. We almost have Pip's costume finished for this year~ perhaps we'll get it done this next weekend and I can share it on the blog~ we make her costume every year...last year she won first place at the school Halloween Dance costume contest~ she was Sponge Bob.
  I want to try some techniques for one of my stumpwork caskets on my trinket box....and the fact it is sitting here in  front of me not finished, is really driving me crazy...so I have been fitting it in, a little work here, a little there. I am a Virgo...that should explain the way I am pretty clearly to those of you who know astrology.... but if you don't, that means I am very very picky.  I didn't care for the round feet that came with the trinket box~ no fault to the maker of coarse, its just me. They didn't look period to me....and well, it really bothered me to the point I didn't want to work on it...then one day, realizing a cup is always half full, I decided why not just tweak them into submission..... so I sanded off the bottoms to make them more of a period squatty bunn foot shape

 A little better.....but I still wasn't feeling it. So in between clamp time on a case, I had my knife on me outside and decided to carve the little bunn feet into fluted bunns.....

 Aaaaahhhhhhh yes. Feeling it a little more now...... when things click for me, my mind races on too fast for my hands to keep up

 Soon I was rummaging thru silks and papers for the inside.... One of the silks above will be the outside ground fabric...but I'm not telling ...wink wink

 I covered the bottom with a pretty hand marbled paper....had to do something with those feet however.....

 YES! Nothing a bit of gold leaf wont fix. This is before burnishing

 They are each different and uneven and wonky, and I love them!

 I also gilt the lid edge and inner lip~ here she is all ready for the panels to go on..... once I get them finished

I tufted the inside in deep blood red silk taffeta, also did the inside of the lid, but it wont go on until I put the outside panel on, as it covers the back of the hardware.... I know how many trinket boxes there are floating around the world~ I hope some more of you all will post your progress pictures!!! Come'on!

New One of a Kind Halloween Dolly Available

Oogie Boogie~ 

   New for 2014, Oogie Boogie is a cutie pie Tallisman Peddler~ she is currently available on the DKFA blog~ just click the link to the right to see more of her~

2014 Be Goode Witche

Available in the DKFA Shop Blog~

   Witchy is a little late to make her appearance, but is available now on the Diamond K Folk Art Blog. I had meant to offer two witchy~poos...but alas one has flown away already.  

  My life has been so hectic this past week~ my oldest fur baby kitty GG had a stroke on the 26th~ well a week ago exactly today. I was eating lunch and let him in the house, he was his fine olde fellow self....he hopped up on the dining room table for a nap, and well....that was it. Later that afternoon I noticed him still there sleeping...but he wasnt sleeping~ his eyes were slightly open and he was watching me. I reached out to pet him, and no gentle meow greeting...he couldnt even pick up his head. He is 13, not too olde for a kitty, but he has been through so much~ being the first kitty in Southern Colorado to have, and recover from the Beubonic Plague I suppose would take a few years off the soul. He couldnt even open his mouth to drink, so we had a long chat~ he didn't want to go to the dr~ he hates the dr and asked me to stay here at home. I made him a bed in the gallery with me and made him comfy comfy. He lay still nearly two days without moving, and me worrying each shallow breath could be his last, well I held him and we had all sorts of conversations~ I was sure to shower him with kisses and so many thankyous for being such a wonderful kitty, and such a special Dear one to me. I always told him how much I loved him. He slept on my chest, right up under my chin so I could hear him breathe. At 1:17 am one morning, he started to make the littelest smacky sounds with his mouth~( up till now he would not even swallow any water I tried to place in his cheek)..his tongue was working! That morning, he picked up his head when I opened my eyes~ and just as quick as he got sick, he was now getting better! It took about 2 days for him to be able to walk~ his back legs did not work at all, so I carried him to the kitty box, and around wherever I was...he ate so many cans of tuna I cannot count and is well back on the track to his olde self again~ WHAT a gift. WHAT a wonderful Birthday present...Christmas present...I have my GG back~ but now, Im calling him my 'Super G'