Now, where are my mice?!

I've had these paper mache pumpkin forms kicking around for a couple years. I had grand plans to turn one into a stage coach. (One of these days I WILL make one though!)



As you can see from the link to the paper mache forms, their stems are pretty boring. I decided to get out my paper clay and make some proper stems on them. I painted and stained the stems and gourds with several layers of mica powders and mists giving them a haunting glow in candlelight.




The leaves were cut using the Cricut Flower Shoppe cartridge. I used paper from two Echo Park collections; Victoria Gardens and Apothecary Emporium for the leaves, patches and tags.

Busy as a Bee!

I have been helping a friend out with some work and got a sweet gift in the mail this summer as a Thank You. I just love these Victorian style beehives. ;) She and her friend wrapped up everything so cute I knew I just had to save the tissue paper and ribbon for a layout.

This collection, Victoria Gardens by Echo Park was just perfect for it. The gray paper even had a bit of a beehive silhouette to it when I cut it out and tucked it under the ribbon.







And what good would a layout about a honey pot from a friend without a Winnie the Pooh reference. ;)



A day without a friend
is like a pot
without a single drop
of honey left inside.
- Winnie the Pooh

Flea Market Finds

Do you ever come across a frame second hand, realize it's a fabulous frame, but not know what to do with it? Well I have to confess I have a stash of frames like this. I just can't pass up a good quality vintage frame! It's a weakness! :)

A lot of times the sizing can be a bit unusual though. I recently had the opportunity to try out a canvas company. Easy Canvas Prints will turn your photos to canvas. they have a very easy to use interface. Uploading is a breeze, no need to resize anything. AND custom sizes are available! (I didn't notice a price jump for this service. It seemed to be based only on the square inches. YEAH!) I was really happy to realize that all those odd sized frames can now have reasonably priced canvases I can swap out for the seasons.



One of the things I thought was kind of cool about these, they put the date, order number and size of the canvas on the back. I'm guessing so you can reorder maybe? Comes in handy for keeping track of when the photos were taken though. Check it out.