a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_M5dKBd5_Vfk/SQtCbmvrA7I/AAAAAAAAApA/MoNDS5REZ0o/s1600-h/halloween-coatdress.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 285px; height: 400px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_M5dKBd5_Vfk/SQtCbmvrA7I/AAAAAAAAApA/MoNDS5REZ0o/s400/halloween-coatdress.jpg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5263373631536956338″ border=”0″ //aHappy Halloween , folks! This October 31st started out appropriately, first with some rain and then with me getting locked out of the house!br /br /More holiday creepiness: I took this photo especially for you. Those fairy tale pumpkins sure make good little props. I’m wearing one of my most treasured of (blue) dresses, a coat dress I got last season. The other day I was watching the tail end of a href=”http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101272/” target=”_blank”The Addams Family/a (yes, on span style=”font-style: italic;”TV/span) when I realized I had the perfect a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wednesday_Addams”Wednesday Addams/a dress. That suits me just fine, even my friend Jimmy used to call me Wednesday.br /br /Anyhow, most importantly, the a href=”http://thefabledneedle.blogspot.com/2008/10/giveaway-holiday-preparedness-kit-2.html”Holiday Preparedness Kit #2 Giveaway/a winner is:br /br /a href=”http://thesugarbar.typepad.com/maple_sugar/” target=”_blank”Rebekka/a! (#8) br /br /Rebekka, please send your mailing address to dearliette {AT} gmail {DOT} com.br /br /Thank you so much for everyone who entered! I’ll have at least one more giveaway before the holidays, with a different theme of course.br /br /(For this giveaway I used this a href=”http://www.mathgoodies.com/calculators/random_no_custom.html” target=”_blank”Random Number Generator/a. So very helpful.)br /br /Have a Spooky Weekend!

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_M5dKBd5_Vfk/SQIeELcCa8I/AAAAAAAAAh4/4YZAczbLJ2c/s1600-h/holiday-giveaway_fall.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 379px; height: 400px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_M5dKBd5_Vfk/SQIeELcCa8I/AAAAAAAAAh4/4YZAczbLJ2c/s400/holiday-giveaway_fall.jpg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5260800371860859842″ border=”0″ //aHalloween is merely a week away but we’ve still got about 2 more months of fall. Which gives us plenty of time to create autumnal goodies!br /br /Holiday Preparedness Kit Giveaway#2: You’ll get everything you see here: antiqued brass bats (what cool, crafty things you could make with these!), agate leaves, handmade glass mini pumpkins (or are those persimmons?), Czech glass leaves (many colors) and flowers.br /br /To see information from the first giveaway, go to a href=”http://thefabledneedle.blogspot.com/2008/09/giveaway-holiday-preparedness-kit-1.html”this post/a. You have until Thursday, October 30th, at midnight (which I suppose is technically Halloween!) to leave a comment on this post to be entered into this drawing!br /br /Yay!, please note: this giveaway is open to you, dear readers, span style=”font-weight: bold;”world-wide/span! I won’t be able to include any gift boxes this time however.br /br /Good luck and Happy Friday!

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_M5dKBd5_Vfk/SOEHSV_IVaI/AAAAAAAAAcc/EjmYPbs9_gA/s1600-h/giveaway-jewelry1.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_M5dKBd5_Vfk/SOEHSV_IVaI/AAAAAAAAAcc/EjmYPbs9_gA/s400/giveaway-jewelry1.jpg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251486652211680674″ border=”0″ //aThank you to everyone that entered this giveaway! I love reading comments from my regular readers and new ones alike! Really, it’s the best part of doing giveaways for me. br /br /Okay, now for the winner……br /br /a href=”http://caednkat.wordpress.com/” target=”_blank”Mandi/a, it’s you!br /br /Please send me your mailing address: send it to my new gmail account: dearliette [AT] gmail [dot] com.br /br /There are more giveaways coming soon! Happy Monday.

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_M5dKBd5_Vfk/SNPWVTuLPSI/AAAAAAAAAa8/tdsxbeL54JQ/s1600-h/giveaway-jewelry1.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_M5dKBd5_Vfk/SNPWVTuLPSI/AAAAAAAAAa8/tdsxbeL54JQ/s400/giveaway-jewelry1.jpg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5247773652376304930″ border=”0″ //aThe other day a href=”http://violettecrumble.blogspot.com/”Violette Crumble/a and I were talking about how great giveaways are and I’ve been meaning to get a few going (besides a href=”http://thefabledneedle.blogspot.com/search/label/I%20Made%20It%20Monday”I Made It Mondays/a). Some of you know that I occasionally sell jewelry in my a href=”http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=10963″Etsy shop/a so it comes to no surprise that I have a lot of jewelry components and such…the thing is I’ll never get around to using all of it even if everyone I knew got necklaces for birthdays/holidays for the next few years!br /br /SO, I’m doing some giveaways! I like the idea of having themes and the first batch to give away has an span style=”font-style: italic;”ocean /spanone: octopi, shells, seahorses and pretty pretty glass “water” droplets. Most or all of these brass stampings are vintage reproduction. All of them new and unused. Also included are some antiqued brass ear wires and clasps. A few real shells.br /br /I will also include 2 recycled paper gift boxes. Of course, you don’t have to use these pieces for holiday gifts! They would be nice for birthdays or trinkets for yourself too.br /br /Just leave a comment from now through a week from this Sunday, September 28th. That should give folks plenty of time to enter. The winner will be randomly picked and announced the following Monday.br /br /span style=”font-weight: bold;”Please note!/span In order to keep my shipping costs down, this giveaway is only open to residents of the contiguous 48 states. Sorry! I may have other giveaways in the future that are open to everyone.

a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/faeriefurballs/164292532/” title=”Crochet Hook Case by faeriefurballs, on Flickr”img src=”http://farm1.static.flickr.com/35/164292532_2926c9a2ab_o.jpg” alt=”Crochet Hook Case” height=”288″ width=”186″ //abr /br /Congrats, a href=”http://memyselfandkai.wordpress.com/” target=”_blank”Karen/a, you’ve won! Please email me your address. br /…………………………………………………….br /br /Sorry again for the lateness. I feel like I can barely keep up this week.br /br /The weather has turned quite warm again and I haven’t had a haircut since October. Maybe I’m getting bored with my constant ponytail. I might have to put a href=”http://blog.caseybrowndesigns.com/2008/05/retro-in-a-modern-way/” target=”_blank”Casey’s/a 1940′s-ish retro hairstyle tutorial to use.br /br /Have a delicious weekend!

a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/faeriefurballs/2431019989/” title=”Shipping Label by faeriefurballs, on Flickr”img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3179/2431019989_d076cdcca7_o.jpg” alt=”Shipping Label” height=”334″ width=”400″ //abr /br /I’ve decided to make a href=”http://thefabledneedle.blogspot.com/2008/04/i-made-it-monday-1.html”I Made It Monday/a a bi-monthly or monthly thing because I could tell that every week would be a little overwhelming, for me. But I decided to do it this week because I made up some cute shipping labels I wanted to share.br /br /Since 99% of the business I’ve been doing is downloadable goods, I never needed shipping labels until now. (With the jewelry and hopefully other things soon!) So anyway, I got some labels down at Staples and whipped up this little sketch. I really love to draw cobwebs plus there’s one in the a href=”http://www.fablehandmadegoods.com/” target=”_blank”Fable/a banner in both shops. And the bunny is making an appearance because it’s spring!br /br /a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/faeriefurballs/2431014473/” title=”Shipping Labels by faeriefurballs, on Flickr”img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3253/2431014473_6280803599_o.jpg” alt=”Shipping Labels” height=”511″ width=”400″ //abr /br /I also colorized some too but I’m not sure I really like them. It’s not like these are the shipping labels I must use forever and ever so I can come up with others later.br /br /This week’s a href=”http://thefabledneedle.blogspot.com/2008/04/i-made-it-monday-1.html”I Made It Monday/a prize: a a href=”http://fablehandmadegoods.com/crochetpatterns.html” target=”_blank”crochet pattern/a of your choice!

a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/faeriefurballs/1129328558/” title=”Venus in Flowers by faeriefurballs, on Flickr”img src=”http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1425/1129328558_e87f83313e_o.jpg” alt=”Venus in Flowers” height=”547″ width=”400″ //abr /br /Congratulations a href=”http://elizabeth-mackey.blogspot.com/” target=”_blank”Elizabeth/a, you’ve won this week’s a href=”http://thefabledneedle.blogspot.com/2008/04/i-made-it-monday-1.html” target=”_blank”I Made It Monday/a prize: a a href=”http://fablehandmadegoods.etsy.com/” target=”_blank”Venus in Flowers necklace!/abr /br /Please email your mailing address to jennifer {AT} fablehandmadegoods {DOT} com.br /br /………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….br /br /Thank you so much to everyone who participated including everyone who “de-lurked” to do so!br /br /And can I just say span style=”font-style: italic;”WOW?/span So many talented craftsters out there! Really, discovering talented folks and friendly faces is the reason that I’m happy I started this drawing. If you haven’t had the chance, please check out the what the participants entered. Although I visited everyone’s blog/site I haven’t had a chance to say hi and leave a comment which I hope to do this weekend.br /br /Do you think we should do this weekly? Bi-weekly? Maybe just once a month? Let me know your thoughts on this. Weekly might be too much in the sense I want this to remain a special thing on this blog. I’m thinking bi-weekly or monthly, with a variety of prizes. Any thoughts?

a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/faeriefurballs/772421844/” title=”Blue ’50′s Wrap Dress by faeriefurballs, on Flickr”img src=”http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1425/772421844_893893ceb6_o.jpg” alt=”Blue ’50′s Wrap Dress” height=”500″ width=”375″ //abr /br /span style=”font-style: italic;”Pattern: Butterick B4790/spanbr /br /Ok, so I just came up with this idea on the fly and I thought it would be fun!br /br /On Mondays I’ll post something that I’ve made. Then you (anyone and everyone) can post a comment with a link to something span style=”font-style: italic;”you’ve/span made. It could be an original design or something from a pattern span style=”font-weight: bold;”as long as you made it yourself/span. It could be a dress, a vase, a necklace…whatever!br /br /1.) Leave a comment with a link to a specific blog post (because that will help us find your project, especially if it’s been a while) OR to a photo in Flickr or similar photo album site OR to a specific item in your shop.br /br /2.) Please try to include some info about this item in the comment: why you made, for whom you made it, etc.br /br /3.) Comments close late Thursday night 11:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time. (PDT)br /br /On Fridays, I’ll enter all the commenters’ names in a random drawing and the winner gets a prize! A span style=”font-style: italic;”surprise/span prize because I have not come up with it yet. (Hee) Nothing huge – sorry, no Geo Metros or trips to Honolulu – but probably something small but good. I’ll make the announcement on this blog in the afternoon. If you’ve won please email me with your mailing address.br /br /Let’s see how it goes. Maybe this will become a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly event depending on the response. I figure, blogging is about interaction and community and I wold love to see what crafty things you all are creating.br /br /Some of you have seen this dress (above) before – sorry, I’m not sure I have anything right now that I have span style=”font-style: italic;”not/span shown you. But next week I’ll have something new.br /br /span style=”font-weight: bold;”"I Made It” Monday/span officially starts right now!br /br /span style=”font-style: italic;”span style=”color: rgb(255, 0, 0);”Editor’s note: this post has been updated to clarify the rules for this drawing./span/span

Here’s the tutorial I was talking about a few days ago.  A little late, I know, but that’s how it goes this time of year for me. But, never fear, you can make them for next Christmas or for fun, because cute little mushrooms aren’t just for the holidays!

These aren’t cotton but paperclay. They look just like those vintage cotton mushrooms you see for sale, only you make these yourself which means you can customize them however you like: size, color, shape, etc. (Yes, I know, that why we crafters are so crafty!)

Skill Level: Beginner

*This project takes 2-4 days because of drying time.*

Here’s what you’ll need (you can find most/all of these supplies at Michaels):

• Paperclay, preferably Delight because it’s white and very lightweight
• Floral wire
• Red and white acrylic paint (or desired colors)
• Acrylic varnish (I used matte, indoor/outdoor)
• 1 small flat and 1 small round paintbrush
• Small wire cutters
• Something to protect surface
• Cup of water
• Paper towels
• Optional: Alligator clips

The follow pictures are kind of crappy because I didn’t have good light in my work area, but I think you’ll get the idea!

Cut a 6″ piece of floral wire. At one end, twist or curl the wire to form an anchor. Then, take some paperclay (approx. the size of a golfball to start) and form it around the anchored end, leaving about 3-4″ of wire at the bottom:

Wrap paperclay around the wire and sculpt into a vague mushroom shape:

Continue to work the paperclay into desired shape. You may wet your hands a little to help smooth out the clay. Here are 3 slightly different examples:

Let forms dry for 1-3 days. (One day should be fine since these objects are small.)

When ready, use the flat paintbrush and paint the tops red. Apply 2 coats. (According to manufacturer’s directions.) Paint stems white if you used non-white paperclay. Dry.

With round paintbrush, add white dots. I hung mine up to dry in the laundry room, away from a certain cat:

When paint is completely dry, coat mushrooms with varnish. I choose to coat the entire mushroom, but I suppose you can coat just the top. (Painted area.)

Position your mushroom on top of the end of a branch and wrap the wire around it.

****Optional: Wrap wires from bottom of mushrooms around alligator clips. This may extend the life of your mushrooms as the wires will probably eventually break from bending.

You can also try making the wire stick up from the top of the mushroom, or using a loop of heavy thread or string at the top so the mushroom will hang like most other ornaments. OR, skip the wire altogether and glue the mushrooms into your decorative arrangements.

Enjoy!

I just made some gift tags instead of buying them this year. After I printed them out, I decided to share them on the blog. 1.5″ and 3.0″ tags included.

Download the pdf here: Holiday Tags.

Simply print on heavy card stock and cut out. Enjoy!