Art Group Meeting Swaps

 I hosted the October Banders meeting at my house this past weekend. Of course Halloween was the theme. I have to use all the Halloween serving dishes I have at least once a year! Love this holiday!!

 I ordered cupcakes from a local bakery we have here in Rowlett. It's called Brendals http://www.brendalscakes.com/ . They make really good cupcakes! Red velvet, chocolate, wedding cake, lemon and other flavors. To die for!!

 This was the project we did. Mary helped get it all together for me. Bless her! The pumpkin image came from Olive Rue http://www.etsy.com/shop/OliveRue?ref=ss_profile . This shop has really great images to use for all kinds of projects. Just order and take them into your graphics program to resize. I printed them on t-shirt transfer paper and we ironed them on the linen like fabric bags I sewed up. Stuffed them with rock salt that Mary added lavender oil to. So they smelled lovely.

 The hostess gift and swaps I received were wonderful. This graveyard scene was made by Suzy. You can't see from the photo but it lights up and she added items like a witch and mice to the windows. You could see them when the light is on through the windows. Really cool! She made a good box for me to store it in too!

 The painted pumpkin can is by Mary and it had pencils, stickles and dipped pretzels in it. She also made the crow sculpture. Covered boxes with paper and added the crow on top with moss at his feet and berries. Love the rosettes around his neck! His is so whimsical!

 Jeanne bless her! She did not make it to the meeting because she was out of town but sent this with one of the girls. It's one of her masonite cut outs. she added stickles glitter to the pumpkins eyes and I love the bag! Barbara made the bracelet. Cute!! She had on a skull bead bracelet and necklace I wish I had gotten a photo of. They were very interesting and great colors on the skulls.

 This is a fabric hat and wooden BOO letter blocks by Donna J. I love them. She gave me a few years back blocks that say NEST. I can add these to my collection of word letter blocks. She did a great job on the hat too.

Carol made the web purse. lovely fabric for the purse and the little ball pull has beads sewn on it. Olga did a fantastic job on the Day of the Dead skull. Very detailed artwork.

It was a great time had by all. Lots of wonderful friendships we have in this group. I appreciate them all coming out to my house to eat and mingle.

Halloween Swap Projects

I finished up a Halloween swap project today. These paper mache cones were really fun to make! I painted them with orange acrylic paint then ruffled some black crepe paper on the sewing machine to go around the top. Sewing the crepe paper on the machine makes the ruffles so much more even, and it doesn't take very long at all. Then I glittered a copy of an old postcard and mounted it on a die cut black card. Hot glued that on the cone. Oh I did add some tinsel around the ruffled crepe paper at the top. Tied ribbons on the wire hanger and hung a crystal on the bottom of each cone.



These are some pete cups I painted and embellished with German Glass Glitter and a copy of an old postcard. This crepe paper I bought already ruffled. It is much smaller than the black used above. Not sure of the manufacturers name that makes it. I also spread orange stickles on the painted areas of the cup. These are for two of my friends. I hope they like them!