Thursday, December 16, 2010

3rd Place Winner Berri's Prize :)

The third place winner of my first blog giveaway went to Berri, and she told me she wanted a shapeshifter type potion.  After some research, I came up with nothing really but the same type of werewolf potions and shape-shifting information I had already done for Victoria.  So starting from scratch, I decided to make something up of my own.  Totally fictitious, but cool nonetheless.  I called it Metamorphosis Changeling Potion.  I built a two-section box and blackened it, lined one side with red velvet material.  Into one side went the potion bottle, the other side has an assortment of items needed to work this magic.  A small second bottle of potion, hand-dipped candle sticks, a rolled parchment, a wand.  Pretty self-explanatory, but I think it turned out nice.  I'll be shipping this off to Berri today, hope she likes it :)  And then I have two more custom orders to fill before I can start my beloved tea cart for the red queen!  I have six more roses to complete, then another custom order came in for items based on the movie Coraline by Tim Burton.  It'll be up to the customer if she would like these items, but I was thinking of doing the beetle chair and possibly the fireplace from the "other Mother's" house.  She has commissioned the bow-topped box with needle, thread and button eyes that the other Mother gives to Coraline so that she can stay in the other world forever.   This project should be fun :)  I'll let you know what I end up making when I finally get there.  Okie doke-here's Berri's prize:


Friday, December 10, 2010

2nd Place Giveaway Winner Victoria's Prize and Store Coupons!

I am finally done!  After an icky few days where we had a carbon monoxide scare and we had to leave home for a day I'm back in business.  First of all, if you don't have a detector, you should get one.  Second of all, if you do have one...make sure it WORKS properly.  Apparently ours went on the fritz and decided to give a false positive readout and subsequent frightening alarm telling me my home was filling with poisonous gas...which it wasn't.  Hubbs came rushing home from work, we cleared out and waited for a service man to come save us from imminent death.  Or so we thought!  Damn thing scared me to death for nothing, grrr.  They can save lives, so you should have one anyway.  So off we went to get another "working" alarm, hehe. 

Anywho, after much drama around the Hays house, I finally was able to complete Victoria's prize.  She wanted a "dark" themed item.  I went for darkness and light by making a potion crate based on this old German legendary curative which cures Lycanthropy Virus:

Wolfsbane Potion

Wolfsbane (Aconite or Monks-hood

Here is a recipe taken from a German legend :

Cast a circle of 9 feet, and a smaller one only 4 feet in diameter.

Place a series of candles at equal intervals, and place a wooden altar in the south. Within the inner circle, place the werewolf

Build a small fire exactly opposite of the altar, and 1 1/2 foot away from the inner circle.

Place a pot over the fire, containing 2 pints of clear water. To this add:

1/2 oz. camphor

3/4 oz. ammonia

1/2 oz. hypericum

2 drachms sulfur

1/2 oz castorium

6 drachms opium

3 drachms asafoetida

Mix thoroughly. Bind together with red ribbon a wand of three sprigs, each from ash, white popular, and birch. Take a cupful of the searing liquid and douse the werewolf, as well as lashing him/her with the wand exclaiming "Foul spirit release this persons' soul, return to the great unknown!" Repeat 3 times."

So I fashioned a wooden crate by hand and filled with the items needed to complete the cure:  a bottle of wolfsbane potion, a hand-sculpted beat up pewter cauldron, a blood-stained alter cloth that has obviously seen some action, a holy cross for protection, a wolf charm for blessing, a wand, sacramental candles for the alter, and a rolled parchment with the above directions that can be removed to read (be careful though!)  The crate itself it finished in dark stain, weathered and distressed for an aged look.  Ok so here's my craptacular pictures (whaa, need new camera!):



Like usual, so much better in person!  But hey, you get the idea :)

Also I should mention, they are several items in my shop with coupon codes added inside the listing.  10% off when you enter the coupon code HAPPYCHRISTMAS at checkout.  Only on items that say so in the listing, but it is savings regardless, right?  Every dollar counts at Christmas time :)  Just thought I'd let you know!  Visit my store here at:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/tarayvonne
to view the discounted items. 

Saturday, December 4, 2010

1st 19th Day Miniature blog giveaway winner Morgan's prize, and wonderful eyeshadow too

Ok, so after speaking with Morgan by email and a little investigation through her blog about what sort of minis she collected, I'm finally through creating her 1st place winner prize!  She said she'd like a natural, nature-inspired potion set for her cute little nature-loving mini family.  Call them natural wizards of the "harm-none" sort :)  She really has wonderful and unusual modern dolls!  Her little man has a wonderful maple tree sweater on that inspired my potion set :)  I planned on doing the most elaborate set for the first place (first drawn from the hat) winner.  So I created a wild little potions floor trunk fit for any nature-lover.  I'd like to share some photos of it with you before I start my second place winner's set.  Here is Morgan's nature potion set, although the pictures are dark and fuzzy since I took them at night-the worst time for my picky camera:


Inside the trunk are the credos "Nurture Nature" and "Harm None" as well as three potions bottles:  a wild acorn capped bottle of berries that are unlabeled, a bottle of unicorn horns (labeled naturally shed), and a sculpted little green shoot coming out of a seed pod bottle that says "Help me grow" with a helping hand charm hanging from it.

As with all my items, and anyone who's bought from me can tell you, this is so much better in person because my pictures are never all that great.  I hope she likes it!

Ok, so I wonder if you all remember my wonderful and funny zombie giraffe?  I would like to introduce you to the lady who asked for him to be made, the lovely and talented Etsy artisan and etsy dark team member (search etsydarkteam without spaces on etsy to see all the work of the talented artisans on the dark team who make Halloweenish items of all kinds) mrsevils who makes the best eyeshadow I've ever used!  In honor of me, for making her the super fun zombie giraffe she decided to make me an eyeshadow custom made just how I wanted it, and named it after me :)  How fun is that???  Not only this, but she also added a link back to my store on the listing for my shadow in her store so I get free advertising as well.  Now her store is full of curiosities and interesting things and garners a lot of attention from the curious as well as her fans.  As a fan of zombies, she makes the wildest and coolest zombie barbies I've ever seen and they are really something to behold :)  She is a horror fan (hence wanting the zombie giraffe) and her creations are scary and beautiful at the same time.  But what I truly love and can't live without now is her eyeshadow.  It is the best I've ever seen!  Seriously, I worked all night one night and had my head in and out of the oven cooking polymer clay all night and let me tell you I was a fright!  Hot and uncomfortable as can be.  I was wearing her shadow and I was sure I was an icky mess by the time I quit at 3 in the morning.  I trudged to the mirror to survey the damage before washing up and was shocked to see this amazing shadow still perfectly in place without a crease or smudge in sight!  I gave some to my Mother who has trouble wearing store shadows due to allegies and she wore it without any harmful effects whatsoever.  She actually fell asleep by accident in it and woke up the next morning with it still perfectly in place-and she's a stomach sleeper!  Then it washes away effortlessly when you want to take it off.  Amazing :)  I'm hooked!  Well, here it is, the tarayvonne shadow :)   
I have olive skin that eats up lighter colors and I prefer the smoky eye look so this midnight blue is perfect for evenings out with my husband (should I ever get one lol). 

The listing is here:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/62983155/tarayvonne-darksider-eyeshadow

And there are neutral colors as well for the less adventurous who prefer a less colorful palette: 
http://www.etsy.com/listing/62669719/wtf-eyeshadow-set

As well as some that is quite good for upcoming holiday parties:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/63186917/super-glamourous-holiday-eyeshadow-set

Please visit mrsevils wonderful and creative shop for eyeshadows that don't stop looking beautiful all day and night (and she may make you something custom if you ask nicely)  Anyway, I had to give her some blog love for making me my own shadow so I can look like a sultry vixen and steal my husband's heart once again after all these years :)