Trick or Treat?

Spooky salutations to you.

How many trick or treaters have you had demanding your attention already? Well, you're going to have to brace yourself for a few more in a minute ... starting with me ....

In one entirely unplanned, but delightfully appropriate, segue I'm going to move on from photographs taken at my parents Ruby Wedding Anniversary to ..... Dorothy's ruby slippers on the evil feet of the Wicked Witch of the East:
As unlikely as this will sound [and it's not something you'd hear me saying every day] it's not the red shoes I want to focus on right now. Although, having said that ...ooooh shiny red shoooooes. Rather it's the striped tights. She may have been a wicked old, shoe-stealing witch but, my ....did she have style in the leg-wear department!!!

I love, love, love stripes. Starting at the bottom and working my way up: I have many striped socks [several pairs which emulate those above!] a striped dress, trousers, a multitude of stripey T-shirts; at few cardigans, scarves, earrings, a headband ... and a few wooly hats.

In fact, when I had to find a costume for a Halloween party last year ... I didn't need to buy anything new, I just raided my stripe collection:

So, for a little crafty Halloween project I decided to take these little Cosmo Cricket 'Cogsmo' guys [which came as part of my 'Geekery' kit from Gauche Alchemy]:
...and turn them into stamped, stripey, blinged-up, glittery, monsters of rock ... or something like that anyway! So welcome Mr. Nefarious:
... Miss Noir:
...and their pet... Caterwaul:
I created the self-pattern effect on my little unconventional, metal-head, monster family by stamping in black ink over the black chipboard pieces. The stamps were from the new Banana Frog 'Build A Daisy' set. 'Build A Daisy' may not seem like the first choice for Halloween monsters ... but I just *love* the graphic patterns in that set.
Then I basically just added the stripes with a white Gelly Roll pen and loaded on the metalware accessories! [Which, come to think of it, is almost exactly how I used to get ready for a night out when I was 17!]

Anyways ....

...it's now your turn to pull on your best striped tights and climb into your ruby slippers / killer heels / DMs / spangly ballet shoes / thigh-high boots ... whatever you're comfiest in ...because you've got a bit of leg-work ahead of you.

As you've probably noticed Kirsty Neale and I are about to begin our first ever online class. [What, you didn't know? I guess all that blog posting, tweeting, emailing, Flickr-announcing, blog advertising, Facebook updating, word-of-mouthing, roof-top-shouting, jungle-drum-beating and smoke-signal-sending we've been doing has somehow passed you by. Nevermind. It's easily done.]

To celebrate the fast-approaching first day of '12 Days' we thought we'd have a little Halloween party. We asked lots of our crafty contacts to prepare a trick for you: a little spooky something or other of their creation. Then we gave them a link to a little treat for those of you who've not yet signed up. You'll see what it is when you pop over to their place.

The first stop along your Trick or Treating route should be to a few of those who've already signed-up to '12 Days' and who are getting to know each other on our secure blog already. So, meet:

* Gabrielle, http://www.thegreengal.co.uk/ [the first student to sign-up!], is our environmentally friendly friend who's got this to share: Visit her blog to see her project in full.

* Then meet Sarah at http://sarahk-scrapblog.blogspot.com/ who's admirably found time to treat you between juggling the roles of '12 Days' student and 'student with a dissertation to write'!

* Art-journalling, book-loving Kelly Harcus was also an early sign-up, pop in to see what she's prepared for you at http://kelspace.typepad.com/.

* And then there's Sarah LP who over at http://paperobsession.typepad.co.uk/ has been playing along with the pre-class quiz we set this week as well as creating a little Halloween goodness for you to visit.

After you've visited a few of our 'students' head on over to:

* http://ultraviolet-baby.blogspot.com/ to see what Anne Lawrence found time to prepare for us somewhere in between teaching students of her own!

* Then go to see Ashley Watts who is planning to spend November up to her ears in words - around 50,000 of them, in fact! She's taking part in NaNoWriMo (that's National Novel Writing Month, for the uninitiated), but before that kicks off, she's scribbled down a little spooky something for us here http://ashleywatts.blogspot.com/.

Next we have some ladies who've recently taken to trend-spotting in their regular 'Fashion Forward' blog posts. First there's:

* Katherine's take on trick or treating at http://paperpocket.blogspot.com for you to visit then,

* Clair Rigby's made a little fashionable something to share with you in more ways than one - she's offering up this:
.... as a Halloween blog candy giveaway here: http://obstinatepursuit.blogspot.com/

* The wonderfully talented and super-friendly Sharmaine Kruijver shares her take on Halloween couture in a fabulous layout at http://skruijver.blogspot.com/ I don't want to give too much away but if I show you this sneak peek of it: ....you'll probably be able to guess quite why I love it so much!!

* And, last but not least, the 'art-tart' herself , Michelle Jackson Mogford http://www.mjm-thearttart.com/page34.htm. Considering how for Halloween last year Michelle, a one time theatre designer and stage manager transformed an old church into a witch's castle for a local fundraiser, I think it's safe to say she'll have something special for us!

Well, personally, I'm exhausted after all that blog-hopping. So while you treat yourself to a proper look at all that wonderful work [and mull over the decision to join the rest of us in the '12 Days' workshop] ...

.... I'm going to put my [stripey] feet up!

:)

ps: this is a not very well disguised link to a treat.