Christmas time...

Well, since you can't beat'em, might as well join in!




This is the box of Xmas cards that I very happily found at Winners! Unfortunately, they only had the one box... ah well. Obviously I was ecstatic to find a Xmas card with a rat/mouse on it! What luck!

The photo is by Chris Collins/Corbis and published by Sellers Publishing, Inc., at http://www.makefun.com/

And Xmas became MUCH more enjoyable when my little brother introduced me to Krampus! (Read about him at http://www.krampus.com/who-is-krampus.php) We even attempted to make Krampus cookies: chocolate sugar cookies with red sugar glitter horns, yellow mini Smartie eyes and dried cranberry tongues! What fun! We used the heart cookie cutter for the head shape and the long thin moon cutter for the horns, they turned out pretty good, we think!

Happy Solstice!

Bits and bites

By the way, before I nod off:

The mystery phrase was "trick or treat" and our Creaking Door Prize winner is H. Weigl! Congratulations, I hope you enjoy the set of 6 Hallowe'en cookie cutters!

And I already have 7 artists interested in doing the tour in 2011! Well, doesn't that sound promising! :) I'm getting all excited, only 354 days to Hallowe'en! But first I have to recover!!

Famous folks!

I just want to shout out that two of our artists have their 15 minutes of fame! Martha DeRaimo Burch must surely be pleased that her gorgeous pair of bears graces the flyer for the Doll and Teddy Bear Artist and Collector Convention to take place in May 2011 in Philly, PA! Congratulations, Martha!

And Amber Rose has her cat "Oreo" featured in the Dec. 2010 issue of Teddy Bear Review! Good stuff! Okay, so he's a Christmas cat, I can't get too excited, but he is quite cute. Way to go, Amber!

It's all over! Boo-hoo!

Dear Boo-tiful Ones,
Well, it's all over. The gates remained open until Nov. 7th, and in total from Oct. 1st-Nov. 7th we had 1110 unique visitors! Thank you everyone for taking the time to trick or treat with us! We raised $493.00US for Bat Conservation International, and that's only what we know about, not counting donations people made because they visited the tour and learned about the bats! So, take a bow everyone! We did good!
Thanks again to Bill Slavin for the perfect poster image.
And, yes, I'm already scheming and dreaming about 2011! I'm looking for about 20 awesome artists... What incredible pieces will materialize in 2011!? A chill is running up my spine! ;)

Time flies!

Like the old tombstone image, time flies! Only 10 days left for our Trick or Treat, and Martha DeRaimo Burch's "Keeper of the Spiders" is now also gone! So don't delay, if there's something you like, go back to that artist's studio and make them (and the bats!) happy!

Start the presses!

I want to pass on an apology from Celena and Marty of The Filigree: life is unpredictable and a regrettable delay of the autumn issue of their amazing newspaper was unavoidable, but things have now returned to normal and they're getting back on track! Watch for the next issue to "arrive" soon! http://www.thefiligree.com/






In the meantime, you can ponder why this incredible mummy and her partner are still homeless? Perhaps you can offer them a cool, comfortable place to while away eternity? Read more about them here.


Me? I'm looking out the window just now and it's SNOWING!!!! ACK! Such is Canada...

Ghoulish Grin!

I can brag a little, right? I'm very happy to announce that I actually have had a sale! One of my bat-head brooches, the tan Spotted Bat, is going south to CT! Yippy!

So, that makes a total of 9 sales off the tour so far! Let's hope we can keep this going!

By the way, this brooch was $30.00 with $10.00 going to BCI.

Howl with delight!

It is my pleasure to extend The Barkery's invitation to you all!

If you're anywhere near Stratford, Ontario (Canada) on October 30th, dress up your pup (if you're blessed enough to have one) and join in on the Hallowe'en fun! There will be prizes for best costumes, treats (of course) and a parade to City Hall! Woof! Rain or shine!

The Barkery, of course, is on our Trick or Treat Tour as the sole "shop" because of this event (and frankly their decorated, healthy, all natural cookies are works of art!), which extends our love of Hallowe'en to our canine companions! And ps: Werewolves are welcome!

4 winds!

We're spreading like "The Mist" in Stephen King's gory story! Yippy! Check us out on http://bookrat-misty.blogspot.com in her Helluva Hallowe'en! We're listed on http://www.shadynookcrafts.com/craftshows.htm and read Kathleen's lovely review on http://www.mythinglinks.org/Samhain.html! WOW!


Don't forget that a number of artists made some very special bats for our tour, like April Norton's "Baby Bats". A list of batty artists appears on http://pages.total.net/~weric/trick_or_treat/batty.htm .

Like magic!

As the month glides by like a ghost, you may notice some of the art objects... disappearing! And new ones magically appearing! As works get sold, the artists are all invited to offer new items, so don't delay if you like something!



Adrianne Kinsella is one of our lucky artists to have sold a piece and she's offering a new, stunningly beautiful vase featuring a raven! Come and have a peek! No, I'm not going to tell you exactly where she is, have fun hunting her down... and remember to enter to win the "Creaking Door Prize"!
Have fun! Only 20 days to Hallowe'en!

Rising from the dead!

Or nearly so! Connectivity was restored Sunday afternoon, thank the ghouls at Glidehosting! Although what went wrong? Something about a "problem with mysql", whatever that means! I'm sure our statistics are going to reflect this glitch! Yuck!

Thank you all for your patience!

Really screaming!

My apologies to all: GlideHosting is having some sort of difficulty and you can't access the tour at http://www.halloweenstudiotour.com/ ! AARRRGGHHHH!!!!!

You CAN, however, access it at http://pages.total.net/~weric/trick_or_treat/enter.htm !

I hope the problem will be resolved soon!

Man, this sucks!

We're out there!

Our tour is in my local paper! In the "What's On" section of the October 8th issue, here's our advertisement! Wow! Looks great and the editor did a great job! Thanks so much!

If you want to help us out, see if your local paper will run a similar ad! We'd really appreciate it! So would the bats!

Flying high!

Check out how great we look on Bat Conservation International's home page, http://www.batcon.org/! Yippy!

It's alive!

Our tour went live very, very late on September 30th without a rattle or a hitch! Phew! It's always a bit scary... And we certainly have been visited: from October 1st up to today, October 3rd at 9:15 pm, we've had 406 unique visitors! That's pretty amazing! Take a look at the statcounter.com table for more figures. Four items have sold, with April Norton and Robin Andreae being the lucky artists. And this is just the start! So if you've seen something you like, don't delay too long: it may be swooped up by some other witch!

And thank you to all who are taking a stab at the Creaking Door Prize mystery phrase! 8 fiendishly clever trick or treaters got it right and have their emails swimming about in the witch's cauldron, waiting for the November 1st draw!
How spooktacular is that?!

Culture Days Update

Before getting into the excitement of launching the tour last Friday, I wanted to share with you what an amazing event Stratford's Factory 163 hosted for Culture Days! And boy, was I in the right place! Volunteering on Sunday, I got to see the incredible Magic Toy Shop of Dr. Coppelius (based on the ballet Coppelius and a precursor to Frankenstein, about an alchemist trying to create the perfect living doll) created by the students of this summer's Setting the Scene workshop and full of eerie, strange body parts; the amazing students and their works-in-progress for Off the Wall's class "Creating Creature Costumes" and speak with faux-food artist Carolyn Horley as she created the most realistic bacon out of styro-packing sheets!!! WOW!!! Best of all she gave me her used gloves, covered in red "blood"! Oh, they'll be part of my Hallowe'en, for sure!!
I was also able to talk to visitors about bats and hand out quite a few bookmarks for our tour. It was nice to hear everyone comment that bats are our friends, they aren't viewed as negatively as I feared!

Photographically, this scene, also created by a Setting the Scene class, was the most gorgeously spooky!

Culture Days 2011 in Stratford? Be there!

It's finally here!

It's the eve of October 1st! The gates will soon swing open with a loud squeaking and creaking! Please do enter! We have incredible treats for you, the studios are full of surprise and wonder! You will be awestruck at the creativity and imagination! I'm very proud to share all this work from our amazing artists and taking the tour is sure to get you in a Hallowe'en mood!

Don't forget the bats! They need your support! Winter is fast approaching and how many more will die while they hibernate from White Nose Syndrome?!

And if you want to find me, your hostess, look for the cemetery!

ENJOY!

Culture Days!

For my part, 8 more posters are up around here, but more importantly: We're part of Culture Days! This is a Canada-wide interactive celebration of arts and culture, from Sept. 24th-26th! The display I created is part of the "Perth Arts Connect Showcase at Factory 163" in downtown Stratford, Ontario, Canada. It features 3 of my own creations and lots of advertising for our Hallowe'en Trick or Treat, as you can see in this picture.

Thrilling!

The art is flowing in and I have to say I'm AMAZED! Gorgeous, unusual, very Hallowe'en, I think you'll be thrilled too at what you'll see on October 1st! And the variety!

Thank you to all the artists taking part, your work speaks for itself!

Scream it out!

First of all, I want to thank all the artists for advertising their participation in this event! Thank you! Our collective effort is what will make this show a success!

Our poster and bookmarks have been mailed to 11 locations around the world: London, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; 2 in Berlin, Germany; Santa Barbara, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Orlando, Florida; Burlington, Vermont; Austin, Texas; Vancouver, BC; Toronto, Ontario! I targeted public and other libraries, feeling that our advertising had a very good chance of being posted and seen!

I've also hung 14 posters so far and given out oodles of bookmarks. Also, I pitched the tour at Guelph's FaeryFest in May. My very good friend, Sarah Forrest, who can't take part in the tour will still be setting out bookmarks at the Teddy Bear and Doll Show in Bristol CT on October 3rd. Thank you, Sarah.

And as of tonight, it's on the Teddy Bear Artists and Friends web events calendar!

Witches and Bats

Keep your fingers crossed! With any luck, jewellry artist Pat Wilde will be joining us! I met Pat last year at a show and purchased this gorgeous pendant... no, you can't have it, it's mine! But Pat has many more fabulous pieces, which wear well and are very eye-catching! So let's hope she can squeeze us onto her busy, busy dance-card!

And I'm very happy to share with you all that Amber Rose will definitely be on the tour! I already have her photos and wow, what a devilishly sweet mix! You'll be amazed and, yes, there will be a bat, a cousin to the one pictured here.

Only three weeks to go!

Boo hoo and 3 cheers!

Dear Trick or Treaters,

I am very sad to inform you that the Hayes will not be able to take part in our tour. Earlier this year they were involved in an accident and this has unfortunately forced them to drop out of our tour. We will miss them (and their super dragons!) very much but let's wish them all the best and hope to see them rejoin in 2011!

I do have some good news, though... well actually excellent news: Kathryn Looby is with us! I have two of Kathryn's gorgeous copper art pieces in my home and am enchanted by the way she captures her sprites, woodland faeries and other magic in her work. Here's her caffeine sprite, and visit her website to be dazzled!

Dear Fiends,
I'm so devilishly excited, the Hallowe'en goodies have appeared in the stores! Wow! And what fun! I have to say that Michaels this year was a big disappointment, with nothing really eye-catching other than the 7' talking skeleton (who was cool); Winners, however, stole the show! If you have a Winners, check out the small but excellent selection. Also, Martha Stewart's Hallowe'en special issue was a let-down: it's a "best of" from years past, only I have the years past so there's nothing new. Much better, and oozing to the rim with deliciously sinister ideas for both young and old is the Special Interest Publication from Better Homes and Gardens! Crack open the spine and take a peak, lovely!

open the creaking door...

This year our Creaking Door Prize will again be a fun part of the online "tour"! The prize will be this lovely boxed set of 6 Hallowe'en cookie cutters! What better way is there to celebrate then with sharing treats, and these metal cutters come in such a pretty, old-fashioned box, too!

Saving one bat at a time!

In the spring of this year, we rescued a bat! It was an experience I will treasure always, and "Bats" magazine (published by Bat Conservation International) printed our story with a photo I took in their Summer 2010 issue. Wow! Here's what they printed:

Congratulations!

I'm thrilled to announce that one of our artists is featured on the cover of Teddy Bear Review magazine! Sarah Medina's sweetheart Pip is on the cover of the October 2010 issue of TBR, and she's in the article starting on page 21 entitled "Fiscal Forecast", about staying upbeat in today's economic downturn.
Also, you can find Karen Lyon's gorgeous lynx Obelix on page 27! Congratulations to you too, Karen!
(Amber Rose Lawrence is also featured on page 22 and I'm hoping she'll be joining us but she's really busy... keep your fingers crossed!)

We sure do have amazing talent taking part in our "tour", thank you ladies! Links to their websites are on http://www.halloweenstudiotour.com

Once again: for the bats!

Of course, if you're in the New England states or southwestern Canada you probably already know about what's happening to our bats. White Nose Syndrome continues to spread and wipe out entire colonies of bats. For the latest news, read the Bat Conservation International newsletter at http://www.batcon.org/news2/scripts/article.asp?articleID=317&newsletterID=71

So, what can be done? Help the scientists find the answers to prevent the spread of this catastrophe by showing your support! Write to your governing bodies, tell people about what's going on and send funds to help pay for the research. We have to remain hopeful that a cure will be found in time to prevent the near-extinction of our bats. To learn more, visit http://www.batcon.org

What they're up to

Hello Hallowe'ers! August is streaking by like a lightning bolt as I count down to our Online show! So, what are our trick or treat artists up to?

Both Martha DeRaimo Burch and Amy Thornton are, as I write this, having fun at the Teddy Bear Artists Invitational in Binghampton, NY. The theme this year is "Children's Classics", so check out Martha's "Little Women" and Amy's "Treasure Island" at http://www.tbai.org/gallery.html

Celena and Marty recently released the Summer 2010 issue of their newspaper "The Filigree", filled to the margins with the latest faery news! With some awesome photos! Check it out at http://www.thefiligree.com

And me? Like many of our 18 (so far) participating artists, I'm busy making something spectacular to share with you all on October 1st! These wings and mask were the inspiration... A costumed she-rat is in the making!

It's coming!

Believe it or not, Hallowe'en is around the corner! And I'm thrilled to announce that 18 artists already have said "YES!" and will be participating this year in our studio tour. I plan to feature them as we get closer to the big day (Oct. 1st) but in the meantime you can always peak at http://www.halloweenstudiotour.com for the artists list.

And of course we're doing this for the bats! I sadly have to tell you that White Nose Syndrome has spread into Canada, detected in both Ontario and Quebec in April of this year. Bat population losses continue to climb to unbelievable levels and the ecological impact is, as yet, unknown.

So please, save some $$ to spend on the art that will be created just for this show and support our artists and the bats!

as they sleep dreaming batty dreams

I'm delighted to say that I'm already setting up our artists' pages and everything is coming together very nicely. One artist is already looking for the photos for her page, thank you Kim! She's also advertising the tour already, check out Kim Coffman's blog at http://goblinramblings.blogspot.com/ !

Last year there was a question concerning how the event benefited bats. To avoid last year's confusion, I'm happy to say that this year each artist is donating a sum directly to Bat Conservation International in lieu of a show fee. So each artist equals a donation to the bats, directly towards helping solve the deadly mystery of White Nose Syndrome.

Welcome Sue and the Barkery!

I am excited to say that Sue Burgan with her "Victorian Fantasy" bears and the whole gang at The Barkery have climbed aboard our haunted haywagon! Sue is a fellow Ontario Teddy Bear artist who makes the most exquisitely dressed bears and realistic pieces, while The Barkery, a bakery for dogs, hosts the most tail-wagging fun with their Howl-oween Parade! (You can visit them at http://www.thebarkery.ca/ )
More good news? Yes! Illustrator Bill Slavin has granted us permission to use his perfect haunted house on the hill for our poster and bookmarks again this year! While the book with this image for its cover (Chills and Thrills, edited by Priscilla Hawthorne) is sadly out of print, you can see Bill's latest work in the upcoming book Talking Tails, due out in April!

Last Year's Statistics

I thought this might be of interest to you: Last year, in total, we had 8 sales off the site, with most being for items above $200. So while there were few sales, they were for pricey pieces. (Two sales were to folks in England!) On average for each day in the month of October, we had 42 visitors a day to the opening web page. Furthermore, all visitor feedback was very positive, although I think the Creaking Door Prize was a bit too difficult/time consuming as only 13 people entered. (Thank you www.statcounter.com for the numbers!)

Hey, and already 12 artists have agreed to participate this year, you can see who at http://www.halloweenstudiotour.com/.

I'm happy to say that the artists' guidelines are now updated and are ready to be shared with the artists. The plan is to email invitations out this week; hopefully I can inspire some more of my favorite artists to take part!

And how's this for wonderful: "The Filigree" creators Celena and Marty are in the latest issue of Faerie Magazine! WOW! If you'd like to get a copy, visit http://www.faeriemagazine.com/