EAB Designs

Handmade Halloween Masks

During the summer, I purchased a few unpainted paper-mache masks to decorate for Halloween. The plain masks are just a few dollars each and very sturdy, making them a great base to work with.

For this floral inspired mask, I used a punch to cut scalloped circles from a vintage book.  For the flowers, I cut apart the petals from a single silk hydrangea bloom (from Michaels).  Using a hot glue gun, I secured the text circles and petals, overlapping them, one by one, as I went around the circumference of the mask. To cover the area around the eyes, I cut the petals again, leaving just one petal segment and continued with overlapping the petals as I glued them on.

  

This mask I decorated in recognition of a favorite Halloween read, "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe.  For the ties, bird images were hand-stamped onto a length of grey ribbon.  I think I'll wear the floral mask when our trick-or-treaters arrive and save the raven mask for you know who.

I was originally inspired to make these masks from a past feature in Martha Stewart Living Magazine, highlights of which can be found here.  If you're making any masks or costumes this year, please share your links under my comments section, so we can all enjoy them!

- Sources -

Paper Mache Masks - http://www.mardigrasoutlet.com

Halloween Apothecary Jars

With everyone home this weekend, it was a great time to unpack a few of our vintage Halloween decorations and decorate our apothecary jars.  This year, it's all about the pumpkins!  We filled many of our antique urns and pots with small white pumpkins nestled in wood excelsior.  Our newly made velvet pumpkins found urns and platters to sit upon as well.  The best part is we'll be able to enjoy our little pumpkin displays all the way through Thanksgiving.

Velvet Pumpkins

 

I love these velvet pumpkins I made today with our sugar pie pumpkin stems. I've been searching for the perfect velvet and was beyond excited when I came across the lovely green and blackberry shades. I would suggest, when making larger pumpkins, to insert a bit of fiberfill into the center of your dried bean or poly pellet filling to give your pumpkins a plumper look. This way the weight of your beans or poly pellets won't make your pumpkin so flat.

Quick, easy to make, and so adorable, you'll want to create a patch of them!

Pumpkin Topiaries

The first weekend of October, I traditionally replace the flowers in our front porch urns with pumpkins.  This morning, as I was admiring the fall color of the hydrangeas on our backyard tree, I decided to use some of them in creating these pumpkin topiaries.  I mixed the hydrangeas with fresh boxwood cuttings. If you insert your cuttings into the potting soil, and keep the soil moist, the topiaries will stay looking fresh through Thanksgiving.

As the days go by, the color of the hydrangeas will turn from their current shade of rose and green to a beautiful bronze before they eventually dry.  As Halloween draws near, I'll begin to add a few ravens here and there as well as lighted luminaries.  The largest pumpkin, sitting on the porch, will be carved the night before Halloween.  Our neighbors love to see what we come up with each year, so it's time to start thinking about this year's pumpkin design.

Clock Face Ornaments

Remember my little collection of pocket watch faces?

I scanned a few of my favorites to create these wooden clock face ornaments. After adjusting them all to a three inch size, I printed them out and decoupaged them onto wood circle cutouts.

I love decorating the tree with lots of cream and white colored ornaments and these will be perfect for next December.

Linen Christmas Cones

As promised, today I'm sharing another Christmas project I've been working on. These French-Scandinavian inspired cones are embellished with a vintage religious medal, a hand-stamped French Christmas sentiment and jute twine for hanging.  The addition of felt interlining gives the cone its lovely structure.  I especially like the details of the scalloped edge. 

I'm going to use these to decorate the backs of my dining chairs, but they would also look wonderful at a place setting filled with sweets, or on the tree.  You can find these in the holiday section in my shop.

It's Christmas in July!

Looking at the projects spread about my studio right now, one would think it's cold outside and Christmas is just around the corner.  Instead, we've had another scorching July day and we're inside thankful for air conditioning!  I have, however, been working on lots of Christmas items for the shop and for my holiday shows.  Here's a peek at one of my wooden decoupaged doves.

 

For those of you who have been following my blog for a while, you may remember when I shared our burlap Christmas stockings last December.  I received so many emails asking if I would be selling them in my shop.  I'm happy to announce that this year I will be offering a design based on the original stockings I made for our family, and they can be ordered through my Etsy shop.

There are also bits and pieces of ornaments covering my work space.  Stay tuned for a sneak peek of those.  So, it may be 100 degrees outside, but I'm cool, comfortable and dreaming of Christmas as I'm creating.  With Christmas decor all around me, I'm tempted to play carols....but that will have to wait.

Easter Traditions

 

Dying eggs is one of our favorite Easter traditions.  My husband is the "master dye mixer"...no dye tablets for him!  He skillfully mixes various combinations of food colors to ensure bright and vivid eggs.  (I think he would have excelled in Professor Snape's potions class.)  We each dye about a dozen eggs and all of them are hidden the next morning for our Easter egg hunt.  After the girls find all the eggs, they hide them again for my husband and I to find.  (He always finds more eggs.)

 

We have a collection of these cute little bunnies who magically make their appearance the day before Easter!

 

I made these baskets for our girls years ago in their favorite colors.  This one is a combination of blues, and the other is lavender with yellow.  The contents of the baskets change each year, but there is always a milk chocolate bunny.

 

Easter morning I always make Belgian waffles with strawberries.  The batter is made with yeast and with the addition of folded in egg whites they are light, crisp and so delicious!  I actually still use the Belgian waffle iron my mom gave me at my bridal shower.

I hope today finds you surrounded by your loved ones

celebrating the joy of Easter!

Decoupaged Easter Eggs

The papers I purchased from Flax Art & Design in San Francisco arrived on Saturday and I couldn't wait to use them in a project. I chose one of the papers, a beautiful manuscript, to create more decoupaged eggs.  I changed the design a bit from my previous eggs, adding alencon lace, vintage millinery and some vintage jewelry findings.  I love the combination of the different shades of ivory and cream mixed with the textures of the lace.  I'm keeping two for our girls' Easter baskets and I've listed these two in my shop.

 

 

Scandinavian Inspired Easter Eggs

As a long time follower of many Swedish and Norwegian blogs, I am always inspired by the simple elegance of Scandinavian crafts, especially during the holidays.  Vintage manuscripts and linens, hemp twine, and religious artifacts are often combined to create beautiful accents for the home.  The decorations are often quite simple in design and usually displayed amongst green ivy, garden moss, or antique urns.  Looking forward to spring, I was inspired to create these Easter eggs which I have seen on many of the Scandinavian blogs I follow.

 

I started with large six inch eggs and painted them with several colors to achieve a dappled effect. Manuscript paper and vintage French lace were decoupaged onto the eggs.  In keeping with the Scandinavian tradition, I also added a vintage religious medal and some hemp twine.

 

I've placed mine in a few of my iron urns, but they would also look lovely under a glass cloche, or nestled in garden moss down the center of a table.  For now, they are a reminder that spring is not far away.

A Valentine Tradition

 

When our girls were little, I began a tradition of decorating a Valentine's box that I place on our table a couple weeks before Valentine's Day. I keep a stack of small note paper next to the box and everyone writes down things they love about each other and the notes are dropped through the slot in the box.  After our Valentine's dinner, we open the box and read all the notes.  Before the girls could even write, my husband and I would ask them what they wished to say and we would write it down for them. Of course, some notes were so sweet and some made us laugh until we cried.  Our tradition still continues, and I have saved many of the notes that were written over the years.

 

This year, I was inspired to decorate the box with quotes from one of my favorite novels, Pride and Prejudice - the classic romance of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.

The proposal......

 

Elizabeth recalling the moment she began to fall in love....

 

Together at last....

Materials used:  tissue paper for wrapping box, recycled Valentine cards, vintage millinery flowers, vintage rhinestone findings, folded box (cut opening in box before wrapping), chalk ink, font used - Edwardian Script

Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

This past week has been so much fun.  Last Saturday, we bundled up to shop for our Christmas tree and came home with a beautiful 10' frasier fur. Each year, since our girls were born, I give them one or two ornaments reflecting something special about their year - a vacation place, new activities or hobbies, or a special handmade ornament.  One day when they have a place of their own, they'll be able to take all of their ornaments with them for their own tree.  I keep a running list for them noting the ornament(s) they received each year.  For now, our tree is filled with beautiful handmade and unique ornaments that we look forward to unwrapping each year.

 

Years ago, I started collecting these twelve days of Christmas ornaments. They are laser cut from wood and beautifully hand-painted.  I would treat myself to a couple each year, until I finally owned the entire set.

 

The weather forecast is calling for 10 - 20 inches of snow beginning late this evening and into tomorrow.  I'm so looking forward to having everyone home with no place to go. Lots of time for holiday baking and preparing our traditional Christmas Eve menu including these two favorites, both of which can be made ahead of time and frozen.

• pierogi - My father was born in Poland and Christmas Eve would not be the same without these delicious Polish dumplings filled with mashed potatoes and farmers cheese.  The boiled pierogi are served with melted butter and sour cream.
• pirags - Both of my husband's parents were born in Latvia, and after we were married, we added Latvian pirags to our Christmas menu, little crescent shaped sweet bread rolls filled with finely chopped sauteed onions and bacon.  So yummy...

We serve these with a hot bowl of soup, either our traditional mushroom soup, or our cream of chestnut with prosciutto and sage.  My mother's background is English and French.  So in honor of that, we pop open English Christmas crackers filled with a small toy, and paper crown which we wear through dinner. And for dessert - creme brulee!

I hope you enjoy a most happy Christmas celebrating your favorite traditions with family and friends.   All the best to you this holiday season - Julie