Last chance for new unique holiday stocking designs!

Have a gift card or small treasure? Why present it in a boring box? *yawn* Madsylvania now offers small felted stockings with unique machine embroidered designs such as a black widow spider or a kitty cameo or a phoenix. They are also small enough to hang on a tree and look pretty killer!

And in my Magicwerks shop, now available are full-size Harry Potter felt stockings for all 4 houses.

Time is running out to grab your holiday stocking! I will be on vacation until Dec. 28 but in stock orders will shipped until Dec. 21 via Priority Mail. No new Made-To-Order items will be accepted until after the new year. Have a diabolical holiday season! :)

Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals at Madsylvania!

FREE SHIPPING from Black Friday to Cyber Monday at the Madsylania shop! Use coupon code: BLKCYBER13 upon checkout. Holiday gifts for the strange folks on your list. :)

Out of town for Turkey Day but never fear, any orders will be shipped on Monday, Nov. 28.

Ready for the zombie apocalypse?

Even the walking dead need to be stylish and warm as they shamble about the forests and alleys in search of tasty brains. ;)

Just listed, a killer Zombie Zip-Up Shrug in the Madsylvania shop. Loads of machine embroidery and yes, bite marks.

Accio cuteness!! Baby wizard hats now available at Magicwerks.

Just listed: wee magical hats for the baby witch or wizard on your holiday list. How sweet is that? Available in all houses and fully lined similar to the adult versions.

I just became a first time grandma to beautiful Chloe Renee on November 7. She's an absolute doll baby. So in honor of little ones everywhere, magical infant items have started to appear at Magicwerks. :D

A very magical holiday season begins....

Want to represent your Hogwarts house this Christmas? Mini elf stocking ornaments have been listed in my new Magicwerks shop. More Harry Potter holiday decor will be added soon as well.

Now, if I ever get a tree, I'll be adding my Ravenclaw one. :P

TUTORIAL: Snakes on a Plane...er, Wreath

Since we had a major Halloween party this year, I went a bit crazy making creepy crafts. For the "Snakes on a Wreath" decor item, I channeled my inner (Gothic) Martha Stewart. Actually, this idea came from one of her Halloween special 'zines and I customized it a bit.

Step 1: Add varying sizes of rubber snakes to a plain old *yawn* grapevine wreath via floral wire or a hot glue gun (I chose the latter):

Note: Don't glue your fingers to each other or to the snakes. ;)

Have fun with the placement of the serpents! Some were glued on top, some were intertwined in the vine and others hung menacingly off the sides.

Step 2: Spray paint black in (and I can't stress this enough) a WELL ventilated area. The directions said flat black but I chose satin. I thought a bit of shine would make the snakes look more real and "slithery" and gloss paint would have been overkill.

The final product!! Hung in the guest bathroom over my embroidered zombie hand towel. I do believe I'll leave it up all year. Hisssssssss!

Never fear, no snakes were harmed in the process. ;) Leftover midnight black serpents were recycled as an embellishment to a vase of creepy flowers. Looks like a few even tried to "escape".

 

Welcome and Happy Halloween from the forest primeval

Join me as I continue to creep into the Blogosphere on a gloomy Hallow's Eve.

From my inital foray into online selling of my designs in 2004, I've been known as Mad Science Creations. But of late, I've been dying to change the name of my shop to Madsylvania. A sudden brainstorm for this name hit me while playing World of Warcraft last October. "Mad", as in lunatic fringe (as most creative sorts are), seems to appear in most of my ventures, including my alter-ego, Madviolet. And "Sylvania" refers to my love of forests and the spooky town of Transylvania where Igor assists Dr. Frankenstein with his minion duties.

Now that Etsy has finally allowed shop owners to use a new nomenclature, I was able to do so. Yay! This blog will serve as a portal for all my shops. Prepare for lots of announcements of NEW items from the dark side, contests, tutorials, promotions and other cool stuff. I will also occasionally feature talented artists and their wares just the share their awesomeness.

Oh, and if you are morbidly curious, check out my "new" Etsy shop, Madsylvania.