First Night Design | Halloween: The Final Frontier card #GCU #Sold!

This cute illustration of a young witch (surely an innocent apprentice!), with her cat and pumpkin carriage, takes us back to the early 20th century when greeting card illustration was highly inventive and extremely popular. I have given her a new lease of life with a starry night background.

Take care and keep laughing!

Artful Pumpkins Thanksgiving Paper Napkin | Zazzle

Source: Artful Pumpkins Thanksgiving Paper Napkin | Zazzle

Take care and keep laughing!

Give Thanks Tote Bag for Sale by Sarah Vernon

Give Thanks Tote Bag by Sarah Vernon. The tote bag is machine washable, available in three different sizes, and includes a black strap for easy carrying on your shoulder. All totes are available for worldwide shipping and include a money-back guarantee.

Source: Give Thanks Tote Bag for Sale by Sarah Vernon

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Heavens to Betsy—25 Sold #Thanksgiving

Buy Give Thanks Postcards from Zazzle © Sarah Vernon

Heavens to Betsy! My weekend has been totally transformed by an email from Zazzle telling me I’ve sold 25 of these Give Thanks Postcards.

The main image is a photograph of our garden – they’re actually Cretan olive trees in the background – and a couple of textures. I’ve used Photoshop to create a Thanksgiving scene with a pumpkin from The Graphics Fairy and an open book from The Cottage Market.

Buy Give Thanks Business Cards © Sarah Vernon

Are you wondering about the phrase ‘Heavens to Betsy’? I have to acknowledge that it’s one of my favourite sayings. I learn, however, that it’s fallen out of use and considered far too anachronistic. Tough. I shall never stop using it. It seems it originated in America in the late 19th century. No one knows who Betsy was and the etymologist Charles Earle Funk said the origins of the phrase were ‘completely unsolvable’. [#1]

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the first written use as from a short-story collection by Rose Terry Cooke, Huckleberries Gathered From New England Hills published in 1892. [#1; #2]

I’m also very fond of ‘Heavens to Murgatroyd!’ but I’ll leave that lovely for another day.

Available at the following galleries:
Redbubble
Crated
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America
Fine Art England
Saatchi Art

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Halloween: The Final Frontier

Halloween: The Final Frontier Large Gift Bag

Halloween: The Final Frontier Jumbo Tote Bag

Zazzle tells me that now is the time to promote my products for Halloween. Since I almost never do this with calendar dates in time to make a difference to my sales, I’m continuing with the theme for today’s post. Look away now if you can live without 31st October!

I selected the witch from a vintage image from The Graphics Fairy and then created a black background with stars. I’m rather fond of the result though I say it myself as shouldn’t.

Halloween: The Final Frontier Standard Cocktail Napkin

Halloween: The Final Frontier Small Square Tile

ACT I  SCENE I	A desert place.
[Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches]
First Witch	When shall we three meet again
	In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Second Witch	When the hurlyburly’s done,
	When the battle’s lost and won.
Third Witch	That will be ere the set of sun.	5
First Witch	Where the place?
Second Witch	Upon the heath.
Third Witch	There to meet with Macbeth.
First Witch	I come, graymalkin!
Second Witch	Paddock calls.	10
Third Witch	Anon!
ALL	Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
	Hover through the fog and filthy air.
[Exeunt]

Halloween: The Final Frontier Address Label

Available at the following galleries:
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK

Take care and keep laughing!

Vintage Corn on the Cob with Pumpkin for Thanksgiving

Corn on the Cob Vintage Thanksgiving

Vintage image from The Old Design Shop.

Take care and keep laughing!

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Halloween: The Final Frontier

Halloween: The Final Frontier

This Avery Binder uses my latest Halloween design featuring a vintage image from The Graphics Fairy and which I’ve placed on a starry night background created with Photoshop brushes.   This is not a witch of which to be frightened, although I’m a little concerned at how tightly she’s hugging that cat!  Perhaps it’s a matter of butter wouldn’t melt and there’s a terrifying hag bursting to come out.  Maybe the real witch is hidden inside the enormous pumpkin.

Available on other Zazzle products and posted on  The Graphics Fairy‘s Brag Monday.

Take care and keep laughing!