a spot for your scary dreams

These furry monster journals created by Sarah Jane Evans are hungry for only one thing… your nightmares.  All you have to do is recite the spell that is printed inside the journal:

I’m called a Nightmare Snatcher
And a daymare catcher too.
I snatch up all the frightening things
And keep them far from you.

Scary dreams and scary thoughts
And things you dread to see;
Terrors real or make-believe
Give them all to me.

Write them down and draw them out
I’ll help you face the fear.
Then close me up, I’ll snatch them tight
And keep them trapped in here.

… and they’ll take care of the rest.  

I had the opportunity to ask Sarah a few questions about her wild creatures…

How did all this get started?

The Nightmare Snatchers actually started as a class assignment at my college, the Rhode Island School of Design. We were asked to make a product, anything we wanted so long as we could make it for the RISD student sale. I knew right away what I wanted to make something that evoked the same feeling I strived for in my illustrative work, something whimsical and magical. So, while I was in a book store one day I found a "dream journal", and I thought to myself "Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to write down your nightmares than your dreams?" From there the Nightmare Snatchers were just a natural solution to what a nightmare journal would be like. My dad wrote the spell for them and after that they just took on a life of their own.

What inspires you?

Everything of a mystical or fantastic nature has always inspired me. I remember being convinced as a child that so many things in my house that were old and/or strange must be filled with magic. Especially books. Books, the old ones in particular, have an undeniable magical quality to them. You open a book and there’s no telling where it might lead you. I have a huge library myself and am considered by many to be quite the bibliomaniac.

What is your favorite part about the design process?

I enjoy finding a personality in the creatures I make. Some look irritated and some look worried, but even when you make two from the same pattern they always find a character of their own. It’s the surprises that make the designing fun. The individuality that the pieces seem to create all by themselves.

If you have any haunts giving you the creeps, you can purchase these scary snatchers for only $20 on Sarah’s Etsy site. (I love the green one… it looks like he got a black eye battling the bad guys:-)