I really love sunflowers! I think they are such a happy flower. I finally grew a few small ones this year. Next year I would really like to try to grow a row of the big Mammoth ones. Anyway, sunflowers are a fun fall flower. Although most have gone by now I thought it would be… Continue reading Sunflower Magnet
Well October is here and I decided to dig out my Halloween decorations. I don’t have too many but I love to put out what I have. Having a few decorations around the house just makes the holidays feel more festive and fun! I love to put things away and then take them out each… Continue reading Halloween Decorations
Inspirations for the upcoming holidays I know it is still beautiful outside and we can probably not imagine, that this wonderful weather will ever stop, but fall is on its way and decorations and craft supplies are already in the stores. I always get inspired by candles and their colors and love making candle toppers.… Continue reading Inspirations for the upcoming holidays
Over the weekend, my family and I visited the local Sugar Creek Arts Festival held annually in Uptown Normal, IL. My 7 year old mistakenly thought we were going to the “Sugar Free Taco Bell” (not the Sugar Creek Arts Festival) but that’s for a whole ‘nother blog. My husband splurged on 3 polymer clay… Continue reading Clay Collecting
Besides loving all things polymer clay, I am extremely fascinated by fabric. I am very oftenly inspired by the prints and the patterns and the color combinations that tantalize my eyes through fabric. I could go on and on about how much I love fabric and fabric stores and shopping for fabric… But since this… Continue reading Fabric Fascination
I was thinking what I would like to write about next and I got this idea to make a gnome. I guess I am kind of sticking with a garden theme this month. My inspiration came from that funny travelocity gnome that you see on TV. I really love gnomes and have made them before… Continue reading Journey to making a Gnome
Hello everyone! I have so enjoyed reading what my fellow designers have been up to. I have some fun things that I would like to share with you during this month of June. I just finished up another fun of year of being an assistant pre-school teacher. Our classroom consisted of fourteen 3 to 5… Continue reading Claying with Pre-schoolers
One of the classes which I am teaching at the Bead & Button Show is my Leaf Fossil class. The class makes use of sheet molds of foliage. It’s one of my favorite classes to teach, and seems to be fairly popular. My own work has made use of leaf molds for many years in… Continue reading Spring stuff!!
I tend to keep bits and pieces of everything. If a T-pin is too long, I keep the scrap I trim off, bits of clay (of course!), the stray earring wire, the odd bead or two, I keep them. Today, when I was finishing up another project, I got lazy and made the final round… Continue reading Oh come on, you have a recycle stash SOMEWHERE on your worktable!
Yes, it’s true! I just went to the presentation for our Photoshop Users Group Monday night. Adobe has created 4 different apps for the iPad and Android tablets. AND THEY COST ONLY $9.99 EACH! You can get a pretty loaded version of Photoshop (Called Photoshop Touch) for only $10! All the basic tools, cropping,… Continue reading Do you own a tablet? You can get Photoshop for 10 bucks!!
Do you ever feel like doing clay, but not really “doing” clay? You want something easy, yet great at the same time? My One Block Wonder is perfect for that… 1 block of clay and 1 hour of time! Now I’m busy cooking corned beef and thinking about green beer tonight, so this project fit… Continue reading The One Block Wonder
I’ve been cleaning out my cane stash and thinking about ways to inspire myself to use up some of my old canes. I decided to re-work some of them into new canes. I had an abundance of chrysanthemum canes that I gave a makeover. I changed them into rectangular shapes and put them back together… Continue reading Reworking Canes
Welcome to my home studio. I am one of the most fortunate artists I know of because my husband is so supportive of my art (habit, addiction, whatever you wanna call it). A couple years ago Tom decided that my studio needed to be remodeled and I’d like to share how awesomely he remodeled it… Continue reading Welcome to my home studio, wish you were here.
Here is a super easy way to make fun Holiday Candy Canes or Lollipops for gifts, packages or your own tree! I used Premo clays in Frost White Glitter, Pomegranate, and Green. Condition your Frost White Glitter clay really well and then roll out a long snake maybe 5″ or so about 3/4″ thick. Next… Continue reading Easy Candy Canes
I would like to mention first that my favorite medium to go along with polymer clay is acrylic paints. I love to paint! Using paint allows me to add details to my projects that I really would have a hard time achieving using all clay. One thing about painting on your projects though is that they… Continue reading Ornaments for Chilly Winter Days
November and December always find me knitting. I have a long tradition of making a hand-knit sweater for my husband for Christmas. I’ve been doing this for almost 20 years. The sweaters are almost all original designs, and depending on my timeliness, sometimes they are vests! The past two weekends marked the end of the… Continue reading Knit one, Purl two, Mold, Sculpt
I love the season of Fall. I don’t get into Halloween much, and I’m relieved now that my kids are a little older that I don’t have to deal with costumes and trick or treating anymore. But I love the changing seasons, the leaves changing colors, then making piles that crunch underfoot. (Thankfully, we live… Continue reading Fall color
My friend Jen buys jewelry that features owls. It’s like a free pass – she’s got to have it. Sort of like when kids want you to buy them a book – you can’t say no. so I decided I was going to try to figure out an owl for her for Christmas. Since I’m… Continue reading Meet my little friend..