Well, today was a true and complete exercise in patience!  I took a few days off work, and decided to do some paint pouring.  Let me tell you, it didn't work out quite like I planned.  After the 6th or 7th scrape and pour, I was ready to call it a day.  Do you ever have times like that?  I probably should have stopped after the 4th time.......

Suffice it to say, I continued on.  I was filming each pour, thinking I could, maybe, encourage some beginner artist out there to not give up.  When things don't go the way you expect, try again.  This is probably why those very successful artisans out there, are where they are.  I'm sure they had times like I had today.  Yet, they didn't quit, they continued on.  Maybe not the same day, but I'm sure they were right back at it the next day, or the day after.  

So, I decided I would try one more time.  I even said it during filming.  "If this doesn't work, I'm done for the day".  Yeah, right.  OK, I spoke too soon.  I did it one more time and filmed the scraping and 9th pour.  Am I happy with the way it turned out??  Not sure.  I'm happier than I was with all the other pours.  I think I need to let it sit, let it dry, then look at it with fresh eyes.  

Next step, loading the video on to my computer.  Now, I've done this multiple times.  Do you think it would go easy????  Nope.  It took me multiple attempts to load the video, and save it to a place where I could, then, put it into my editing program.  So now it's there.  Did I say today was an exercise in patience??  Of course I did.  Should have left it for another day.  No, I wanted to try a quick edit and download it to my you tube channel.  First thing I notice is how the video was not aligned correctly.  Ok, where do I go to fix that?  Took another 10 minutes and I managed to rotate the picture.  Next, the clip was very small.  Had to find out where I could zoom in so my video wasn't too small, or surrounded by this black and white checkered border.  Next up, watching the video to make sure things look good......notice I didn't say professional.  Not even there yet!

Ready to watch.  Well, the video keeps skipping, stopping, and repeating words.  More patience needed.  I'm definitely ready to stop for the day.  This too, I will look at with fresh eyes.  

Though, I shouldn't be surprised, even my meatloaf was a little over cooked and dry!

Til next time, stay safe and never give up!

P.S. PLEASE VOTE!

 Hi and welcome to my blog.  As you can see, it has been ages since I posted anything.  Life definitely has a way of keeping one busy!

This year has been one we will never forget!  I hope you and yours have been able to stay safe and healthy.  If you know, or have lost a friend or loved one during this trying time, I pray for your strength to carry on.  

I started acrylic paint pouring this past year and have become addicted.  I've always wanted to incorporate painting into my crafts, and never really thought of myself as an abstract kind of person.  Viewing hundreds of you tube videos inspired me to give it a try.  There are so many wonderful artists out there, willing to share their talents.  They encourage exploration into this great medium, as well as having fun.  I hope that I will be able to provide that same encouragement.

It's my belief that everyone is an artist.  Pick your medium and go for it!  Whether you craft for yourself and family, or are thinking about selling your works, have fun and never give up.

A few of my paintings...........

Til next time, stay safe and healthy!

So far, 2016 has been trying, to say the least.  Recovery of my thumb surgery took way longer than I expected, and I wasn't able to get back to work until February {from October}.  At least I didn't have to travel during the blizzard {except to go down my sister's for about a week - actually got there before the snow came, and had a week of working on another Wedding album for my niece!}
Lost my mother-in-law in March.  Alzheimer's is terrible disease and I know she suffered.  One can only hope they find a cure soon.

Last.... but not least, I had a flood downstairs in April.  It was a mess.  Carpet up. Two foot of wall removed and it took them two months to put it straight. 

OK, enough of my woes.  I haven't been able to work on my polymer clay with my thumb issues {it's still not 100% ...... I know, I said no more woes!}  So, I've spent time trying to perfect my paper crafting skills.  Like many people, I scour You-Tube for how to videos.  There are so many DIY projects out there.  For some reason, I like to build things.  One example are the mini albums.  I have many "in the works", and hope to get them finished soon.

Another project I like to build are desk organizers.  All right, so I've only made one so far.  I'm pretty proud of it though.

 

 Next, I am going to make a storage organizer for my stamping inks and accessories.  Once again, I think I will be looking for ideas on Your-Tube.  I have already found several I like, made with foam board.  I may even do a video myself, once I come up with a design.

                                                                     

Til next time, stay safe and be happy.

            

                                                              

Finally finished the mini album I was working on and attended the wedding this past weekend.  It was a really nice ceremony {short and sweet!} and reception and a good time was had by all.  I'm working on a video for my you tube channel, but thought I would post a few pictures.

I want to give a shout out to Barb of Barb's Scrapbooking for the inspiration and tutorial I used to make the album.  Also loved the tutorial from Corenescreations for the handmade box that I placed the album in.  You can check out both of their channels on you tube and see the lovely work they do.

Til next time, stay safe and be happy!

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a blessed holiday.

Looking back over 2015 and I see it's been more than a year since my last post.  Work has taken much of my time and last year had many ups and downs.  I am still recuperating from surgery on my arthritic thumb and have not done any clay work for over a year.  I'm hoping when my rehab is complete, I will be able to get back to working with polymer without any pain!

I have made some cards for special occasions last year, but, actually have been focusing on making mini albums.  The process is slow since I am limited by my surgery, but, at least I can do something.  There are so many beautiful albums out there and multiple videos on you-tube for how-to's, and, I am really falling in love with some of the paper designs that are available now-a-days.  I'm really loving it.

This is one of the first finished albums I did.  I credit this design to Laura Denison of FollowThePaperTrail on you tube.  It was such a neat idea and not too hard to put together.  I'm working on other albums as I improve my skills and have even taken on making a small wedding album for a friend that is getting married in a few weeks.  I need to get over this cold that is lingering so I can finish it in time.

Who knows what 2016 will bring.  Hoping for better health, more energy and creative inspiration for myself, and, hoping you all find your wishes and desires coming true.

Till next time, stay safe and be happy!

Looking forward to the New Year

Wow, I didn't realize how long it has been since I last wrote.  Things have been pretty busy here and between family and work - including starting a new position - time does indeed fly.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and I wish you all a safe, healthy and prosperous New Year.

While I have not been doing much blogging, I have had some time to continue working on my jewelry.  I have also started making greeting cards.  I'm hoping the New Year will allow me time to reorganize and make more time for working on my crafts.

Here are a few cards of my early cards.  I'm learning as I go!

 

Getting show ready

I've been working on additional flower applique pieces as well as cameos for a show we have next weekend.  I wish I had more time to devote to claying, but, what can you do??

This piece was made with a mold of a cameo my daughter found.  I really liked the whole body in Victorian dress.  I made the cameo with a faux mother of pearl mix and placed it on a purple background.  Twisted black clay was used for the outer edge and was lightly covered with silver gilders paste.  To finish the piece, I strung it on three thin purple ribbons.

I love tulips, but find they don't seem to bloom for long {might be my lack of a green thumb!}  What better way to enjoy them than to make them last forever in clay.  I placed three white tulips on a red heart and brushed the edges with rose colored pearlex powder.  Three red ribbons finish the piece.  I covered the entire piece with Kato liquid clay.

Hopefully, I'll have some time next week to make a few more before the show.

Til next time, stay safe and be happy.

Polymer applique flowers

I haven't been writing lately, my Mom passed and it's been a difficult few months.

I'm trying to get back into clay mode and have been browsing the internet for a spark.  I came across a tutorial for applique flowers {by Renee of Piper Pixie Designs} and saw many different, beautiful pendants on Pinterest.  I think it's just what I needed.

Over the last few weeks, I've made several pendants.  I think it's going to take some more practice to get them to the level of what I've seen, but, I really like the technique and am pleased with the results.

If you like the results, you can find many more examples on Pinterest.  There are also tutorials on You Tube. 

Til next time, stay safe and be happy.

Making button molds and buttons with polymer clay

and...here is the new tutorial I finished yesterday.  Enjoy.

Hand Made Viking Knit Tool

Yea, I figured out how to load my tutorials.  I love technology!

Tutorials

I hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day!  With the crazy weather we have been having, I also hope everyone has been safe and warm.  We were pretty lucky.  Lost electricity for a while one day and had some branches come off trees in the back yard.  Fortunately, none of the branches hit the house.  It was pretty intense for a while.  So looking forward to warmer weather.

It's been a few weeks since I've been able to devote time to my jewelry making.  I really need to try and focus on one thing at a time.  I'll watch a video tutorial, then go crazy making whatever the tutorial was about.  Example; viking knit....I know I've mentioned this several times and even made a knitting tool to use.  Now, I have multiple "chains" in different colors laying around my work space.

My goal of spending time each week in my studio hasn't come to fruition yet.  It might help if I made a calender and developed a schedule to follow!  Uhh, maybe not.  I'll just try to go with the flow.  Yesterday, however, I found my muse and spent the day there.  I am pleased to say, I was fairly productive.  I completed a piece for the February Polymer Clay Central challenge {hopefully, they will accept my entry - make sure you check it out and vote for your favorite, just follow the link: http://polymerclaycentral.com/,} made another tutorial for you tube for making molds for buttons: http://youtu.be/sxFzQ-LPUbI,  made a tree of life mold and took pictures I'm going to use for another tutorial, and... partially straightened my clay drawer.      

Til next time, stay safe and be happy!

Updated website

I've been working on my website and ended up redoing the entire site.  The company I use {weebly.com} updated the styles and other options and I found a style that I think fits with my vision better.

While I am continuing to add products, there are items for sale.  Feel free to browse and let me know if you are interested in any custom orders.  I hope you enjoy what you see.  Remember, no two items are exactly the same!

DreamWeaversDesigns.net

Til next time, stay safe and be happy.

Bracelets and more bracelets

Getting ready to start the new season of craft shows and my plan to be more active in my studio has been going well. 

I am always trying to think of better ways to show off my items when I am at shows, and will be investigating ways to set up my tables differently.  I don't want to spend a lot of money and need something that will store easily and without taking up too much space.  Hmmm, guess I'll have to put my thinking cap on!

I've been working on building my bracelet stock.  Thanks to Cindy Lietz and her wonderful bracelet tutorial, my motivation has been in full gear.  Here's a few more I've made.  I used viking knit for the top and bottom bracelet, but, decided to use a kumihimo for the one in the middle.  I'm pleased with how they turned out.

I've also been working on rebuilding my web site.  I use weebly and they recently changed their format, so I ended up deleting the old site and am working a few hours each day to get the new one up and running.  Hopefully, it won't take too much longer!

Til next time, stay safe and be happy.

Hand made Viking Knit tool

Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  I was lucky enough to have the week off.  One would think I would have been very productive.  Not!  This is the first vacation I've had that I did virtually nothing.  Watched some movies, did some Viking Knit....it was great.

I did manage to spend some time in my studio today.  I've watched a lot of videos the past few weeks on Viking Knit and was thinking about how I could make my own tool, without having to bend wires and use tape!  The idea came to me one night as I was trying to go to sleep.  {Don't all good ideas come then!!}  Luckily, I remembered my idea and made a tool that didn't require any extra wires or tape.  Of all the video's I've watched, I haven't seen anything quite like this, so I decided to make a tutorial of my own.      

This was my first attempt at making a video for You Tube.  All in all I think it turned out pretty good...I found a way to make it using my Picasa 3 editing program.  Next time, I may try a speaking tutorial, who knows??!!?

If you like, feel free to add comments, questions or ideas to the video.

Til next time, stay safe and be happy!

Happy Holidays

Well, it's almost here!  Shopping done - check, Christmas Tree up - check, gifts wrapped - check, worked half day today - Yea!  Hope, if you are celebrating, you are ready and can enjoy the holiday.  That's what I'm doing the rest of the day today, and tomorrow!

I have been making an effort to spend time, weekly, in my studio.  I find if I take a few hours each week I can make several things, further organize the room and just work on getting the creative juices flowing.  So far, so good. 

I'm sure I've mentioned Cindy Lietz before.  She's a polymer clay expert and has video tutorials you can subscribe to.  The videos come out monthly and the price is right, so, I've been following her for a few years now.  Recently she did a tutorial on faux enamel and viking knit.  As usual, I couldn't wait to try it.

Here are a few pieces I made this past week. 

I've downloaded a few photo editing programs and have been trying to figure out how to work them.  My goal is to retake pictures of my inventory and redo my website.  If your are interested you can download Picasa 3 and Photoscape.  They were both free.  Just make sure when you load the Picasa that you decline the ads.  I made the mistake of thinking it was part of the download process and I thought I didn't have an option to decline.  Well, several weeks later and with the help of my neighbor {IT genius}, I got the ads off and reloaded the program.  It should be interesting to see what difference it will make with my photos.  The picture above was done on Photoscape.  I thought the frame was appropriate for the season!

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a fruitful New Year!  Til next time, stay safe and be happy.

Shopping frenzy???

Yes, I did brave the crowds to go out last Friday to try to finish up my Christmas shopping.  I have to say, it wasn't bad.  We only went to a few stores, as I knew what I wanted.  The first stop I made was to Michaels.  They had a great sale and I ended up getting quite a discount! 

 It was nice to have a four day weekend.  Thanksgiving was quiet; just four of us, but the turkey turned out great {we'll be eating leftovers forever!}, the weather was gorgeous, and the Ravens won!!!!  Besides celebrating and shopping, I had a chance to catch up on watching my video tutorials from Cindy Lietz.  That in itself can be dangerous....she always has such neat information and ideas, I am inclined to expand my jewelry making repertoire {hence Michaels and the "great" savings}.  One of the videos I watched was for an owl charm.  There was also a charm made of metal that she stamped.  So, of course, I have been searching the web for any information I can find on metalsmithing and bought some metal sheets at Michaels.  I also made a trip to Polymer Clay Express yesterday for additional supplies.  It's great to have them so close. 

My daughter has been asking me for months to make her a tree of life pendant with her children's birthstone colors.   I was finally able to put a piece together for her.  I wanted to add a crystal for her and her husband, however, I didn't have the colors I needed.  Still, I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Well, the weekend is almost over; time to get some housework done.  At least I don't have to worry about what's for dinner tonight!

Til next time; stay safe and be happy.

End of shows for 2013

We had our last show of the season last Saturday.  It was at one of the local schools {we show every spring and fall}.  It was very busy, a great turnout.  I think it's one of the quickest days I ever had when doing a show. I can always count on my regulars that stop by every show.  This year, some of them even brought friends!  What a great compliment.

I work full time and while I love creating, I admit I don't spend a lot of time on promoting my side business.  Every year, I promise myself I will work harder to get my name out there.  Then, before you know it, the year rushes by.  I've decided {again!} to work on getting to more shows next year.  I plan to start looking after Christmas and coming up with a list of potential venues.  Then, we'll see.

I did two things with this last show, that I had not done before, and hope to see some results.  I developed a tri-fold pamphlet to hand out at shows.  It tells about my work, has some pictures and hopefully will encourage customers to contact me for custom pieces.  Secondly, I had a Holiday Special give away.  Anyone spending a designated amount was able to fill out a little card for a drawing after the show.  I made 2 beaded necklace and earring sets and I had them put which one they wanted if they won.  I randomly picked the winner tonight and sent an e-mail to her, plus sent a general thank you e-mail to all the others. Here's the picture of the two sets I made.

The winner was the only one that chose the red set.  Soooo, the blue one is still up for grabs!

Til next time, I hope everyone has a great week, stay safe, be happy and... if you celebrate have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Getting ready for the holidays

I really don't know where the time goes.  Less than two weeks until Thanksgiving, then the mad Christmas rush. 

We've been lucky with fair weather the last few weekends {until today - there is fog and drizzle!}.  In October, we did a weekend show at a local fairground.  Now, one would think that October would glide in with some cooler temps and the promise of color changes to come with wonderful fall scents and the desire to get outside.  Well, let me tell you....it was so hot, we were sweating just standing around!  The crowds were no where to be seen and sales were low.  Even the event planners were surprised that some vendors did not show up and traffic was slow.  But, I always look at it as an opportunity to meet other artisans, network and sometimes, get good ideas for my small side business.

Somehow, the fall decorations didn't feel right with 90+ temps!

One of the yearly shows I have been doing in November is no more.  The planner indicated she just wasn't doing it any longer.  Luckily, my daughter put together a fundraiser show for my grandson's boy scout troop.  We went yesterday.  As this was the first time she did anything like this, she only had six vendors and the turnout was low {even the troops parents didn't come!}  I was able to sell some items, as I was the only handmade crafter there.  She plans to try again in April and will work on getting more vendors and a lot more advertising.

Because the weather has been so nice, I have been going out with my neighbor the past few Saturday's.  We went to some local shows and took one day to drive around taking pictures of barns.  She wants to put together a series of pictures for one of her rooms.  Well, this has lead to us talking about taking a photography class.  I realized, though I have a pretty good digital camera, I really don't know how to use all of the functions.  I've spent some time researching aperture, shutter speed, etc, but I learn better by hands on work.  We'll see.

Now, we are getting ready for our last show of the year next Saturday.  This show is usually very busy and we do well.  Then I really need to get myself organized for the holidays!

Til next time....stay safe and be happy.

Time for a new oven

Had a partial disaster today with my convection oven I use to bake clay.  I've been on a roll, getting pins and buttons done for our show next week.  For some reason, the separate oven thermometer I use was reading 350-400 degrees when I was preheating it.  I turned the oven off a few times to let it cool, then tried heating it again before I baked some pins.  Well, dummy me, I thought maybe the thermometer was broken, so I put some pieces in anyway.  A few minutes later, I noticed smoke coming out of the oven.  Geez, I quickly unplugged the oven and took the clay and oven outside.  I also opened the windows and put the vent on.  Boy, you don't want to smell burnt polymer clay and you definitely don't want the fumes in the house.  My advice; if you think something is wrong with your oven, err on the side of caution and don't use it!!  I was lucky that I was in the kitchen, as I usually put the pieces in and go back to my studio to get the next batch ready for baking.  I guess it was worth the few lost pieces I had, vs the other, worse case scenario.

On a better note, I am pleased with the items I've been making.  I put together a few pumpkin pins.....

...and I am finally filling up one of my peg board stands.  I also bought 4 small crate boxes from Michael's and spray painted them black to use for our set up next week.  I'm hoping to be able to get things together for the show during the week, so I am a little better organized with what I want to put out.

I hope to take a lot of pictures of our space and will post them when I have a chance.

Til next time, stay safe and be happy!