2012 "Thing A Day" Day 28 & Day 29

Today is the last day for our "Thing a Day" challenge. It has been a fun month. I enjoyed making something each day and especially enjoyed seeing what my fellow clayers  made. And it gave me the opportunity to make new friends and get to know some of the "old" ones better.  I'm sorry to see it end.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

Here are the beads I made for day 28.

Swirlie beads are another way to use scraps.  I still have to sand these. I know they are a bit of a bore to polymer clayers but they are a big hit with the public.  Trust me, if you want to get ohs and ahs  dazzle them with swirlie pendants.

This is what I made for the Final Day..... I had hoped to have two new canes but the weekly lunch date with my daughters was moved up a day so I didn't get the 2nd one finished.

I really like cane, hope you do to.

and here are a couple pendants I made with it.  I will make more of the square beads to go with the  framed pendant.

Close up of the shied pendant.  I used the cane end scraps to make the mirror images on both pendants.  I will use one of the "ribbon" beads plus black cord to make it into a necklace.

I used the cane to frame this mirror image. I still have to seal the PearlEX with Kato liquid clay and then I can sand and buff.  There is a large Swarovski rhinestone at the top.

So that is the end of  our 4th "Thing a Day" Challenge.  I do hope everyone had as good a time as I did!!

Thanks for stopping by.

2012 "Thing A Day" Day 26 & Day 27

I am combining two days again... I watched the Academy Awards last night and didn't have time to blog.

I am making good use of my border cane. For Day 26 I made a pendant by combining the border with mica shift.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

I then made some beads to go with the pendant.

Then for Day 27 I made a necklace using the pendant and beads.

I made the bail with colored wire and a rainbow fluorite bead and glass seed beads.

And I added more rainbow fluorite beads, woven wire, bead caps and seed beads  to the polymer clay beads to make the links.

Then finished the necklace with copper wire and clasp.  I like it.

That's it for today.

Thanks for stopping by.

2012 Thing A Day Days 24 & 25 Border Cane & ATC's

I got a day behind so I'm catching up today  I made another border cane yesterday and today I used it... and the left overs... to make beads and pendants.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

Here is the new cane I made for Day 24

Here is a couple small "left over" canes.

I made these for Day 25. A couple Mirror Image tiles and an oval cabochon and two flat oval tiles for earrings.

The cabochon also has a band around the side.  I am going to make a beaded necklace with this one.

Okay, now for the really fun part.... the ATCs I received from the other swapper.

The first one, top row right, is from Vesta. The photo does't do it justice, it is translucent and will look pretty hanging in the window.

Top left is by Trina, it has a lovely textured pink background highlighted with Pearl Ex and then decorated with "Love" charms.

Bottom left by Elizabeth, a shimmer textured background decorated with Zodiac signs and gold stickers.

The bottom right is by Denise, a pretty faux fabric design stamped with dainty gold flowers and pretty cane flowers in the  gathered center.

Top row right is "Moonrise over the Alaska Range" by Beckie Fox

Top left is a mixed media ATC "Tempus Fugit"  by "Cosmic Beads"

Bottom left, Lovely shimmers in brilliant colors by Angela.

Bottom right,  Fantastic prancing horse by Janette

Top row left. Sweet little Bird in a delicate bush of pearly flowers, by Jackie (the host of the swap)

Top row right, A delightful owl sitting on a winter branch above a blanket of snow.  by Susan  (I love owls)

Bottom row left,  Another of Janette's  awesome horses... I spotted these on Flickr before I got my box, I had my fingers crossed I"d get one.... lucky me I got two!! (Just goes to show finger crossing works!)

Bottom right, I absolutely love silhouettes.... this one is by Jeanann.

Top left, Pretty spring cottage by Sandie

Top right, "Good Morning" by Linda... the message is so true!

Bottom left, Shimmering Golden butterfly wing with rhinestone by Helen.... very pretty, it has a deco look.

Botton right, Lovely hanging garden scene... by Denise

Top left, pretty blue and white flowers scattered across an aqua background, made by Dori.

Top right, Paisley design by Eva.  Looks like tooled leather to me, my Mom had a hand tooled leather purse with a similar design... reminds me of good times.

Bottom left, Gorgeous cane ATC by Matt.... "BigKerm" makes fantastic canes.  (check them out on Flickr)

Bottom right, Lovely 3-D  "Floating Flowers"  by Kelly. Don't they look like they are floating on a summer breeze?

This was a great swap!  Jackie kept us well informed, cracked the whip to keep us moving and gave us lots of encouragement. She did a SUPER job.  Except making us wait to open the boxes!!  She didn't open the boxes until they all arrived, I would never have the will power to do that, I wanted to fly out to Nevada and rip open those boxes.... (and I'm afraid to fly!)  guess that's why she's the host and I'm not.

 I'd never  made ATC's before so I had great fun making them and even more fun opening the package and finding all the mini treasures.   My next project is to find a special spot in my clay room to display them... I'll ask Heather to help me, she is good with things like that.

Okay Jacks.... I'm ready for the next swap!!

Hope you enjoyed your visit...Thanks for stopping by.

2012 "Thing A Day" Day 23 Practice Bangle Bracelet

Today was a good day. I got my ATC's , it was so much fun opening the box and seeing all the ATC's that fellow clayers made. You will have to wait until tomorrow to see the photos.

Thursdays has become lunch day with my daughters and little great granddaughter Lily. Today we went to a favorite restaurant, Cleveland Heath,  in Edwardsville.  The name is a little strange but the food is excellent.  After lunch we went to this really cool little gift shop, Beyond Timbuktu.  It was my first time there and I enjoyed looking at all the goodies.  They had some Oxacan Woodcarvings Critters that I couldn't resist.  I bought four but I wanted all of them.

According to the literature  they are hand carved by native woodcarvers in southern Mexico.  The carvings are done at home using machetes and kitchen knives. The figures are sanded and then painted with color fast house paints. The whole family helps in the sanding and painting.

Here are the four I purchased.  Sorry about the yellow cast to the photo, I was to pooped to haul everything down stairs to the light box.

I'm thinking this style of critter would be perfect for polymer clay.... don't you?

I didn't get much done in the clay department.

I condition several sheets of clay....

and I made one practice bangle.  I don't want to use any of my border canes until I know what I'm doing.

I didn't reinforce it with anything so I hope it doesn't break.  I think I'll try a core of wire next time. And I want to make the next one wider.

It's been a long day.... time for  milk and cookies and then off to bed.  See you tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by.

2012 "Thing A Day" Day 22 Mica Shift

For my Day 22 of Thing a Day I combined one of my "border" canes with Mica Shift.  I took these photos so they are not very good, I'll have Heather take better ones tomorrow.

I mixed an olive green then combined it with Kato silver, stamped it with one of my new texture sheets to make the mica shift.

Close up of the round pendant.

I used the center from the above pendant and a couple smaller circles on a black and green background.

The last items in this group are a couple odd shaped beads and a small pendant.

Tomorrow I'm going to do something with purple..... already conditioned some of the clay.

Thanks for stopping by.

2012 "Thing a Day" Day 21 Mostly Odds & Ends

Nothing to exciting today.  Mostly odds and ends made from left over clay. I over reduced a cane,  (example in the center) so I cut it into thick slices, ran them though the pasta machine until the design was larger, backed the tiles with scrap clay and added some left over pieces from the "waves" texture sheet.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

More tile beads from scraps.

and more mirror image beads... again from scraps. And a lonely textured tube bead. I made more of the tube beads, just haven't cured them yet.

That's it for today.

Thanks for stopping by.

2012 "Thing A Day" Day 20 Mixed Media Necklace

I made this necklace last night while I was walking the final episodes of Downton Abbey. I used more of my "ribbon wire", polymer clay beads, clear crystal beads, gray cats eye beads, burgundy wire and a large clunky black chain.  I thought maybe I went a little overboard but Heather say "no", she likes it.  What do you think?  It's okay if you don't like it.... constructive criticism is  always welcome.

It looks better on.... here is a close up.

Here is how it hangs. It's beginning to grow on me.  I tried it on and it looked pretty good.

Short and sweet today.

Thanks for stopping by.

2012 Thing A Day Day19 My ATC's

I'm so excited!!!....at long last I can show you my ATC's.  There are 30 folks in the swap.  The 30 are divided into 3 groups.... so we were required to make 10 ATC's to be in a group and we could be in as many groups as we wanted.  I made 20 ATC... now I'm sorry I didn't make 30.....  I would have loved to get an ATC from everyone.  Our host, Jackie, is up to her eyeballs in ATC's ... can you imagine sorting through 330 ATC's, taking photos, packing them up and then getting them to the post office?

I'm trying very hard to be patient but I can hardly wait to get all those little treasures. I will take photos as soon as they arrive.

Okay so here we go

Click on the photos for a closer look.

The only rules were the size, 2 1/2" x  3 1/2" (the size of a regular playing card)  and not more than 1/2" thick, and they must be partially made of polymer clay.  We could use other materials to embellish or decorate.

I know, Nine in the 1st photo

Eleven in the 2nd photo.  Easier to arrange that way.

Funny story... well kinda funny... I've never made ATC's before so when I read they are the size of a regular playing card I got out a deck of cards from my desk drawer and was using the joker as a tinplate.  I had completed 9 and was showing them to Heather, she asked about the size and for some reason I picked up one of the ATC's and measured it,  to my surprise and horror it was only 2 1/4" by 3 1/4".  Uh oh... surely it was just one.... but nope... I measured all nine and every single one was to small.  Maybe they shrunk in the oven,  sure that's it, not my fault.  I measured the stupid Joker card and sure enough it was 2 1/4"  x 3 1/4".   Heather is howling with laughter at the look on my face. Well @#$%^!!  there are only two rules and I'd already broken one of them.  Back to the drawing board.... I measured and made a new tinplate, this one in the correct size, and started making borders and new backs for the 9 offending ATC's.

So, be advised, not ALL  "regular" playing cards are the same size.  Boy you can't trust anyone these days!!

See the nice borders on these.... they were the first two I made

and these 3 have the added borders

Now I'm really getting into it... I embellished these with metal charms and wire.

Two more of the offending 9 .... see the borders?

The first one is embellished with wire doodads... the 2nd with the black border.... number 8 of the offending 9.

The howling wolf is the last of the 9.... and the sun God was the final ATC that I made.

Okay by this time I was really getting into it.... I made wire critters to use on these and added cloth leaves around the cross eyed cat.... he's been hanging out with the squirrels and doesn't know he's a cat. The cardinal looks like a jailbird surrounded by worms.

The first one is very busy, it has a wire "bff"  can you see it?

More wire doodads for these .... I  added ribbon roses to the 2nd one.....

and last but not least... Mr Scotty McGregor.  I love this stamp.

As you can see I had a very good time making these... and... as it turned out the borders gave the offending cards a more finished look, at least that is what I am telling myself.... lemonade from lemons... right?

Thanks for stopping by.

2012 Thing A Day Day 18 Brown & Teal

I love these colors together, in fact I like brown with almost all colors. I showed you what I was working on yesterday.... here is the results. I used the cane scraps and a piece of extra clay to make the two pins.... or maybe pendants.

I do have plans for the all the border canes I've been making... I want to try my hand at bangle bracelets... the plan is floating around in my head...

Click on the photos for a closer look.

I made the oval one first...  I used wire to secure the beads and the side scroll.

 I got my order from Cool Tools, they sucked me in with another sale....or was it free shipping?  I can't remember.... I need to have a talk with whoever is in charge.... they have to quit making new texture sheets, I can't resist, I have to have them, my drawer is full, now I have to buy new drawers... I may have to go back to work just to afford my texture sheet habit!

So, I used the new texture sheet with waves and highlighted the raised areas with bronze PearlEx.  You can see why I had to have it.... right?

The 2nd is made with the scraps from the first.... I bet you already noticed that.   I"m not sure this one is done I may add some wire, I like the way it looks now  but a little wire couldn't hurt.

I sanded the sides and backs of both of these but still have to add pin backs or bails.

And I used a couple of my previous "Thing A Day" things to make a necklace.  I added faceted amber crystal beads and colored wire with the disk beads for the side chains and completed the necklace with copper chain.  I have a mustard yellow top that looks really good with this.

Time for my nap.

Thanks for stopping by.