Playing with Clay

I recently found some old packs of white and black polymer clay in my craft stash and I found some clay inspiration on Pinterest at about the same time so I thought I'd play around with it a little bit.  I think the most I've made, in the past, from polymer clay has been snowmen noses (I found orange clay in my stash too!).  So I really have no idea what I'm doing with it....but it's fun to play with and it brings back memories of grade school art class and pinch pots.  Do you remember those?    

Visit this link to see some of my Pinspiration if you'd like to.

I'm not to sure where I'm going with any of these white pieces...they involved rubber stamps (the butterflies and the bird) and paper lace (the white discs).  The little bird turned into a fridge magnet and the white butterfly ended up looking dirty and so it landed in my "ehhh" pile.  The white discs make me think of Winter and Christmas so I'll be pondering their future for a bit.

I like the black butterfly and I added a cord and bead so now it's a necklace....I might even wear it!  : )

 This clay stuff is a bit out of my element....but there are so many beautiful things to be made from it and I'm anxious to try and make some of my own pieces.

  

My interest in polymer clay actually started almost two years ago when I first visited Angie's blog  Hopemore .  She does some wonderful pieces and she answers my questions too!  How neat is that!!  She's way beyond taking a bit of clay, flattening it out and stamping with a butterfly.  Here's two pieces of jewelry I've been thrilled to buy from her Etsy shop.

This piece below is also polymer clay - made to look like a glass slide (it's in her Etsy shop). Someday I'd like to commission Angie to make slides like this but with photos of my grandbabies.





Finally - I love this piece she has listed! I've already asked Angie if she'd use one of my photos to make something similar and she said yes.  Now I just have to find the photo....it's one of my mother when she was a little girl...and it's somewhere in my piles and boxes of photos!!  I think it would look wonderful in this format - a new family heirloom! 

Thanks for your beautiful work Angie and thanks for inspiring me to try something new!!

Penelope is Five!

Somebody special is five years old today.

This somebody is very fond of pink!

Happy Birthday to Penelope!!!

A few weeks ago she came to our house for dinner and an evening of crafting.  

She has been wanting to make colored clay "forever"!  We took some white modeling clay and added a bit of acrylic paint to it.  Then Penelope kneaded and stretched until she worked the color through the whole piece of clay.  

Then it was time to create...decisions, decisions!  She finally decided to make a little something for each of her family members, plus Gramma and Grampa.

Look at all the pretty colors we made!

Here's what she ended up with....with a little help from me.  

A green lollipop for Daddy, and a pink one for Penelope. Fletcher gets a sailboat, and Mommy gets a flower. I love the sun she gave to me, and Grampa loves the funny face lollipop for him.

I helped her make the caterpillar, which she decided was for her "whole family"!  She decided that I need to add a magnet to each one because "they will look so cool on refrigerators"!

Penelope had one of her favorite foods for dinner...NOODLES!  

She loves noodles...she said, that "they are my very favorite thing"!

Well, maybe they're her very favorite food....but this little guy is her VERY Favorite!! 

Such a good big sister!

Have a Happy Day Sweet Penelope!

I'm looking forward to your birthday party on Sunday!!

The Potter's Hand

“Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand"

Jeremiah 18:6

One of the praise songs we sang in church today was The Potter's Hand by Darlene Zschech. It's one of my very favorite songs. I love the message it presents. All of my days held in His hands....my life fashioned into His perfect plan. Perfect! I love that. I believe it...but I fight against it...too often.

I rebel, complain, worry and fuss as He shapes parts of my life. I'm certainly not pliable in His hands all the time. In fact, that beautiful vessel that God has planned for my life ~ it dries up, hardens and cracks as I resist the gentle guidance of His hands. Sometimes the vessel has to be crushed and started over. Sometimes there are bumps and other imperfections and a little bit of sandpaper or a sharp knife are needed to smooth the surface.

But the whole time He's crafting the vessel and the whole time I'm resisting, He continues to call me and draw me to Himself. I need to yield to His touch and His shaping of my life.

I'm a little crafty myself. Oftentimes, when I make something, it starts out as a big pile of paper, ribbon, doo-dads and what-not. Actually there's so much stuff on my desk ~ it's hard to imagine that anything worthwhile is going to emerge from the pile. All that stuff gets cut, glued, torn apart and glued again many times. When I'm finished, out of the mess, is my own little masterpiece. That's what God's creating in each of us....a masterpiece! That's why we need to be moldable and pliable and we need to trust that He's creating something more beautiful than we can ever imagine...even when our life seems a mess.

The Potter's Hands

Beautiful Lord wonderful Savior ~ I know for sure all of my days are ~ Held in Your hand ~ Crafted into Your perfect plan ~ You gently call me into Your presence ~ Guiding me by Your Holy Spirit ~ Teach me dear Lord ~ To live all of my life through Your eyes ~ I'm captured by Your holy calling ~ Set me apart ~ I know You're drawing me to Yourself ~ Lead me Lord I pray

Take me, mold me, use me, fill me ~ I give my life to the Potter's hand ~ Call me, guide me, lead me, walk beside me ~ I give my life to the Potter's hand

Perfect Timing

On Saturday I received a belated birthday card in the mail, along with a gift card to Michaels.  There was a very sweet "sorry I'm late" message from the sender.  But actually her card arrived at exactly the most perfect time.  I needed a couple things, so I decided to go to Michaels Saturday afternoon.  Imagine my delight when I discovered that the clearance items were 70% off the red sticker (clearance) price!  Take a look at all the goodies I found!

 

I added up the regular prices and all this comes to over $150.00!!  I paid $19.95...including tax!

I always need markers with the "littles" around, and I bet they'll like the clay too!

I know two little girls who are going to LOVE the glitter tape!

The bird stamp ended up costing about $1.50!!  I love the cute little striped bags,

the tiny garland, and the metallic markers.

I couldn't pass up these pads of cute paper.

The red felted wool is saying "Christmas ornaments" to me, and I can always

use extra stuff for making necklaces. 

Mandy might take the "ampersand"...we'll paint it, or cover it with some fun paper. 

The file folders are for me. 

There are six different patterns...each one is so pretty.

It'll be fun to store crafty inspiration in them!

 

This belated birthday gift arrived on just the right day!

I had the best time shopping for all these treasures.

Thank you, Thank you, dear Regina!!

 



Show & Tell Friday

Kelli at There Is No Place Like Home hosts Show & Tell Friday most weeks and I thought I would join in today.

When my father-in-law joined our household 1 1/2 years ago he brought along MANY boxes of stuff and as I've had time to sort through it all I've found some lovely little treasures. This pretty little girl belonged to my husband's mother.

I did a little "googling" and I think this is a Dresden figurine. Dresden is not something I know anything about but it looks very similar to other pieces I found online. The markings on the bottom (which I forgot to take a photo of) say "made in Germany" and include a stamp of a diamond with a letter M inside, and another of a crown. The lacey skirt looks like it was damaged during the move from Florida to Maryland. You can see where a piece of it broke off just below the little purple flower. I'm going to make a tiny little clay flower to try and cover the damage with.

My mother-in-law didn't collect a lot a things and I'm not sure how this piece ended up in the family. But with her German heritage I wouldn't be surprised to discover that this belonged to her mother before her. If anyone is familiar with Dresden figurines maybe you can tell me something about this little girl. She has the sweetest face!


Make sure you stop by and visit Kelli and all the others joining in Show & Tell Friday.

ACEO Giveaway!

I'd Love to Have My First Giveaway!

My blog doesn't quite do these little art cards (ACEO) justice. They are collages and all have very rich inked edges and a slightly shiny matte finish. Some have jewels, some are stamped and some have stickers or glitter. They're all cute!
I love making them because they're pretty quick to make, easy to display and fun to give away. Actually they are so much fun to give away that I would like to do exactly that!!

The ACEOs pictured already have homes...I'll be making

several brand new ACEOs to give away on August 26th.

ACEO stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals. It is an art format started by an artist on Ebay a couple years ago. An ACEO can be created in any medium: paint, colored pencils, ink, fabric, photographs, clay, wood and my personal favorite - collage. Collage is my favorite kind to make and my favorite to collect so, of course collage is the style I'll be making for the give-away.

ACEOs make great little gifts to tuck into birthday and they're perfect little masterpieces to frame and display around your home.

Please make a comment here for one chance to win and get an extra chance to win if you post about my giveaway on your blog.

WORDhouses

 

I covered several birdhouses with dictionary pages late last year....and there they sat.  Until I saw this post on Angie's blog, Hopemore Studios.  I was inspired to get them out and play around with them.  I added some bits of lace, buttons, and textured clay to each house. Each one got a tiny bird sticker too. I like how they turned out.  I call them WORDhouses!!

 

Angie's wood houses are amazing.  She has several listed in her Etsy shop....this is my favorite.

Thanks for the inspiration Angie!!