Happy New Year

Wishing you all a HAPPY & PEACEFUL NEW YEAR

Lily at Michael's

Well I didn't get a new camera for Christmas, apparently Santa thought I was a bad girl. Actually my computer died so I got a new Mac instead. I'll have to buy my own camera. In the mean time grandson Brandon is letting me use his camera.

The gift wrapping was a big success this year. So many really cool packages, wait til you see the winner it was amazing!! Heather took lots of photos with her fancy smancy camera which I will share with you once Heather and Brad download them to my new computer. Right now I am trying to adjust to the small cordless keyboard and the "magic" mouse. I'm not good with change so it is going to take me awhile to get use to this new fangled gizmo.

In the mean time here are photos of Great Granddaughter Lily shopping at Michael's.

Oh Grandma look at the pretty beads... I like the pink ones!!

I'm not sure what you do with these but it looks like fun.... lets get a couple.
Look at all the pretty flowers!! I like the lilies best, don't you?

Polymer Clay & Glitter

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY PEACEFUL NEW YEAR

Just a quick post to show you these. Heather and Roger gave me a set of Martha Stewart glitter and I couldn't wait to try them out so I made these.... I'll keep going til I try all 24 colors. Right now I'm making coconut shells, I need them for my Christmas wrap project. We drew names back in August so we would have plenty of time to plan and wrap our gifts.... yeah, right!! Here I am on Christmas Eve furiously trying to come up with something... will I ever learn? (Apparently not!!)

Click on the photo for a closer look.

Polymer Clay Feather Pendants

Yesterday was suppose to be candy making day but the humidity was high so I waited until today. I still have one batch of divinity to make and then I'll be done. Oh I almost forgot, I still have to put the the chocolate on the almond butter crunch. Good thing I only have to do this once a year.

To come down from my sugar high I left the kitchen and made a couple layered pendants with the "feather" cane. I'm not to crazy about the shape of the one on the right but I love the colors. I may have to do a little whittling..... any suggestions? I'm working on a bowl now, my first bowl, it looks really good so far. I hope I can get it off the glass bowl after it is "baked". I tried looking up tutorials but didn't have much luck.

Click on the photo for a closer look.

Polymer Clay Canes

It has been a busy week. My shopping is done, my cookies are baked and I will make my candy tonight.... after I watch the Survivor finale.....

In between all the Ho Ho Hoing I did manage to play with clay. It was my way of rewarding myself.... that and sampling cookies.

Here are the canes I made. I used the canes to make beads and pendants but haven't sanded yet so those I will show you later.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

Polymer Clay Red Moon Pendant

Progress is being made, I made it to the store for my cookie ingredients, that's a good thing, I'll start baking tomorrow... maybe. And the Christmas tree is in it's stand and sitting in front of the window in the living room, it's not decorated but it's up, that's progress, right? It's in a new spot this year which has me a little nervous, my oldest grandson, Nick, is a stickler for tradition and he like things to remain the same year after year.... maybe he won't notice. I also hung the Santa wreath on the door.

Anyway I only had time for one piece today... all that holiday stuff got in the way.. and here it is. I know it should be a blue moon but IMHO it looks better with red so red it is.

Click on the photo for a closer look.

More Mixed Media Jewelry

Shhhhhhh.....don't tell anyone... I'm still paying with clay. I know, I know. I'm suppose to be getting ready for Christmas. I have cookie to bake, candy to make, a tree to put up, a house to decorate inside and out... all the garland, lights, ornaments, Santas.... everything still in the attic. For some reason I think I have lots of time and I know I don't. It's da muses fault, she keeps whispering in my ear....

Click on the photos for a closer look.

This is one of my favorites, I like the colors and the design. The fringe beads remind me of Grapes. I am going to hang it on copper chain.... as soon as I find the chain.
Not to sure I like this one, it's a little funky, looks like a crab or a bug creature. The swirly bead is much prettier in person.... have I mentioned I need a new camera?
This one is BIG, I call it Big Red. I made the frame first and then used a cane for the polymer clay center. It's more attractive is person too... camera Santa, I need a camera.

Polymer Clay Mixed Media Pendants

I always end up with sore thumbs when I work with wire but I really like the way colored wire and polymer clay look together so I guess I'll have to put up with sore thumbs. Sorry for the quality of the photos, my poor camera is dying. If Santa doesn't bring me a new one I'll have to buy one for myself.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

I used a polymer clay swirlie lentil bead, brass wire, dark blue wire, amber wire and blue #8 seed beads for this necklace.

This is my favorite. I used a leaf shaped polymer clay bead framed with peridot wire and seed beads on dark green waxed cotton cord.
Red and orange polymer pendant on red cord .
I made more that I will post tomorrow..... if the camera will cooperate.

And the Winner Is...

Drum Roll Please!!!

Once again Roger took home the trophy!! He had Eric's name. Eric has been collecting PEZ for a very long time and has a huge collection so Roger made this fabulous large PEZ of Eric. The PEZ "candies" inside contained his actual gifts but believe me Eric was more pleased with the wrapping

The PEZ is made of paper mache and stands almost 4 feet tall. His resemblance to Eric, including his crooked smile, is amazing.... as you can see in the last photo.
This is how it looks open with the gift boxes inside.
And here PEZ Eric is with the real Eric.
We are all looking forward to this years gifts exchange. What has surprised me the most is how the guys took to the challenge, they are all off and running, determined to get that trophy from Roger. Who knew, apparently all you have to do to get guys to participate is make it a competition. The only grumbling has come from a couple of the females in the family.... who, by the way are very artistic, just claim they are not, but I think they are getting into the spirit of things too.

The best gift we all received last year was our first great granddaughter Lily, born on Dec 23rd. to our granddaughter Sarah and her sailor husband Brandon. So this year Santa will have the beginning of a new generation to visit. All in all I would say we are a very blessed family.

More 2008 Wrapped Christmas Gifts

I meant to post more of our wrapped gifts yesterday but I was having problems with my computer. We'll see if I can get it done tonight.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

This is a gift for Cory. Cory plays soccer so the box was decorated to resemble a soccer field. Cory gets extremely nervous before each game and almost always throws up... hence the polymer clay vomit on the corner. This is half of Ben's present.... he recently started smoking cigars so Eric got him a humidor, cigar cutter and cigars. This is a giant cigarette/cigar light made from tin foil and a tissue paper flame.
This is the other half of Ben's gift wrapped in red velvet and a tie to resemble a smoking jacket. I still cant believe they cut up a vintage Dior tie... that's what I get for turning them loose in my attic.
Heather wrapped this gift for our grandson-in-law Brandon. Brandon is in the navy and at Christmas time last year he was training to be a fire fighter. Heather made the sailor from polymer clay, the fire hose is rubber cord and the water and flames are tissue paper. I wish I had a close up of the sailor as it is a good likeness to Brandon.

Now I admit, these were all pretty neat but I still haven't shown you the winner.... tune in tomorrow... believe me it is worth the wait.

Christmas Gift Wrapping

Well it's official... December 1st... tis the Season to be jolly. Time to do some serious Christmas shopping. Fortunately I only have to buy three gifts.

Up until a couple years ago our gift giving was getting way out of hand, the cost and the stress of trying to buy for everyone was taking all the fun out of Christmas. We had resisted drawing names but decided to give it a try and to add a little spice to the process we had a gift wrapping contest with a traveling trophy for the best wrapped gift.

The first two years only the adults drew names, one adult's name and one child's name. Those classified as children were anyone still in school or college. The first year was a trial run and we did a pretty good job. Heather wrapped a gift in children's underwear and another in a Christmas print table cloth. I used coffee filters cut into snowflakes on the coffee maker I gave Patty and cartoons from old Playboys for the gift I gave Roger. Eric decorated one of his with playing cards and another with spices.

And then there was Roger..... here's a photo of his Santa and reindeer.Needless to say Roger won the Best Wrapped Trophy that year. Wow, just blew us away... we'd had some grumbling about the gift wrap challenge but the following year almost everyone jumped in with both feet.... they all wanted to take that trophy away from Roger.

Here's some of the gifts from 2008

Patty's "electric guitar" gift for Roger. I can't remember what she gave him but the wrapping was a hit.

I had to wrap both mine and hubby's so I created a snowperson family... the gifts are in the bodies and they are sporting the scarves I knitted.
Heather had her Dad's name, he likes Sci-Fi and space so she made a rocket ship. She rolled up the winter jacket she got him and put it inside. The blast off flames are made of colored tissue paper.
Stay tuned. Tomorrow I'll show you more of the 2008 entries and the grand prize winner.