Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you all a happy and safe Thanksgiving Day. There is much to be thankful for and I hope you each find comfort and enjoyment with family and friends and plenty of food surrounding you.
The graphic above came from graphicsfairy

clay covered pen tutorial part 1of 5

I haven't done any thing like this in a very long time, not since I had my website.
For this tutorial you will need a package of Bic round stick pens. Please don't buy any other brand they will not work and you'll end up with a bunch of warped empty ink barrels, wasted money and time.
You can use any kind of clay you want, I used Sculpey for mine.

with a pliers or needle nose pliers remove the ink filer from the pen barrel, be gentle and don't squish it

any colors you want

clay covered pen tutorial part 2 of 5

clay covered pen tutorial part 3 of 5

clay covered pen part 4 of 5

if you want you can cover the pen with a little TLC (translucent liquid sculpey) I have never had any problems with the clay staying or slipping off so I don't use it for this.

I prefer to roll between my hands using the heel of my hands instead of the palm, smooth out on the hard surface.

I will say here that if you don't want to do a pen this way, you can simply roll out the clay the length of the pen using a clay roller or pasta machine. Roll the pen up into the clay matching seams ( cut with a clay cutter)and then smooth it out. Honestly I like my way better though (:

Clay covered pens tutorial part 5 of 5

roll in your hands a few more times and you may have to cut off the extra again, clean any clay from inside the tube.

bake at the temp recommended on your clay package, I baked at 275 for 15 minutes.

Let cool and then
insert the filler back into the pen. You may have to apply a little pressure by lightly pushing down on a soft surface like a cotton ball. Also you may get a few that will warp slightly like the two on the left of the photo, but you can just keep those for yourself (: Hope you enjoyed this tutorial, there are many more that you can find by searching the internet and youtube also.

painting techniques with JB

okay well.... I have never done a painted canvas before... so this is probably not a good representation of Jean's class but she really packs a pile of pictures and technique into it so hopefully I get better. I need to invest in more interference paint, I resorted to using pearl-ex for a lot of the pop in this one.

So how did I get from the image above to this one, you wonder? So do I, LOL!!
After
I started adding a bt more color I started seeing the mermaid emerge along the side and then the center became a large rock. I don't think I am through with it, I might want to add some bling to it before I seal it off, we'll see what happens. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Where is my muse?

The Many Faces of Katie
I don't know where my creative muse went, I hope she comes back someday though. Seems photo's are the only creative thing I am doing lately. Friday I babysat for my granddaughter Katie and we had a great time taking photo's, I took many more then these, but I thought these few close ups would be cute combined together to fit an 8 x 10 frame. I just love the photo on the top right, I love them all actually.
By the way Katie's mom, my DIL Amy is beginning her own blog titled Mom's Coffee Time . She would love if you had a visit (;
So until I find my muse photo's will be showing up here....
Where or where are you my muse?

Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater...finished

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,

Had a wife but couldn't keep her;

He put her in a pumpkin shell

And there he kept her very well.

peter, peter, pumpkin eater...?

We still have lots of work to do, but this is how things are shaping up.

I am back to work as I stated in my last post and it has been tough adjusting after being off for over 4 months and then being tossed right into 10 hour days... but we are 8 hours now and I am doing better at coping with it, could be laid back off again an a couple months, who knows.... so I haven't had much of a chance to work on him but he is shaping up.. hopefully this weekend I can finish him up.