Linda Peterson - amazing stuff!

Wow!  15 minutes after the class is over and I'm done and posting my necklace.  Is this just amazing?

From her online class.  What a fantastic way to start 2011!!!

Take a closer look - that's a simple washer covered with modge podge and paper!  How cool is that?

So, you can order kits with everything you need in advance  I didn't.  My copper wire wasn't patina'd.  But I took my trusty little creme brulee torch and fired it up, giving it nearly the same look.  I sort of like the untorched copper next to the stuff that was torched!

Check out Craft Tech U  and Linda Peterson's blog!  and if you're on Facebook, be sure to "friend" both!

Now.....I'm in a creative mood!  What next?  LOL!

Blog- counterblog

First, you have to go read Linda's blog from yesterday.

This is my "counterblog". LOL!

I don't have a photographic memory at all..I barely have any memory. But I do clean once in awhile and have to move things and dust them, so yeah, I pretty much know what's in my house.....especially when there's something "new" for me to dust!

I have way too much stuff and don't like to "work"!

and yes, I really do love all of my sisters. They are just so much fun! But no, never tell them something you don't want them to share with me.....we're just not that kind of sisters. We share everything!!! But really, Colleen only hinted for me to look in my studio.



And I do love dressforms. why? Because I have never had and will never have a shape like that! LOL!!!

I have little decorative "clusters" throughout the house. This is in the guest bedroom - where I hang jewelry that I don't wear, but don't want to part with. The little earring holder on the left was given to me by my dear friend Lucky - I just adore it. Again....I'll never have "that" shape!

Since I "know" my earrings, it wasn't hard to spot the ones Linda made (square purple).

This is one of my favorite corners. I did the punch embrodery bears in the frame, made the dolls in the glass case, my aunt did the counted cross stitch, my sister made the fabric doll, my Great Aunt Nellie's perfume bottle, Grandma Hazel's doorstop (the glass ball)....so many fun things to look at and they just bring back fond memories.
Now, the reason I spotted the necklace on the table top dress form is that I usually have my high school charm bracelet around the neck as a "necklace". So I immediatley knew something was amiss! The bracelet is visiting my studio as I make molds of the various charms. So the neck should have been empty!

I do think each piece is going to stay right where it is and become part of my permanent decor. It just fits so well. But I have to tell you, it was such a fun treasure hunt that I might start leaving pieces where ever I travel! What a great idea and I just have to thank Linda for yet another adventure in my life!

and for more stuff to dust! :o)

Party lag

....it has to be something similar to "jet lag"? Where a few days after you travel somewhere you just can't function? I think I'm going through "party lag" today! Linda and I were up til 2 am and then the phone rang at 7:30 am and I just cannot function yet today!

So instead of editing photos and writing yet another story.....I read what Liz Welch wrote about the weekend and I do believe it sums up the whole event in such a wonderful way!

Grab your coffee and click the link below and have fun reading all about our fabulous weekend of play!!!

Rarelizzzie's Blog

You can order the cutters that Liz talks about here:

Rare Bird Ltd

The one she used is "Arabesque"

I can't keep up!

There is so much going on.....so fast....and it's so much fun!!! Found Jana at the airport and waited forever for Liz's flight to get in.....

Got them here and set up and ready to play......

Liz made the cutest little mini books out of Friendly Plastic
It really is a book!

and gave me this wonderful bracelet all made of Friendly Plastic!

more gifts and fun tomorrow - stay tuned. I'm having a really hard time remembering to use my camera.....which just means that I'm having a blast!

The Starving Artist Playground starts in TWO Days! I am finally ready! All I want to do is just play!!!

Friendly Plastic O(oooh!!!)pals!!!

Today was the best! Linda Hanson from After Midnight Stamps was here for the second time with the Basement Babes. And our goal was to experiment with Opals Embossing Enamels (they come from Australia and Linda is the US distributor for them) and Friendly Plastic.

So, of coure, Linda Peterson skyped in. And I have to say, Kerry is just brilliant! He set it up so Linda appeared on the wide screen TV in my studio - how cool is that???

I mean - it was just like having her right here with us......like she was just sitting there working away!

even making a Friendly Plastic crown! Hmmm....I wonder if she is thinking about going off to London to see the Queen? Hmmmm....I wonder if I can crawl in her suitcase and go with her!!!

We spent the day trying to see what we could do by combining Opals and Friendly Plastic. Our first technique is here and yep, I'll be sharing more tomorrow. This is just beyond fun!!! And I totally love the results:

Pink, then purple.....the color combinations are absolutely endless!!! I know you are going to want a tutorial on how to do this.....but hang on because I need a few days to get that together! Today was all about coming up with the idea, the technique and repeating it at least 3 times so that we knew it would work....

and I think my fav is the turquoise. (OK, OK.....I will learn the colors of the opals! But NOT tonight!!!)

And look at this one - the darkness of midnight I think!

This technique involves layering Friendly plastic between colored and clear Opals embossing enamels

So check back tomorrow night for yet another new idea using these 2 incredible products! Oh! I love it when we get together and experiment! What a great day!!!

wax resist on Metal Clay - part 2

Yesterday, I started with a colorbox stamp strip. Linda let me cut it up to show the section that I used here. What a gal!!! Wanted you to see how it really does look like a colorburst and I don't think they meant for me to see the Star of David in it! LOL!!!



Remember I was worried about what the wax resist would do in the kiln? Well, I need to back up. I applied several layers, allowing it to "nearly" dry between each layer. If I remember right - maybe 4 layers. It was definitely thick. It went on in fairly straight lines....considering that I wasn't worried about how straight they were at all...I was just following the lines of the stamped image! So, I fired it to 1472 degress and held for 30 minutes. Took it out and quenched it. Saw immediately that the wax resist had not burned off.

My next step was to simply take my brass brush to the piece to remove the fire scale. Well, guess what.....every ounce of the wax resist came off with just a couple swipes of my brush!!! Yeah!!!

I've taken the piece and used alcohol ink in the recesses of the area that were deepened using the water etching method. The Star of David is in 2 levels, so I polished the highest level in the center of the star...so you can hopefully see that there are 3 levels of metal to this.....completely accomplished with water and wax resist.

Great product!



Totally happy with my first water etched piece! Can't wait to get home and try some of my other stamps.....oh what the heck? Maybe I'll draw something later today!

Only today and tomorrow left to play at Linda's! It is pouring down rain today, so we have postponed our "field trip" to Branson until tomorrow. That just means we have to play harder today! LOL!

I must say that some of the fine silver and Friendly Plastic pieces that we are making are incredible!!! Stay tuned for more fun posts....live from Ozark Missouri!!!

Think we finished anything today???

Hardly! We went shopping! LOLOL!!! But the day isn't over yet...we've agreed to burn the midnight oil. I must say, there's some pretty fun shops in the Ozarks!



So when I straightened them all out....I think they will turn into some awesome necklace/bracelet/earring sets.



We've decided to go ahead and do another whole load of silver, stack the kiln shelves and fire it all at once (save on electricity) and since it's pouring down rain right now....seems like a great way to spend the evening! Hmmm.....think I'll go grab a movie and pop it in and we'll just play the night away!

It sure feels great to play!

Got to Linda's, got all set up, and started making things with metal clay. While this week is going to be all about Friendly Plastic...I'm going to step it up by adorning my pieces with bits of fine silver.



It all has to dry overnight tonight and then we'll fire it in the kiln tomorrow morning.



However, as I was making molds of charms....I decided to turn this piece into a ring!



Can hardly wait to see how it all turns out! Friendly Plastic and fine silver....what a combination!!!

Stamping Details - video of my road trip

It takes me awhile to get my videos edited.....but this one is just fun. Made the day that Linda Peterson surprised me at Stamping Details - I just wanted you to see what a fun stamp and altered arts store this is. About 30 minutes northeast of Scrapbook Your Life and downtown San Diego.....if you are ever in southern California...it's a "must do" event!!!

The surprise of my life!!!

Added on Thursday:  I have been staying with my new friend, Vickie, up in Ramona CA.....where the buffalo roam...and there's very little internet access.  I have been able to answer most emails via my iphone and was surprised when I got an email from Kathy this morning asking if I was ok.  She said I didn't blog yesterday.  Well, there are always glitches with every system.....and right now I'm at the San Diego airport waiting for my plane to get here and fixing yesterday's blog problems.  This post was scheduled to go live at 7 pm last night....and that just didn't happen.  But keep reading....I think the story is well worth the delay!!!

Linda and I totally enjoy skyping each other and she has been up in Hemet, CA this week attending her uncle's funeral We had set up our cameras and she's been skyping in to my classes as often as she can. Yesterday, I was teaching friendly plastic at Stamping Details, and had my camera all set up.

She texted me and said she was at lunch and would skype as soon as she could.

An hour later, I texted her back and told her she was at a C- for the class because she was late. She texted back that I was a really rough teacher and asked if I graded on the curve at all?

My students were laughing.

Soon after that, I heard her ask, "are you ready to skype?" and in the back of my brain, I thought, "boy, her voice sure is coming in clear over the computer" and instantly realized the computer was to my right and her voice was to my left and I swung around and just let out a scream of joy.....she was live in person in the store!!!

How fun is that?  I was completely shocked and immediately put her to work teaching her wonderful Friendly Plastic ways.  What a bonus treat for those who signed up for that class!!!  And then I let her know she was teaching for "free".

She let me know that what goes around.....comes around!  I imagine I'll pay for this forever!!!

I think I took too many photos....but I just couldn't believe she was in the store!

And here she is with her sweet mom.  Her Aunt was with them as well.  What a totally fun day!

However, I did let Linda know that I am approaching the age where heart attacks can occur with absolutely no warning and perhaps she should give that some consideration in the future!  hahaha!  What a delight to have a friend who would drag her family down to the store where I'm teaching the day after a funeral.  I think that's one for the books!

Love you to pieces, Linda!!!

PS - to my readers.....take a second look at the photos and check out the background!  This store is amazing!  Every single inch of space is crammed with stamps, paint, ink, metal tools, a gadzillion things to play with....it is worth the drive if you are anywhere in the southwest part of the US!!!

The music of art.

Art is like the music in the video below. We each create just one tiny piece and when it's all put together....we have a great chorus to view. 5 minutes and 18 seconds is all it will take to watch this video....I think it's pretty amazing. Not the song....but the technology used to join musicians from all over the world into one song in unison.



I've been busy this week designing and creating tiny little pieces of art that I will teach next month in San Diego. But when I have a class filled with creative men and women.....that's the chorus that I love the most. To see a technique that I teach turn into something even more wonderful than I could imagine - that's my true joy!

But we're going to add some technology to our art while I'm out in San Diego. Linda Peterson is going to skype into Scrapbook Your Life! and teach us one of her amazing techniques via the internet. So while we sit in San Diego, Linda will be with us (via live video feed) and we can see what she's doing and she can see what we make....a true interactive video class. The technology to join artists from all over the world into one song in unison.

Add to that my ability to take photos of my laptop screen where Linda is showing me her latest "finds" so I can rush out and purchase just the same thing!



OK, these are jewelry pieces from Michaels - I needed a good closeup so I'd know what I was looking for. Took the photo and printed it out and ran to the store (Oh! What a great enabler that girl is!!!)



And then, if you want to see what she did with these....you just watch this video:



Doesn't she do a great job with her videos? And isn't it amazing that I can embed them here? But you can also watch them direct on youtube just search Linda Peterson Designs.

OK, I'm back to "work" - must finish up my class samples and get them in the mail. I'm giving myself til Friday to get them all done!!! So even more of my students and friends can enjoy the chorus we create from the art we design. Ah! Music to my ears!!!

Basement Babes via video conference!!!

Third Thursday today - what a hoot! Linda skyped in almost the entire day!



How cool is that? Now we just need to figure out a way to do this by video conference and everyone can join us for a fun filled day!!! Today, we had Linda teach her bezel technique via skype. I can't begin to tell you how much giggling was going on - really hard to hear her most of the time. But it was our very first attempt......and I know we will just get better from here.

This is the bezel that I did - around a piece of marbeled Friendly Plastic:



And here's the one Susan did:



I think there's a market here! How much would you pay for a private skype class? one-on-one....to learn how to do something like this? Or any of the techniques we've been working on lately? Well, of course, you'd have to have a video camera - but I just think this is beyond fun! And you don't have to pay to travel.....or even get out of your jammies! LOLOL!!!

Guess I'd better get busy - one month til the next play day - and we'll see if we can skype more than one person at a time!!!

Friendly Plastic TV - on the road

Want to see the mess Linda and I made of my studio last week? Just watch the opening to this video!!!




This video is jammed with hints of tricks and tips to come in the near future. Tune into the Friendly Plastic blog and Linda Petereson's blog for even more details on all the amazing things you can do with Friendly Plastic. But yes, stay tuned here for my take on this fun product!!! I'll have another technique popping up around 7 pm tonight.

If you want to buy Friendly Plastic, just go visit Amaco's website! Click on Arts and Crafts, then scroll down to Friendly Plastic.

And WHY is Linda shooting pics of my guest bathroom decor??? If you watched the video all the way to the end, I think you'll have the same question when you see "cancer girl" - my little boobless doll! LOLOL!!!

Friendly Plastic Mold 'n Make

Oh yeah! You are going to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one!!! Why? Well.....just read all the way through and you will see!!!

I'm starting out with Friendly plastic pellets. And we'll try to do a video of this one as well, but just so you can get started, here's the instructions:

1. Heat water in an electric skillet at just under 200 degrees. You want to see the steam coming off the water. But not boiling.

2. Drop in pellets and let them melt. It's ok for them to run around. They will be clear, not white, when they are ready. I use a pointy tool and just drag them all together....they will stick to each other. Pick them up out of the water with the pointy stick and put them on a non-stick craft sheet and start working them all together.

Watch Linda Peterson's video here. - just the first part where she shows you how to melt the pellets in the skillet. Well, go ahead, watch the whole video! LOLOL!!!

3. You don't need to color the pellets at all and you don't need the strip that she shows. But you can see the pointy stick I'm talking about. When she takes it out of the water....that's where my instructions continue:

4. You want to roll this into a ball. How big? How many pellets? Approximately twice the size of the item you want to make a mold of.

Here's the metal charm that I wanted to make a mold of.  Pretty large.  Took about 1/4 c of pellets.  Place the mold face up on a non-stick craft sheet.  Always cover your piece in olive oil, baby oil, badger balm, mold release.....something so that the item will release itself after the pellets set up.

5. Place the pellet ball on top of the mold and spread out over the entire mold.   Your ball will still be clear at this point.  If it has started to turn white, just place it back in the water until it turns clear again.  Once you have it shaped over the piece, place it all (including the craft sheet) down into cold water.  It will turn back white.  At that point, you simply pull the mold away from the piece.  


6.  You can use any medium in this that is not hot.  So, you can't pour UTEE in this, or place hot friendly plastic in here as it will melt the mold and stick to it.  But, you can use polymer clay, metal clay, air dry clay, paper mache, anything like that.  I've used air dry clay here.

7.  When the clay is dry, just pop it out.  Note:  the mold is very hard.  It is not flexible at all.  I use my little pointy pick to get the clay started out of the mold.

8.  Very little, if any, shrink factor in this process.

9.  The reason why I LOVE Friendly plastic pellets for mold making.....when you are done with the mold, you simply drop it back into the hot water, wait until it goes clear, then reuse it all over again.  Just think about it....you can use the same piece to make mold after mold after mold!  How cool is that????

Make your (friendly) plastic fantastic!!!

The creative juices have just been flowing like mad today! But first, we spent the morning at McGuckin's stocking up. Yep, they are going to get in the big jars of pellets soon and still have 3 of the small jars. RUN and get them! LOL!!! We came home and played all day long, then went to Chili's for dinner and over to Walmart where we found the perfect t-shirt - they were on sale for $3.00 each and we think you need to go check out your Walmart!!!



And quickly embellished one with a few bits of Friendly Plastic!



Is this heart not gorgeous???



We figured out today how to get the pellets thin enough to diecut with a Spellbinders die! Yippee!!!



And then inked it and gave it dimension!



We're going to film a video and I'll post it here....but it will also be posted over at the Friendly Plastic blog. You need to check it out right now to see the lovely pieces that Jana Ewy created just today! Absolutely stunning!!!

And you know, if you need product, you can now order it direct from Amaco!!!

Love and Google-War!

I first met Linda when we were both teaching on a crafting cruise. Now....wouldn't you decide to be friends with someone who would sit with a monkey? LOLOL!!!



In November, 2007, I flew back to Linda's studio in the Ozarks and spent a wonderful week playing with her. We went to Walmart 3 times a day because it was the only place to go. Yep...she sort of lives in the "sticks"! But we laughed so hard that we cried until her mascara ran!



So this year....I explained our "dress code"......absolutely positively NO makeup! Yet she STILL looks FABULOUS!!!!



She has now just informed me that all is fair in love and google-war! LOLOL!!!! Be sure to read her blog this week!!!

Stay tuned!!!