Monogram Pillow

I used the marvelous clip art from Dover to create this elegant monogrammed pillow . Look for it soon in my eCrater store.

BINGO

My new earrings
If you like them they will be in my online store tomorrow

Watch out...Mom has a heat press

oh...and glitter

Awaiting new toy

I ordered a small heat press and am anxiously awaiting it's arrival...I'm pretty sure events in the next year will call for it's use...

more autumn

harvest table

pumpkin posts

Autumn

harvest table

Pumpkin posts

Autumn

A bird in hand

I lucked out at a town wide Garage sale last weekend and scored an overhead projector. So a 4x6 drawing can now become a 16' x 20" canvas or a wall size mural....hmmm

Using the barn for other than bats

Tomorrow is my first official barn sale...It was impossible to put everything I don't need or no longer want out there
Lots of nice things but no room.Maybe we'll scratch the surface and someone will get a real bargain :o)

Book wreath

160 pages from a Reader's Digest Condensed Book, a paper plate and some pine cones made this 22" wreath.. The next one will be waxed for sturdiness...total crafting time approximately 2 hours...

waxed flowers

My Page - Stampin' Up!

My Page - Stampin' Up!

Sometimes you're the windshield

and sometimes you're the bug...
This was a good week for me...I deflected all sort's of c*ap and won things as well!
I am so excited to have been chosen to receive Margot Potter's new book BEAD CHIC...I can't wait...I love being distracted by shiny objects
I'm working on an article about necessary sticky stuff needed in your studio or craft room ... now where did I leave that roll of tape?

Sometimes you just can't help it

I am not a scrap booker or a stamper but I am an artist and sometimes you just have to have the tools (at a discount) so I am now officially a Stampin' up demonstrator....Why? because they have awesome products besides the stamps. And my twin just loves all of it...

It's not my first foray into party plan and surprisingly I usually join for much the same reasons...Love the products and don't want to pay full price! But I have to admit Stampin' up has the fun factor too...If I can teach some peeps how to actually have fun being creative, I'm game
Stay tuned....
http://marika.stampinup.net/

Paint anything that stands still

Leftover paint and things that needed to be painted...

Happy 4th

2010-06-28

The road less taken...or rocky ride ahead

I'm at another crossroads. I love to learn and yet I still don't recognize soon enough when things aren't working. I thought the Farmer's Market would be an outlet for all my creative endeavors but the peeps in my small town have an interest in plants and food. They are not able or willing to support my artistic appetites so I have to move on to a bigger pool...The adventure continues

What does your blog or social network say about you?

testing
Buy Now

Pazzles cutting file test

 Buy Now

My customers know where to shop!

What aa difference a week makes

paper Mache Brought to you by the letter A

Paper mache clay

 I know I can't focus...
So today I made a paper mache onit and a Sally Cat....Family members know what an onit is, and soon you will too...

Sometimes we need to be reminded

Sometimes we need to be reminded

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN
(a guide for Global Leadership)
All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.
These are the things I learned:

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don't hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don't take things that aren't yours.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do                                        we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
[Source: "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN" by Robert Fulghum.  See his web site at http://www.robertfulghum.com/  ]

the chair

The tree frogs think it's summer...

Okay...I'm a little punchy because it's 3:00+  a.m and I have jury duty in 5 hours...I should be sleeping but it's still 70 degrees
sssssssssssssooooooooooo

I'm browsing the internet, thinking about all the craft hours I'll miss while doing my civic duty

This week I painted the upholstery on a vintage cane chair  going in the new blue room. The green velvet was a little dated and dusty looking after 60+ years so out came my acrylics (just cheapo craft paints) a stiff paint brush, and nerves of steel...I thought about reupholstering the
seat and back but the thought of dealing with all those tufted covered buttons put that thought out of my mind.
You can use fabric medium with the paints, but using a really stiff clothing brush after the paint dries will soften the material again ...I'll post pictures tomorrow along with the garage sale find curtains (50 cents a panel)  that will look fantastic with the 'cottage y' I'm going for...I also found a topper in green that I am planning to make over in blue   with the paint brush as well because it has these really cool prisms hanging on it...you'll just have to imagine it for now.

an empty room

poly shapes with pazzles

The polymer cuts very nicely with the settings used last night, een with intricate cuts

Cutting Polymer clay with a Pazzles

Today I finally got to cut Poly clay with my Pazzles after much experimenting with thickness and blade adjustments. The clay has to be conditioned well befor rolling it through a pasta machine. I found it worked best when I put it through at 4 on my machine. To place it on my mat, I pressed it down firmly by placing a paper towel over it and then using the edge of my vinyl squeegee to apply it. I moved the rubber bumpers on my pazzles to the sides of the rollers before cutting. My settings on the Pazzle were 6 for depth, 9 for pressure and 1 for speed. Clean the blade and rollers after each cut. I will try more intricate cuts with larger pieces of clay. These pieces are about 1.5 - 2 inches.
I can't wait to try fondant next but have to get a new mat
Mari

Home!!!

After almost 4 months we are back home...I am surrounded by my stuff (way too much) and ready to tackle many projects. The first is to move my office from one of the unfinished rooms to make room for my mother , who moved in with us last year after an illness. She has STUFF too...80 years of it. After emptying her house for market, donating, trashing and giving away, there is still a barn full and personal items that fill a couple of rooms. I am remodeling the current office to make her a sanctuary to her liking, so she will feel she belongs here. I have an inspiration pic and a vision how to make it work in this room...we'll see how it goes.