Busy busy busy...

Yet again, it's been a bit crazy in Crafty Mom household. I know I shouldn't be surprised by this, yet I am. We've already completed one school fundraiser. Caylin has her first major project due on Friday that I'm getting way too involved in.

Jake has been busy with his freshman soccer team and we've hardly seen him at all the last month. Tommy is absolutely loving every minute of school. And Miss Maya is teething, but at least she's finally learned what yes mean, and that she can say it. But she's also mastered the phrases "I want" and "I don't want"- and how to scream when it's not her way. I think Mike is just trying to reduce the number of middle-of-the-night calls he gets from work.

As far as me... I've been fighting a cold for the last few weeks, but that hasn't made me any less busy.

I completed and sent off another letter tile for the PCAGOE Alphabet Charity project. We've finally got one complete set, and there's only one tile left for the other set!

Isn't it cool? It's going to be donated to a children's hospital or advocate. The Y in the lower left corner is mine- I'm so proud!

I also completed this little guy for the PCAGOE monthly challenge. The theme was Day of the Dead. While he didn't win, I was still very happy with him. He was something new that I tried, and it's always important to try new things. And of course, he's for sale on my Etsy!

Speaking of my Etsy, I've listed one of my Mayan pendants- take a look!

Lastly- we had our first frost over the weekend! I harvested my basil and oregano. The basil has already been quick-dried in the oven, and the basil is hang-drying. It's kinda neat seeing it there in the kitchen... I think I'm going to have to do more herbs next year!

Meetings and messes

Here I am blogging, just like I said I would... I even got my tail up off the couch from under the nice warm blanket to stick to my blogging commitment. I didn't think it'd be good to slack off on my first day.

Today was the meeting for the Metro Milwaukee Polymer Clay Guild. It has been far too long since I've met with these wonderful ladies! It's so nice to get together with people that understand clay obsessions... not that I'm obsessed or anything. I've only been in my studio all weekend!

At the meeting today, Beth taught some great cane making demos! She had some great leaves and flowers. I love how my leaf turned out, but I think my flower could've used a darker outlining color on it for contrast. It's spawned a lot of ideas that seem really good in my head right now- hopefully I can bring them to life in clay!

Looks like I'll be demo-ing at the September meeting, doing image transfers! I've only done one so far, but I've been wanting to revisit and master that technique.

Speaking of technique, I learned a great one that makes a big huge fun mess from the Winter 06/07 issue of Polymer Cafe. It's Laurie Prophater's Ancient Metal Technique and it was tons of fun to do. If you get tired of being exact with canes, this is a great thing to try and just let it take you where ever it goes.

I made my own stamps, based off of Mayan hieroglyphs. Its just some scrap clay, cut into squares, then I used very thin extruded scrap snakes to make my stamp designs. (I've got a whole bunch more in mind...)

I followed Laurie's technique and the above is what I ended up with. These are drying after applying a coat of minwax to them. Normally I don't varnish, but I didn't want the finish to rub or scratch off. I love them, and can't wait until I have one strung to show off!

Here's another messy technique I worked on this weekend- stamp into some white or off-white clay, then cover with a mixture of liquid clay and alcohol ink. I don't remember where I read about this technique, it was months ago, but I love it. I think it looks like ceramic glaze. I have decided I need to get some additional inks though- I only have 3! I'm not sure how to finish these off yet. Any thoughts? Post your comment below!