JUDY'S FACE PENDANT

This is what Judy Kelly made from her face cane from the Barbara Maguire face cane class.  I love the hair.

I think she's cute.

I'm off to another computer class.  I'm over whelmed.

VELVEETA CHEESE FUDGE

I've had a lot of great emails and so has Lynda Moseley about the fudge.  Most people are still questioning the use of Velveeta Cheese in making fudge.  Trust me, once you make it, you won't make it any other way.  I had an ice cream fudge recipe that I thought was the best but it took it's place.

I have to tell you a little story about the fudge.

My neighbor across the street would not allow me to leave my fudge at her house because she was always dieting and her husband was a diabetic.  He started wearing a Santa hat all the time and she could never figure out what that was all about.  Every day when she was in the shower he would come across the street to beg for fudge.  He kept a little plastic bag inside his Santa hat.  He would put the fudge in there and wear it home and then hide the little bag of fudge in the pocket in the side of his recliner.  This was a guy who could hardly walk and didn't have much lung capacity.  She finally caught him because there was chocolate all over the seat of his recliner.  We both got yelled at but it seemed pretty funny at the time.

That's how good this fudge is.

About 20 years ago a friend gave me his wife's recipe for Velveeta Cheese Fudge.  I wouldn't have taken the recipe except that he brought some fudge with it and I had never tasted anything like it.

Every Christmas I make this fudge and a few years ago we were watching the cooking channel and Paula Dean was making it.  I tell everyone that she got the recipe from me. :0)

My friend Lynda Moseley published my recipe on her blog today and people can't believe you really make fudge with Velveeta Cheese.  This is Lynda's blog http://scdiva.blogspot.com/.  Check out her tutorials on Etsy and Artfire.  They are awesome.

So, I thought I better publish the recipe too.  It's addicting.  Keep it refrigerated after you make it.  This recipe makes about 6 pounds of fudge so you can cut it in half.  Make some with nuts and some without.

VELVEETA CHEESE FUDGE

1-POUND BUTTER

1-POUND VELVEETA CHEESE

1-CUP COCOA

4 POUNDS POWDERED SUGAR

1-TEASPOON VANILLA

NUTS OPTIONAL

MELT BUTTER AND CHEESE TOGETHER IN A REALLY BIG PAN OVER LOW

SIFT COCOA AND SUGAR TOGETHER AND PUT IN PAN WITH BUTTER AND CHEESE.

KEEP STIRRING TILL REALLY WELL MIXED AND THEN ADD THE VANILLA. STIR TILL SMOOTH. I SPRAYED A 9 BY 13 GLASS PAN WITH PAM AND POURED THE FUDGE IN IT.

THEN REFRIGERATE FOR A COUPLE HOURS. TAKE IT OUT AND LET IT SIT FOR ABOUT 20 MINUTES BEFORE CUTTING.

OK, you want something really good for Thanksgiving or Christmas?  How about some GULLIVER'S CORN?

1-Pound Corn Frozen

8 ounces whipping cream ( yes, whipping cream)

1 and ½ Tablespoons Butter

1 and ½ Tablespoons Flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons Sugar

3 Tablespoons Parmesan

Put corn and whipping cream in pan and bring to a low boil.

Simmer 5 minutes and season with salt and sugar.

Make paste with butter and flour and add to corn and simmer 2 more minutes.

Put corn in a casserole dish and add Parmesan cheese.  Dot and butter and broil.

 Or put all the ingredients in a pan and cook on the stove.  I also put in a little pepper because I like pepper.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the fudge.

STROPPEL - MAGUIRE PENDANT

One of the hottest new techniques in polymer clay is The Stroppel Cane.  It was developed by Alice Stroppel and she was kind enough to do a youtube video on how to make it.  You can see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y07zXuLZe20 .  Thank you Alice for sharing this.  It's an incredible way to use up old canes.

As I mentioned in a couple previous blogs, I was fortunate to be able to take a Barbara Maguire Face Cane class last weekend.  I decided I wanted to use some of my Stroppel cane on something other than beads.  My Stroppel cane has a lot of translucent in it.  I found that when a cane has translucent in it, after sanding, it buffs up beautiful and shinier than if it has no translucent.

This picture doesn't reflect the beautiful shine on the piece.  I'm having camera problems again and we had awnings put on the house so I lost a lot of the light that I was using for taking pictures.   If you click on the picture, you will see the shine a little better.  She's about 3 inches long and I haven't decided what to do with her yet.  Suggestions????????

I pieced the Stroppel cane around her face, I'm going to try doing one where the cane is laid out so it matches and add the face last.

PLEASE DON'T LEAF ME

My husband said I need to change my medication because he thinks I'm getting a little wild.

Since I took that face cane class from Barbara Maguire last weekend, I haven't been the same.  I told him it was the shots in the back that did it but he doesn't believe me.

Today I decided to play with my face cane again.

It's not my fault I had an old leaf cane sitting on my desk.  It just jumped on there.  I put some walnut embossing powder on her hair to make it look like hairy hair but I only baked her at 250 so the embossing powder didn't melt.  I sanded her a lot and got most of the embossing powder off.  She buffed up really well.  This obsession could get worse but I doubt it.

Yesterday my friend Evelyn came over so I could help her put her face cane together.  She also took Barbara's class and I give her a ton of credit.  She has macular degeneration and doesn't see very well.  She really hung in there.  She's an artist, a real artist.  She taught art for 30 years.  The fact that her eyesight is leaving her is so sad.  She loves polymer clay and it's great therapy for her.  Anyway, she didn't like her face cane because she thought the lips were too big but I think it's wonderful.

She needs a little more forehead and then I think her lips will be fine.  We did a pound of translucent clay and we still didn't have enough.

I was just told by Mr. Wonderful (he is) that I should make a face cane and put little hearts around her head and  call her "LOVE MY HAIR".  I told him he should stick to being an Engineer.  He didn't get it. :0)

FACE CANES - FIRST PENDANT

Today I took a piece of my face cane that had the gun shot wound in it and tried to manipulate it.  I put it on some white clay and used the left over eyelash cane to make hair.  Baked it for an hour at 265 and the face tone turned darker than I thought it would.

She was sanded and buffed.  She sure doesn't look like the beautiful women that Barbara Maguire does with her face canes but I like her.  I used Photoscape to edit the picture since I have a new computer.  I have a lot to learn about this new computer and tonight I'm over whelmed.  Had to reinstall my media over drive to download books from the library to my IPAD and now I can't find the book.  HELP ME.

This is Judy's face cane.  Can't wait to see what she makes with it.

Evelyn and I will be working on her face cane Thursday.  I'll post that when we get it done.

I'm getting too old for all this technology.  Pretty soon kids won't know what pens and pencils and paper are.

BARBARA MAGUIRE FACE CANE CLASS

This past weekend our clay guild sponsored a class with Barbara Maguire on how to do a face cane.  Little did I know how involved and hard it is to build a face cane.  She is a remarkable teacher and I have pictures to prove it.  We started out by making a pound of translucent clay into a color that we wanted for our flesh color.  Then we made the eye.  I swear, I never thought what I was doing was going to look like this.

This was my eye.

This is my eye cut in half.  I was so happy I was ready to quit right then and there.  I thought I would just make a bunch of beads with eyeballs.  Would make for great golf stroke counters.

You guessed it.  Now I have the lips.

The nose.  Doesn't look like much does it?

This was Barbara's final face cane.

This is my final face cane after lots of reduction and beating her on the table to get the clay to move.

I apparently didn't pack her forehead very well and it looks like she got shot with a 45 caliber.  She'll be fine once I slice her and move her lips back and give her some hair.  She looks like she is trying to tell me something like "FIX THOSE GUN SHOT WOUNDS IN MY FOREHEAD".

It was really fun and we had it had a great place, nice and close.

I'm finally on my new computer.  The shots in the back haven't quite stopped hurting yet but I hope in another week I'll be back to normal what ever that is.

THREE IS A CHARM ------- I HOPE AND BARBARA MAGUIRE CLASS

My husband needed a new computer because he is a day trader and it's important to have all this geek stuff in good condition.  He decided I could have his old computer.  He spent 4 days transferring my stuff to his old computer and kept asking me why I made quadruplicates of all my pictures?????  I never did that.  Then he wanted to know why I had all these folders full of PDF tutorials on my email.  Well, duh.  That's where they came from so that's where I kept them.  OK, now I'm getting stressed.  I had some tutorials in files on my desktop that I used a lot and he wanted to know why.  Do you other non-geek people have this problem?  Anyway, 5 days later he finds out that my computer had 12 non-death-threatening viruses.  He fixed those, transferred my stuff and the computer died.  OK, first trip was to Best Buy.  Got a computer, started again and the CD burner didn't work.  Back to Best Buy.  Went to Costco got another computer, started setting it up and the thing was so loud we couldn't hear each other talk.  Back to Costco to take the computer back.  Off to Fry's Electronics to get one just like he got two weeks ago.  I have not been able to download any new pictures and I have items I want to put in my Etsy and Artfire stores.

While this was going on I had to go for a cortisone shot in my back yesterday and when we got there he gave me shots in both sides which I didn't know was going to happen.  The doctor blamed my husband for taking me on the cross country road trip in the car to my nephews wedding.  It wasn't his idea but I didn't say anything.  This guy was no Marcus Welby.  They lied about it not hurting but today my back feels pretty good and hope it stays that way because I'm taking a two day class today and tomorrow with Barbara Maguire.

BARBARA MAGUIRE FACE CANE CLASS

http://www.barbaramcguire.com/.  This necklace was featured in a collection on Artfire today called "Elegantly Yours" http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=collections&op=details&cid=29840 you can see it here.  There are some beautiful things in this collection including some beading tutorials.

If my new computer works soon, I'll download pictures from the class.  I'm really excited about meeting Barbara and taking a class from her.  I have all her books and DVDs.

This is a necklace I made with Barbara Maguire's tutorial on Mokume Gane which you buy on her website.

 http://www.barbaramcguire.com/

11 - 11 -11 VETERANS DAY

This is a picture of The Honor Guard from Luke Air Force Base which is only a couple miles from my house.  I feel very privileged to be able to see the jets circle the sky above us and to hear their noise even though it shakes the house sometimes.  I would never complain about the noise because I know they are training to fly those big birds in order to keep America safe.  I love the idea that I can go in a store around this area and see men and women in their fatigues and uniforms.  They are all so young and so proud.  I've been in restaurants where older veterans have picked up the tab for someone there in uniform.  I even bought an ice cream cone for a guy in uniform once, made me feel great.  He didn't want me to but I convinced him it was my right to do it.  The guy at the ice cream place gave me a card for a free cone after the soldier left which I thought was really nice.  Now the place is closed so I guess I didn't need the cone anyway.

Want to feel good?  Go out and buy a soldier or a sailor or one of our vets a meal. 

Give some love to these kids.  Let them know how much we appreciate them.

WATER FOR THE STEAMPUNK ELEPHANTS

Last February I took 4 classes from Christi Friesen at the Tucson Bead Show.  When we came home I made myself a steampunk elephant necklace and I get more compliments on that than on anything else I wear.  Well, my elephant is worn out and missing some pieces, I don't think water would do him any good.  I did listen to that book "Water For The Elephants" and then it came out as a movie.  To me, it was a very sad and depressing book so I never went to see the movie.  The other day I decided to wear my elephant for one last time.  A lady came through our beading club and asked if I would make one for her daughter.  I finished it today.

He's all silver and black with Groucho Marx eye brows, a monocle and lots of steampunk parts.  Hope she likes him.

WOODEN NEEDLE CASE

A couple months ago I bought some wooden needle cases.  I thought they would be great to carry my beading needles in and to store them.  I forgot I had them.  I made another Stroppel cane and decided it would look great on one of these cases.

I guess I could have beaded around it but this is more fun and less time.

This is a resin-steampunk piece I did with a Kumihimo rope necklace.  It has clay in the bottom and two layers of resin on top.  Someday I'll take my time and get rid of the shadows in my pictures.  I set up my picture box but the lights still aren't right.  This was taken outside.  I need to do more resin.  This was UV resin.  I'm going to try the two part resin some day along with a bunch of other things.  LOL  No more room for stuff.



STROPPEL CANE NECKLACE

As you know the latest rage in polymer clay is the Stroppel Cane by Alice Stroppel.  This sweet lady even has a video on her website http://polymerclayetc.com/ showing you how to do it.  Alice shares a lot of wonderful tips about polymer clay, hop over to her Etsy store http://www.etsy.com/shop/AliceStroppel and check out her cute girl friend items.

This past weekend I found a box that had some left over and end cane pieces.  I decided to try the Stroppel Cane but made my black sheets a little thicker.  I love doing this cane it's amazing what comes out of it.

The focal pendant has Magic Glos on it.  Let me tell you about the beads.  Someone told me they were using Future on raw clay.  They were making beads and rubbing the Future on them to smooth them out and get the finger prints off of them.  I made my beads, did the Future thing, let it dry, baked the beads at 265 degrees and they came out brown and had bubbles on them.  So, I put them in the tumbler for 8 hours and most of the Future came off but they had a funny white film on them.  I hand sanded them all.  I don't like Future on my beads or pendants, I like sanding and buffing but was running out of time.  I put 6 coats of Future on these and then put them back in the oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes to set the Future, this gave them a glass like finish.   You can click on the picture to see it closer.  Thanks Alice, this is fun and a great way to use up old cane pieces.  I'm putting this in the craft fair this weekend.  If it doesn't sell, you will see me wearing it a lot.  I still have cane left so I'll have to make a bracelet and earrings to match.