THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

I have a very dear friend that I am really grateful for.  Actually, I have a lot of friends I'm really grateful for.  Evelyn is a special friend.  She's sweet, kind, talented and losing her eyesight.  She has macular degeneration and her eyesight is deteriorating.  I love spending time with her and she loves shopping.  Wish I could keep up with her.  She has a twin sister who lives in Hay's, Kansas and a younger sister who lives there also.  I heard when they are together they shop for at least 10 hours a day.  Evelyn takes care of Buster when we go on trips.  She loves him and he's crazy about her.  She tells everyone she's his God mother.  I wanted to make something for her that was special.  Our clay guild was doing an ornament exchange so while I was doing that one, I got an idea for hers.

This is the front of the one I made for the clay guild.  Click on it to see it up close.

This is the back of the clay guild ornament.

This is the one I made for Evelyn.  This is the front.

This is the back.  I should have put some red shoes with crystals on them.  I just read an article that Judy Garland wore 4 pair of red shoes in the movie "The Wizard of Oz".  They were all done with Swarovski crystals and one pair of the shoes was recently sold for $660,000.  Wish my shoes were worth that much.

The map on the ornament has Magic Glos on it.  I used an original map from Kansas and scanned it which worked great because I got a clear picture of the Hays area and a good picture when it was printed.  I sprayed the front and back with PYMII.  I used Kato liquid clay on the back of the map piece before I put it on the raw clay to bake.  The PYMII protected it when I put the Magic Glos on it.  If you want to make something special for someone who is away from home, this worked great.  She loved it.  You could also cut it out and put it in a bezel and make a necklace or pendant.  Just make sure it is fully covered with either PYMII or a lot of Mod Podge or paper sealer.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and cherish the ones you love.  I lost a friend last week that I've known since I was 5.  She was 100 years old.  Her name was Jane and I miss her terribly.  We talked on the phone every week sometimes for an hour.  Her funeral is today and I won't be there because I live in Arizona and she is in Wisconsin.  She made me promise I wouldn't come back for her funeral.  She knows I love her and that's what's important.

This is Jane and a blouse that I bought her one time when I went to visit her.  She asked to be buried in it because she loved it.

Heaven is getting another Angel today and I hope they have a lot of vodka up there.  She had a martini every night.  She called it her "Holy Water".

CHEERS JANIE

MEOWY CHRISTMAS

Well, I changed my mind about the ornament for the gift exchange for our clay guild.  After 40 agonizing hours working on one ornament I decided it wasn't what I really wanted to use for our ornament exchange.

  This is the front of the ornament.

This is the back of the ornament.

It's going to be a wall hanging for me.  I made another ornament and I think it turned out great so that's going to be the one I use for the exchange.  I'll post a picture after the party.

This is a bracelet I made for my sister for Christmas.  She always reminded me of Betty Boop but I didn't tell her.  I hope she likes it.  She never reads my blog so I don't have to worry about her seeing this. LOL

If I don't get a chance to blog before Christmas, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful and healthy New Year.

MORE IS MORE, LESS IS A BORE

I'm sure you've heard me say that before but right now it's really true.  I had to make an ornament for our guild's Christmas party.  We are doing an ornament exchange.  What started out to be a simple little ornament turned out to be 40 hours of experiments, "Let's do that again", put more stuff on it and on and on and on.  I can't put a picture up yet but I will after the guild party.

I did make 4 ornaments for my sister who has a new grand baby.  I didn't have a very good picture to start with so they didn't turn out the way I really wanted but I like them.

I printed pictures of Kim using the wallet size format.  I did it on a regular printer and my laser printer.  The regular printer came out brighter so I used those.  I took the sheet outside and sprayed both sides with PYMII.  I traced a small heart around the picture and cut it out to make sure it fit.  I mixed white and pearl clay and ran them through the past machine with a Christmas texture sheet and cut out the big heart.  The first one I coated the back side of the heart with Genesis and when I baked that, the picture popped off.  The second one I did, I coated the plain side with Kato liquid clay and put the picture on it.  I cut another large heart out of the white clay and then cut the smaller heart out from the center and laid that over the picture and the bottom heart.  Then I used the texture sheet and textured the top part of the heart.  I used pearl mica powder on top of it and then I baked it.  The picture stayed down and never buckled.  I made the back heart and imprinted the words, textured it and baked it.  There are 3 layers of Magic Glos on each picture.  The heart and the fern were rub ons that were put on the first layer of Magic Glos.  I glued the smaller heart on the back and finished the top making a hanger with 18 and 20 gauge wire and a bow.  The PYMII worked great to protect the picture from the liquid clay and the Magic Glos.

I was getting the ornaments out to decorate the tree and when I came back from the garage there was Buster checking out the ornaments and the box.