BEEN GONE TOO LONG

I'm not sure why I haven't blogged in so long but I thought maybe I should start again.

A friend asked me to show her how to make pens covered in Kumihimo.  It took me a lot of pens to get it right and figure out how to do it so the cords on the pen don't slip and slide.  Well, I finally found the answer and I'm very happy but I'm not sharing it right now.  Maybe later.  These are made using Kumihimo and the snow flakes are polymer clay with a lot of glitter on them.

These are my new passion.  They are bookmarks with beaded Kumihimo.  Gave them as Christmas presents and everyone loved them.

My husband and I went on a cruise in November with 20 of my relatives.  It's called the Harmony of the Seas.  There were 6,000 people on this ship and 800 kids which is 799 kids more than I care to be with on vacation.  The ship was too big and we walked about 8 miles a day.  Some of the people were really rude and I thought that was bazaar.  My husband and I will never go on a ship this big again.  Two days before the ship landed I lost my voice.  The day we got off the ship in Fort Lauderdale, it was 90 degrees and 95 percent humidity.  We spent the night at a hotel and by Sunday, I was really sick.  Got home and was sick for 3 weeks.  Was very happy to be home.  No more big ships for us.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas.  One of my dearest friends who will turn 80 in July just found out she has invasive breast cancer so the next two or three months are going to be stressful.  If you get a chance and have a little time, please send a prayer her way.

Thank you.

Put Your Earrings Here While I Do Magic On Your Hair

A friend was visiting a couple weeks ago and he's an amazing hair stylist in Indiana.  I wanted to make him something special out of polymer clay to take home with him.

This is an earring dish for his clients to put their earrings in while he is working on them.  The top picture is the front of the bowl and the bottom picture is the bottom of the bowl. 

I used Syndee Holt's Disco silk screen on a Skinner blend of purple, white and turquoise.  I used black paint but when I went to put the Pan Pastels on the back, the black paint on the front took the powder.  That was after the first baking.  The bottom part was a second baking and putting the flat stand was a third baking.  Then I sprayed it with PYMII 3 times on each side and rebaked it at 200 degrees for an hour.

He loved it.  Especially with his name on it.

GRANDMOTHER MEMORY BRACELETS

I made 20 bracelets and matching earrings to send home to my family from the rose petals from my Mother's funeral in January.

The first question I was asked was "Didn't you make any that say Grandmother on them?".

So I went looking for Grandmother charms and made more beads.  These went out in the mail yesterday, I hope they like them.

CHAMP'S LEASH

My best little buddy that I walk every day had a rather short leash and he likes to pee on all the big trees and bushes.  So, I bought him a new longer leash and decided it needed a little bling on it.  I bought a new hot fix gun so I decided to put his name on it.  Worked like a charm.

He is my special guy.  I see so many people walking dogs without a harness it makes me crazy.

Why don't they understand that when you attach a leash to a collar and you keep pulling on the leash, you are pulling on the dog's trachea and hurting them.  It makes me cry when I see that happen.

MEMORIAL JEWELRY FROM MOM'S ROSES

These are the pictures of all the jewelry I made with the polymer clay beads that have the dried roses in them from my Mother's funeral.

 I'm still making more with some new silver "Grandma" charm beads.  I'm also going to make some key chains with beads that I made.

MISS YOU MOM.

GIFTS FOR FRIENDS AND THE JOURNEY OF MAKING MEMORIAL BEADS

When I went back to Wisconsin in January for my Mother's funeral, they had the worst week of weather that they had in a long time.

Though there weren't a lot of good days, I did get to have breakfast with 12 of my friends from high school.  Some I haven't seen in many years or since the day we graduated.

I brought some Kumihimo bracelets home with me and gave everyone a bracelet.  We had so much fun talking and laughing.  We were there for 2 hours.  I decided I wanted to do something special for them, so when I got home, I made magnetic refrigerator pens for all of them.

If you click on the picture, you can see them closer.  At the last minute I decided to make little coins to add to the pens with the year we graduated (now you know how old I am 😛😊.

One of my friends at the breakfast was my best friend in grade school and high school and when we graduated, our mothers let us go to Florida by ourselves.  We had so much fun.  She has a cat named Jojo who sends Buster gifts so I made a special pen for Terry.

JOJO

It has a little heart that says I love my cat and and a charm with a cat on the top.  I also sent her this little ring dish.  It was the first one I ever made and it was the first silk screen I had ever done so that's why there is a little black mess in it but I thought it was special because of the cats.

MEMORIAL BEADS

Now that the pens are done, I've been working on memorial beads made from the roses from my Mother's funeral.  I'm making beads to use to make bracelets for my sister, sister in law and 3 nieces so they have a remembrance.

I started out with pearl and translucent clay and mixed some silver foil in it but I didn't get the result I wanted.  I took a whole package of Premo White Gold Glitter and added it to the mix.  Then, I put in a couple drops of Blue Sapphire and Stream alcohol ink.  The white glitter clay really made them come to life.

Once they were baked, they came out a little darker but still beautiful and shiny.  It's hard to see the crushed roses in these but there are few you can see little red spots on.  I glazed them with Sculpey Gloss Glaze 3 times and then re-baked them at 200 degrees for an hour.  I'll post a picture of the finished bracelets when I get them done.

After I did the small blue beads I made some big blue beads and then some white ones.  You can see the rose petals in the white beads.  I think I'm going to make more white ones but I'm going to put another package of the White Gold Glitter.  I don't know why they call it White Gold Glitter, it looks more like Silver Glitter to me.

Have a Happy Valentines Day.  Eat a bunch of chocolate and have a good time.

THE NEW YEAR STARTED OUT SAD.

On January 22nd I was suppose to go to Florida to visit my mother who is 91.

On January 1st, I got a call saying my Mom passed away.  My brother, sister and I weren't ready for that.  She seemed to have been doing good.  She had some heart problems but I'm still not sure what happened.

We went to Wisconsin for her funeral.  The first day we were there it snowed, the second day we had rain and really cold weather, the third day we had freezing rain and there were tons of cars in the ditches, the 4th day it was 12 degrees and the day of mom's funeral it was sunny but cold.  The day we were suppose to fly back to Arizona they predicted freezing rain again.  Left 4 hours early for the airport and sat there for a long, long time.  Now I'm back in Arizona and it's 30 degrees in the morning with a high of 52.

Going to miss you mom.  Not sure I'm still dealing with this totally.  There were a lot of beautiful flowers at the funeral and I brought back the tops of some of the pink roses.  I put them in a zip lock bag and put them in my suitcase.  They looked beautiful when I got them home.  I decided to make beads and bracelets from the dried roses and then decided to make key chains for my nieces, sister, sister in law and brother.  I used the fresh flowers on baked polymer clay that I put in metal bezels.

Before I put the flower petals in, I put a thin layer of Magic Glos on the pendants to hold the flower petals in place.  Then I put them in the UV light.  I put two more layers of Magic Glos on them.

As they sat, the flower petals kept getting lighter.  I added the words Live, Laugh, Love to each pendant and then another layer of Magic Glos.  You can see the difference in the color of the petals in the two pictures.  If you click on the pictures you can see them better.

I made this one for my brother.  It isn't as frilly but it's still frilly.

The one thing that's made me laugh a lot since I came home is good old Buster.  The other day I was talking on the phone and he was trying to get inside an afghan I was making.  I started laughing because he got his head caught in the yarn that was on top.

I had John run and get my camera.  He just sat there like that and didn't move for a long time.

My mom and her favorite dog Kita.  Will be missing them both.  I'm sure Kita was up in heaven waiting for her.