Showing posts with label bird houses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bird houses. Show all posts

Friday, June 17, 2011

BIRD HOUSES, BOOKMARKS AND BEADS OF COURAGE

Tomorrow is our monthly clay guild meeting and we are doing a book mark swap.  Somepeople are doing those big paper clips but I decided to "dance to my own tune".  I bought some metal bookmarks and made birdhouses to put on them.

There are only 8 of us in the swap this time so I decided to make my own little bags to put the bookmarks in.   I bought some beautiful paper in the scrap booking section at Wal-Mart for $5.00 for 50 sheets.  It worked great.  I had some but it was too heavy.

This paper worked great and I made labels with my name on them and a picture of Booboo sitting in a box.  These are easy to make and look better than a plastic bag.

BEADS OF COURAGE

Every month we have a different theme for our Beads of Courage collections.  This month it's "Everything Girls".  I didn't have a lot of time because I was working on the bookmarks and the things for the goody bags for our Prescott retreat and Jane's earrings.  I did get a couple  beads done.

The roses and the butterflies are made with Penni Jo Couch's molds, which I love.  Next month is anything boys and sports.  That should be interesting.  Got any ideas, let me know.


Hey Booboo, today at Wal-Mart a lady tried to give me a coupon for free cat food.  I told her you were probably eating fresh caught fish and bonbons now.  She gave me a funny look.  I couldn't tell her you liked TV dinners, she would have thought I was nuts.




Wednesday, May 25, 2011

TIPS AND TRICKS - WHAT IS BURGUNDY - BYE BYE BIRDIE

As you know, I belong to the Arizona Polymer Clay Guild.  At every meeting someone does a demo.  This past Saturday one of our ladies showed how to convert a caulking gun into an extruder if you have that little silver extruder.  I was never able to use that.  I was so happy when the new green Makins one came out.  A couple weeks ago I was reading through some blogs and came across Knightwork's. She said she took some canes she had made and put them in the extruder to see what would happen.  She put in a big bullseye and out came a perfect little bullseye.  I tried it with some canes that I had made and sure enough, it worked.  So Saturday I did a demo on reducing canes in the extruder.  Being that I can't leave well enough alone, I played around and came up with something very interesting.  When you make a cane and reduce it in the extruder, the outer color of the cane stretches and the outer color starts disappearing.  So, I took some cane pieces, added an inch or half inch of a solid color on the front (the part closest to the disc opening).  It worked great.  The entire cane got covered with the clay.  Here's some pictures.

This is the original flower cane that I made.

The middle cane was done in the extruder using the largest square disc.  The cane on the right was done with the same disc but I put a half an inch of gold clay on the front of the cane.  I could have used black but for demo purposes I wanted to use another color.  As the end of the cane came out of the extruder I got something really awesome.
The cane did a twist at the end.  If you take your cane and twist it slightly before you put it in the extruder, you will get the twist also.  I did a spliced cane and ran it through the tiny circle disc and it came out perfect but really small which is great.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

WHAT IS BURGUNDY

This looks like burgundy.  My 96 year old friend wanted silver and burgundy earrings.

I went to the bead store by me and 4 people gave me beads they said were burgundy and not one was close to what the other one gave me.  I make earrings for my friend for every blouse she has.  She's in a nursing home but she dresses to the nines (I never understood what that meant) every day.  She also has a better memory than I do and has two martinis every night before dinner.  I'm rambling.  I bought some beads and made two pair of earrings but neither one looks burgundy to me.  I'll send them to her and see what she says.

The top ones look black in the picture but they are a little brownish-red.  I guess I'll be on the lookout for burgundy.  I only know the kind that comes in the bottle.

BYE-BYE BIRDIE

I remember that movie.  Ann Margaret was pretty good looking then, I guess we all have to get older.

I sold 5 of my baby bird houses today.  YEAH.  It's amazing how many people want to give you ideas about how to make things like that even after you've put 3 hours in each little bird house.  Teeheehee  OK, I'm listening.  Where's that burgundy????


Good night Booboo.  It's really quiet here without you. Big HUG.


Thursday, May 19, 2011

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

As I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago, Cindy Lietz at  http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/  did a tutorial on making bird house beads.  A week later there was a nest across the street of baby wrens.  Every morning there are two doves that wake me up at 5:30 (who needs a rooster)?  Tuesday on the golf course there was a quail family, mom, dad and four little hair balls with feet all running all over the place.
I live in Arizona and right now every bird in the U.S. is visiting here (except most of the snowbirds have gone home).  The snowbirds from the mid-west I call "snow-blowers".  Not all of them think that's funny but it's ok for them to call me a Cheesehead since I originally came from Wisconsin.  Is that fair????  NOT

Anyway, back to my bird house story ( I tend to wander or is it wonder).  I had some little pieces of left over clay and a new leaf cane and made a couple of bird houses.  Next thing I know I'm making more bird houses.  Some ladies at beading saw them and wanted them so I have to make more.  This is really off the beaten path for me.  It's more like sculpting.  I'm more of a "Roll A Bead" girl.  The more I do, the more I want to do.  Sort of sounds like my shopping problem with beads and clay.  Anyway, here they are.

Those spotted feathers came from a little bird that was sitting in my window yelling at me.  Pulled them right out of his back side.  Just kidding, I bought those.
Click on picture to see them up close.  Some have Swarovski flat back crystals in the door hole.

I think these would be great for the kids at Beads of Courage.  I'll make a bunch and donate them.

TWEET TWEET

Miss you my beloved Booboo