WHO NEEDS A UV LAMP???????

Living in Arizona has it's advantages and disadvantages.  For one thing, I never need a UV light to cure my Magic Glos.  I put it on, run a BBQ lighter over it to get the bubbles out, run through the house to the back patio and there's my UV light.  However, when it's 114 degrees, the Magic Glos is usually cured before I get it to the "Curing Wall" and then I'm sweating.

These are some crosses I made with a Mokume Gane that I did with the new Premo clays.  It was done with Premo White Glitter, Premo 18 kt Gold, Premo Magenta and Premo Black.  I also put a layer of silver leafing in between the stacks that was sandwiched between translucent.  The Premo 18 kt gold is so beautiful and gives a beautiful highlight.  The crosses were made with Penni Jo Couch's molds.  I can't say enough  good things about them.

Click on the pictures and you can see the colors better and the top one shows more of the gold.

These little ones are earrings.  One of these sets is for my friend Rose who just had throat surgery and we are celebrating that there was no cancer in her thyroid.  She saw the last set I made and raved about them.  When she does that, I know she's begging.  :0)

Arizona is hot in the summer but during the winter I play golf 3 times a week and go bike riding and walking and I'm not shoveling snow.  YIPPEE  Drove to work in that stuff for 30 years.  I'll take the heat.

NO MORE LIPSTICK BEFORE DINNER

My husband took me out for an elegant dinner on my birthday and I noticed the lady at the next table putting lipstick on after she ate dinner.  Then she took a drink of water and there was lipstick all over the glass.  Then she took out a Kleenex from her purse and wiped the lipstick off the glass.  Now I'm holding the arms of the chair to keep me in it.  I just don't get it.

I can't tell you how many times I've gotten a glass or cup that had lipstick on it because the new lipsticks have so much wax and chemicals they don't come off the glasses in the dishwasher.  I hardly ever wear lipstick and if I do, I don't put it on before I eat (but I eat or drink all the time).  It would be a waste.  I'm begging you ladies, please don't put lipstick on before or during a meal especially in a restaurant.  OK, now I feel better.  Had to complain about something today.

NEW CAMERA

I'm so excited, you know I've been complaining about my camera and I can't get good macro pictures.  Well, I showed the camera to hubby because he swore it was operator error (me?????).  Anyway, he couldn't get it to do a real close-up macro either.  So now I'm getting a new camera.  They had a special going on at Home Shopping Club for a Fuji S2500 that takes 12 mega pixel pictures.  You know he's going to make me read the whole manual don't you?  This means there will be more pictures on my blog and in my Etsy store.  Hope those nasty people that have been stealing blogs quit pretty soon.  I won't even mention their name or blog here because I don't want people going there.  They did take one of mine and a bunch of Tina Holden's and a few others from other polymer clay people that I know.

NEW CROSSES AND OTHER STUFF

My friend Bev asked me to make her a cross with black and gold clay.  I decided to use a tutorial from Barbara McGuire to make the clay.  It's her Mokume Gane tutorial.  Wasn't sure how it would work with the crosses but they came out beautiful.  I made one for Bev and did a herringbone chain with size 11 black seed beads to go on it.  I gave it to her today and she loved it.

I find it's really hard to get a good picture of an item that has Magic Glos on it.  Hopefully the new camera will take care of that.

I'll post the pictures of the other ones as soon as my new camera gets here.  CAN YOU TELL I'M EXCITED?  Watch out everyone, you are going to be on Bonnie's Candid Camera.

This was another cross that I did that has more of Celtic flavor to it.  I put beads on the bottom and strung it on ribbon.

This is a pendant done with Mica Shift, sanded and buffed and then I put Magic Glos on it.  I mentioned before that I purchased a Mica Shift tutorial from Lynda Moseley (SC Diva) and this is one of the pendants that I did. I love the technique, much easier than the carving one.  The necklace is a 4 bead herringbone made with size 11 seed beads and gold hex beads.  By now you must know how much I love herringbone necklaces.  I can listen to my books on audio and whip the necklaces out without having to think too much.  I think they add class to a pendant and if you have never done one, try it.  I do the twist because I like the way it looks.

Wanted to show you the book that my friend Judy made out of polymer clay.  The front cover is the bottom picture.  When you open it up (top picture) she put magnets in it to carry her clay blades.  It's really slick.  The back was really pretty too and I forgot to take a picture of it.

Back to my latest Lisa Gardner book, it's really good.  It's called "The Neighbor".  The library is running out of books on CD for me.  I think I've heard all the good mystery's.  If you know of a good one let me know.  I've done all the Stuart Woods, Lisa Scottline, Harlen Coban, James Patterson and Lisa Gardner books.  I love to bead and do clay and listen to books.  Try it, you'll like it.

BIRTHDAY LUNCH - LUCKY ME AND POLYMER PIECES

BIRTHDAY LUNCH

Even though it was a 109 today my friends Rose, Evelyn and Judy took me out for lunch for my birthday. It isn't till Sunday but this was the only day we could all get together.  We went to a wonderful restaurant called "Vogue Bistro".  That was my first time there and I loved it.  They have the best sweet potato fries I've ever had.  We had a great lunch and the waiter brought us a beautiful birthday desert.  I should have taken a picture of it.  It was four compartments and had chocolate coated macaroons, white chocolate coated dried fruit with macadamia nuts, white chocolate coated passion fruit and chocolate coated French wafers.  I don't want to eat again for a while.

I got some wonderful gifts (this is all leading to polymer clay) Evelyn gave me shoes to go walking in the water ( I guess she wants me to go to the pool again), a shirt with 2 cats on it, a container for my polymer clay and beading stuff and beads, Judy gave some special chalks to use on the new Tina Holden Honeycomb Tutorial http://beadcomber.blogspot.com/ that you can get the information for at her blog, Judy also made me one of her special bracelets out of canes that she has made and I'll post a picture of it when I get it back.  It needed one more bead.  Rose gave me a kitty stamp and a beautiful necklace.  She got the pendant from our friend Lupe at http://miramecreations.blogspot.com/ .  Lupe will be telling you all about it on her blog but Rose made the necklace part and put it together:

They all know I love cats and this necklace is gorgeous.  I think Rose and Lupe should team up and make jewelry although both of them make gorgeous pieces.

POLYMER CLAY AT LAST

I was gone 3 weeks and didn't get to do any polymer clay.  It's like not eating ice cream for a year.  Phooey, won't do that again.

I spent 3 days beading around a cabochon that I had done using the Barbara Maguire Mokume Gane technique.  I think it gave me a headache but it's done and I love it.

I made a short Herringbone necklace for it.  My camera still isn't taking good pictures but I should probably be taking pictures in the daytime.  I'll try again tomorrow and see if I can get a good one.

Next pieces are some Mica Shift that I was playing around with.  I actually bought the mica shift tutorial from Lynda Moseley http://www.scdiva.blogspot.com/ who does some incredible mica shift pieces.  As you can see I like to support the artists.  Here are my pieces.

I added a little of my own technique to the bottom ones.  Lynda does her with sanding and buffing.  I did sand these but then I put Magic Glos on them.

I had some leftover purple clay and some inks and other texture sheets.  As you can see I love those oval cutters and my new heart cutters with the tipped tail.

FLEXIBLE MOLDS

I've had a box full of flexible molds that I didn't do a lot with.  Last night I saw someone doing clay with flexible molds but not the way I had done it in the past.  I thought I would get them out and try the new way.  Looked interesting.  I have a Celtic cross mold and I know Evelyn likes those.  I made one and decided to make two more.  Now I know I was going about it all wrong and last night I finally did it right.

These came out beautiful even if I have to say so myself.  I used Magic glos on the middle part of the cross.  I used two coats, which I normally do.  I did the bails using the Cindy Lietz method http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/ which you can find in her tutorials.  It worked wonderful.  Check out her website.  She sends tutorials every Friday and she is remarkable.  It's a really small fee to receive these tutorials but the learning experience from them is priceless.

These three crosses are now with Judy, Rose and Evelyn.  They got birthday presents from me.

Thanks girls for a wonderful lunch, great presents and a fun day.  I love you all.