I'm going to be teaching a class on Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) at next Saturday's Central Oklahoma Polymer Clay Guild meeting. I've participated in a few swaps & have several of my own ATCs — but I'd love to have a a few more examples to show the group. If any of you happen to have an ATC laying around, I would love to trade with you. My goal is to show the group a wide variety of ATC possibilities — so while polymer clay would be wonderful, other mediums would be great too.

My mailing address is here if you want to send something (be sure to include your mailing address so I can send one of mine to you).

I've posted a few of my cards in this set on Flickr. I plan to set these up to show which ones are available to trade — I'll let you know once I've got that set up. I'm sure I'll have a few more ATC posts before this is all over — I've really gotten hooked on making them!

Speaking of ATCs, if you hurry over to Jeanne's ART for the HEART blog, you could win one of hers. She'll be giving it away tomorrow to one of the commenters on her blog post.

Posted in: Polymer Clay | Comments (5)

I just got back from a quick weekend trip to Tulsa, where I went to the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking Convention, aka CKC-Tulsa 2007. It was my first time to go to an event like this, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I ended up learning a little, buying a little, and walking a lot! Thought I'd share a quick list of with my thoughts on the best & worst of this event:

The Best

1. Cool New Products. A couple I liked were the Fastenations Brads and the Lip Smackin' Ribbon. The Fastenations Brads have a flat spot on top, so you can match them to your project using a standard hole-punch & a dab of glue. The Lip Smackin' Ribbon is kind of a mix between paper and ribbon -- and it has some properties that give it some interesting possibilities.
2. Watching & Learning: I volunteered as a teacher's assistant for four hours to save a little money & to get some freebies (more on that later). It was interesting to watch a seasoned craft teacher at work. My favorite part? When she used her best kindergarten-teacher voice to tell the room full of adults, "Okay, I need everyone to listen very closely now." And it usually worked! Probably the best craft-teaching idea I've seen...
3. A Few Good Deals: Deluxe Designs is going out of business, so they had a great clearance ($0.50 each!) on those card templates I love. I would have bought them all if they'd had them! And speaking of good deals, I got a $30 voucher for volunteering. With that, I got the 40 Techniques for Making Cards book and a couple of paper crafting magazines. Nothin' better than gettin' stuff for free!

The Worst

1. Over-Crowded, Over-Scheduled Classes. I didn't have time to count, but I'm guessing there were at least 75 people in each class. At just one hour per class, there wasn't time for the very-complex projects they were supposed to make -- which meant everything was very "paint-by-numbers" -- put this piece of paper here, this embellishment there. Where's the creativity in that?
2. Paying to Shop. Granted, I'm not a big shopper anyway... but paying $10 for the privilege to shop in their Vendor Faire just seemed ridiculous, especially when the prices seemed about the same as the regular prices at Hobby Lobby.
3. Poor Volunteer Management. One of the things they promised volunteers was 2 tickets to the Vendor Faire. I assumed that meant I could take someone with me when I went, but it actually meant they gave me 1 ticket per day. Tulsa is about 2.5 hours away from here, and we only had the hotel for one night, so the second day's ticket was useless to me. Granted, it wasn't that bad in my case -- I was going to take my husband with me, and I think he was just as happy (ok, happier) going down the street and using Panera Bread's free wi-fi while I shopped. But that, along with a volunteer coordinator who was rude to me, kinda gave me a bad taste in my mouth about the whole thing.

   Would I go again next year? Probably not. The classes seemed less than ideal, and I'd just as soon shop in my far-less-crowded neighborhood craft store. Maybe crafting conventions aren't for me. But like I said, this is my first event of this sort -- so I don't know how this convention compares to others. Is this pretty typical?

   Posted in: Paper Crafts

Just saw this cool idea on the Craftzine blog: How to Make a Rolodex into a Craft Resource Center.

• Color Samples. Make notes of how many parts of each color you used to come up with this particular shade (more info here). Glue on a sample of the baked clay. File under "Colors."
• Texture Samples. Whether you're using store-bought texture sheets, or your own homemade tools, it might be handy to know how you created a certain effect. Glue a sample of the baked textured tile to your rolodex card. File under "Textures."
• Pearl Ex Colors. Same idea as the Pearl Ex Color Strip -- you could file individual powder colors or a whole color strip. File under "Powders."
• Pasta Machine Settings. I'm always wondering what pasta machine setting I ended up using for some project or other. Make & bake some tiles, numbering them according to which pasta machine setting you used. If you wanna get ambitious, make a note on the rolodex card saying how that setting relates to other pasta machine brands' settings. These samples might be better in a plastic baggie (instead of glued) so you can easily take them out and compare thicknesses. File under "Pasta Machine Settings."

I'm sure there's all sorts of other things this would be handy for keeping track of. Any ideas?

Guess I know what I'm looking for at this weekend's garage sales! <g>

Posted in: Tips & Techniques

Polymer Clay Central has announced the August 2007 Challenge theme: Filigree.

Definition

"Filigree - originally, a jewelry technique when an intricate design is formed using metal wire. Polymer clay filigree is formed by strings of clay applied in coils or freeform shapes onto polymer clay or other surface to create a textured design."

Tutorials

• Polymer Clay Polyzine - Rainbow Filigree Lesson
• HGTV's Filigree Polymer Clay Egg
• The Polymer Clay Resource - Fold Over Beads
• Polymer Clay Cyclopedia - Blended Filigree Egg

Tips & Tricks

• Glass Attic's Clay Gun / Balinese Filigree Info. Don't miss this great idea (see photo at the bottom of this page):

  "A lazy susan mechanism really helps make the rope spirals."

• Polymer Clay Polyzine - Making Clay Strands With a Garlic Press

Inspiration

• Past Filigree Challenges / Clay Days
  • PCC Filigree Challenge - June 2002
  • PCC Filigree Challenge - August 2004
  • PCC Filigree Clay Day
• Polymer Clay Polyzine - Noodly Stuff
• Charles Mayer's excellent filigree work (see more of Mayer's work here)
• And for inspiration from another medium, check out what's going on in paper quilling

Mail your entries in by August 15, 2007, for a chance to win one of three prizes. Good luck!

Posted in: Polymer Clay | Comments (4)

Read on for the August 2007 issue of the Crafty Goat newsletter, which includes football prep, latest products & news, and even a chance to win!

FOOTBALL SEASON RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER

Got a favorite football team? Get all geared up before the season starts. CraftyGoat.com’s poker chip coasters now come in custom colors… so you can order coasters in your favorite team’s colors and watch the game in style. It shows your team spirit — plus it’s the easiest way to bet a beer on the game!

Check ‘em out here.

CUTE AND CLEVER

Speaking of the poker chip coasters, they were one of the two CraftyGoat.com products that were recently selected to be featured on HGTV’s “That’s Clever” show. As I mentioned in my last newsletter, we won’t know an air date til Spring 2008. But we did hear a bit of news from the field producer… She said she’s seen my segment & it’s “cute.” I’m hoping that’s a good thing! I’ll keep you posted as the air date gets closer.

NEW PRODUCTS

New this month on CraftyGoat.com:

• Sunny Thank You Card

Like this Thank You card? You could win four of ‘em! CraftyGoat is one of several sponsors for the drawing going on over on SweepsGoat.com. Other prizes include a gift certificate, software, & a newsletter subscription. Hurry! The contest ends August 7th — check it out here.

NEWS FROM OUR BLOG

Here’s a few of the articles that have been featured on our blog recently:

• CraftyGoat Tutorial Posted on Polka Dot Creations
• How to Make Faux Bricks with Polymer Clay
• How to Make a Polymer Clay Notepad
• PLUS Polymer Clay Pen Series — 3 posts & 5 videos on how to make polymer clay pens. Starts here.

Happy August to you — try to stay cool!

Posted in: CraftyGoat.com News

If you do scrapbooking or paper crafting, there's a decent chance you have several colors, shapes & sizes of eyelets in your craft stash. I've shown you a couple of ways to use eyelets with polymer clay -- as a pen tip for the bamboo skewer pen, or as hole reinforcement in the polymer clay notepad. But if you're still looking for ideas on combining these two craft supplies, here's 5 more ways to use eyelets with polymer clay:

1. Use Eyelets to Finish Beads: Subscribe to Polymer Cafe? If so, check out p. 13 in the Summer 2007 issue. Dotty McMillan shows how she uses eyelets to finish bead holes.
2. Use Eyelets to Hang Pendants: Eyelets work great for hanging polymer clay pendants. Check out examples from these polymer clay artists:
   • Jeanne of ART for the HEART uses eyelets to hang pendants made from her son's artwork.
   • Diane Villano uses eyelets with seed beads in her mini-journal pendants.
3. Use Eyelets with Doll Clothing: Check out Zoya Dubrovsky's Paper Boy sculpture in the ArtDolls.com Gallery for ideas on using eyelets with laces (shoes & otherwise!) in doll clothing.
4. Use Eyelets as Embellishments: Eyelets look great as the middle of a flower, as "nails" on faux wood, or as multi-colored polka dots. Check out this list of ideas for using eyelets in scrapbooking layouts... many of the ideas would also work well with polymer clay.
5. Use Eyelets as Eyelets! One of the things eyelets are most useful for in paper crafting is attaching vellum to paper. Try matting a transparent liquid clay transfer onto a sheet of clay, attaching it with eyelets.

Tips on Using Eyelets with Clay

• Setting the Eyelet: I like the Crop-A-Dile tool for setting my eyelets. I use the hole punch to punch the right size hole (same size as the eyelet) in my baked clay. Then I set the eyelet -- squeezing gently to avoid putting too much pressure on the clay (it could crack, especially if you're using one of the weaker brands of clay).
• Gluing the Eyelet: If you don't have an eyelet-setting tool, or if you're concerned about the possibility of cracking, then gluing may be a better option for you. You need to be sure the hole you punch is exactly the right size, so that the edges of the eyelet can be glued in place. One way is to use the eyelet itself to punch the hole before you bake the clay. Once the clay's baked, dab super glue (I like Loctite Gel) either on the eyelet, or inside the rim of your polymer clay hole. Quickly place the eyelet in the hole.
• Remove the Eyelet before Baking: Be careful about baking eyelets in place. I've had a couple of experiences where the clay around the metal cracked during baking. I'm guessing it's because the metal conducts heat better than the polymer clay -- causing it to heat up faster than the clay around it? (Any of you who remember science classes better than me, feel free to correct me here!) Your mileage may vary, of course, but I'd recommend removing the eyelets before baking, then using one of the above methods to re-attach them afterwards.

• Blue barrettes, by cynthusia
• wonder, by Vicki's ATC's and Stuff
• AB19, by sweetmadness

Posted in: Polymer Clay , Supplies & Tools , Tips & Techniques | Comments (4)