Thing-a-day.com

Well, I decided to use the sheet of sculpey III translucent I made in the tutorial from day 20 to make a mokume gane slabusing some Pearlescent Liquid Acrylics.

It came out very nice.

I thought….hmmmm that would make a great scarf for a new mask. But I didn’t remember my own lesson and even though I used Kato Polyclay as the backing for the scarf, I didn’t cover the top with wax paper. I was spared the agony of swearing s I cleaned clay out of the rollers…but the clay did stick and the pattern dragged. So it’s not longer mokume gane. It is however a pretty marbled pattern. Miss Thang is in the oven baking right now. Once she’s sanded and sealed, I think it will still be a nice piece.

Duh…I seem to be having problems all around this morning. Ok now the pics should be there. Going back to bed.

Made a quick jellyroll cane and a sheet from this cane for a swap.

My kreation of the day is a tutorial.

Someone over at polymer clay central had a question about getting Sculpey rolled through a pasta machine with out ending up with a sticky mess. I use sculpey all the time in my mokume ganes. Wax paper and letting the clay rest between passes through the past machine are the keys.

How not to gunk up your pasta machine with Sculpey III tutorial

Ok, I’ve been a bad girl and not blogging, but things have been kinda hectic for me at the moment.

So here’s a wrap up of the past week:

Day 14….worked briefly on some swaps that I had to get out and into the mail the next day.

Day 15 & day 16. Played around wit Maggie Maggio’s Color Scales Tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD4_gkZ226c

http://www.maggiemaggio.com/color/

Now whether or not you use polymer clay, it is certainly worth while picking up a few blocks of clay and playing around with color mixing. (Michaels’s Arts & Crafts has it on sale for .99 this week, btw)

Day 17: Made an orange cane to use for a matchbox swap.

Used this tute: http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/candy_citrus.html. Of course I can’t follow instructions to save my life, so I missed the step for wrapping the log in the medium orange sheet before wrapping in the darker sheet. Oh well.

Cane before reducing:

Day 18: Playing around withPosh Inkabilities inks. Haven’t made anything yet, but probably will make some beads tonight.

Day 19: Faux Stained glass…or something like that. Rubber stamped clay and painted with liquid clay mixed with powdered pigments. Baked then topped with UTEE.

Feeling kinda lazy today, so I decided to create some new polymer clay texture tools.  I used a piece of decorative moulding for this texture.

I think this would be pretty antiqued and highlighted with mica powders.  I’ll probably play around with that this weekend.

Day 11 and 12 have been dedicated to making things for the swaps I’ve joined on swap-bot.com

I swear I am such a craft junkie, I can’t stop signing up for all these neat swaps over there. I would ask for an intervention, but then that means I’d have to go into recovery…and I ain’t ready to give swapping.

Let’s see, I’ve made about 2 polymer clay canes, 10 ATCs, 6 matchboxes, and started on a button fairy. (Didn’t even know what a button fairy was until I signed up over there.)

But, I’m won’t post pictures of the stuff, because I don’t want my partners to see their stuff before they get it.

I forgot to post yesterday’s “Thing-a-day” kreation.

I was actually int the middle of cleaning up, no let’s say re-organizing…that sounds so much better, the krpaht room.  So I didn’t have much time to play.  I filled a little cheapie bezel with some mokume gane.. It turned out pretty cool.

For day 10, I decided to make something from a new book I picked up, “Paper Transformed: A Handbook of Surface-Design Recipes and Creative Paper Projects.”    Pretty good book.

Of course I right right for the techniques that used the UTEE…I’m addicted to this stuff.

The technique I started doing is called sea-glass.  But since my muse can’t follow instructions well.  I’m not sure this is the way it should have turned out. In any event, I love the final look.  The texture is very nice.

 Joann’s has Studio by Sculpey on sale for 25% off…still a bit high in my book. But I decided to pick up a few packs and give the new clay a try.  I am impressed with it.  When I first felt the packs, they felt kinda mushy and I thought the clay would almost turn to liquid in my warm hands….but surprise it didn’t.  Rolled it through the #8 setting on my pasta machine and no sticking at all.  The mg turned out well, however, I am a translucent girl and I’m kinda disappointed that she didn’t include any.

I’m not sure of the durability yet.  I’ll have to make mask and see how it holds up.

Mokume Gane Slab

Slices from the slab

Anyone that plays with polymer clay, knows you have a treasure trove in your scrap box.   (If you don’t have one get one.  Don’t toss the “waste” from your clay project. )

I also have a huge box of textures, but have neglected to use them much.  So why not grab the two and play around.

I saw this tutorial for Shaving Cream Marbled Paper(http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=9922) and just had to try it.

I’ve tried to do the shaving cream technique on polymer clay but it was a muddy mess by the time I finished.

The papers came out great. I will probably make more this weekend.

Messy plate of shaving cream and alcohol inks…..be warned this is a super messy project.

Shaving cream on paper:

Finished Paper:

Other papers created tonight: http://flickr.com/photos/crafty_dez/2247196037/in/set-72157603837030629/

Well in between remaking some ATC I sent out in a swap, but have disappeared into the black hole of our postal system. I played with covering wood with polymer clay. Ugh. The flat piece wasn’t so bad, but the round one was awful. After fighting with getting all the bubbles out and managing to bake it…with out bubbles re-appearing, it dawned on me, that I’d tried covering a wood frame and baking it…and that I swore I would never try to bake clay on the wood ever again. Well this time I’m serious…what a hassle. Way too much work for hit-or-miss results.

This is covered with scraps of an old mokume gane I made a while ago. Just finally got around to actually covering it. I actually bought the wood piece to go with this mask: http://www.flickr.com/photos/crafty_dez/1547330249/in/set-72157600237086589/

This piece looking like planet earth was not planned, but what a great surprise it turned out to be. It’s a small world after all….

Well gotta sign out.  We have pretty bad thunderstorms and tornadoes rolling into Middle Tennessee.

Well, nothing kraphti created, but I did mix up several batches of margaritas during the super blow party I attended….and baby the way I make margaritas is a work of art!

Tonight Mango and Strawberry were the flavors of choice.  I use fresh fruit along with the mixes for a richer taste.  And of course there’s tequila, tequila, tequila….tequila.

Hmmmm….I just realized I can’t post pics everyday.   I participate in swaps over at Swap-bot.com and I don’t want my partner to see what I’m making before they get it in the mail.

Well anyway, I did several filled matchboxes today.  Just need to finish decorating them.    Still waiting for partners to be assigned on a couple of them.

I also moved out of my dining room and back into the krapht room.  Sheesh I have go so many things going on, that I need like 3 separate rooms. One for painting, one for paper crafts and one for polymer clay.

I made a sweet mokume gane using Liquid Acrylic ink and Jones Tones Foils with the Polymer clay. This was the first time I’ve used the foils. During the stacking process I realized I’d flipped one of the foils upside down. I was like “Oh crap. I just screwed this slab up.” But then when I stared slicing, I loved the the two toned metallic contrast. I made several beads and a couple of book marks.

Since I was experimenting, I only made a small slab. But I’m planning to make a bigger one for a new mask in the next month or so.