MIA

I know that I have been missing in action for about a month, the Halloween instant cemetery rush has been insane!!!, but in a good way :). I have been making a few other things, but it's stuff I have already shared on this blog, like recycled crayons and polymer clay ornaments.

I have been working on some new things for my etsy store that I will share soon, but today for a little "me" crafty time I have been making stamps from corks. I saw TracyU's journals on flickr and was inspired to make some personal stamps to use for a visual journal of my own.

The restaurant where I work is closing its doors next week and there is this huge box of corks behind the bar, so I took a few (think 95). These are all synthetic corks, they're kind of like spongy rubber and give a crisper image than regular corks. I was hoping to use my linoleum cutter for the carving, but it did not work well, I got better results just using an exacto knife. The best part is if you mess up just cut it off and start over.So far I have made a cupcake, a candle, two different hearts, two different clouds, a sun, and a moon. I used both ends so I have only used four corks! It took me about an hour to carve eight. I'm hoping to make at least one alphabet. I think that using acrylic paint will work well with these stamps and give me more color options, currently I only have a black stamp pad. I will also embellish some the images with gel pens or glitter for more detail.

I have made stamps using erasers, styrofoam meat trays, those pink easy cut blocks, and fun foam stuck to wood or acrylic blocks. I love making my own stamps!

I'm in the Etsy Halloween Gift Guide

My instant cemetery has made the etsy Halloween gift guide, yay!!! There it is on the top left. This is the first time I have been in a gift guide, I'm so excited! I am currently frantically cutting these tombstones out, so far I have sold nine and have two reserved.

Spirograph

My parents had a garage sale this weekend and when I stopped by to say hi I saw my old Spirograph and just had to have it.

Ah, the memories, I think this is where my love of colored pens comes from. Just thing of the color options of gel pens!!! This toy is well used, with some of the gears permanently ink stained from frequent use. It was fun to try out those well worn holes and remember sitting at the kitchen table for hours making tons of these things in red,blue, green and black.

I'm thinking a bracelet with shrinky dink Spirograph charms would be the perfect project or maybe just some simple note cards. If you have any good ideas, let me know, I'm not going to be satisfied until it wear the teeth off the gears.

Featured in a Treasury

LANCERIKA has featured my Balinese Filigree Ornament in a treasury on Etsy called "Are you afraid of spirals or just hurricanes." The treasury will be viewable until 7am Saturday the 6th., so please check it out here.

Polymer Clay Pendants Galore!

I have a serious back log of pendants to sand! I have been trying to get 6 to 12 sanded a day to catch up. Here's what I've done so far.

These are all mokume gane all nicely sanded and buffed, just waiting to be drilled. I am saving these for the fall craft shows I will be attending.

These are made from slices of automatically wrapped canes (bullseye canes). I really like the "retro" feel of these.

Here are the backs, I just used the leftover clay to make marbled sheets for the backs to make the pendants double sided.

And this is my masterpiece, a Balinese filigree ornament. I really enjoy this technique, although it is very time consuming. My crafting ADD kicks in and I just have to fill every gap! I have already started another ornament and I have several more pendants waiting to be baked.

I love polymer clay.