First International Bead Swap Finished

These are my beads for the First International Bead Swap on European Polymerclay People Forum. We had to make 2 sets of 10 beads and send them to 2 participants. My two sets found their new home in Isreal and USA. In return, I got two different sets of beads and I am going to post pics of them tomorrow. I hope that was just one of many swaps there as it is always fun (and a bit of pressure, too) making things for someone else.

I made one focal bead for each set and 10 beads in 5 different patterns and sizes (so that's 11 beads, but I guess that's ok as well - if there is a focal bead it's good that you have even number of beads for each side, right?). I was working with translucent clay which I haven't figured out completely yet... but I was quite pleased with the final result. All beads are sanded and polished.

Still Making Christmas Cards

Hello again. I'm so busy lately and so not in the mood for posting. Not much is going on but it is obvious that the end of the year is approching as days are getting even shorter as they were. Not really shorter, they are just passing by with the speed of light. Mostly what I do is go to work in the morning after having serious troubles with getting up; I don't sleep well and I don't sleep enough so I wake up really tired day after day. Luckily I have fantastic co-workers and those 8+ hours I spend at work are not that hard, although a bit stressful time is starting in our accounting department which will last until mid January when we must have our balance and all the reports prepared. When I get home it's almost night (it gets dark at about 5 pm at this time). Then we usually do few things for school - I still have to help Nina to study, she makes most of her homework as soon as she gets from school so fortunately I don't have to worry about that. We have something to eat, go shopping or visit friends or have someone coming over,... and the day is over. The only thing I had time and will to do in the past two weeks or so was making cards. I never liked making them but since I bought some papers and other stuff it's much more fun. Now I actually love it! Here are some of them (if the slide is not working on your computer, you can see them here as well):

Thanks for stopping by. Sign my guestbook at the top of the page if you have time. Thanks! :)

My First Handmade Book

I am so proud of myself!!! I made my first book today! It's not really big, covers measure 10 x 12 cm and inside pages 10 x 9 cm and it has 24 pages in 4 different colors.

While surfing the web I came accross pics of handmade books and booklest and I just loved them. Today I watched the video on Craft TV Weekly where the demonstrator shows how to prepare back and front cover and put them together, how to stitch pages,... Since I had time I thought I would give it a try. Measuring and cutting paper was quite time consuming as I don't have any special cutters except blade, ruler and measuring plate. The hardest part was cutting the hard cardboard I used for covers, my hands still hurt! Making holes was much easier as I imagined and so was stitching. I wanted to make a coptic stitches at first, but then I figured out it would probably be safer to start with a stitch from that video. I didn't stitch too tightly, I am going to put different pictures and embelishments on the pages later so they will fill the inside of the covers, I guess. Oh, and the center inside part where pages are attached to the cover - that's my idea! I didn't want just glue the last page of the inside papers to the cover, I think this solution is much better. Almost like a real book! :)

It was so good to see how well things are fitting together and that in a few hours of work few ordinary pieces of paper turned into a book! Hmmm, maybe I should quit work and start making books! :))

And of course, here are few pics of you my masterpiece :)!

Cardmaking continues

It seems I got into cardmaking lately. It's probably because I should make beads for a swap and I just can't make the right combination. I guess it's about time I make them... maybe I'll just make another card before I start. :)
Since it is time for Christmas cards I am trying to make something more in that spirit. I have quite some stamps, but of course no stamps with Christmas themes. I just have this Santa, which is rather cute and it will have to do, and a swirly tree which I've used just for stamping on clay so far. My brother just came from New York, I was hoping he is going to get me stamps and punches and some other stuff I wanted... but he couldn't find any craft store there. Oh well, by next year I will have more Christmas stamps and papers, I am sure.

Santa Claus Fest

Sounds interesting!
I hope I have time to do something for this contest, I really like the idea. I should be working on cards and gifts and decorations, but days are passing by so quickly that I don't have much time for such things. Unfortunatelly. It's time to organise my life a bit better. It's weird. I mean, days still have 24 hours - that's the same as years ago. And few years ago I was much more effective as I am now. I had another job and my working time was 2 hours shorter as it is now. And Nina was going to sleep at 7pm while now she is up until 9.30pm usually. Yep, that could be the reason...

Cardmaking

I got few 6x6 BasicGrey paper pads today and I couldn't resist - I just had to try them!

Latest Pendants

This is fun! No more nervous breakdowns because of the pics here on blogger. I don't know for others but I always had problems with loading and then arranging more pics at once. They were all around the site and every time it took me quite some time and patience to put them in order. And then I look at my site on my work computer and pics are not lined up! Now that's over, I'll use Slide more often. Anyway, here are some of my latest pendants... as usually, I gave some away before I could even took pics.

Searching For Hidden Magic Part 2

Few more tries with stamps and clay. I still don't like the colors, except for the red/orange/yellow one. There were few more, but I was too anxious to cut out the shapes and I didn't have time to make pics :). There's one pic of the pieces on the tray before baking though, just for a sneak peek. I have to make some "ordinary" pendats for few gifts so I am sticking with simple forms for now. And I am still warming up, it has been quite some time since my last all-days-just-claying period. Maybe this is the start of a new one, we'll see. Oh, and I tried another thing from new Donna Kato's book (The Art Of Polymer Clay - Creative Surface Effects) - shading with ink pads and stamping on clay. Really nice results and rather simple to do as well. I just haven't figured out yet how to work with transparent clay, so I am not stamping in layers as she shows. I like it all the same.

Searching For Hidden Magic

I've seen a technique called hidden magic on few french sites (Parole De Pate and then links to other sites) and I just had to try it. At first, it looked quite impossible to get some good pattern out of clay but with some practice I got few quite interesting sheets although colors seems horrible. I just used some scrap clay with clay gun to make rolls for the base. Later I will try some more with hopefully better color combination.

You Make Me Smile...

Lovely and talanted Jessica nominated me for You Make Me Smile Award. Woooow!!! That's awsome! Thanks so much Jessica! I'm sooo honored! Please go to her site and check her art, she makes amazing cards and other stuff, plus really fantastic photos. Her art will surely make you smile, too. It makes me smile for sure.

I have to nominate few other people for this award (if you are nominated and read this, pass this award on to others that make you smile), so here we go:

• Isa with her Fimo by IC blog - she makes fantastic polymer clay jewelry and other stuff and I always find inspiration while watching her work. I just love the color combinations and shapes she is using - something I still have to learn.
• Iris Mishly makes me smile with her blog Polymery Online with links to wonderful, useful and inspirational sites of other clay artists. On her blog you can find links to her other blogs, like her flickr album - besides providing tons of links she is also an amazing artist.
• Lunes is the founder of The European PolymerClay People forum. I hope her work and energy she is putting into it will be rewarded soon - with clayers from around the Europe joining there in daily chats, exchanging of ideas and information and showing off their work. You can join too, it's free! Check her homepage to see her lovely work.
• Godelieve with her StampingMathilda blog - I'm sure she doesn't stop by at my blog but I want to give her this reward all the same. I check her blog almost daily and I am amazed every time to see what can be done with paper and stamps. Her work is really fantastic and she posts pics of her new work daily, so there is always a lot to see.

There are quite some blogs and sites I check quite regulary that makes me smile. So, in a way, this reward goes to all of them. Thanks again, Jessica!

International Bead Swap

Swap!!!! I love swaps!!!! Do you??? Wanna join our swap???


I am the host of the first bead swap on EuropeanPolymerclayPeople. If you are a clayer or a bead maker, you are most welcome to join our swap! You can read all the rules and register on the above mentioned forum under Challenge section. Just in brief - register by sending me an email with your nickname and name and postal address), then make 2 beads sets with 10 beads. When the registration time is over (at the end of the month), you will receive 2 postal addresses to which you will send your beads by the end of November. You will get 2 sets of beads in return, by post from 2 different participants. Easy, right? And it's not that hard to make beads! Why don't you try and join us? The more people play, more interesting it can get. So..... welcome!!

Ok, now this is really annoying. My last two posts dissapeared, with few pics of Nina and her friends at her birthday party last week. Also, as I can see, the pics of my ATCs dissapeared as well. What the heck is going on here? I'll post Nina's pics some other day again, I wanted to show you my second "magic" witch wand today. I made one some time ago for a swap and I promised to a friend who was ill at that time that I would make one for her in case she is not able to participate. I made this one some time ago and I am waiting to give it away (which will be this Friday, I think) and I haven't made any pics. Well, I did that today but I have a new cam and I haven't figured out everything yet, so pics are not really good. I think I will have to join a course to learn about photography.
















As usually, when I want to do something, Lin was in the way and was interrupting me all the time. But beside Nina he is obviously my greatest admirer and he likes my work. He also seems to be a good guardian, so this wand is safe beside him.

Just trying something new... I always have problems with loading pics to blogger and arranging them, so maybe this is a better solution.

Few More Things

This week was awful. I'm exhausted. So what am I doing up on Saturday morning at 7 am, when I don't have to go to work and I am home alone??? I have no idea, I just couldn't sleep any longer. This time of the year is just horrible - during the week I get up at 6.30 am and it's still dark. It's soooooo so hard to wake up! Luckily I have some extra hours at work so I can sleep few minutes longer every morning. We will change time at the end of the month and I hope it gets better then.

This week was full of different activities, and most of them didn't include any art creativity. Oh, I did make a clay picture for my dear fellow worker who retired last week. I don't like it, it's too gaudy but it was her wish to have a picture like that. It still needs some finishing and I am not showing it until next week when we have farewell treat for her.

My child will turn 10 next Friday. I just can't believe that, but I know it must be true because we are so busy with getting ready for the sleep over party. Invitations are sent already, 15 kids plus some moms will fill our apartment next week. I have to find some ideas for games or something to keep the kids occupied for some time, otherwise they will just run around and yell all the time.

Few more pics of my "summer" work.

Old Beads - New Necklaces

I have a box full of necklaces and braceletes right now, ready to be sold. I know at least 2 persons were hardly waiting for these pics, so here they are. :)

I made most of these during my summer vacation on Croatian seaside. I just had to use the beads I had and now I almost run out of them. It is time to start making new ones - I still have quite some canes left, but I can make a thing or two with the beads of the same kind and then I get tired of the color and pattern. Cane making is something I really enjoy, so it should not be a problem. Making beads is more time consuming, but that has to be done as well. I have head full of ideas what to make but there is only one problem - days are not long enough for everything I need and would like to do.

Comments are welcome, as always. Have a wonderful day!