A few days ago, I asked your feelings on glitter: love it or hate it? And while the strongly-worded options may have influenced folks' answers, I think Laurel was onto something when she commented that people tend to be "vehement one way or the other about glitter." After 22 comments, here are the results:

• Pro-Glitter: 14 comments (63.6%)
• Anti-Glitter: 5 comments (22.7%)
• On the Fence ("Love/Hate Relationship", etc.): 3 comments (13.6%)

Looks like I am in the minority, as a crafty "glitter-hater" -- but at least I'm not all by myself!

As for the drawing, the randomly-selected winners are:

• Penni Jo for her pro-glitter comment: "All glitter has its own charm and place in the world."
• Beth for her anti-glitter comment: "Add glue to the mix and it becomes a blob monster determined to get me! I can't handle it without it taking over every thing I own."

I'll be contacting the winning commenters shortly -- so if you're one of them, be sure to keep an eye on your email for instructions on receiving your prize.

If you haven't read through the comments yet, there's a lot of fun ones. My faves include these:

• Dez likes the glitter cloud that rises up when she sits in her favorite chair.
• Jenny's son was born with glitter on his head.
• France mentions the difficulties of being taken seriously in a business meeting when you've got glitter on your face!

Thanks for all your great comments -- & for helping me get rid of those yucky old glitter bottles once & for all! :-)

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Mineral oil is cheap and easy to find -- your local pharmacy probably has a big bottle of some generic brand available for less than a dollar. And that makes it a darn good value for a surprisingly versatile craft supply.

Here's 6 reasons you need to buy a bottle of mineral oil for your craft space:

Continue reading "6 Ways to Use Mineral Oil with Polymer Clay" »

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Miss me? Seems like I've been working day & night lately -- preparing for, executing & recovering from this past weekend's garage sale. All that stuff from my craft room clean-up had to go somewhere!

As I was sorting through & pricing items, I noticed some of the bottles of glitter I'd finally decided to get rid of. I've never been a big fan of glitter. Hubby & I specifically avoid buying glittery cards for each other. And if well-intentioned family members send such cards our way, we handle them by the corners, carefully, hoping to avoid any glitter "contamination." I have no idea, then, why I had several bottles of glittery stuff in my craft supplies.

Continue reading "Garage Sales & Glitter Giveaway" »

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Polymer Clay Central just posted a great tutorial by Kathy Canuel on making custom word stamps with polymer clay. If you've ever wanted to customize a gift by stamping the recipient's name, or add your own custom mark to a finished piece, or just save money on word stamps for polymer clay, her tutorial's definitely worth checking out.

To start, Kathy has you carve your word, mirror-image, into the clay, then follow that outline with extruded polymer clay. If you're like me & not crazy about your own handwriting (or if you have trouble writing in mirror image!), you could start with an image transfer instead.

Be sure to print your word/image normally (not mirror image like you'd do for most image transfers), since you want the stamp to be reversed. The transfer doesn't need to be perfect since you're just using it for a guide. Following the same method I used in my extruded clay texture mold video, I baked the clay sheet before continuing (to make it a little easier to work with), then added a layer of liquid clay. The honey-like consistency of the liquid clay catches the extruded clay pieces and keeps them in place, making it easy to follow the image transfer lines with extruded clay. Once you're happy with the word (check it with a mirror if you're having trouble visualizing it), follow Kathy's instructions to add a cute custom handle & bake it.

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I was a primarily a paper crafter before I fell in love with polymer clay -- and I still enjoy stamping and making handmade cards. As expensive as craft supplies can be, it's wonderful when you can re-use tools for a different medium. So while these tools may be less "unconventional" than an herb mincer or a pumice stone, I wanted to share them with others of you who have a paper crafting background.

Here are five common scrapbooking supplies that you can also use with polymer clay:

Continue reading "Five Scrapbooking Supplies to Use with Polymer Clay" »

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Last time I shared how I use a pumice stone with polymer clay. Today I'd like to introduce you to another of my repurposed favorites...

The Herb Mincer

Continue reading "Unconventional Polymer Clay Tools 2: The Herb Mincer" »

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A few days back, Lisa at Polka Dot Creations invited us to explore her polymer clay toolbox. She showed several of her handmade tools and asked for folks to share their own ideas.

Mine are less handmade than creatively repurposed from their original uses. (Which is my nice way of saying I've stolen them from whatever part of the house they were originally intended for. Hubby thinks this is rather bird-like of me, stashing away shiny things for my craft "nest.") Still, I thought I'd share them with you & see if you had any of your own creative tool tips to add...

Pumice Stone

• What It's Good For: Original use? Smoothing skin. Polymer clay use? Adding texture. The organic look and random patterns of the pumice stone make it wonderful for texturing polymer clay.
• How to Use It: Use the pumice stone on an uncured sheet of polymer clay. Press into clay to create a rough texture that's ideal for nature-inspired pieces and certain baked goods.
• Where to Find It: Your bathroom. Inexpensive gift sets on after-Christmas sale. Beauty supply stores. Amazon.
• Similar Ideas: Pumice is just a type of volcanic rock, so if you have lava rocks in your flower garden, give those a try. You could also use a Loofah sponge, since it has a similarly organic pattern.

Next time I'll show you another re-purposed tool, this time from the kitchen. Til then, be sure to check out the comments on Lisa's posts for links to other crafty tool ideas.

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To conclude this mold putty series, I wanted to share a few additional mold putty tips & tricks. Plus, I'm giving away a project pack that includes everything you need to try your hand at molding.

More Mold Putty Tips & Tricks

Continue reading "Mold Putty Wrap-Up & Giveaway" »

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If you love texture sheets & have ever wondered about creating your own, check out my latest video, How to Make Your Own Texture Molds.

• How to make a texture mold from a basket
• How to use extruded clay to make a texture sheet
• How to use your texture sheets along with clay in the pasta machine

• 
  Basket with Texture Mold
• 
  Hat Textured with Basket Mold
• 
  More Texture Mold Examples

• 
  Original Extruded Pattern
• 
  Mold of Extruded Pattern
• 
  ATC Made from Mold

Other posts in this series:

• Review: Amazing Mold Putty
• How to Make Your Own Molds with Amazing Mold Putty
• Video: How to Make Button Molds & Buttons
• Video: How to Make Your Own Texture Molds
• Mold Putty Wrap-Up

Start molding today with the Mold Putty Project Pack.

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Are you a visual learner? If so, check out my latest video for tips on making buttons and button molds. It runs just over 5 minutes, and includes the following:

• How to use Amazing Mold Putty to make molds from buttons
• How to use your button molds with polymer clay
• How to poke button holes
• How to add button shanks
• How to use Pearl Ex powders to add a little pizazz to your buttons

• 
  Button Molds
• 
  Original, Mold & Clay Buttons
• 
  Clay Nametag made with Buttons

Continue reading "Video: How to Make Button Molds & Buttons" »

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Making molds to use with polymer clay is super-easy -- but, like anything else, it can be a little intimidating to try for the first time. I talked about the basics of silicone mold putties in my Amazing Mold Putty review, but here are a few more pointers to get you on your way.

Making a Mold

Continue reading "How to Make Your Own Molds with Amazing Mold Putty" »

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Today I'd like to talk about silicone mold putties in general, and Amazing Mold Putty in particular.

But first, a story...

Years ago, within months of using polymer clay for the first time, I took part in my first craft fair. It was a one-day show, part of a convention we were attending. I made some "pet rocks" out of polymer clay, added some googly eyes, & printed the name of the organization on an attached slip of paper. Viola! An inexpensive craft fair item.

Continue reading "Review: Amazing Mold Putty" »

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Polyform has announced that their new clay, Studio by Sculpey, is now available. Thanks to a wonderful giveaway by the gals over at Polymer Clay Productions, I got an early chance to try out a block of Peacock-colored Studio by Sculpey clay, and I have to say I'm impressed.

To give you an idea of what I'm basing my comparisons on, here's my clay preference history in a nutshell. I've used Polyform products for most of my claying life, starting with Sculpey III in the early days, then switching to Premo as I learned about the difference in strength. In the past year or so, my "preferred clay" has been a Premo/UltraLight blend (approx. 2:1) because I like UltraLight's texture but find it hard to use by itself.

Here are my thoughts on using the new Studio by Sculpey clay:

Continue reading "Studio by Sculpey Clay Review" »

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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:

Continue reading "5 More Ways to use Eyelets with Polymer Clay" »

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Removing pasta machine streaks isn't the only thing rubbing alcohol is good for. Here are a few other handy ways to use isopropyl alcohol with polymer clay:

• Use rubbing alcohol to clean your work surface and clay tools -- including pasta machines, clay molds, and paint brushes (after using liquid clay).
• Spread rubbing alcohol over the back of your paper for a better image transfer.
• Smooth alcohol lightly over clay before baking to help get rid of fingerprints.
• Use baby wipes soaked in rubbing alcohol to clean clay residue (especially that pesky red!) off hands.
• When making mosaics from baked tiles, use a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol to scrub liquid clay "grout" off the tiles before baking again.
• Clean any greasy residue off baked clay before applying a glaze finish.

Sounds like rubbing alcohol has earned its spot on the craft room shelf... Can you think of other ways you've used rubbing alcohol with polymer clay?

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While I'm not much of a scrapbooker, I love this free random layout challenge generator from Creating Keepsakes. You specify the categories (e.g., color combinations, shapes, embellishments, layout sketches, etc.) you want included in your layout challenge -- and they'll generate a random challenge for you. Most of the categories work just as well for cards, ATCs, or other paper crafts.

I like the way tools like this give me a set of guidelines to create within. Maybe it just helps get the creative juices flowing -- no starting with a scary blank page. Or maybe it gives me a challenge -- I start wondering what I can make that's creative and unique, starting with these set guidelines. Whatever the reason is, it's something I definitely enjoy. Here are a couple of my favorite products for sparking creativity:

• The Joy of Card Making [aff] has sketches -- they call them "recipes" -- for card layouts in several standard card sizes. Each recipe includes various examples of finished products for more inspiration. (There's also a Joy of Card Making: A Second Helping [aff] that I haven't tried yet -- it's on my Christmas list, though!)
• Deluxe Cuts Card Templates are fun little plastic templates for various card layouts. The templates make it a little easier to trace and cut out the paper shapes.

Do you have anything special that inspires your creativity? Leave me a comment -- I'd love to hear about it!

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Polymer Clay Daily posted this magnet trick -- it looks like a nifty way to keep the handle from falling out of the pasta machine. I can't think of how many things I've tried to fix this problem, so I'm hoping this will do the job. My poor little dog insists on laying right underneath the pasta machine whenever I'm in the craft room -- and we've had quite a few near misses when the handle has fallen out!

UPDATE 11/6/06: I finally remembered to pick up some super-magnets and give this a try. They didn't specify which brand of pasta machine they tried this on -- but I didn't have much luck using it with my Atlas pasta machine. Since the long hollow tube that my handle fits in is much longer than the handle, I'm guessing the magnet doesn't have anything to grab onto. Two of the comments on the original post looked promising, though: wrapping the end with masking tape, or inserting the end into the cut-off finger of a latex glove. I'll let you know if either of those work better for me...

Technorati Tags: polymer clay, pasta machine, magnet

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According to the Clay Factory's Blog, several colors will no longer be available in Premo! Sculpey's 1-lb size:

Glow in the Dark - Zinc Yellow -  Fluorescent Yellow -  Alizarin Crimson - Fluorescent Red - Fluorescent Pink - Fuchsia - Copper - Red Pearl - Blue Pearl - Sea Green - Orange - Fluorescent Green - Green Pearl - Turquoise - Violet - Raw Sienna

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