I love a challenge!

I really love a challenge! My sister asked for a "Gourdgeous Girlfriend" done like a monkey for a friend of hers. I said "sure, I can do that". Well, I did it and I love him! She liked him, too. A few months ago my daughter in law was looking at the gourds I was playing with and she thought one looked like "Mr. Peanut" and asked if I could do that. "Sure, I can do that". Well, I finished him today and I really think it looks like Mr. Peanut! The body is the small gourd she picked out and then it is covered with polymer clay. The arms, legs, hat, are all polymer clay. I painted him the yellow color and painted on his eye, nose and mouth and the Mr. Peanut on his hat. I couldn't seem to get the monocle chain-thing right and the clay kept breaking and ended up using a piece of very small cording. Worked like a charm. Anyway, she will be getting this Friday night as one of her Christmas presents. Shhhhh....don't tell her it's done! Merry Christmas to everyone and hope you have a wonderful, creative 2011!!

Here is the one we did for our Mom. It is a little larger, so Lisa added another sheep and an adorable donkey! Way too cool! I am showing it out of the gourd so you can see the detail. It is hard to get a good shot of it inside the gourd! We are giving it to her tomorrow. Can't wait to see what she thinks!

It has been sooooooo busy! I didn’t blog as much as I should have during November, but I can assure you, I did create every single day! Thanks so much for the challenge Peggy! Same days were harder than others to find the time, but as the art/craft shows came up and we needed the items done, it seemed easier! The newest project I have been working on is for Christmas. I got some gourds out of my stash, three smaller ones and one larger one and with my sister, Lisa, came up with an idea to collaborate on a project. I cut an opening in the gourd for the front. The outside was finished with gourd inks in various colors. I added silhouettes of the three wise men on one side and shepherds and sheep on the other. When I was done, I gave them over to my sister for her part. She is a polymer clay artist and does wonderful, very small figures. This year she has been doing these wonderfully small nativity sets. Some have animals, some do not. Well, she just sent me these photos of what it looks like when it came together. Amazing! They are so tiny and really make my gourds look good!!

Today is Day 15 of the Create Every Day. Yesterday I got the jump rings on the charms for the ArtCharm swap. Today was a busy day. I finished up the Gourdgeous Girlfriends from the last post, repaired a few small boxes that got broken during the last craft show. The roses got knocked off, so redid a couple of those and made a snowman one. After that, I got things packed up and ready for the craft show tomorrow morning. Hopefully, it is a great show! Keep on creating!!

Day 13 and a little time to post!

Wow, I can't believe it is November 13th already. Christmas will be here in no time. Well, since the last post, I have made 40 bead dangles from the polymer clay beads, and have 7 more Gourdgeous Girlfriends just about done! I have to just finish their backs with the pin backs and bag them. Three of them are for special orders for next week, so am glad to have them ready to go! I really like how the sheep turned out! She has polymer clay ears and then she has beads on for her wool put on just like the snowmen, one by one!! But the end result is so worth it! We have two art/craft sales this week, so I am hoping to get a few more done, but not sure where I am going to find the time. It has been crazy busy and looks like it will be for a while longer.

Finally an update!

Okay, finally got some time to blog about what I have been doing for Create Every Day! Thursday came with not much time to squeeze in any real creating, but did stop and pick up a few items that I needed for some orders, so I figured that counted some. Friday and Saturday, I was able to bead another snowman pin. He is still laying there waiting for me to finish him, but that is a good start. Sunday was devoted to house cleaning. Not my favorite thing to do, but it is necessary some times! While doing this, I found my dining room table! I had been using it for working on the Gourdgeous Girlfriends instead of doing that upstairs in my room. Well, I took it all upstairs and put it in little sets of girls to be worked on. Again, not really creating, but a step int he right direction! Today was totally play day!! I worked on my swaps today. I have signed up for an Inchie swap and another ArtCharm swap. I found a wonderful tutorial for a snowflake cane at 2 Good Claymates. It came out okay and I think it will work. If I do it again, and I probably will, I think I will make the white a little thicker so it would show better when I reduced it, but I am pretty happy with them. I added a Swarovski Crystal to the center of each snowflake for a little sparkle!

Just a quick update today. I have a meeting tonight, so have been busy getting ready for that along with a few household chores. I did squeeze in getting all the "girls" wrapped and ready to go and I made some cards. I made three birthday cards and two get well/thinking of you cards. So I did it! I made a little time to create! I need to start thinking of the swaps I am in, so that will have me creating for a few days at least!!

The snowman from day one now has arms and some wonderful polymer clay boots. The boots were hand made by my sister, Lisa. Aren't they cute? And they swing when you wear him as a pin! Thanks Lisa!! Also, I was asked why I don't have any yellow Gourdgeous Girlfriends. Yellow is the club color for the car club that my hubby and I belong to. Well, I made three yellow girls today. I had base coated them yesterday, so today I added the rest and a little personality. I did a new thing on one of them~I put some earrings on one of them that swing! Adds a little movement and they are kind of cute!

I have joined with some wonderful, creative gals in my ArtCharms swap group and we have committed to Create every day for the month of November! I love the idea of creating something, anything every day. And I am going to try and blog about it too! Well, I did it! I worked on some Gourdgeous Girlfriends. I base painted 7, finished the backs on 5, and spent the evening beading a snowman. Let me backtrack on the Gourdgeous Girlfriends. A friend of mine, Mary, and I were at the Gourd Festival in Casa Grande in February and came up with these lovely little pins using small jewelry gourds. Each pin has a unique personality. They each have different hair and different charms and we have started doing special orders! The snowmen seem to be a big hit. Well, I have to find some time today to finish the snowman and maybe start another. This is a photo of what he looks like today. I will post a photo of the finished pin later! Thanks Peggy for the challenge!!

Okay, I am really bad at this "blog" stuff, but am going to try and do better. I have Art Unraveled next week and have been busy working on charms for a charm swap and extras for trading. I will post some photos when I get them done. I have also been doing some more with gourds. Not much, but some. I did another doll. This one I worked with a couple of gourds and covered it with polymer clay. I also did an ornament with clay for a "Christmas in July" swap at the patch meeting this month. I need to get the camera out and get some photos posted, so keep checking back and hopefully you will be able to see some of my projects!