SuzeBlogz

I put a spell on you....

That would be a Spellbinders Spell !

Well...here I am in L.A.

It's way past my New Jersey bedtime but I zip right from the plane to Julianna Hudgins class at the convention center.

It's eerie at night...no one is here except for the classes going on behind closed doors upstairs...

the only 'thing' here is a big green grassy looking elephant in the lobby...

but, in Julez class there's a giagantinormous good time going on

The class was sponsored by Spellbinders and Artistic Wire (Beadalon)

it was chock-a-block full

and they were making the coolest things with the wig jig and wire

they were working with additional help from these beautiful full color booklets with step by step instructions

Pretty reasonable to assume they are all having a great time !

P

they were working with Juliannas new Goddess dies (that she's created for Spellbinders) as well as all kind of new trinkets from Artistic Wire.

and Julez had magnificent samples on display

Tomorrow the show starts...I'll be walking...walking...taking pictures, making notes....and trying my best to blog it to you guys at night !

STAY TUNED !!!

Napkin anyone ?

Beeswax and UTEE are two totally different animals BUT that doesn't mean you can't use them together on a project..

as long as you don't melt them together !!!

They are not compatible nor do they melt at the same temperature. UTEE needs high heat and Beeswax low heat.

This is a napkin collage, done on wood. A thin layer of Claudines Multi Medium was applied to the wood and the napkin was placed over it.

then I stamped the letters and the flourish using Ranger Black pigment ink.

The texture was also stamped but then I threw some gold UTEE over it and heated gently.

I used a small brush to 'color in the alphabet' with melted wax straight from the Melting Pot

the horizontal color strips are ribbon which was added as a last step with some areas being embossed over.

a few random rhinestones or it wouldn't be a "Suze" piece !!

I dusted the waxed areas with Ranger Perfect Pearls

then...I lightly sprayed the whole piece with Ranger Colorwash

some Platinum UTEE

 

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now, speaking of UTEE

and speaking of gorgeous....

My friend Kathy Nycz sent me a gift using one of the molds she got from me...she hand made this necklace...I am completely freaked out...this is incredible and I LOVE it to death!!!

a true example of someone who completely knows and understands my taste !!

Kathy my friend (of many years) your work gets better and better if that's even possible !!

thank you so so much !!!

 

and now I'm off to think about packing...

off to CHA on Saturday !

It's fun to be 'me"

So cool, huh? I have to thank the adorable Miss Paula Montgmery for spotting this on etsy and letting me know. I ordered it right way...from France !

It's actually not the only Suze "object d'art" that I own. Several years ago this cigarette 'server' was given to me by my very close friend Maggie Wright from the U.K.

you pull up the top and it reveals the place where the cigarettes are placed

I can just see the cigarette girls walking around the nightclubs in the 1920's offering cigarettes. It's qute an antique.

Or...how about this adorable little car that Maggies husband Derek found for me on one of his trips...

'SUZE' is actually a brand of after dinner drink in France. An aperitif that has a kind of bitter taste with a strong gentian root flavor, and a campari-ish aftertaste (I've been told !) and...up until January of this year it was NOT sold in the U.S.

Now..it has finally hit our shores....

I spent one of my birthdays in Canada with my lovely friends from Magenta Rubber Stamps and they gave me this

so, of course I treasure it !!! It even has a Wikipedia page

Managed to find two posters online...not easy to find, but haven't bought them...... yet.

I even made it into a Pablo Picasso painting

"Verre et bouteille de Suze"

like I said....it's fun to be me !!

Please don't forget to visit my ETSY site...even I forget I have one sometimes !

 

Oh, lazy me

The Sketchbook Project is due in a few days. I totally forgot about it and just found the little moleskin journal buried under a pile of stuff this morning...

Oh Crap !!! rush, rush, rush.

Last year my theme involved 'coffee and tobacco' and I nearly drove myself nuts putting together a whole big to-do of mixed media pages with 3-dimensional objects. I worked on it for months. That just wasn't gonna happen this time.

Also...when I actually visited the finished sketchbooks last year at the Brooklyn Library I could tell that the flatter they were the better for their storage.

Well...no choice regardless of that small detail..

I waited waaaaaay-tooooo-loooong.

My theme this year was "Travel With Me" so I chose a bunch of pictures I'd taken, did some quirky photoshopping and slapped them down in the book, using my very trusty Xyron to make themsticky back.

Now that I've given my 1,000 Mea Culpas....here's what I'm mailing

well, in my defense...at least I take some interesting pictures !!!

 

Tree of Life

I just finished making a gift for a young lady about to become a Bat Mitzvah.

In Judaism when you reach the age of 13 it is a coming of age and the Bar (for a boy) & Bat Mitzvah is the ritual service that is observed for that special occasion. The age when you take responsibility for your actions. Prior to that age the parents hold the responsibility.

In Juadaism the words "Etz Chaim" are figuratively applied to the Torah. The Torah is often reffered to as a "Tree of Life", an Etz Chaim.

so I found this wonderful depiction of the Tree of Life, resized it, added some Ranger Stickles and encased it in a beautiful sterling silver 1.5x1.5 inch frame

added a Torah charm and some bead sparkle

a really pretty closure

and a few little bangles on the chain

then I decided that she needed something to go with it

a bracelet. These are from Amate Studios

and it has the same but smaller Tree of Life with some Ranger Stickles

and it is encased in Lisa Pavelkas Magic Glos resin

I'm super happy with all the results.

Fibers

I love when friends come over and spend the day learning to make something they see hanging in my house

this is a cardboard tube that comes from wrapping paper...and this is my friend Marilyn getting hands on....

we used my red line Wonder Tape (now a Ranger product) to wrap the roll. It's easiest to do it a section at a time using tape that's about an inch wide. Dont use ordinary double sided gum tape (like Scotch), it won't have the sticking or the staying power. Wonder Tape is acid free, won't lift, wrinkle and is strong enough to hold a man toupee down !!

slowly wrap each small section with various craft tapes (like the 7gypsies type), raffia, silks, ribbons, Tims Tissue Tape,  and fibers (the cool "hand" bowl holding all my fibers was a purchase from Home Goods a few years ago !)

I found the finials in a home depot type store. They literally just fit right into the end of the cardboard tube

then hang a few interesting crafty or jewelry type things from the fibers

makes a wonderful conversation piece. Takes patience but the result is really artsy.

 

Thought you'd enjoy !

lets make more things

remember the Blog Frenzy from the day before...well..I took the "Jewel Stone" dies that Julianna Hudgins designed for Spellbinders

and made a necklace from them

using PAPER !!!! Looks like real metal, huh?

You're gonna want those dies !

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Thought you might also want to see some of the other things Julianna and I did with her Goddess die

I did some alcohol ink on shrink plastic

and some metallic rub ons

and embossing

 

Stamping on a transparency

can't wait till she has the grand premiere at CHA.

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On Friday

Lunch with "The Rangerettes"

Clockwise from me...Theresa, Linda, Debbie, Terry and Jackie

the rest of 'the gang' was back at Ranger getting things ready for CHA....they're a very bizzie lot...

and talented too...look at the paper mache dragon that Daniela Mozo from Ranger made

Rangerette Terry has bought a few of my necklaces on ETSY

thank you good friend, looks lovely on lovely little you !!

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On to Last Night

we were invited to a house warming...what to bring...Go to your comfort zone...my favorite canvases from Ten Seconds Studio.

My favorite Beeswax from Ranger, my favorite Ranger Perfect Pearls, My favorite Pan Pastels, oil crayons, mica flakes, my old Zamora beads, my Ranger Heat Gun and a bunch of craft related items...

BINGO....whip it up in 2 hours...

of course the glue took a few more hours to dry, but, in the end I was so happy with the way it came out.

and I knew the 'theme' was perfect for our friends home.

and I love the saying I used on the bottom

"The ornaments in your house will be the guests who frequent it"

 

Today...Jared's having his birthday party...he was 9 last week..we're off and running......AGAIN !!

 

 

enter the Blog Frenzy !!!

we would all like to be a Goddess, right? We would all like to win over $1900 worth of fabulous SPELLBINDER PROUCTS, right?

Well...here is MY contribution to the Blog Frenzy

 

using a canvas from Ten Seconds Studio

The Goddesses are done using the brand new SPELLBINDER GODDESS DIES from designer JULIANNA HUDGINS.

I also used Ranger Beeswax, Pan Pastels, Geisha paper from Dove of the East, some mica flakes, Julie Fei-Fan Balzers stencils for Crafters Workshop, some self adhesive rhinestones, and some tissue tape from Tims line.

This is what the small Goddess die looks like as we are about to roll it through Spellbinders Grand Calibur machine. As we say here in New Jersey "perfect together".

In the center of the Goddess I've placed a "jewel"....these are the 6 different "Jewel Stones" dies from Julianna.

to see what the other amazing designers have done with Juliannas dies....

you must visit these fabulous sites

Tiffany Windsor www.cool2craft.com

Katie Hacker http://katiehacker.blogspot.com/

Linda Peterson http://lindapetersondesigns.com

Colleen Schaan    http://www.distinctivetouches.com/distinctive_touches/2012/01/im-a-goddess.html

Crafters Home https://www.facebook.com/pages/Crafters-Home/148004358590831  

Now, if you read my blog from yesterday you know there is a grand prize involved in the blog frenzy...

The Grand Prize has a retail value of over $1900 and includes the complete Spellbinders line of die cutting  and embossing templates released at the 2012 Winter CHA show, and a Spellbinders Grand Calibur® Die Cutting and Embossing Machine!

BUT.....BUT...BUT...

In order to enter the Spellbinders Blog Frenzy, you must visit Julianna Hudgins’ blog www.juliannaproductions.tumblr.com and enter by following the instructions. I welcome your comments, but they will not be considered a Blog Frenzy entry. That has to be done according to the rules on HER blog page.

 

Go to it fellow bloggers....it's gonna be so much fun !

 

My lips are - almost - sealed

Deep Breath....YOU ARE IN FOR SUCH A TREAT

my lips are only somewhat sealed !!

The one and only Julianna Hudgins came for a crafty sleepover. She arrived with so much stuff (3 trips from the car) that I thought I was opening a store.

we had the MOST fabulous time together

but then again, we always do. It's a huggie-kissie fest

Julianna is proudly announcing her new line of dies with SPELLBINDERS and it all starts with her GODDESS die and her jewels dies. They are going to make their big splash at CHA at the end of January.

So...between the gluten-free lunch

 

and the girl talk

we managed to get in the REAL crafting

this is the small Goddess die

and these are the jewels

and you're probably thinking...Hmm...and what did they make with them...

WELL.....

Here's are some of my teaser photos

and if you think I made these out of metal...

WRONG !!!!!

SPELLBINDERS is carrying this amazing black paper with a metallic core...just use a sanding block and the metallic finish is revealed.

WHOA HO !!!!!

NOW...HERE'S THE EXCITING PART....

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Thursday night at midnight the following FAAAAAHHHBULOUS designers will all be posting what THEY did with the dies

Tiffany Windsor www.cool2craft.com

Katie Hacker http://katiehacker.blogspot.com/

Linda Peterson http://lindapetersondesigns.com

Colleen Schaan    http://www.distinctivetouches.com/distinctive_touches/2012/01/im-a-goddess.html

Crafteres Home https://www.facebook.com/pages/Crafters-Home/148004358590831  

and me too.... suzeweinberg.typepad.com

 

I want you to come back here tomorrow night because then I'll be posting the INCREDDDDDDIBLE contest and rules for winning $1900 worth of SPELLBINDER goodies !!

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Evening came...the fashion goddesses went to sleep (I saw the bed at 3 AM!!)

in the morning craft goddess numero uno was a little frightening

but...she managed to pull  breakfast together

and by mid afternoon she was on her way home to get everything in order for the big reveal tomorrow night.

so...tomorrow I'll post my project, the names, again,of the designers participating and where to go on Juliannas blog to see the contest rules...

 

C'mon back now...y'hear!!

2012 begins...

on such a high note....

a little history...

My mother always told me that when I was born I came out singing...I believed her because my whole life has revolved around music. I started reading music and playing piano when I was 6 and singing all the time.

My most vivid memory was of 13 year old 'me' playing the part of Tuptim in my Junior High School production of "The King and I". It has been my favorite show of all time and always will be. I know every line of the script and every song backward and forward. I saw it on Broadway with Yul Brynner and, of course, have seen the movie a zillion times.

So...what did The Lenster do for New Years Eve....got us tickets at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia for....

well...don't ask!!!!!

I was "Whistling a Happy Tune" well into the night. It was, for me, the happiest New Years Eve EVER !!!

The Walnut Street Theatre, founded in 1809, is America's Oldest Theatre. It is also the Official State Theatre of Pennsylvania, and a National Historic Landmark.

One of the cast..he played the crown prince.

some of "the royal children'

THEN....

New Years Day....it has always been our tradition to go into New York City on that day.

The barricades were down

and, with some exceptions most of the confetti from the night before was cleaned up....

the streets were mobbed with people

and here I am in front of the building where the ball came down. The weather was a balmy 55 which made walking around a piece of cake..it was like spring !

then, we met up with Jennifer and Jared...got some 'New York nosh'

went to see the tree AGAIN (just saw it last week !)

looked at the great store windows....especially loved this at Anthropologie

and checked out the unusual buildings

investigated The Lego Store..this is Rockefeller Plaza all done with Legos..it is AMAZING !!!

saw the skaters... AGAIN

one of the facades at Rockefeller Plaza

caught another gorgeous view of St. Patricks Cathedral

found famous little 'people' on every street corner

watched the street artists

took the obligatory 'touristy pictures'

and THEN....drumroll please...

went to see The Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall

and some of it was in 3-D and it was just incredible

it was MAGNIFICENT

well...so far..1 day in and I say 2012 will be

SPECTACULAR !!!!!