SuzeBlogz

Across the miles

Night flights suck, but, they do get you to your destination nice and early when you're crossing the ocean. And now I am firmly planted in England. My dad was from Stoke on Trent so I am half English. But, even though the body half of me is here...the brain half is still asleep on the plane !

I arrived to rain...yuck. No sunlight to soak up.

  I was greeted by my hostess and old friend DAWN BIBBY. We go back many years. Dawn has been the resident craft expert on the UK QVC for 15 years and has a beautiful personal style especially with card making and unusual techniques. And she has a stunning house.

Dawn also has an AMAZING DVD called STAMPS, STICKERS AND STENCILS which I popped into my computer today and watched...and get this...I learned something new to do with my own UTEE. All I can say is...get it..you'll love it.

Dawn also has 3 favorite family members

Lucy is a Westie (West highland Terrier)

 

Arnie, a Long haired German Shepherd
 

Charlie is a Tibetan Terrier

...my guest room done all African style...reminds me of my favorite place, South Africa.

I immediately got comfy and logged into my AOL mail and was greeted by a lovely English accent saying "You Have E- Mail"...I forgot for a minute that I wasn't home !!!

aaahhh......the kitchen

view from the front door

then...a delicious Italian dinner out with Dawn & her lifelong friend Jerry

so far, Day 1, fantastic...tomorrow classes.

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Tip for today...check out this blog from Linda...I thought it was very interesting.

A valentine weekend

This was a lovely weekend

Jen and Jared came to visit and she and I went to the MAC cosmetics store for the FREE spring makeovers

FREE (ha ha) had both Jen and I handing over our credit cards for colors we just couldn't live without !

Then, The Lenster made it home from New Orleans toting mardi gras beads and T shirts from the winning Super Ball team, The Saints

Jen had fun posing on top of the snow piles in front of the house

and today we all went to a Valentine party luncheon thrown by one of the Lenster's customers held at a lovely banquet hall.

There was dinner, dancing, prizes, face painting, balloon fun, cotton candy and desserts galore.

Face painting stuff

Fantastic fun .........and now...

I am OFF to the airport on the way to the U.K. for 10 days for the STITCHES show. The flight deprts at 10 PM and I'll arrive tomorrow around 11 AM UK time and probably a little sleep deprived.

First I'll be doing classes at Dawn Bibby's Design Studio, then classes at Craftrange, then a class for store owners at Stitches, then demoing for Personal Impressions, then an appearance on QVC and then home...very busy schedule.

In the meantime...todays tips.....

 I discovered an unusual site called Crafty Steals

Here's how it works:

Crafty Steals sells one hot steal per day until it is gone.Everything is discounted up to 90% off retail price so they sell out fast. Act fast or you will miss out, once an item is gone, it's gone.

Okay....well..that's quite a concept. This is a site you probably need to visit every day !

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Now..over on my friend Julia Andrus' EcoGreen Crafts site we have directions for making this way cool steampunk bird on a pedestal that she showed at her booth at CHA

and here's a wonderful blog CRAFTSIDE, (that I think you should visit often)..this time  showing the how to's on making this steampunk necklace. And, become a fan of their on Facebook too.

NOT exactly Winter Wonderland

so, yesterday I showed you the car

then, just a few hours later I was asking myself...WHAT CAR??

This morning they plowed the street and the driveways....but, with The Lenster still in New Orleans for work I had to shovel all that snow off my car myself...especially if I wanted to get out of the house.

Which I did !

Tim called to chat me up while I was shoveling...he thought the idea of me bundled up like an eskimo and shoveling was hysterical and wished there was a picture to accompany what he could only imagine this looked like.....sorry...no pictures...just these..what the plows left...

 

This is right in front of my house.


But...some of it IS pretty

SOME CHIT CHAT

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Catch Diva Craft Lounge talk radio. This weeks guest is the multi talented Sarah Hodsdon

You might recall I mentioned that Creative Imaginations has taken on the Luminarte line...Radiant Pearls, Radiant Rain and Twinkling H2O's. I'm happy for my friend Leslie the original owner and designer. You might enjoy their blog.

also exciting....JHB has a line of Steampunk buttons.

 

I've plugged these photoshop tutorials before. They come in my email and I always like them. Thought you might too. Todays lesson was on Luminosity Adjustments

and do jump over and visit my buddies at TWISTED PAPERS. They reminded me that they have lots of ALICE images all taken from original turn of the century black & white drawings as well as colored artwork. These guys are so great and they follow the craft world so closely that they found a cool blog from Japan that shows a talented artist using my Melting Pot. I was so excited !

They also have some lovely free downloadable images and some great Valentine offerings

and, lastly...ALTERED ARTS MAGAZINE will be going digital this Spring. What a great idea !

What a curious plan!

Alice fever has hit.

The stores here are gearing up for the March release of Tim Burtons Alice in Wonderland

I can't wait..I'm a big Tim Burton fan, and believe me, if those shirts (below) weren't geared to fit a size 0 person with no hips & no boobs, I'd own one !

so, instead, I bought one of their 'trinkets' (Drink Me)  and re-worked it into another 'trendy' piece of neckware. Maybe I'll wear it when the movie opens ! I'll certainly wear it for ART IS in October because the theme is all about Alice.

 

I poured Clear UTEE over some Alice images I found online.
 

This little charm came with the 'Drink Me' piece . How perfect !
 
what isn't perfect is our weather...holy crap....I took this picture yesterday of one of my planters in the backyard

the same planter today....is...where? Look to the left of the bench. We already had almost 2 feet...now more.

it'll take days to get my car out

and, it's STILL coming down....

Guess that means more jewelry !

Hail, hail, the gangs all here

Dropped by my pals at Ranger today and found two old friends, Kim (bottom L) and Arlene (bottom R) helping them out making hundreds of samples for the A.C. Moore stores. You girls rock !

Patti (top R) was helping me with some card layouts using UTEE on chipboard

and Debbie (top L) was testing product...and here's something we discovered

Because chipboard has so much air in it, when you place it in a pot of melted UTEE (as I described yesterday) and lift it out you get a lot of air bubbles on the chip.

BUT....if you coat it first using Claudines Multi Matte Medium it seals it and that won't happen

Just let the Multi-Medium dry thoroughly, then dip.

Thanks girlfriends for a great morning

L-R, Bonnie, Kim, Patti, Arlene, Michelle and Deb

 

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and, speaking of cards....beautiful Tanya and Dolores from STAMPERS INK in Shawnee, Kansas sent me a stamp and a hand made card they knew would make me smile...to go with my Kewpie from ART IS.....YOU

I'll be back to Stampers Ink in the fall....stay tuned. Kewpie will still be naked !

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and now...I am enjoying my new "SCHTICK"

I emailed a hi-rez photo of my Ranger Designer Challenge to the folks at www.schtickers.com and they made a laptop skin for my 15" MacBook Pro. I swear...when you look at it, it is so sharp and dimensional it almost looks like the real UTEE piece.

I'm loving it!

What a great day!

Tomorrow...we expect another blizzard !

CRAP !!!!

De-Icing

It will take a lot of sun and warmer temps before any of this goes away

and..... they say we may have more this week. YUCK !

Did I mention I hate the cold and the snow and all the incapacitating it brings.

So...staying in...playing with UTEE

melting several of the BRIGHTZ together. Placing chipboard on the surface. Because there is so much air in the chipboard if you simply let it float, then lift it out

you will get lots of pitted holes on the chipboard, which you can fill in with GLITZ Stickles and BEADAZZLES

if you submerge the chipboard so the UTEE coats both sides you get a smooth surface that you can stamp into

then, dust with Perfect Pearls if you like

and add GLITZ STICKLES and Beadazzles

I also have quite a collection of bottlecaps from left over jars of Beadazzles. I use a small punch, place an image in the cap, sprinkle in a few Beadazzles and pour clear UTEE over it. Just add a pin back and they make great pins.

UTEE in a bottlecap is also a great jewelry embellishment. I printed out the famous image from Les Miz, placed it in the bottle cap, sprinkled some clear beads around it, poured UTEE over it.

then,  I turned it into a really trendy necklace

I even used the same image for a card. Place a cookie cutter over the image (be sure to 'grease' the cutter with some clear embossing ink inside)

then, pour clear UTEE into the cutter, let it set up & get hard. Then,  tear the UTEE from the paper. The image stays with the UTEE.

Back to keeping busy...The Lenster is off to New Orleans again....sure hope they de-iced the plane !

Socked in

The RULE is

 WHEN IT LOOKS LIKE THIS...stay home !

they just began plowing us out  (7 pm) and the snow just stopped ! 18 inches when The Lenster took this picture earlier today.... and counting !

Yesterday I photographed the teeny weeny little trace of snow left from the last storm. See the car wheel next to it....I mean, nothing really....it had all melted basically.

then overnight the weather monster came and socked us in

You can't even find the cars ! It's just a good day to stay put. I'm in my pajamas all day...it's kinda cool !

 

but...all is not in vane....I discovered MOO

I know ...I know...I'm late to the game...

many of you already know about MOO, but Lisa Kettell turned me on and I spent a few hours finding and downloading photos of both my UTEE and Wax work plus some photoshop pieces I created and sending them off to MOO (online) to be made into their fabulous little business trading cards.

Last week it was Vista print..... a few days ago it was Picnik......now it's MOO...

I'm in deep kimchee !!!!

let's see...what can we make today

got your computer mouse in hand ? 

The Butterfly Project is a project in remembrance of the 1, 500,000 children that died in the Holocaust and it is still ongoing. In an effort to remember them, Holocaust Museum Houston is collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies.

The butterflies will eventually comprise a breath-taking exhibition, currently scheduled for Spring 2013, for all to remember. The Museum has already collected an estimated 400,000 butterflies. Now's your chance...CREATE A BUTTERFLY.

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Click over to Lisa Kettells Blog and watch her make the most darling project using CLAUDINE HELLMUTHS' STICKY BACK CANVAS

and speaking of Caudine...go right to her BLOG and she'll tell you how to get acrylic paint out of your clothes.

not to be outdone....

over there on RANGERS Home page you can watch a whole bunch of the new CHA videos we shot at the show. Here's a link to my Beeswax video and here's the link to Ranger's entire video page.

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today I stopped at my local Chicos (what a surprise !). I was impressed with the sales gals' denim jacket. Her name is Patty...I asked her about it...she told me she took an old jacket and SHE sewed on all the ribbons and trims herself....WOW. The first person to come to my mind was Carmi...I can see her doing that.

well...we're off to Temple and just waiting for the massive expected snowfall to come. Tomorrow we'll be digging out !

excited

Oh Silly Me....

I can get so excited over the smallest, simplest nonsense.

Kecia Frazee-Deveney shared a site with me called PICNIK

well..that did it for me....

I created this collage of images in that program.

 
Now..this is NOT for you to copy & download because some of these may have copyright issues. I have no plans to sell them or use them for money. This was just my illustration of what the program can do.

I got the images by doing what I mentioned yesterday...a GOOGLE image SEARCH. I asked for Black & White faces. I got tons. I picked these.

I spent the $25 to join the upgraded version of Picnik so I could do more than what the free version offered. That's Kecias' fault. I'll just send her my bill!!!

I uploaded my chosen pictures into the program and picked a 9 grid.

It's way easy. In fact...somewhat addictive. Here's another grid variation.

it also allows you to do some quirky things, like overlap pictures

(L-R top)

Darian & (Dad) Lee, (Marc's son)Michael

(L-R Bottom) (Marc's daughter) Alyssa, Jared & (mom) Jennifer 

But remember...some images you find in these searches may still be copyrighted. There are many programs around that charge for great copyright free photos...if you plan to sell anything double check

The Lenster and I sought out a "Whole Foods" store tonight. There isn't one that close to where we live.

a tad pricey, but...so scrumptious to look at. Worth the drive.

I really loved their tote bags....you know, it's all the rage now..fill them with groceries or just carry them because they are so 'in' !

and, great, fun wine bottles too

then...we went out for sushi dinner...is there any other food?

In conclusion...just another lovely day

forecast tomorrow.....TONS & TONS of S-N-O-W !

Those 'No Blog' Days

Yup...there actually are those days when you're just not in the mood to blog.

I've set this standard for myself where I blog so much that even I have come to expect I'll have something to write about every single day....not happening !

Woke up this morning - again - to the white stuff. Hate the white stuff. Want the white stuff to go away forever.

had a lovely group of 12 women over to the house this morning from the Brandeis Womens Club. It was a Committee meeting to plan the next few months lectures, seminars, projects and study groups. They are a terrific group of bright women and I've done some UTEE workshops for them. Next up I'm going to do 2 Calligraphy workshops for them.

by the time they left, the snow was melted. More on the way.

Lunch at the sushi restaurant...the owners were so excited that they just got in a fresh batch of fish that morning...they were cleaning them...I immediately whip out my intrusive little camera as if this is going to be THE picture of the year !

then, I head over to Home Depot. I was still on my funnel search (no luck, altho plenty online), but I do find this unfinished banister head which I determine I must buy as it has a hole I can pour UTEE in to....

 

(it's real use )

as yet, I have no real thoughts about what to do with it...but..I know in my heart it is destined to be an art thing.

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and...speaking of an ART THING.

Art Opera will be here before you know it.

and Lisa Kettell  is doing 6 giveaways just for posting comments on the blog. What have you got to lose. Like Nada !

She has also started a Yahoo group and you should all consider joining.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/artopera/

also, artist Diana Ptaszynski is hosting an Art Bead/Charm Swap for Art Opera...check it out.

http://www.vintagebluestudio.com

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now...allow me to use this spot to remind you of some other good things...

Very Cool leather CUFF bracelets on this etsy site

 

Get some really great MINI MOO artistic business cards HERE

 

See how artist Debbie Tlach made her fabulous RANGER DESIGNER CHALLENGE Popcorn & Film board using UTEE. Debbies' mind goes where no designer has gone before !

 

  get the BEST DVD out there for learning about the glories of beeswax...and tell Daniella I sent you !

 

remember too...if you are looking to expand a little beyond just crafting with beeswax and want to go into the more transparent and high end wax look then the right stuff to use is called 'medium' and the BEST place to get it is from Fanne at Clairvoyant Encaustics. Worth every penny for her great hand made blend of wax and resin.

I'm a pretty computer savvy gal and I did NOT even know that when you do a GOOGLE search you have a choice of web, video or image. How did I not know this ???

I learned it because I love to read Jessica Wesoleks Cre8it Art blog and she mentioned it.

so...give it  try..I did an image search and I typed in 1950's pinup girls and found tons....heaps....millions !

  fashion...

 
well...hot damn...I LOVE this feature.

don't want you to forget about my friend Susan Williamsons wonderful book

and lastly.......

If you live in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut area and are interested in Book Arts and Lettering workshops

Check out their site

they also have a really cool thing called

DROP-INS

What is a Drop-in?  A drop-in is an activity that requires no registration.  Sometimes life is so hectic you can’t plan too far ahead.  A drop-in allows you the flexibility to attend at the last minute.  Sometimes supplies are required, sometimes they are supplied.  It’s a relaxed learning atmosphere where in a short period of time you can experience a new activity. It is expected that participants have the knowledge of basic bookbinding skills: cutting board, covering boards, finding grain and simple sewing.

OK...that's it from here...the Lenster is due home from New Orleans any minute...yipee !