The Creative Edge: You've GOTTA have heart!!!!Especially if you are...

The Creative Edge: You've GOTTA have heart!!!!

Especially if you are...: You've GOTTA have heart!!!! Especially if you are a Polymer Clay Artist and a member of the Smooshers Guild on Artfire. Don't believe me...

Blog Hop from Hopes and Dreams

Blu and His Christmas Present

 

Since we wandered up into the mountains this last spring, we have found ourselves in the middle of a college town with lots of active dog owners.

With hundreds of hiking trails and no less than ten full scale dog parks, there are dogs everywhere. Walking downtown finds dogs enjoying the sunshine lying on the payment tied to a parking meter, while their owners are in having a beer or a sandwich. Everyone loves the dogs and the dogs seem to love everyone. We have yet to run into an anti-social dog.

The dogs seem to come in every shape and color, with a propensity for the retrievers and the border collies. These dogs, both purebred and mixed, are found running about at the parks and joyfully chasing balls and sticks.

It did not take us long to discover that dogs went everywhere we did. The trails were filled with happy wagging tails and curious sniffs. If you do not like dogs, you will not like hiking in Bozeman, nor will you enjoy a stroll downtown.

Keeping this in mind, these happy and healthy dogs are cared for by community conscience dog owners. The park district keeps poop bag dispensers handy on all the trails and parks. These dispensers are a wonderful convenience for dog owners and keep the parks tidy. Even the parks that are 37 acres are kept picked up.

Who do you think carries that poop around?

You guessed it. Me.

I have seen a few industrious dog owners who have tied the used plastic bags to their dog’s collars and made them carry them, but there is something just not quite dignified about a beautiful red Irish setter with a sweeping tail and beautiful feathered feet carrying a plastic bag on its collar. It may be easy, but it is not dignified.

As an active member of Artfire, the online venue for handcrafted items and artists, I enjoy perusing many of the other artists’ shops for the sheer pleasure of appreciating other people’s handicrafts. That is where I discovered the perfect solution to my pooch’s poop bag problem.

Rachael Barman of Blue Shed Crafts has created the cutest poop bag I have ever seen. She and I are in a couple of the promotion guilds on the site and I have quite regularly featured her poop bags in a collection of items that I have enjoyed.

After featuring this bag for so many different collections, as Christmas rolled around and I was thinking of the upcoming hiking season, I decided that I was going to get Blu a bag.

Last year, we had one hike that was over 11 miles and that is a very long time to carry poop, no matter how tightly the bag is tied. Not to mention the fact, that I was using a walking stick and I was carrying my camera while traipsing around on a mountain side.

Thoughts like this made the decision for me. I will continue to carry Blu’s poop, but it is not going to be in little plastic bags knotted and tucked between my fingers.

Here is where we are carrying Blu’s poop from now on.

Yes, Woof, I heart my dog Scoop that Poop!

Here is the deal with this bag. It is almost a shame to put poop in it, it is so nice.

Rachael has machine knitted this bag and it is a nice tight knit and professionally created. The inside of the bag is lined with a plastic liner that is solidly sewn in; the liner fills the complete bag and is attached both at the top and along the sides for a solid and secure connection.

The top of the bag has a drawstring, which makes it able to create a pouch by pulling the strings. Rachael sells one that has a clip on it to attach it to your belt loop or your dog’s collar, but since I create jewelry, I already have clips and will attach this to my backpack clamps.

The bag is washable and should be line dried and not put in the dryer.

She has a couple different styles of bags and several colors.

If you love your pooping puppy, you would do yourself a favor and be fashionable by swinging a bag of poop from your belt loop, backpack or your puppy’s collar.

Tell Rachael that Blu sent you :)

 

Technorati Tags: blue shed crafts,blue morning expressions,poop bag,taking your dog hiking,scoop the poop,knitted bag for dogs,dog attire,artfire

Blog Hop from Handmade

New Polymer Clay Canes and Jewelry for 2012

Volume 9 Issue 1, January, 2012

What's New in January?

Winter Morning Canes and Beads—Since I finished the Winter inspired beads and canes, I used them to create six pieces of jewelry. I could not decide if I was going to sell the beads individually as focal beads, or if I was going to sell them in sets. The more that I held them in my hands, the more I realized that I wanted to create jewelry from them. So, I did just that. I created three necklaces and three matching bracelets, but decided to sell them separately.

Here are the beads, and here are the pieces of jewelry from these beads.

New Canes and Beads—You can find all the new beads and canes on my website www.bluemorningexpressions.com or at Artfire under Blue Morning Expressions. Both places have a full selection of my most current canes and both places have them on sale at 35% off.

 Happy New Year! It is our wish that you and your family will be safe, happy, healthy and prosperous in the New Year.

 As always, thank you for all your support and emails.

www.bluemorningexpressions.com

Until next month,

Julie & Blu

   

 

Things to Look Forward To:

New Products:

Earrings—These are all created from my bead sets, I used both floral rounds, heart swirl lentils, and full size 20mm pillow beads to create 30 new sets of earrings. Each set is under $4—I wanted to create an affordable set of earrings for gifts that can be easily purchased in groups. They can be converted to pierced look earrings if you like.

Technorati Tags: blue morning expressions,polymer clay beads for sale,polymer clay jewelry,necklaces,earrings,beaded jewelry,fimo necklace,fimo earrings

Winter Jewelry from Winter Canes

You’ve seen the canes, you’ve seen the beads – now see the jewelry.

I sat and looked at these beads for a long time before I decided what I wanted to do with them. I thought about selling them separately as focal beads for wire wrapping, I thought about just putting together the usual eight bead pillow set and letting it go at that. Then, I thought about creating jewelry myself with them.

I rarely get a chance to sit down and just bead, but I decided to take a day and just make necklaces and bracelets from these beads. I had a lot of matching glass and pearl beads in blues and greens and I thought I might just make sets of my own. I might even keep them for myself.

I have them in my Artfire shop and I may still take them for my own; I particularly like the cat’s eye bracelet :)

 

 

 

All photos link to the store items!

I had a lot of fun putting these together and hope you enjoy the pretty colors :)

Happy Holidays

Julie and Blu

Bead Type Word Search Puzzle

Bead Types Word Search by Julie L. Cleveland

Print and play this word search puzzle based on the types of beads that I enjoy working with. You might find your favorite in this list as well.

Download the pdf puzzle here

 

 

E D C B U W J D B Y F A C E T E D H G R C P R Q V X E P Q O

B E T V Z X M T D N W U O E J J I L D A D S Z Z H I K G S S

U H N S A W O F G Q F H O T E T W O K T O N E E L X L S R P

C S E W V J A J C E R E K G Q O A K X T R X F A N X A D E E

R I R W I F U V L V Y C X M R R Q T E I L B R H H C P E C C

R L A S O A I E W N O Z N P T W U M T F F D T X I E S T T K

B O P R D N O M A I D D G N I D I L S M E Z M P S P Y U A L

P P S B Y T Y B Z F N V E E D Z Z E Q H S A T I N N C L N E

D T N W A G K F V S T C R E S U N Q T U C P P X S D T F G D

C E A P L C Q G F V U V N Q A V R A Y D U U O O B E F M U A

Y R R K C Z L U A L I I U T N E C S E D I R I B W R T Q L Z

L I T Y J B G J S G L H N I W W R E D N I C A H I O M Y A P

I F D L B F O N L R I W S T S N D A B A C R V R V L D K R Y

N Q Y A C X A O V A L K Y T O G E Y I E O D Z G L O C N C W

D P D R O R U B S B U W J E D O B Y H Q N G R C P C R Q I V

R X E A T P I R I S C Q V F Z P X M U T D O N W U I O E J W

I J R L I L D A D S R Z Z N H A I E B A S E B M E T A L K G

C S E U A W O F G Q A F R O M L H O S H E L L T E L K E X L

A R T G B W V J A T C J O C I E C E R E K G Q O A U K X T R

L Y S N I X F N L T K X N L X S P R E C I O U S R M E T A L

W H U A C I F A U E L S D E E C T N E C S E L R A E P V L V

Y P L C O X S M O G E S E A D E R R Q T E I L B H H P R S O

A R I E N W E P E G N A L R O N Z N P W U M T F F T X E L G

C O S B E R A S R U D L D M Z T M C H A T O Y A N C Y S I O

R P P Y A Q I P B N T G O P I N C H E D Y O V A L B Z F A S

Y N V U U O Z Z E S E N O T S Q S U O I C E R P I M E S R S

S N Q E T D I A M O N D W C D T W G K F V S T I C K S T T A

T S S R U N Q U C P P X S T P C Q G F V Q A V R Y D U U I M

A O O O D R U K B P L A S T I C F M A K Z C Z E C H L U V E

L T A U T Q Z Y J B G J H N W W H I M Y P D L B F O S N D R

 

Bead Types Word Search - 58 Words to find

 

 

BASE METAL                         BONE                              

CLAY                               CRYSTAL                           

GLASS                              PLASTIC                           

PRECIOUS METAL                     SEMIPRECIOUS STONES               

SHELL                              WOOD                              

CZECH                              OPAQUE                            

CLEAR                              TRANSPARENT                       

TRANSLUCENT                        IRIDESCENT                        

OPALESCENT                         PEARLESCENT                       

VITRAIL                            GIVRE                             

IRIS                               LUSTER                            

SATIN                              CHATOYANCY                        

GOSSAMER                           PICASSO                           

CINDER                             SPECKLED                          

PORPHYR                            TORTOISE                          

CONFETTI                           TWO TONE                          

MULTICOLORED                       MIXED                             

SWIRL                              LINED                             

CRACKLE                            FACETED                           

WINDOW                             CATHEDRAL                         

CYLINDRICAL                        ATLAS                             

STICK                              RECTANGULAR                       

ANGULAR                            CUBE                              

SQUARE                             DIAMOND                           

BAROQUE                            PINCHED OVAL                      

NUGGET                             RONDEL                            

FLUTED                             OVAL                              

BICONE                             SLIDING DIAMOND                   

FIRE POLISHED                      DRUK   

Spoiler Alert – Solution to follow!

                          

Bead Types Word Search - Solution

 

 

E D                 F A C E T E D                         O

B E T                                                   S S

U H N                         T W O   T O N E   L     S R P

C S E                                         A     A D E E

  I R                                       R     C   E C C

  L A                       T             D     I     T T K

  O P   D N O M A I D   G N I D I L S   E     P       U A L

  P S   Y               E E D         H S A T I N     L N E

    N   A             C R E         T             D   F G D

C E A   L           U V N         A               E     U  

Y R R   C         L I I   T N E C S E D I R I B W R     L  

L I T           S G L     I     R E D N I C A     O     A  

I F           N L R I W S T               R       L D   R  

N           A O V A L     T           E O         O   N    

D     R   R               E   O       Q N         C     I  

R     A T   I R I S C     F   P     U     O       I       W

I   R L             R     N   A   E B A S E B M E T A L    

C   E U             A   R O M L     S H E L L     L        

A R T G B         T C   O C I E                   U        

L Y S N I       L T K   N L X S P R E C I O U S   M E T A L

  H U A C     A   E L S D E E C T N E C S E L R A E P      

  P L   O   S   O G E S E A D E                            

  R     N   E P E G   A L R   N                         L G

C O     E R A S   U   L D     T   C H A T O Y A N C Y   I O

R P     A Q I     N   G O P I N C H E D   O V A L       A S

Y     U U O       S E N O T S   S U O I C E R P I M E S R S

S   Q E T D I A M O N D W                 S T I C K     T A

T S   R                                                 I M

A   O   D R U K   P L A S T I C           C Z E C H     V E

L T                                                       R

Technorati Tags: bead puzzle,puzzle,word search,word search puzzle,blue morning expressions