Polymer Clay and Paper Airplanes

Before storytime, let me say this, I just read Jen's blog. She's making Fimo Rocks - how fun! And speaking of ROCKS.... THAT WAS ONE ROCKIN STORM we had last night here in Southern Missouri. The storms started around 6pm. It was literally one tornado warning after another until 5am this morning. Needless to say, none of us got any sleep. We got thru the storm without any major damage - though I don't have internet (Thank goodness for McDonalds WIFI). Our neighbors weren't so fortunate though, several trees down, roofs blown off and barns off their foundations. Last year was the Ice Storm and this year I think the highlight of January will be this storm. We got a bagillion inches of rain last night too. But that's good, ponds are all full which makes for some great spring fishing....

But onto the story....

The creative life has given me such great memories and the opportunties to meet great people from all over the world. Let me share this small world story.

The story goes way back to 1978 when I was living in Springfield, Illinois. I was in the 7th grade. My art teacher's name was Mr. Biggs. He actually lived just down the street from me, that's how I remember his name. Mr. Biggs was not very keen on paper airplanes. There was a guy in class that loved to taunt Mr. Biggs by making paper airplanes and flying them. He always got in trouble, but I dont think the trouble he got into outweighed the enjoyment that he got from taunting the teacher.

So one day, this kid flew the paper airplane and it nearly hit Mr. Biggs in the face. Mr. Bigg's then shared a story of another art teacher that he knew who had a kid in her class the flew a paper airplane across the room. It hit a kid in the eye so hard that it cut his eye. (OUCH!) Makes your skin jump doesn't it - kinda like nails going down a chalk board.

This story stuck with me - grossed me out and to this day, I'm scared to death of paper airplanes. Now jump to the year 2000. Im working at my shop on "THE PARK" when a lady browsed by my stand. She wasn't keenly interested in what I had for sale. I think she was more interested in the log ride that I was next to. But anyways, I noticed that she had a beautiful pair of earrings on. They looked like polymer clay. So, I commented on them and asked about them. Usually in the course of the conversation, I would ask "Where are you from?" She told me she was from Springfield, Illinois. After telling her that I used to live there, I shared with her the above story.

Guess what's next????... I promise I am not making this up. SHE was the teacher, who was a friend of Mr. Biggs, who had the student who was injured by the paper airplane. Small world...and full circle 23 years later! Who would have thought that polymer clay and paper airplanes would bring this story together?

Yes, definately one of the best perks of the job is meeting interesting people. Everyone has a story to share and if you listen closely - you might just find something about them that you have in common.

Do you have stories to share? Write me!

Sparkles - How this Snowman Changed One Man's Day...

The story begins on a fall day during the Fall Festival of Craftsmanship at Silver Dollar City a few years ago.

If you've ever had the chance to visit Silver Dollar City, you'll quickly notice that everyone is dressed in period costume like that from Little House on The Prarie minus the prarie bonnets . There are lots of street shows with hillbillies fuedin' over just about anything. All in all it is a fun day and the scenery in which "the city" sits is beautiful - lots of opportunities for Kodak moments.

On this particular winter day, it seemed that everyone on the park was grumpy. I don't know why, but we would have days like that on park...days were everyone was happy, or spendy....or grumpy....or everyone you asked was from Texas...you get the picture, but anyways the theme for this day was Grumpy.

I stood in front of my little crafty shack demonstrating how to make clay characters when a husband and wife walked up and began watching. I quickly sensed that she was NOT having a good day because her hubby was NOT wanting to be there. In order to give her a little reprieve, I decided to engage this man in a conversation.

Now, being that we're dressed in costume, we tend to get away with a little bit more than the average person. So I said to the man with a big smile on my face.." You know...we just don't allow grumpies on the park...so you're gonna have to cheer up.." I gave him a wink...and amazingly he was still standing there... I continued to show the small crowd how to make the snowman, all the while harrassing this poor man - but I assure you it was all in fun, and he was now playing the game. When I finished, I sprinkled sparkling glitter onto the snowman and looked up and said..."Okay...since you've been such a good sport, I would like for you to give this snowman a name and that will be the name for this style of snowman forever". He replied in a gruff voice..."SPARKLES"! And I said..."SPARKLES it is.." And to that, Sparkles went into the oven, the wife showed up and the two left and went on about their day.

But, the story doesn't end there. The next day, first thing in the morning, I see this man again come running down what we call "heartattack hill" towards my stand. His wife though not running as fast was behind him. They came up to me. In still a gruff...but not so grumpy voice....he said" Okay...so I thought about this dang snowman all night long...even dreamed about him....so now...I guess I'll have to buy him!" He laughed and so did I. Then his wife leaned over and said..."Honey, I don't know what you said to him yesterday, but after he left your stand, we just had the best day and the best time!"

Wow...did that make my day!!!!! And that is how SPARKLES saved the day of this sweet vacationing couple. Even though I don't know their name or where they're from, they have certainly left a mark in my memory!

Sparkles was similar to the Snowman above, except he had legs and feet and ice skates. He looked like he had just slipped on some ice and taken a fall but was laughing about it.

Here's a tip: To make the hat look like it is "on" the head, rather than sitting "on top" of the head, simply slice part of the head flat. Gives it a more realistic look.

Pen Pals or Puppy Pals - Pen sets made from Polymer Clay

Many of you might know me as the Pen Lady on the Carol Duvall Show. Some of my most popular segments featured whimsical characters - with a twist....I turned them into functional pen and pen holder sets.


The idea came about one day while I was working at my shop at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. It's a theme park set back in time to the 1800's. We all had to dress in period style clothing, which meant, yes....I wore the granny dresses was in costume everyday (wasn't so bad really). Our job was to show how to make "hand made" things. I saw thousands and thousands of people literally every day. (Lots of stories there!)


My shop was located on the porch of the Apple Butter shop. There I made whimsical characters and my most popular sports characters. I tried to have a variety of things that were in the $5 and under category so that kids could take home a cute souvenier of their day at "the city". Among these items, I sold decorated ink pens. I would make cute little canes and decorate the pens with smiley faces, lady bugs, sunflowers and who knows what else. Sometimes it was just a bunch of colors of clay that I twisted together and called them Tye Dye...


I was in the process of defining my "look" I guess you might say with my characters. I really wanted to add expression to my characters instead of them looking like a lifeless bump on a log. In order to do this, I studied caracature and cartooning books. I was always fascinated with caracture artists because they could draw so fast, make someone look at least somewhat like themselves with exaggerated features and bring out their funny side. I noticed that cartooning and caracatures always exaggerated at least one feature of the person or whatever it was they were drawing. I applied that...well...to the ink pens...so when I turned the ink pen sideways...guess what??? My mind saw a looooooooonng really loooonnnngggg body dachshund. I quickly threw together a prototype, then tweeked it a little and VIOLA.... a dachshund...with a "bum" of a cap! I couldnt make them fast enough. One led to another...and to another and to another. The park guests absolutely loved them. So I expanded my doggie styles and made a variety of breeds.


Eventually, I started putting together more caracature characters (say that 3 times...) so they evolved from decorated pens, to doggie pens sideways...well to all those pen sets I put in the POLYPENS book. WHo knew these would be on the Carol Duvall show too???


And that - my clay friends - is the inside story of how the Darling Dachshund pens were inspired and created or as Paul Harvey says..." And now you know?....The REST OF THE STORY --- GoodDAY!"

Scrapbooking on the Wall - LITERALLY! (The saga of a teenage bedroom)

One of my biggest hang up's with scrapbooking is that you spend so much time, money and effort on a page and then you hide it in an album. When I create something, I want to see it.

I was thoroughly intrigued when the book "Scrapbooking on the Wall" was published by Design Originals. The canvas layouts were beautiful and really looked like a work of art.

Mariah has been begging me for about 3 years now to re-do her bedroom into a teen-agery theme. Originally she wanted a beach theme. With soft muted beach colors. We used the colors from a scrapbooking layout that we found in one of the magazines. She really liked the Beachy theme and the colors were perfect. With that layout in hand, we went to WalMart and matched all the colors.

Her room originally was a khaki color and the closet door area you see in the picture was a hunter green gingham wallpaper - way out dated - and so not...in her words...."teenagery". We painted the room a color called Water Dance. Originally we intended on painting the walls by the closet a creamy white with the doors and the inset a sandy color.....which we did....and which we didnt like. We walked into the room and BOOM...the color hit you ...it was NOT this bright at WalMart!!! I kept telling myself..." It will all calm down once we get it all decorated" ...But to me in my creative mind...I just couldnt stop until it was right.

Day 2: We didn't want to spend any more money...so...we thought..."how can we fix this creatively without any cost?" The answer was on the next page of the scrapbooking magazine... The page had been whitewashed. So.... we dry brushed the creamy white over some of the areas on the wall....ahhhh...now it's looking better..... But the inset, we still didnt like. So we decided to go to the much darker grungy color that you see now . While rubbing the glaze over the sand colored inset to make it darker, I happened to go a little crazy and get some on the front area by the closet, so I wiped it off......that was it! Grunge the whole thing!!! So after I finished the inset, I rubbed a brown grunge glaze over the entire surface of the walls in the bedroom. (Oh my aching arms!) Perfect!! It knocked the color down to just the right tone...and we did it with products that we already had.

Day 3: We made another trip to Walmart and while in the scrapbooking section, Mariah noticed some rubber stamps by Autumn leaves which featured flourish designs . She didn't want to spend any more money...nor did I.....so we came home without them. The scrapbook page that now became our inspiration also had flourishes on it. (LIGHTBULB FLASH!!!) I said, "Mariah, we can design our own flourishes and paint them on the wall". That's what we did, we penciled in the design and used a foam stamp for the flower. She loved it. Then we decopauged the dream wooden letters and hung them over the window. Alas...Scrapbooking the wall was finished!!!! I wish the photo would show up the colors better, this is so much better in person when you see the whole thing.

So the room is still a work in progress. It's gone from a beach theme to more of a Friends theme. She intends on making scrapbooking canvases of her friends and her teenage years to hang on the wall and closet doors. A sheer curtain will go up over the window (haven't gotten that far yet) and the trunk will turn into a window seat - we'll cover the bottom pillows and create matching ones all around the window. She has a beautiful view from her room that over looks our little acreage. She loves her room and I think it has become a real retreat for her - so personally hers!

I would love for it to be "completely" finished....but then what would we do with our free time???

You gotta kiss alot-a toads....

I don't know why, but this little guy makes me laugh. Maybe it's because whenever I look at him I think about the time that Dana and I went froggin and came back home with several gi-normous bull frogs.

I held one up as if I was going to kiss it - he snapped my picture and I scrapped it - "You gotta kiss alotta toads....before you meet that handsome prince". The opposite page was a picture of him with a little crown on our wedding day... (now what did I do with those scrapbook pages?) It's those memories that inspire me to create.

Expression is especially important when you create. I am a real stickler about expression. I'll even do a face over and over again just to get it right. This froggie was made using my Six Simple Shape Technique. Once you master the technique, then sculpting miniature characters like these becomes a breeze.

All my character books - with the exception of Sculpey Way show you how to create using this very simple technique. You can check them out on the side bar ----------->

And about those toads....well fortunately for me, I did find my handsome prince and I didnt have to kiss any real toads!