Gorgeous Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving was gorgeous in my neck of the woods. After we'd gobbled down the turkey we were crafting away! I even got my nephews, Chris and Nathan, to work on their own Christmas presents - boy, does Aunt Joan know how to work it or what?

Chris is an engineer with Boeing and Nathan is a college student looking at a degree in architecture. It was interesting to see the difference in their creations - we did ceramics projects where you added dish soap to the glaze, blew bubbles, dipped the bisque piece in the bubbles and the colored bubbles remain. Chris just put a few random bubbles on his and Nathan covered his mug with them. You can see my mom in the picture workin' the bubbles. They're going in the kiln tomorrow, so I'll show you some pictures soon. Here are the how-to Bubble technique instructions

On Friday, my mom and I went to Morro Bay and enjoyed the awesome weather! We had fish and chips at an outside restaurant along the ocean and then were off to Cambria, a great place to find unique gifts.

Let me know what crafty things you did over the weekend.

Joan

Thanksgiving

Whooosh!!! Can it be Thanksgiving already? We've had unseasonably warm and beautiful weather here, so it kind of snuck up on me.

I'm picking up a premade dinner at a local restaurant, picking up my parents and we're heading to the coast for the day to meet up with my sister and her family.

It's been requested that I bring clay. Last time we all got together we sat for hours making beautiful ceramic leaves. We rolled out the clay and pressed leaves in it. We used hollyhock, liquid amber and just plain ol' weeds. I had them fired and then we glazed them and oh my! they turned out awesome! My mom was so impressed she's going to adhere them to a canvas and hang them. Hard telling what we'll make this time!

The last couple years I've sent out Fall cards instead of Christmas cards. This year I printed a photo I'd taken on my vacation and glued them to a blank card using Aleene's Memory Glue.

Speaking of photos from my vacation, I had a VERY pleasant surprise this week when a lady I work with saw some enlargements I had in my office and BOUGHT 3 of them. So, does that mean I can call myself a professional photographer? Only time will tell.

Have an awesome turkey day!
Joan

Video Taping and a Photoshoot!

It's been an exciting week! I was photographed with my decoupage projects for an ad that will be featured in a craft trade magazine in January. I love decoupage - it's so easy and the results are fantastic! Here's how I created these floral projects:

• I photocopied the picture of a flower I took on my vacation last month.
• Cut it out.
• I applied Aleene's Instant Decoupage on my base piece and on the back of the photocopy. I placed the photocopy on the base piece and brushed Instant Decoupage it.
• I wanted some dimension, so I attached silk leaves to the pieces by dipping the end of the leaf in the Instant Decoupage and placed it along the stems.
• I wanted to add a touch of sparkle, so I attached Tulip Glam-It-Up! Iron-On Crystals in the flower centers and along the stems.

I love being able to show off the photos from my vacation instead of sticking them in a photo album!

Video Taping

I had so much fun this afternoon taping a Bread Dough How-To Video featuring Aleene's Original Tacky Glue with Alexis, a designer I work with. We laughed so hard watching our play back. It needs to be edited (just a little) and will be at http://www.duncancrafts.com/ under the Education section. I'll let you know when it's available.

If you haven't tried bread dough in a while, Alexis shows some new ways to mix the dough and also includes how to make a dough with cornstarch.

Upward and onward...

Joan

WOW!!!
Time flies when you're having fun!

Seems like it was just Friday a few minutes ago! My mom, sister-in-law and I loaded up my car and headed to our WOW (Women Only Weekend!).

We got sidetracked on our way there because I got a last minute assignment on Friday afternoon to make a project using Aleene's Instant Decoupage and Tulip Iron-On Crystals - my two favorite products! We stopped at a craft store on our way over and found some pieces to use for my projects. We had a great time getting the after Halloween bargains and finding some holiday gifts.

We always do marathon crafting and this weekend was no exception - bedtime is whenever we feel like it and for some of us that's into the wee hours of the morning.
Saturday was to be our PJ Day where we stay in our jammies all day and be creative. We got sidetracked AGAIN! when we happened by a local Hallmark store on Friday night and noticed they were having their Holiday Open House at 9 the next morning. We hesitantly got out of our jammies and into street clothes to be there at 9. Well, that took longer than we expected (but we got some great gifts) and then we had to hit the women's clothing store at the local outlet - there went another hour! Finally, back in our jammies at noon, we set to crafting!

My mom worked on binding a quilt she's worked on for quite awhile and SHE FINISHED IT! Awesome job Mom! She also worked on a fun advent calendar for my nephews.

Nicki, my sister-in-law, being a scrapbooker sorted photos (it was fun seeing old pictures of my brother and his family), cut and sewed felt gingerbread people for the kid's to decorate at an upcoming Christmas party (I need to remember to get her some Tulip 3D Fashion Paint to use at the party!) She also started a cross-stitch baby blanket for her son.

My sister, Nancy, worked on a very cute snowman door hanging. She finished a 3D pumpkin with beautiful scenes on it.

And me. I worked on my decoupage and crystal project - I used photocopies of pictures from my vacation last month to decoupage on to a vase, side table and canvas. I added the beautiful crystals for that special touch. My mind was whirling with ideas for future projects too! I love decoupage because it's so fast and the results are fabulous!

Still more unpacking to do, so I'd better get busy!

Have a great week!
Joan

A Scary, Scary Halloween

We had a fun Halloween day at work, dressing up as our new line of ceramic Fantasy Divas. Do you see a resemblance between me (yes, a blonde!) and Skye, my ceramic counterpart?

Our group (the Creative Department) did the Diva Thing and went all out including some motorized wings! The two Divas on the right in the group picture are guys - oh, my! What we'd do for a free lunch!

I'm off for a girl's getaway weekend - we call them WOW's - Women Only Weekend!!! You guessed it - no guys, lots of food, lots of crafting and lots of fun - I'll let you in on that after the weekend. We have declared Saturday as Pajama Day - that's where we don't get out of our jammies all day. We usually have a Finished Wall - that's where we put/hang all the projects we finish during the weekend - some projects take more than a weekend to finish so we have projects that have come to WOW's for years.

Happy crafting,
Joan