Gotta Love Them Peeps!

PEEPS!!!!

The sugar coated marshmallow yummies come in all shapes, sizes and now flavors. I found some cocoa ones recently to take for a taste test at a getaway weekend not long ago. They were 'all right'.

Our local paper had a Peep diorama contest and this is one of the examples. Too cute! There was even one called "Caucus of the Peepsle" with Clinton and Obama signs, one entitled "Race for the Cure" with a hint of "Don't use a glue gun, it may seem nice at first, but it just makes your Peeps end up in a marshmallowy mess."

Love them!

Have a Peepalicious day!

Joan

Shoe Art

It's a Shoe-In
















Maybe my obsession with shoes isn't over. I was looking for something and ran across a lovely shoe stamp and found myself setting aside my chores for the day and indulging in my 1/2 hour of creativity for the day and it was marvelous!!!

Here's what I did ~
I stamped the shoe image on some tissue paper and cut it out.

I brushed some Aleene's® Instant Decoupage™ on the back of an acrylic rectangle, put my shoe in place, then brushed Instant Decoupage over the entire piece. While it was still wet, I sprinkled in some Tulip® Fashion Glitter™ for a touch of color. After it was dry, I turned it over and added some detailing with permanent pens.

I adhered some old looking paper to the back of the cardboard from the frame using Aleene's® Spray Adhesive™ (I just love the look of old stuff - can you tell?)

I glued the rectangle to a piece of old rust screen (love it!) with Aleene's® Original Tacky Glue,® then glued it to the frame backing. Four beads accented the corners.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I keep hearing a thunderstorm is coming.

Joan

Creative Kids

Brandon's Creative Challenge

My nephew, Brandon, wanted to share his creativity with you. He just turned six and is in kindergarten.

The picture is of his mom and him. Thanks for sharing, Brandon!

Miniatures

Miniature Houses...

This weekend, a friend called and 'candidly' asked me if I had the choice of china, fabric, gardening items, books and a couple more things what would I pick. Something about an 'online survey'. My first choice was gardening (bet, ya didn't know that about me!), second was the bookstore (because I buy a ton of books - did I say I read them ALL?) and third, the china I think because I had just bought my apothecary jars - and ya know if I'd been given the option of shoes...I would have been all over that one (a short-term need that is now out of my system).

I knew something was up, but little did I know it would be these miniatures, hand-detailed by a local miniature artist who just passed away.

Thank you, my friend, for the gifts.

Tonight, I brainstormed (and cried a little too) with a friend. She's a joy to be around, always upbeat and positive and VERY supportive. It is so helpful to have a person you can tell things to and they help you mold them and nurture them to the next step. It was awesome to have terrific weather and sit out by the pool and chat. It seemed like the evening frittered away in a matter of minutes, but we made plans for next time, so it's something to look forward to.

For my 1/2 hour of creative time tonight, I practiced my singing. With my allergies so bad last week, I didn't practice and I could sure tell yesterday at my lesson. A couple more weeks and I'll record the song I've been practicing and put on my blog.

Make time to craft today, even if it's a 'miniature' amount of time.
Joan

Orchids in Paris?

Paris? Not exactly...

A local orchid club had a show at the local mall. There was mistake #1 - the mall. I hadn't been shopping in ages and I knew I needed to buy some sandals since the weather has been in the 70's lately. I had success in finding sandals - too much success. Four pairs of shoes later I was back home and oh, the orchids were beautiful!

Paris - I don't know, but they had a little cafe scene set up in the display window outside of the show.





This orchid almost went from floor to ceiling - I've NEVER seen such a tall orchid - it's blooming on top!

Bread Dough

Aleene's Bread Dough Carnations

We had a discussion at work this week about what our favorite flower is because someone was trying to send a friend a bouquet. My favorite flower is the carnation - I love the ruffly edges and the spicy smell. So, in tribute to my favorite flower - here are step by step instructions on how to make that spicy cutie.

Look below for the Aleene's Bread Dough Recipe that made with just white bread and Aleene's Original Tacky Glue.

For each petal, make a round ball of dough the size of a pea. Flatten out. Make 2 petals the size of a nickel and 1 the size of a quarter.





Ruffle the edges of each petal, as if you were fluting the edge of a pie.





For center, cut a piece of wire about 3" long. Bend a small hook at one end of wire. Place a small dab of dough to cover hook



Place a small amount of Aleene's Original Tacky Glue on stem. Place one small petal around stem. Place on second small petal. Add large petal.






Make 4 leaves and place around base of carnation.




Place two leaves together on stem.

Let dry.

Wii isn't just for weee ones

I'm Addicted!!! to Wii that is!
Have you played this game? I was at my brother's house to celebrate my mom's birthday tonight and we bowled on the Wii game. My mom's 25 years older than me and she beat the heck out of me at bowling - you go Mom!!! Here's the avatar my 12 year old nephew made of me. It's amazing how realistic you can get!

The sunset put on a spectacular show for my mom's birthday tonight.




I'm so looking forward to the weekend - my plans just got changed, so I have loads of free time to try and get caught up and I'm bound and determined to get my greenware bowl ready to be fired next week...

Gift Card Gift Wrap

Gift Card Gift Wrap or my half hour of creativity for today...

My nephew's birthday is coming up and he LOVES books, so I got him a gift card from a bookstore and a book about archaeology (he wants to be a paleontologist).

I wanted to make the gift card special so, for my creative time today, I got the idea to copy an interesting page from the book I'm giving him to wrap the card. One of my color ink cartridges is out, so now my printer won't let me print except with black ink - well, it made the copy interesting.

Tomorrow night is my mom's monumental birthday, so we're having a bbq and hopefully a special gift I ordered her will come in the mail and that I remember to take a picture of it before I wrap it up. My fingers are crossed that it comes in.

I know your mind is whirling with creativity ideas - take some time (say 1/2 an hour) and explore.

Joan

Aleene's Bread Dough

Aleene's Bread Dough for Kids
Easter Bunny

Jackie got into the Craft Challenge with her kids, Sam (age 4) and Jessica (age 2). She used the Aleene's Tacky Glue Bread Dough Recipe (see a few posts below this for the recipe) to create fun dough art.

They just rolled a couple of balls of dough, squished them (Sam's words) made some ears and added a small ball of dough for the tail. They put their creation out in the sun to dry.

Jackie said they glued the ears and tail on after all the pieces dried with Aleene's Tacky Glue and then painted the bunny white and added his features with acrylic paint.

Jackie said they made a big batch of dough, so she'll be submitting more projects - she keeps the dough in a ziptop plastic bag in the fridge so it's ready when the kids are to play.

Thanks Jackie, Sam and Jessica!!!

Keep your projects come for the Craft Challenge for National Craft Month

Joan

Tea Projects

It was a 'Tea'riffic Weekend!!!

We crafted, we relaxed, we had tea, we saw deer...

We (my sister, my sister-in-law and I) celebrated my mom's monumental birthday this weekend and it was 'tea'riffic!!!

How is your crafting challenge coming? Be sure to send me images, videos, sketches, anything that shows the world what you have been working on so that I can post them on my blog.

jfee@duncanmail.com

More photos of the weekend are coming in from my sister, so I'll post them soon!

Go ahead, challenge yourself!

Joan

Craft Challenge

Craft Challenge Begins!!!

You love to be creative! And, if you're like me, sometimes (OK, most of the time) it's hard to carve out time for myself and be creative. So, I'm taking the CRAFT CHALLENGE and I invite you to join in the fun too!!!

~ Commit 1/2 hour every day during March (National Craft Month) and do something (ANYTHING) creative.

~ Send me your creation for the day - it can be a photo, drawing, video - any form you'd like to share your artwork. Send it to me at jfee@duncanmail.com and I'll post it on my blog. See the 'rules' to the left - it's all about having fun and being creative!

My friend, Pattiewack, loves to be creative in EVERY aspect of her life. Here's an envelope from a card she gave me a couple weeks ago - it didn't take her long, but I know she enjoyed creating it.

I can't wait to see what you come up with. I have some ideas already brewing for my projects. Go ahead, take the challenge.

Joan

Getaway Weekend

Mom's Birthday Girl's
Getaway Weekend!!!

We're down to hours now until the BIG weekend!!! I've just been cleaning out my car for our road trip that starts Friday afternoon. I have my craft projects packed and am waiting for the laundry to be done so I can pack up my bags.

Things are busy at work - during March you'll see over 30 brand new projects on the website http://www.duncancrafts.com/. I'm also working on the new Crafty Chica products and we're gearing up for another trade show - this time ceramics.

Since I won't be able to post a project on Saturday, March 1st (the first day of the Craft Challenge!!!!!), I'm posting my mother's present (a clear glass teapot and blooming teas). I wanted to make this gift look a little more special, so I glued a carnation (my mom's favorite flower) to the top of the packages with Aleene's Original Tacky Glue and then added little loops of some bright ribbon. It only took a few minutes, but it felt soooo good to go beyond ordinary and be creative.

Joan

Ceramic Shoe Plate

Shoes and more shoes...ceramics that is!

What a delightful class tonight - fun ladies, a great teacher (way to go Debi!) AND a beautiful project!!!

It was nice to relax and have fun painting this shoe on a ceramic plate - I especially liked adding dots of glaze as accents around the flowers. It's being fired later this week, so it'll be great to see my finished project.








Teri Lyn is busy painting her shoe. She works with Fred, a ceramics teacher who showed me the ceramics ropes almost 3 years ago.












Debi (our teacher) you're the best! Your patience and kind words are wonderful!













Here's my shoe just waiting to be fired - and there's my drink of choice, Starbucks Venti Black Iced Tea with two pumps of Classic - even my friend at work knows my drink order by heart.

Happy, happy day!

Joan

Ceramics Class

Ceramic Shoe

I'm headed off in a couple hours to a fun ceramics class where we get to paint this adorable shoe! I hear it's super easy! I can't wait!

After my class, it's time to start getting my crafting stuff together for our crafting weekend. We've booked ourselves pretty heavy into pampering appointments and some craft classes, so our free time will be limited, but we'll enjoy every minute of it, I'm sure! When we get the ladies of my family together, we have a fabulous time! The weather here is fantastic - it's going to be in the 70's and the sun is shining!!! (I talked to someone in Omaha last week and they were happy to have weather in the teens!)

Since I'll be away this weekend (no computer) I will post my challenge photos on Monday!!!

Saturday is March 1st, so let the Craft Challenge for National Craft Month begin!

Enjoy your day!
Joan

Aleene's Bread Dough Recipe

You asked for it, here it is!

Cyndi asked for the Aleene's Bread Dough Recipe, so I've posted it below. It's great for making flowers - anything you want to 'model' as a matter of fact. Speaking of flowers, for part of my Craft Challenge projects for March I'm going to make some bread dough flowers and I'll post them. They turn out fabulous!

Let me know if you have any other 'recipe' requests.

Joan

Bread Dough Recipe

Aleene's Bread Dough Recipe

Remove crust from white bread and tear into pieces. Place pieces in ziptop plastic bag.

Add 1 tablespoon of Aleene's Original Tacky Glue for each slice of bread. For larger batches, use 1/4 cup of Glue to 4 slice of bread.

Knead until smooth.

If after a few minutes the mixture is still sticky, add more small pieces of bread. If it is too dry or still, ad a few drops of Glue.

Place dough in another plastic bag. Knead dough until smooth and pliable.

To color dough, add paint a few drops at a time and mix or wait until dough is dry to paint.

OPTION:

Mix equal amounts of cornstarch and Aleene's Original Tacky Glue and follow the above procedure.

Taxes

Tax Time!!!

Tomorrow I have an appointment with my tax preparer, but I'm finding this year easier and less stressful. Last year I found a large wood box and decorated it and that's where I put my 2007 tax information as it came in - no more hunting. Now, all I am doing is sorting through it - wow! what a difference a tiny bit of crafting and having a place for all the info makes in my life.

As for last night - my friend and I had a fantastic evening - there's a funky restaurant that I have been frequenting lately just down from the theater where we saw Tuesdays with Morrie. I highly recommend seeing Tuesdays with Morrie - I don't think there was a dry eye in the place, but it is one of those thought provoking plays/movies/books that makes you question where you are at in your life...after the play we went to an inviting coffee shop and sat and talked about life until midnight. Thanks GB!

I practiced my singing this morning and I'm finding that I am having trouble memorizing the words - I gotta work on that!

Meanwhile, I'm getting ready for the big crafting weekend next weekend - we're doing lots and lots of crafting so I definitely have my camera on my list of things to take to show you all our creations come next Monday. We have pampering appointment scheduled, we're making lavender candles, we're having high tea, we're making teacup bird feeders - we're going to have so much fun!!!

It's not too late to make your life less stressful - create a box for your 2008 tax info...

Joan

Wonderful Indulgences

Decadence…

It has been a week of wonderful indulgences...last Saturday I had brunch with friends at a funky coffee shop where we sat and chatted for hours listening to a great guitarist/singer.

One evening I treated a friend (and myself) to a facial. My friend has had many trials in her life and it was time she got pampered. When our facials were done, I came out to find her propped up against the wall with a glow to her face and a smile that I hadn’t seen in a long time. The ladies in the shop were kind enough to ‘make me over’ because I was going out to dinner at a very nice restaurant with another friend. It was absolutely divine to catch up, have a wonderful dinner and listen to live music. I had the most fantastic dinner – there was some fancy name for it, but it boiled down to Lobster Ravioli in a light creamy tomato sauce with shrimp – divine!

The next night, I had dinner with Cheryl Ball – yes, THE Cheryl Ball from the Aleene’s Creative Living television show. Cheryl and I go back a long, long way, so we chat about the past, present and the future. We had the most wonderful comfort Italian food on a rainy, cold evening.

One evening I took the short drive to where my family lives to drop off my nephew’s birthday gift. I got him one share of Marvel Enterprises since he’s a huge Spiderman fan. It won’t mean a lot to a 6 year old, but hopefully someday it will. But what this started was something at work – I told a co-worker and she told another co-worker and now she told one of her sons she’d front the money for a share of stock if he researches and finds out about the stock to purchase. Fantastic!

Back to my evening…I drove my parents to my brother’s house to look at his latest remodel project – last I was there, there was a 6 foot hole in their family room floor. The floor now looks fabulous!!! As we got back to my parents house, I asked them if they knew the Irving Berlin song What Will I Do? And sure enough they did. So, I popped in my ‘training’ CD and we sat in their driveway and sang the song. I haven’t practiced my singing hardly this week at all –yikes!

I indulged in a wonderful massage late last night, came home, chilled and went to bed early.

It’s Saturday and I don’t have many things on my to do list. We’re expecting a huge storm later today, so I’m planning on staying in until I go out tonight with a friend to dinner and to see the play Tuesdays with Morrie.

Are you thinking about the Craft Challenge for March? I know I sure am! I’ve started my list of projects.

Make it a fantastically creative day!

Joan

President's Party

President’s Weekend Bash


Here’s what happens when two creative people get together for lunch…”So, are you bringing your fantastic chocolate dip to the party?” “Gee, I hadn’t thought about it.” That turned into a whole conversation on how last time I took the dip I did a strawberry topiary and how this time I had to tie it into the President’s Weekend theme – so within seconds, I was making a ‘tree’ to put cherries on (the old George Washington and the cherry tree story) and of course, we HAD to have a hatchet. All of this in a half hour lunch and we ate too and talked about the trade show!

So, after being busy Friday night and Saturday morning and not being able to come up with how to make a tree (Lindy suggested celery, but I just couldn’t visualize it!) I remembered this ‘tree’ I had that is supposed to hold photo charms. It’s just been sitting on my kitchen bar for ages and so it became the George Washington Cherry Tree. By the end of the evening people were decorating the tree with other items – we never did do the hatchet, but it really didn’t matter…

We had karaoke – yes, I’m hoarse today and I’m sure my voice teacher won’t be happy with me this afternoon. It was an exciting day for the hosts of the party – they set a wedding date!!! I’m sure Lauren will be sharing her wedding plans soon – I’ve seen the bridesmaid’s dresses and I hear from her California Mom’s that they are taking her dress shopping soon. Her fiancé, Alex, was one of the guys who got dressed up as Barbie at my birthday party last year – nice to see ya Alex in regular clothes.

Today is a day to sleep in, have my voice lessons, run some errands, veg and it’s nice to know I have another day off tomorrow!

My friend, Barb, and I signed up to create the cutest ceramic project in a couple of weeks. It’s a Mother’s Day project – an adorable shoe.

Oh, yes, the last few days I’ve been exploring my next vacation – still haven’t decided on a place, but I’m having dinner with a friend Wednesday and the restaurant serves Tuscan food…

The ladies in my family have been planning a weekend celebration for my mom’s monumental birthday in a couple weeks. We LOVE to get away, but it doesn’t happen as often as we’d like – my sister-in-law has two little guys at home that keep her busy. Somehow we got into a tea theme for the weekend – we’re having high tea on Saturday, we’re making teacup birdfeeders, we’re making lavender candles in teacups and my gift to my mom is a clear glass teapot with blooming tea – if you haven’t seen the blooming tea, it’s worth checking into – I saw a set at Target yesterday – the tea comes in little pods, you add hot water and they ‘bloom’ into masterpieces – they’re tasty too.

Make it a creative day!

Joan

Valentine's Day Gifts

Last Minute Valentine Gift

I have a friend who's been having a tough time with life lately, so I invited her for a facial next week. I thought I'd make her an invitation so the occasion would feel even more special - The Aleene's® Crystal Clear Tacky Spray™ makes quick work of layering papers, so it's perfect for last minute cards.

This idea is great for gift certificates too.

Happy Valentines Day!!!

It's been one fun moment after another today - we started out the day at work with a Snack Fest!!! Beautiful heart shaped cookies, of course, donuts and all kinds of goodies.

Then, I was off to visit my special friend, Barb, who's our receptionist to wish her a Happy Valentine's Day and that's when I saw it - Josh's car!!! There were balloons, window clings, a banner...and there's a package waiting for him at the front desk. Details Josh!

I found the denim candy box at my local drug store last night - I'm meeting a friend for lunch and this is just perfect. This morning I was looking at it and realized, I could have made the box...so, note for next year - save those old jeans and save the heart shaped boxes from this year. There are cute little pockets on the box - perfect for stuffing in little gifts or notes.

It's only a little after 9:00 a.m. and the day is shaping up for lots of fun!

Make it the best Valentine's Day EVER!!!

Joan