I Highly Recommend..

I am a self taught crafter. I use books and online tutorials. I live in the middle of no-where and do not have access to lots of workshops and classes. I am not financially able to travel to locations where classes ARE available. So I have been buying how-to books for over 10 years. This means I have bought the good, the bad, and the ugly. :)
I want to share the GOOD books with you and save you the trouble of trial & error shopping. These are my must-haves...my absolute favorites. I looove these books!
If you buy one of these books from Amazon.com I will get a small commission. Just FYI. So thank you, in advance if you make a purchase through one of these links.

I have 2 books that tie for my absolute favorite polymer clay books. This is one of them. The title says it all...this book is FUN. All the projects are beautifully done but also funky and clever. Clear instructions with lots of pictures. Kim takes the 'ordinary' techniques and turns them into extraordinary projects for any skill level.

This is the other book that ties for favorite. It should be named The Polymer Clay Bible. Judy put together a masterpiece that blends beautiful pictures with a wealth of historical and instructional information. You can spend hours looking at all the contributing artists' "eye candy". Or you can spend days reading and absorbing not only the artistic background of polymer clay, but following the easy-to-understand project lessons.

I had never bent a single wire before I bought this book. I was scared to make even the simplest looped eyepin for earrings. Mark takes you through every single step from the very beginning. He starts by explaining the wire and tools clearly, and shows you clear photos (of the right and wrong) every step of the way. I can not praise this book enough. If you want to learn basic to intermediate wire working, buy this book!

Like the book above, I can not recommend this book enough to aspiring seed beaders. No joke, everything you need to know is in this book. Carol gives large, clear diagrams of all the seed beading stitches and patterns. There is plenty of fabulous eye candy to inspire you as well.

Saying thanks

I have always liked to send some sort of thank you gift with purchases. The gift always varies depending on the person and the situation. The gift usually coordinates with the purchase or is a few extra of what they purchased. But more times than not I don't have extras. So I've been playing around with the idea of a standard thank you gift have on hand. And I came up with this:





They're magnets! They are 1 inch square. They are really just simpler versions of my flower art bead pendants. The petals are solid colors instead of cane slices. The centers are beautiful, tiny vintage rhinestones from my extremely talented pal Scott. (Psst! Look here for more sparklies.) The words are an image transfer using tshirt transfer paper. As you can see from the picture of the back side, my transfers are not always perfectly straight across. LOL!

I've already mailed out a few of these in different colors. Personally...I love them! But then, I adore the flower pendants I make as well. I'm biased. :) Anyway, I'm super pleased that I now have a handmade thank you gift to send to each customer. It makes me smile.

How do you feel about thank you extras? Do you send something with your packages? Do you expect a little something extra as a buyer?

OT personal note: Monday we were told we might close on the house today (Friday). But there have been a few typical closing snags. (Snags with our house?!? No way!!) Today the word is we'll close by Wednesday. We're almost there! Wheee!!

Last of the skulls and a new video

Happy Thursday to you. :)

I have uploaded the last of my little skull beads at Etsy.

Because of the move, there will be no more before Halloween. Which totally kills a whole list of color scheme ideas I had! So please go check them out if you are in the want or need for adorable little handmade skull beads. :)

Also, I've uploaded a new clay video. This one covers the how-to of making shiny polymer clay beads. I demonstrate wet sanding, buffing, and applying Future as a clear finish.
I originally planned to upload the video to both Live Video and YouTube, but only promoting the Live Video one b/c I really prefer that website. But wouldn't you know it....Live Video is doing site upgrades right now and my video is stuck in the que. But the YouTube version is fully functional. LOL! Irony! :)
Anyway, here are the two links: On YouTube - Live Video.

And on a personal note: We are in the home stretch of the house closing process. We will get an official date any day now. Yay!! Now....I'm off to pack some boxes! :)

Edited to add: The Live Video version is live now. The link above will take you there.
Also, only 2 of those 4 sets of skulls are still available. That's leaves 4 sets total. So pop on over there if you like. :)