Featured Friday-Melanie's Creations

This week we have a super Featured Friday artist, Melanie. I noticed her polymer clay creations on the Tip Junkie forum and took note of the fine detailed work she does!

1.Melanie,tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Melanie and I am from Buffalo, NY. I have been married for 11 years and I am stay at home mother of 2 children, a son age 8 and a daughter age 2. I have loved doing anything artistic since I can remember. I love to paint, draw, scrapbook, and to do many other crafty projects. Last year I painted prints to go with my friend's nursery bedding for a baby shower gift. My favorite items to make are my whimsical creations out of polymer clay.


A golden snowflake.

2. What inspires you?
My family & friends are a big inspiration. Every time there is a new milestone I seem to create something new. I love creating things for weddings, birthdays, showers & holidays. Customers also inspire me. I love when someone sends me an e-mail asking me to make something special for them.


Daisy pendant.

3.What advice would you give to a beginner?
Enjoy yourself. Don't go out and buy tons of tools. Your hands are your best tool. So are toothpicks, string and exacto knives.


I love this posing sock monkey!

4. What is your favorite medium or tool to work with?
I mainly use Sculpey and Fimo polymer clay. My favorite tools are a needle tool I bought forever ago, my exacto knife and my pasta machine.


Girl Scout ornament.

5. How do you find time to create?
Mmmmmm....I would love extra time in the day. Last Christmas I spent many evenings creating. Now that my daughter is getting a bit older I can work with my clay while she is awake. It's funny because she wants to play with "playdoh" like mommy.

6. Where do you spend most of your time creating?
I wish I had a craft room, but I do not. I work on my creations on my dining room table.


Sweet!

7.What got you started?
I have been making my creations out of polymer clay for about 15 years. I started making ornaments out of salt dough as a child with my mother. I started working with polymer clay because it never dries and there are so many wonderful colors. In the beginning I made Christmas ornaments for family and friends. I even made daisy magnets for my wedding favors 11 years ago.


Horse tags.

8.How would you describe your style?
Style...personally I am a t-shirt and velour sweats type of person. My husband calls it my uniform. Have to be comfy when you are chasing after a toddler...LOL. My creative style is whimsical & customizable. I love fun creations that I can customize & personalize for people.


Birthday party jewelry favors.

9.What do you enjoy most about creating?
I find it relaxing. I also love giving my creations as gifts.

10.Where can we see more of your work?

my shop: http://melaniescrafts.etsy.com
my blog: http://melaniescrafts.blogspot.com
my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniescrafts

Thank you, thank you Melanie!!!!

Dry Spell

Writer's Block. Missing my mojo. I am going through a scrapbooking dry spell! Things have been rough in Craftyland. So I actually sat down and did two digi pages. Are you proud? I am!
Here they are...

I am so thankful for the love in my life!

My little sparkler!!

So tell me your secret--how do you get your creative juices flowing?
Even if you are not a crafter/artist/scrapbooker--how do you get motivated??
Tips please!
More good news! I have a Featured Friday artist for my blog this Friday! Yay!!! You'll love her.

Mmmmm!!!

We had fruit pizza for dessert the other day and it was so yummy! I was super surprised at how easy it was to make! I got the recipe from Family Fun magazine.

Here's the recipe:

Fruit Pizza!

Crust:
1 pound purchased pizza dough or make your own (*We bought the refrigerated Pillsbury kind in the can)
1 Tablespoon melted butter
2 Tablespoons sugar

Frosting:
1 8 oz. package cream cheese at room temp.
¼ c. sugar
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest, optional
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:
Assorted sliced fruit

1. Heat the oven to 400°.

2. Spread the dough in an ungreased 12-inch pizza pan. Brush on the butter and sprinkle on the 2 tablespoons of sugar. Bake the crust until it's golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool the crust on a wire rack.

3. In a medium-size bowl, combine the frosting ingredients with a rubber spatula. Stir until smooth.

4. Spread the frosting over the cooled crust. Gently press in the fruit. Serves 12.


They have other amazing recipes like this Watermelon Smoothie!

And this Apple Frog!
Too cute.

Lego Purgatory

Welcome to Lego Purgatory. The place moms fear.
I am on day two, maybe day 3--I keep losing count, of sorting Legos.

I keep sorting but they are multiplying, I swear!

Green Goblin is giving me the eye, by the way.

Save us!

Whew. Relief. The Joker's still in jail.

The two on the bottom remind me of Billy Mays.

Rest in peace. I really will miss that guy.
And finally, the piece de resistance...

my son is unsorting them as I sort.
I did not mean to sound so frustrated in my last post. I do think everyone gave me great advice and I know for sure I need to work on being consistent. Like I fall into that trap of giving 100 warnings about time out instead of having him go to time out. I am making it my goal to be better about it. :) Oh, and I totally think my son rocks--wild nudity, public tantrums, and all.
So who feels up to a giveaway???

(thanks Andy Samberg).

AllAmericanDirect.com is giving away a LG 50" 1080p LCD HDTV from now until July 31st.
Giveaway link
Good luck readers!

Shhh!!! It's a Secret!!!

I hope you had an awesome 4th of July weekend!!! Here in Oklahoma City we got rained out so our fireworks are this upcoming weekend.
My son totally lived up to name of this blog...we were at my friend Melisa's 4th of July BBQ. First, he wanted no one on the trampoline--only him. Finally, got him to stop yelling about that. Then he decided when it was swim time to start yelling, "I DON'T LIKEY IT!!!" because get this--he wanted to go down the slide nude. We left. We always leave her events hastily and I feel so bad for always running out. You see, two years ago he stuck his face in her daughter's cake and took a bite out of it! I could just say, "Oh, he's a boy!" but seriously that does not excuse his behavior! I cried the whole long drive home. He does not act up at home, only when lots of eyes are upon him. Any mothering advice would be appreciated!
It was not all a bad day though. We did spend lots of family time together. He enjoyed the fireworks on Friday evening (we had gone to another town). And even after the tantrums, we have love. :)













Okay, so I was reading one of my favorite scrapbooking sites, 2Peas (love the drama and the paper hoarding), and I was reading about how a lot of the moms were not very happy about their young kiddos being on Facebook, for obvious safety reasons.
Threads here:

Facebook Safety 1

Facebook Safety 2

Facebook Safety 3

Facebook Safety 4

So I was uber-happy when I found out about My Secret Circle!!!
It is a safe networking tool for young girls (and hopefully they will have one for boys,soon!).
Here is my review of it:
My Secret Circle is a safe, secure and fun social networking world for girls. This great product contains an instruction manual and an access key that is small and can easily be fitted onto a key chain. My Secret Circle blocks access to and from the outside online world. Your child will only have interaction with real-life friends who also have My Secret Circle and have been physically given a friend charm code. This feature will give any parent a peace mind knowing that their child is only having interaction with selected friends in a safe friendly environment minus the outside online world.
My Secret Circle is for girls ages 8 and up (sorry boys there isn't one for you yet). :) BUT Harrison, my 4 year old son, even played with it and found it exciting!
It is PC and Mac compatible. It works with Windows 2000/XP/Vista. My secret circle is easy to use and is full of lots of interactive things for girls to do. There is no cumbersome software!! (Yay!) The features are very user-friendly and require little or no time to master. (Double yay!!)


Everything in one small package...

The best thing about My Secret Circle there are no subscriptions, advertisements, or online strangers. All you have to do is plug and play. The intital set-up requires users to choose a password. Once the password is chosen it is important that the password is written down in the instruction manual or somewhere safe; because if the password is lost there is no way to retrieve it.


Designing a diva...this was so much fun! I liked customizing my profile.


More options!



Once the program is loaded there is lots for a girl to do. On the Option page you can customize your profile, design a diva that represents you online, or change the theme of the background. There are lots of options to choose from when designing you diva: such as skin tone, hair length and color, clothes, background and accessories.


You can add your own photos!!!

Other fun things to do include keeping a journal, uploading photos, play games, pass-a-note, instant message or even chat.


Games! This one is Puzzle Party.


Instant messaging...


Making a diary entry!

I really liked all the upbeat music and I thought the graphics were good,too!

Only your friends will be able to see your profile and other information, except for your private journal entries. Friends are also easy to remove if needed. This a great tool for girls and their parents--it cannot be repeated enough of how safe and secure this network is for your child. My husband Ben and I highly recommend it!!!!:) For reals.

I am not trying to sell you on anything. I just understand as a parent if your kid wants to go online to talk to their friends and the concerns that go with it! So their web site is
http://www.mysecretcircle.com/
if you want to learn more about it.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy 4th of July weekend!!! Be safe! Have fun!!
Quotes to express the way I feel about our great country~

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.
~Abraham Lincoln


The cement of this union is the heart-blood of every American. ~Thomas Jefferson

In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, Brave, Hated, and Scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, For then it costs nothing to be a Patriot.
~Mark Twain

And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
~Lee Greenwood

No paint for you!!!!

Sorry the paint offer has run out of the limited quantities. :(
How about an update on the chaos that is my house right now??
These were the competing paint colors for the living room...

I actually wanted the one on the right but accidentally got the one on the left (I had sent Ben with the order). It all turned out okay because the living room is painted and I LOVE it!!!
The bathroom is 99% done--just waiting to go buy a piece of trim, stain it, poly it and hang it before I show you the finished pic of our bathroom. The bathroom tile is done and the living room tile is getting grout tomorrow. Now I have to find a big rug!
Kitchen--uggghhhh. No tile in their yet (still in their tidy l'il boxes), and now I have decided Ben needs to build a large pantry in one corner.
Not the best pic but this is tp holder (so glam, I know)...

Well, it's on the wall now. We have matching hooks for the towels.

Bathroom lights! Also, already up at this point.

A corner of the bathroom mirror.

The vanity before it was installed.
Our bathroom is the nicest place in the house now. Is that weird??
So the temp here in Oklahoma has been in the 100s. I am not a warm weather lady. I sweat a lot. I know women are supposed to glisten but I s-w-ea-t. Remember Chris Farley? Its like that but I don't live in a van down by the river.
So I have been keeping cool by wearing tank tops, jumping in the pool when its unbearable, complaining, drinking a zillion Sonic slushes and eating these:



Happy Belated Birthday to my Aunt Judy!!! Her bday was June 23rd but like a heel I sent her a card a few days later. (Blush).
Oh, and Ben and I had our 6th anniversary on June 28th.

I did remember that but no gifts, only hugs and kisses were exchanged this year. (Especially since I quit my job last week and we are working on the house.)
So the 4th is on its way!!! I painted my nails blue with white tips. They are distracting me right now as I type!
Check out this lady's nails:

(Photo Link)
This is my inspiration for next year!
This is our 4th agenda:
-Parade in our town
-BBQ at Melisa's
-Come home and swim
-Fireworks
-Camping in the backyard and smore making!

What are you doing to celebrate? I would love to hear...

No joke! No joke!

ETA: Paint offer has expired. :(

If you go to

https://www.glidden.com/promotions/free-paint-giveaway.do

Pick a color online and they will send you a free quart. The offer is good through July 2 or while supplies last. I just picked eggshell for me and candy apple red for my mom. This is not a scam. It is through Glidden and Home Depot!!!!