Time Flies....

Time flies when you are having fun! I have been so busy lately.

Video Clips
I have started adding short video clips to the club projects. That has been an adventure! I think I have it figured out. LOL The first clip I added lets everyone enjoy the sound from my TV in the background. Oh well...live and learn. I even added a short clip to YouTube.com of how a toy works. We made the toy in a Kid's Club project. I hope to add more short videos in the future to get people interested in the fun of polymer clay!!


Rubber Stamp Textures
I am experimenting with making texture stamps. They will be a fun addition to products if they work out like I plan. Stay tuned to the web site. I will announce them some time this summer.

Poly Clay Play Kid's Club
The Kid's Club is about to have it's first birthday. It has been a fun year...actually I should say a fun 24 kits since I have a subscription plan that delivers 2 kits per month. We have made jewelry, polymer clay tools, chalkboards and even a puppet theater to name a few projects. Whew....it has been fun and will continue! This is a great time to join! Give kids something to have fun learning this summer. The kit program starts with Kit One that teaches the basics and the projects continue to grow and expand on the basics, including canes and more.

Poly Clay Play Club
The Poly Clay Play original club is almost two years old. Wow...talk about time flying. I remember being excited about launching the club. Membership continues to grow and I am happy to say, I have many subscribers that have been with me since since the beginning so I feel like I am doing it right. When the club started, I offered 8 projects...it has grown to 12+ projects. We are making canes, recycling, having fun with photo frames, home decor and more...we cover just about anything that will withstand the heat! I love the versatility of polymer clay!!

Sales on products have grown and although I carry items mainly for my subscribers who receive a 20% discount, I am glad to offer great prices to everyone.

Cheer a Child Program
We have sent 75 cards so far. Kaitlyn is a great young lady and deserves a lot of credit for doing what she does to cheer the kids!! I would like to thank Girl Scout Troop 829 for sending all the fun cards!! I invite you to sit down and make a card to help cheer a child who has to go to the hospital. There are instructions on the site if you need a little direction. Take a look at all the cards that have been sent so far! As a thank you, I offer you a free download of my Polymer Clay Greeting Card Fun E-Book if you send at least 10 cards.

OK...back to work for me. I will try to come back here a little more often but I make no promises!

Happy Poly Clay Playing!!!!!
Trish

Valentine Wish!

I need your help to Cheer a Child! Make polymer clay embellished greeting cards to send to children going through treatments because of sickness or disease.

A friend of mine held a party last weekend and invited everyone to learn a little about polymer clay. I taught them the basics and they each made a card to donate to kids who need a smile. It was a lot of fun! I was able to spread the fun of "playing with clay" and help kids smile all in one afternoon. Everyone had a lot of fun and several have asked me to teach a class again. Who knows, this may be the start of the "Poly Clay Play Class" party plan...even more fun than a Tupperware Party!! LOL

Host a party of your own and send cards to help reach our goal by Valentine's Day!!!

Visit http://www.polyclayplay.com/LoveLetters and join the challenge!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to send me an email.

Merry Christmas!!

Hi all you happy clayers!

I have been playing around with a video program and here is my second attempt...oh...an you might like the projects too...

http://www.polyclayplay.com/Products/CalendarProject/CalendarProject.html

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!! and a Safe and Happy New Year!

If you like E-Books and you like Polymer Clay Projects, join either of the Poly Clay Play Clubs and get both my books free. Merry Christmas!

Happy Poly Clay Playing!
Trish

...the faster it goes!

Where did the year go? I cannot believe it is almost 2008. The old saying "The older you get, the faster it goes." keeps coming to mind. How true that is.

I am a little sad about Christmas this year. We don't have room to put up the tree and it would be a little sad this year anyway...we don't have much in the way of presents to put under it to give. Hopefully my hubby will get a response from one of the tons of job applications he has filled out.

On a really happy note, the club continues to grow, by mm instead of inches or feet or yards even but it is growing...and I must be doing something right...all my yearly subscribers keep signing on for another year. That is very exciting and I really appreciate all my subscribers. I love coming up with the projects and all that goes with that...designing and creating with clay, the photos, working with PhotoShop, the writing and even the publishing is fun.

I don't do a very good job of advertising...that has always been my downfall with any business I have done. The good news, there are others that are helping with their listings in blogs and such. I just added a new link to an arts and crafts lover who wrote wonderful things about Poly Clay Play. (Check out B Creative U listed in my links) Thank you to all who have gone before her too!

The ATC swap I hosted was fun. The pics of the exchangers ATC's are at Poly Clay Play...http://www.polyclayplay.com/challenge. Just click on ATC Swaps to see all the fun holiday cards everyone came up with.

Send me a note if you want to be involved in the Valentine Clay ATC Swap. I will add your name to the list that is growing. I am looking forward to making Valentine ATC's. I haven't come up with the details yet but will very soon after the holidays.

In June I started offering a "Challenge" every month. There haven't been many entries in the last few challenges but I am hoping it is because of all the busy holidays. You can see the current challenge at the same address as the ATC's along with all the fun entries in the past challenges.

My youngest daughter turned 23 yesterday. Once again...time flies....! She was just a tiny baby the day before, it seems! I made her a polymer clay beaded watch band. It was for a watch she has loved but wore out the band for. As usual, I made it too long for her skinny little wrist...I remember being that skinny...hmmm, not only do the years go by too fast, the pounds come on too fast too! LOL

I added a fun thing to Poly Clay Play...go check out Poly Grams!
http://www.polyclayplay.com/sendcard I found this neat program that lets me put e-cards there for you to send to your friends. Of course the pictures I am using are made from photos of polymer clay. Go to the bottom of the choices of cards and you can see the gingerbread guys I made as small gifts for friends.

They were great fun, all 40 of them...join the Poly Clay Play Club and you can get the instructions to make him (hint, hint, hint LOL). He even smells like cinnamon!
Go send a Poly Gram card to a friend! I will add new cards as I get them made. If you have a certain sentiment you would like to see there, let me know and I will see what I can come up with. I am not happy with the way the page is set up but it will get better when I have more time to fight with the html...oh I mean play with it! LOL

I don't know that I will have time to get back here to write more until 2008. I hope you all are going to have a very Merry Christmas and a very SAFE and Happy New Year!

Happy Poly Clay Playing!!
Trish
www.polyclayplay.com/Invitation

More things to keep me busy...hmmm I will have to give up sleeping!

1.) OK...Mark and I found our first Geocache. It took a couple of times to figure out our handheld GPS but 3rd time's the charm. You can read more about it at www.pcpgeo.com Click on Our Adventures.

2.) I am launching an ATC Swap...Artist Trading Card...it should be great fun! The club members get a tutorial of one to make and in the Freebie's there will be a free tutorial posted some time today for a very simple ATC...just to give you an idea of how to start if you are like I was and don't have a clue. www.polyclayplay.com/Free.htm There will also be a basic guide to ATC's there.

OK...I haven't had lunch and it is after 4 PM...I need a snack until dinner! LOL

Just wanted to share what's new.

Happy Poly Clay Playing!
Trish

What's New? Geocaching and ATC's

Since coming back from my retreat, I have been playing catch up! I am almost there! Wooo Whoooo!!

In the last few days, I have done research on a couple of topics. One being Geocaching as I mentioned in the last notes. I plan to make a tutorial on making your own Signature Item to be placed in caches. I made one of my own, although I already know that it will evolve. You can see it at www.pcpgeo.com. I would love to see other polymer clay Signature's and post them for everyone to see. If you or someone you know is interested in Geocaching, send them to the site! If you make your own clay Signature's, send me a photo and I will post it.

The other research I have done is a result of the suggestion of a newer club member to add a project for ATC's to the Club. I think it would be grand fun to host an ATC Swap. In case you don't know, ATC stands for Artist Trading Card. The rules are short...
1) They must be exchanged, NOT sold!
2) They must be 2 ½ X 3 ½ inch or 64 X 89 mm in size.

Type in Artist Trading Cards Polymer Clay in a search engine and you will get links to see lots of samples!

OK...enough gabbing, time to get back to work.

Don't forget to check out pcpgeo.com

Happy Poly Clay Playing,
Trish

Beach fun!

I had a great time and it was fun to see all the cousin's again and it is always great to see my sister. I only see the cousin's once a year and being the baby, it is fun to hear all the stories that I wasn't around to be a part of. I was born later and am young enough to be several of the cousin's daughter.

One of the cousins taught us about Geocaching. Wow, what fun that is and what a great way to get some exercise and visit fun places. If you haven't heard of it, go to www.geocaching.com. It is free to join. When you do, put in your zip code and I am sure you will find lots of caches close to you.

It also has my mind working on polymer clay...hmmmm can't think of what they are called in geo lingo...signature items (I think). The basic premise is...you use a handheld GPS receiver (global positioning satellite) much like the map ones in cars to find the coordinates of the "find". One type is a box with trinkets to trade. You take something (such as a keychain) and you leave something in it's place. There is a log for you to sign to say that you have been there. Read more about it. There is so much more! The cache's are all over the world and if you like treasure hunting, or scavenger hunting, you will probably like this. Once you have a gps (you can get them for less than $100) the cost is only gas to get there and time and exercise to find the fun.

Once I have a few finds under my belt, I will probably add a project for signature items and maybe have a link on my site to compare with other geocachers. Let me know if you have done this! I would love to learn more and find other polymer clayers that are having fun with it.

Back to the beach...every year we all bring little gifts for each other. This year, mine was a "shell purse" for hunting shells. I think it was a big hit and came in very handy on the beach. I wrote the project for the Poly Clay Play Kid's Club. It was made by decorating a plastic tube, shaped like a pringles can but plastic. Drink mixes come in them. Then I decorated it with a beach theme with a cord handle and a lid.

About Color...I just read about a neat place if you want to get a color scheme to match a photo. Go to http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/colors.php It is a neat place and may help if you have a brain freeze about what colors to use! LOL

OK...I really should be working since the weekend put me way behind.

Happy Poly Clay Playing!
Trish