Red Hot PCAGOE Treasury

My friend Linda Riopel of NKDesigns created a new PCAGOE team Etsy treasury today and was kind enough to include my Tribal Red Necklace, along with some "Red Hot" PCAGOE team members.



Thank you, Linda. What a gorgeous treasury, and you know red is my favorite color!

Gemstones and Flowers Associated With Your Birth Month

I am so embarrassed that I have not been blogging regularly. I miss it and hope I am finally able to be here every day again.

I've been writing several tutorials on my image transfer technique and projects which can be created using it. I'm very excited that the first one is about to debut, but Lordy it has taken an age to finish! I admire authors more than ever now. I have discovered I have even less patience than my Momma has always accused me of not having. LOL Writing is a lot harder than I thought it would be. And frankly, while writing, my creative muse seems to have flown the coop. The clay pieces I attemped over the last month have largely been relegated to the Butt Ugly Jar.

I finally got a piece finished of which I was not too ashamed to enter in PCAGOE's February challenge, which is so exciting. The challenge, that is, not my entry.

The theme of February's challenge is "Gemstones and Flowers Associated With Your Birth Month".

I'm a June baby. Born on the very first day of the month, which is also appropriately enough, the opening day of Hurricane season in the U.S. My traditional birthstone is the Alexandrite, which I have never cared for, and my modern birthstone is the Pearl. The flower associated with June birthdays is the Rose.

This is what I came up with. The pendant is an image transfer of a Vintage Valentine with Pink and Lavender Roses and the rose pink beads are also polymer clay, which I stamped with a floral stamp and treated with eggshell acrylic paint to bring out the stamp design. I added Alexandrite Czech glass cathedral beads, brass spacer beads, and mother-of-pearl oval gems, a little twist on my traditional birthstone.

We have some really diverse entries this month. I'm in awe of the imaginations and creativity displayed by the other entries. I hope you'll visit www.pcagoe.com between Feb. 1 and Feb. 7 and vote for your top three favorite entries. Five lucky voters will also win a beautiful polymer clay prize made by one of our talented members.



Back to those tutorials.

Congratulations to the January Challenge Winners!

Congratulations to the winners of the January PCAGOE Butterflies Challenge!

The winners voted on by the public are:

1st Place - Berit of ClayCenter
2nd Place - Susan of PhoenixRose
3rd Place - Angela of PolymerClayCreations

The winners voted on by PCAGOE Members are:

1st Place - Susan of PhoenixRose
2nd Place - TIE Berit of ClayCenter and Jeanette of ClayHappy
3rd Place - TIE Linda of NKDesigns and Lynda of SCDiva

Thank you to everyone who voted! Please join us in February for our "Gemstones and Flowers Associated With Your Birth Month" challenge!

PCAGOE January Challenge - Butterflies!

I can't believe I haven't blogged in two whole weeks! I have been so busy with custom orders and writing a couple of tutorials for online publication (stay tuned for details!) and of course, holiday stuff, that I just haven't found time lately; but I had to come and blog about our PCAGOE team January challenge, the theme of which is "Butterflies".

Now I love Fall and Winter, even though in the deep South of the USA we hardly ever see any snow. At most we get sleet or hail a few times during hurricane season, which is not a good thing. The temperature rarely dips below 40 degrees in the Winter here, although we had a couple of 25-26 degree nights back in late November/early December. But with the challenge theme being butterflies, it naturally got me thinking about Spring and Summer and I was very excited to see what my fellow PCAGOE team members would come up with for this challenge. I was not disappointed. All the entries are beautiful and bring Spring and Summer a little closer.

And, we're announcing some great new changes beginning with the January challenge! For the first time, you can vote for your top 3 favorites! That's right, top 3! Isn't that wonderful? A lot of you have asked for it, and many of you comment each month that the voting is so difficult and you wish you could choose more than one, so here is your chance! Voting starts Jan. 1 and ends at midnight, Eastern US time on Jan. 7.

The other exciting change is that the 5 lucky voters chosen at random to receive a prize created by our member artists will receive a prize from a pool of items. You won't know which prize you'll receive until you open the package! This change will hopefully bring more exposure to more of our member shops and also add a little suspence and an element of surprise for the voters as well. We're all excited about all the changes, and hope you are, too!

The entries for January:

1. Butterfly Fairy Pendant by BeeTreeByMe
2. Steampunk Butterfly by PhoenixRose
3. Butterfly Barrette by ClayCenter
4. Butterflies Necklace by NKDesigns
5. Faux Collage Image Transfer Pendant by SCDiva
6. Stained Glass Effect Square Butterfly Bangle by BlessedBeadJewelry
7. Pink Butterfly Pendant by ArtistTooStudios
8. Black and White Butterfly Floral Necklace by ClayHappy
9. Glitter Blue Flower and Butterfly Barrette by KellyPlaysClay
10. Copper Butterfly Necklace by Ashpaints
11. Butterfly Whimsy Cake Topper by YoungCreative
12. Iron Butterfly by LaurelSteven
13. Colorful Millefiori Butterfly on 3-D Flower ATC by PolymerClayCreations

And here is a mosaic of the prize pool for January:



1st Row, L-R: 1. Necklace by Ashpaints 2. Barrette
3. Cell Phone Charm and Beads by Juliespace 4. Pendant by YonatDascalu

2nd Row, L-R: 1. Bead Set by 11BoldStreet 2. Pendant by StudioSChiek 3. Pendant and Bead Set by WorthingtonFox 4. Pendant by LaurelSteven

3rd Row, L-R: 1. Necklace by KDollDesigns 2. Pendant by BeeTreeByMe 3. Earrings by LauraBeeStudios 4. Beads by Jencom72 5. Raw Polymer Clay Cane by ToniNZ

4th Row, L-R: 1. Cat Figurine by AlisonEKurek 2. Pendant by MarciaPalmer 3. Pendant by SpiritMama 4. Earrings by ClayHappy

Congratulations to The Winners of the PCAGOE Holiday Stocking Giveaway!

Congratulations to Lynn Forsterling, a/k/a TraderBob1, the winner of the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy's Grand Prize in the Holiday Stocking Givaway. Lynn gets a stocking chock full of handmade polymer clay items created by our member artists AND a $75.00 Gift Certificate to spend in one of the participating member shops!

A.E. Gross is the winner of the 2nd Place stocking and a $50.00 Gift Certififate. JDC53 is the winner of the 3rd Place stocking and a $25.00 Gift Certificate.

Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you so much for participating! This promotion was a lot of fun, and I hope we do it again next year! Happy Holidays!

My Golden Sunflower Mica Shift Pendant is Featured in a New Etsy Treasury

My friend and fellow PCAGOE team member, Ali of AlisonEKurek, created this all-PCAGOE treasury today, which she titled "Rough Yet Refined" and included my Golden Sunflower Mica Shift Pendant. Lots of beautiful goodies in this treasury, so if you haven't finished your holiday shopping yet, head on over to Etsy and check out some of these wonderful artists' shops!

And yes, Ali is the same AlisonEKurek whose "Caroling Cats ACEO" won 1st place in the December PCAGOE challenge, the theme of which was "Seasonal." What an extraordinarily talented lady!

Congratulations again, Ali, and thank you for including me in this great treasury!

And speaking of the challenge, congratulations to all the winners!

Laurel of LaurelSteven won 2nd place for her delightful Ho3 necklace, and Berit of ClayCenter won 3rd place for her festive holiday earrings! Great job, everyone!

Time To Vote! PCAGOE December Challenge

The theme for our PCAGOE December challenge is "Seasonal". We could depict a Winter scene or one of the December holidays. 21 of our members entered this month, and the entries are diverse and all interpret the theme beautifully. We've got ornaments, jewelry, and ACEO, beads, and LOTS of gift ideas.

Vote for your favorite entry at www.pcagoe.com beginning Dec. 1 until midnight, Eastern US time on Dec. 7, 2009. The winners will be announced on Dec. 8. Five lucky voters, chosen at random, will also win polymer clay prizes created by our member artists.

Here are the entries for December:



1) Toast The New Year! Pendant by BeeTreeByMe
2) Frosty The Polymer Clay Snowman by SCDiva
3) Christmas Kitten Pendant by Jencom72
4) Purple Angel Ornament by CreativeArtCenter
5) Poinsettia Necklace by ClayHappy
6) Ho3 Necklace by LaurelSteven
7) Snowflake Beads by RiverValleyDesign
8) Tall Santa Ornament by Ashpaints
9) Catch A Winter Star Necklace by FungibleElements
10) Caroling Cats ACEO by AlisonEKurek
11) Red Poinsettia and Berries Pendant by ArtistTooStudios
12) Metallic Mokume Gane Ornament by PolymerClayCreations
13) Snowmen Artistic Apothecary Bottles by Ametista
14) Metallic Plate Choker by 11BoldStreet
15) Asian Winter Snow Scene Necklace by NKDesigns
16) Winter Inspired Jewelry Set by Polyclarific
17) Holiday Earrings by ClayCenter
18) Poinsettia Candy Bracelet by RenGalSa
19) Holiday Pendant with Integrated Bezel Chain by JKollmann
20) Laced-Up Christmas Ornament by Juliespace
21) Madonna and Child Ornament by BlessedBeadJewelry

Thanks for voting and supporting the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy!