It's Summer!

Yesterday, I was over at my friend Katie's blog. She is at Katie's Clay Corner.

http://katiesclaycorner.blogspot.com/2010/06/something-new-to-try.html

For those of you that aren't familiar with her blog, she is a very talented miniaturist and polymer clay artist, among other things.

Yesterday she figured out how to make metal bird houses from paper. She used the birdhouse idea from the magazine "Flea Market Style".

They turned out wonderfully.

She gave credit for the technique to
Marlies and Minies. http://marliesminies.blogspot.com/search/label/how%20do%20I%20do?updated-max=2009-05-06T13%3A29%3A00%2B02%3A00&max-results=20

A lot of bloggers have jumped on the pitcher bandwagon and we have all experimented with Marlies's technique. It is really clever.

I decided to mess with it this morning. Elsewhere in my blog, I made some terracotta pots with this. Today I decided that it would be a great way to make serving trays.

All I could find for patterned paper was some Christmas card stock.....Not exactly summer.

The nice thing about trays is they can be just about any shape that you want them to be.

I used a Woodsie's oval for the pattern. I had dark green on green striped paper and some red swirly stuff. The only thing I could think of to do with it was make a watermelon tray.

I drew out an oval on the back of both the green and the red and glued them back to back. Then I cut a strip of the dark green about a quarter inch wide for the lip of the tray. It needed something for the inside, so I cut some of a lighter green to represent the inside of the rind.

I couldn't stop with just a tray. I went over to Marlies's and did a jug with green outside and red inside. That led to glasses. I cut down the pattern for the bottom of the jug and flipped it upside down. I reduced it so that the height of the glasses would be 1/2" tall.

I ran a rim around the tray and glued it at the bottom edge. Then I trimmed it with perle cotton on the top and bottom edge. I put a handle on either end of the tray.

I used the same perle cotton to edge the pitcher and the cups.

I still need to varnish all of the pieces, but it was getting late and I wanted to show you the results.

Tessie now has a set for summer beverages in the roof garden.

Remember the other day when Zar used the mesmerizer on Tessie at the beauty salon?

I do believe that they are now even. Tessie showed up with a wand in her pocket and Zar acting like she had him on a leash.

He has been waiting on her, hand and foot. There have been a lot of "Yes Ma'am." and "No Ma'am."s and a few "As you wish, Madam."s flying around on the roof.

I don't think that the spell was strong enough though. I managed to get this photo just as Zar "accidentally" dumped the contents of the new pitcher over her lap.... Well, maybe not so even.....

At least it is not breakable or my work would have been for nothing.

I have to go help Tessie clean up the mess. Zar is nowhere to be seen.....If he knows what's good for him, I think he will stay away for a while.

See you tomorrow.