Studio Friday: Brand New!

I haven't participated in Studio Friday for a while, but this time I thought about it in time (and had time to respond). :o)

The topic for this week was as follows:

A new year!!! Exciting! All new things, experiences, flavours, people and things are waiting for you to be met and greeted.How about your studio and creative space? Are there any brand new items, materials, colours, paints, papers, wooden logs, clay, journals... waiting for you to be unwrapped or unpacked?? Maybe there is a new project or idea waiting to be polished and executed? Or you may have set a new goal for yourself or a resolution?

Ah, new supplies! A subject so very dear to my heart!! ;o)

Because I have the unfortunate combination of a slight addiction to art supplies and a hesitation to actually use most of them (for the first time), I actually have a quite a few things waiting to be unwrapped-- or used. But for this post, I'll focus mainly on the things that are new since Christmas.

Here's a photo of some (but not all, if you can believe it) of my craft-related gifts this year:


In case you can't see everything: new packages of polymer clay (You can never have enough!), eyelets, three colors of embossing powder, little shape cutters, a texture sheet, Amazing Mold Putty, blue-toned confetti-style glitter, and a watch (of the type that you make your own wristbands for). :o)

I'm going to have fun with all this! With the exception of the watch, everything there was on my pc-related wish list this year. And I could use some pc with that, too, if I really wanted to, by using polymer clay beads. (g) This'll be a good opportunity to use some of my stash of storebought beads, though. :o)

I'm excited to try everything in the photo. (In fact, I've already tried the embossing powders!) I'm holding back on the mold-making putty-- want to make sure I use it on something that's "worth" it-- but I'm really looking forward to using that, too.

I bought the confetti glitter for myelf, with a coupon. I thought it looked a lot like the colored Arnold Grummer flakes. I have plenty of the regular/clear iridescent flakes-- though not the AG brand-- but I haven't seen any colored ones around here before, so I was happy to find them. If only they'd had mint green. . . But the blue is gorgeous, too. I'm going to give Donna Kato's liquid-based faux opals another try, one of these days, and these beauties will come in handy then!

I just remembered that when I took the photo I forgot to include the lovely "queue" of rose petal-themed fluid chalk inks I received (Clearsnap brand, I think). They're wonderful colors. I have no excuse not to try some of the inked beads in Donna Kato's book, now. ;o)

In addition to the clay-related supplies, I now (since the great day after Thanksgiving sale at JoAnn Fabrics) have a stock of pretty flannels that I need to use. I'm venturing into the world of sewing/quilting, starting with flannel rag quilts. I've already made one rag-quilt-style bag and started on a flannel and denim rag quilt, but I have many more projects lined up-- and plenty of flannel to keep me busy for quite a while!

Here's a photo of some of my favorite prints:


Such happy, pretty colors! I love the colors in the polka dot fabric, and the floral print reminds me of the illustrations in William Steig's The Amazing Bone (which I used to read to my youngest sister). It makes me happy just looking at it. :o)

So I have plenty of new supplies to kick off the new year creatively! Now it's just a matter of deciding what to do with them all! :o)

ETA: Sorry about the disappearing photos. I don't know what happened. I guess Blogger ate them, somehow. Hope these copies stay in place for a while! (g)