Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

Creating a journal cover in polymer clay that has an embossed leather look was a fun project!  I've  had the  centerpiece polymer parts done for months.  Some of you might remember me asking what I should do with them.  I decided to incorporate them into the cover!   The polymer needed to be conditioned and I made 2 colors a few shades apart so I could interchange parts of the design.  I textured the clay by using a texture plate that reminded me of embossed leather. After placing the decorations on the polymer and texturing, I used powdered copper, bronze an gold to create color movement.  At first it looked too bright but I burnished with a cloth.  It started looking like old leather! I baked the 8 1/2 x 11 journal cover in the oven at 275 degrees for 30 minutes.  Then I painted a burnt umber over everything and wiped it off.  That really helped 'age' the cover.     The cover is ...

Good friends called to say they were going to travel to Kenya and Tanzania.   They knew that Peter and I had gone a few years ago and wondered if we had any advice.   Of course we do!   I told them I would look through my journals and send things that might be interesting. What fun I had going through my journals!   We spent 10 days on a tour mostly in Tanzania with http://www.africa-adventure.com/ .   The best part was having our own guide, Firozdin Rafiq . We could stop and take photos and watch wildlife anywhere we wanted and he was extremely knowledgeable about birds to elephants and inbetween.  (He has a fb page).    I think I came home with over 700 really good photos not counting the ones I trashed.   We were interested in everything! Because we were going in a small plane between Kenya and Tanzania, we were allowed a total of 35 pounds each.   That included the camera, lenses, binoculars and clothes.     I came across...