Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

 It's time for experimenting and sharing!  This week I played with silk screening metallic powder and am pretty excited about the results! Starting with Helen Breil's silkscreen 'Pills and coffee' www.helenbreil.com/silkscreens , the tiny holes in the silk screen really make beautiful designs.  I used Ranger 'Perfect Pearls' powder  that come in a set of 4 metallic colors.(copper, bronze, silver and gold)  Little sponge applicators (in the package)  make rubbing the powder into the screen so easy.  If you brush the powder be sure to use a separate brush for each color.  Otherwise the colors mix together too easily. I used black polymer as the base and screened on the copper shown in this picture.  It was also easy to screen the pattern on the rounded shapes.   Really a nice look.  The powder adhered nicely after curing. Silk Screen I used Metallic powders I used Copper Metallic Silkscreen on Black Polymer Clay Next I used this me

  I grew up looking through my mother's and grandmother's button jars.  In fact, I still have one of those jars.  There is something about seeing and feeling those round, oval and square shapes that fascinate.  Some have pictures, some are in relief and some are just colorful and all are pieces of history. When the owner of a fabric shop asked me is I could make polymer buttons, I said "Sure"!  Having worked in polymer clay I was positive this would be easy.  After a lot of learning and practicing it is an intriguing enterprise that takes patience and is fun! My latest button inspiration came from a friend who looked at the buttons in my display and said 'Red and Black'  You need red and black and maybe burgundy for the season!'   These new buttons will be in showing up my display case and in my etsy shop though out this month.  My process begins with conditioning the polymer clay and then make polymer canes in different designs but

 Finished Vest! My new vest is finished! And I love the way it turned out.  After quilting the diagonal lines (and yes, I had to take out stitches and redo a few times), I quilted the vertical and horizontal straight lines.  Now the fabric looks a little like pieces were sewn together.   Quilting Finished  My old vest looks better on the inside than the outside!  I cut the shoulder seams apart and decided that I could use it as a pattern and not do side seams.  I made bias strips to finish all the raw edges.  I machine stitched them on the right side of the fabric and hand stitched them in place on the back side for a nice finish. The inside of the old vest used as a pattern This is the back of the vest.  I'm so pleased that the hemline is straight and the finished edges are good.  Back of finished vest  It has been years since I made buttonholes.  I have to admit that I used language that my mother would not have approved during the buttonhole section!  Then

One of the things I love about Facebook is being directed to tutorials concerning subjects of interest to me.   For instance, I’d been playing with swirls and lentil polymer beads when I spotted a link chock full of helpful hints.      https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6Oq0G54jIYk   Thanks to Cindy Lietz, my beads look much better and I understand about getting the colors more or less where I want them.   If you haven’t seen this video, you just might want to!   A few months ago, I made red and white and ivory canes based on a quilt pattern design.   I made them in various sizes of squares and put them away thinking they would be great for the Christmas holidays.   This week they came out of their box and I started making buttons and earrings. What to do with the scraps?   Lentil swirl beads of course!   I’m having such fun forming my polymer balls and putting the scrap canes in a band around the outside.    Then I take my clear acrylic sheet, start