YART Sale Extended!

“I am participating in the Yart Sale on Etsy sponsored by Team ESST."

Sale runs through June 10th to the 14th!

I have decided to extend my 25% off sale in my shop on Etsy.com ! Stop by for some amazing deals on handmade polymer clay buttons, jewelry, catnip toys, and bamboo windchimes. See you there!

To see all the wonderful artists and great deals, just click here!

Weekend Sale!

Everything in my shop on Etsy is 25% off!

Buttons, up-cycled spice jar bud vases, up-cycled mason jar candle holder, sculptures, jewelry, and more!

Refunds will be through paypal.

1 2 3 Button Sale!

I am having a sale in my shop on Etsy!

Buy 1 set of buttons, get 10% off

Buy 2 sets of buttons, get 20% off

Buy 3 sets of buttons, get 30% off

And so on :)

(Percentage off is on the price of buttons, not including shipping)

These buttons are all handmade by me from polymer clay.

And the winner is....

Congratulations to the winners of the PCAGOE Team Spring Fling Scavenger Hunt!

The winner from those who found the Iris Ad in my shop is .....




starryeyed24 !!



I do hope you like your prize, a Baker's Dozen Buttons - mixed colours!


Please visit http://pcagoe.com to see all the winners of our event!
Stay tuned for the next contest coming soon!

More Buttons

Here are some of my latest little buttons.

Kind of hard to choose which ones are my favourites! My son says the ones with the different edges look like peanut butter cups to him. What do you think?

Family Day in Ontario

Today is Family Day! It is a relatively new holiday here in Ontario, Canada. Of course, my son happens to be at a friend's house, and I am busy playing with my clay. I also have hopes/plans of making some strawberry and some blueberry jam. We shall see how much I actually accomplish today! Perhaps a little later I might be able to talk my hubby into going for a walk or a drive.

So far today, I have made a set of plain black round 2-hole buttons and worked on some little boxes. As of yet, only the bottoms of the boxes are curing and I have to figure out just how I want to do the lids for them or if I am going to make lids at all.

So far I have made 3 different colours right now...one I call Chocolate Caramel, one called Cafe Latte and the final one is Lemon Lime (I am quite partial to this one). They are very shallow and square. Depending on how these turn out, I have plans for others on the drawing board. In time, I hope to make some hinged, and some with little feet. We shall see!

I also have a bottle soaking in soapy water right now. It is one of those flat flask shaped Maple syrup bottles. I would love to decorate it with clay. I also have a bunch of spice jars that would look quite nice decorated as well.

Oh, and for the little canes I was making, here is a couple pictures of one of them, so that you can see just what it was I was talking about in a previous post.

I love making buttons!

I have been trying to find ways of using up my little bits of clay and discovered that making canes out of them is a great way of doing this. I have so far made three different styles of canes. Bull's eye, spiral, or an abstract design.

But first, I have to condition the clay. If it is older, and a bit stiffer, it can take quite awhile to do this. At times, it means hours of warming it in my hands, squishing it, and rolling it out with a rolling pin. A number of people use a food processor to do this for them. I have considered purchasing one myself, and one day I just might! After the clay becomes more pliable (looks nice and shiny), I decide what type of cane I wish to make. If I have a lot of one colour, such as white, I tend to go more for the abstract design.

I am quite partial to these, especially the white and blue one. It reminds me of one of my favourite collectibles, the Copenhagen Danish Blue Plates (of which I have about 20 in two different sizes). They almost look good enough to eat!

After making the cane, I wrap it up in plastic, so that it can sit a bit. I have found that they tend to cut better if they have been sitting a few days. I make quite a few at a time, so that when I am ready to use them, I have a nice selection of colours and styles to choose from.

After a few days, and when I know I have a whole day to devote to it, I take a cane, and using a blade from a utility knife, I cut my slices. I do a bit of shaping (getting much better at this part!) and lay them out on a flat piece of polyfiber batting on a large glass tray from a microwave, and cure them in the oven.

I usually end up doing about 5 trays or so in a day. I like to have a nice quantity of buttons to work on throughout the week on my days off.

Sometimes, I will use a series of sandpaper to sand them, and sometimes not. It all depends on how well they turned out after curing and what type of look I want. The first grit I use is 250, and I use a palm sander for this. The first time I did that I ended up sanding off most of one of my fingernails without even realizing! It did not hurt, though. Then, I use (by hand) 5 more grits : 400, 600, 1000, 1500 and 2000. The higher grits I had to buy from Canadian Tire, as our local hardware shop did not carry them. I always let the sandpaper soak in hot water a bit before using it, as that helps keep it from clogging up with particles of clay. It makes it more pliable, and it will last a lot longer.

The final steps are putting on a light coating of Delta Ceramacoat. When I sand and buff them, I do not need to do this, but I decided to anyway since I want them to be able to be handwashed and last a long time. It also gives them a "wet look".

So far, I have only been making buttons with these canes. I am sure I may make other things as time goes on.