TENseconds Studio

Jars Aplenty

Keith Urban has a song on one of his cd's with a saying that goes "blah blah blah who wouldn't want to be me?" It's such a happy song and every time I hear it when I'm driving, I start bopping in my seat. It would be so cool if Keith would come by the studio and do one of our videos with us. If the little twerp hadn't gotten married to what's her name I could have hooked him up with you know who and maybe sparks would have "sparked".

Anyway I digress. My point, if I have any points, is that I'm so lucky to do what I do. I love coming up with ideas and passing them on to all 8 of our viewers. And, when I'm on a roll...I'm on a roll. This month I'm on a roll, and I think this may be the coolest project I've done (although, I say that about all of them). 

 

I thought these jars would make excellent surfaces for metal and they surpassed my expectations. Of course, we have them so you too can create your very own "metalized jar". Just go to our online store. These jars are so easy to decorate and you'll want them everywhere to store all your valuable crapola.

The jar to the left of the button jar is an old spice jar. Remember girls, recycle, recycle.

Here is a closeup of the backside of each jar. I thought I was being so brilliant when I drew the button on the back, and I just freehanded it. Then Megan saw it and started cracking up so you'll have to watch today's Taco Tuesday video to see if you agree with her name for it.

She loves to mock me and I think it looks like a really "cute" button.

What really blew my mind was taking the little ketchup bottles and decorating them. The people at the hotel we were at thought I was nuts, but what's new! I hate throwing away all this glass and it's amazing how much stuff we all throw away everyday.

Leave a comment on this posting and on Friday we will pick a lucky winner who will get the small jar, the ketchup jar and the spice jar. I gotta keep the button jar and after watching the video you'll know why.

If you want to take advantage of our specials from our Taco Tuesday Videos you need to sign up for our newsletter...aka "Wuz Up Wednesdays". It's very easy to do and takes about TENseconds. Everyone who gets those newsletters will have the latest and greatest info from us. The rest of you will be in the dark! Have a great week and save glass!

Today's Winner is....

Congrats to Anna Willet as the winner of our ornaments. Anna send me your address and I'll get them out to your asap.

Our wonderful friend, Linda Brown of LB Crafts in the UK, sent us a pic of a sign she made for her booth and I must say this is fabulous and as they say in the UK "brilliant". Linda does the most creative projects with stamps and metal that you'll ever see. She and Leandra from Paper Artsy put together retreats in the UK that sell out immediately. Reason enough for a road trip, or in my case a long flight.

If it wasn't such a long trip I'd be there in TENseconds! 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and wait til you see Tuesday's video another great idea.

 

ornaments made easy!

Happy December 1st and only 24 days left of shopping like a maniac! Or, you can stay home and make all your gifts and decorations. We've certainly given you lots of ideas, techniques and projects to get you going. Today's Taco Tuesday Video is all about ornaments. We take some simple store bought glass ornaments and supersize them to "OMG" fabulous. These are so simple, anyone can decorate them for that same cool look. 

These three ornaments are what we show on the video as unfinished items from the craft store that can be decorated. The round ones are just simple wood shapes that I added our Copper Art metal to and the red one is metal and I added Poison Ivy metal to that one. Post a comment on this blog entry and one lucky person will get these three ornaments. The round ones are double sided. We will choose the lucky winner on Friday.

I'm making some other holiday ideas and will try and post those pics this week. Hope you like the video and get "craftin'". 

Congrats to......

This week's winner for our blog giveaway is Cindy in Nebraska.

Great idea for the flowers! I would SOOOOO be one of those women who would start throwing the flowers into my cart (only because you were) and then walk away thinking "Now WHAT am I going to do with these?" Beautiful Beautiful flowers! Love you guys - keep up the inspiration!

So Cindy email me your address and we will get your prize out to you.

Congrats to all those who took part in our "Wuz Up Wednesday". You guys got some great deals and helped us make room for all the "new stuff" comin'....and less stuff to count at then end of the year. That is our thank you to all of you who support us and send us funny emails. If you're not signed up for our newsletter you are missing out on whatever we may run as a special.

We've got some really cool videos coming up for December and hope these give all of you great inspiration.  I hope you survived Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Even though I said, "I hate Turkey", my wonderful Mom made the most delicious Turkey Pigfest ever. We're still talking about the freakin' turkey and the pie and the stuffing, well you get the idea.

We're teaching our last PMC class for the year tomorrow and it's a full class. Hope all of you have a great weekend and eat lots of leftovers!

Turkey Thought....

A long time ago, in another galaxy I owned a stamp store. It was the beginning of my career as a businesswoman/crafter/teacher/toilet bowl washer. I did it all. I created my own line of stamps of which this was one of many. I tried looking through my stash of stamps for the saying and couldn't find it so I just wrote it on some Spiced Rum metal and created my own turkey which kinda looks like a platypus with feathers.

My friends know how much I can't stand turkey. In fact for Thanksgiving I've been known to fix Lasagna which I think is the perfect food. Don't get me wrong I do like all the other stuff that goes with the turkey...just not the turkey. In our family Thanksgiving dinner takes about 5 hours to prepare, 6 1/2 minutes to eat and 3 hours to clean up. Who wouldn't want to have that kinda fun!?! Don't start calling us Un-American because I think the founding fathers of Turkey Day would rather have Lasagna. Our family is different anyway because we have pies for birthdays...don't like cakes! So yeah, we're weird.

Having said that, we are fixing turkey! When you have your mother telling you what you will and won't eat...well, you do what Mommy says! So, I hope all of you have a wonderful, glutenous, pigfest and maybe on Friday EAT BEEF!

Flower Power!

Don't get too excited, I don't actually go anywhere looking like this. I just walk around the warehouse wearing flowers in alternative ways. We did today's Taco Tuesday around decorated silk flowers and I hope this gives everyone an idea of just how versatile our metal is to use.

We mentioned several other ideas on the video and already got an email from Turly Bower in Dubai...yes that Dubai, asking what we mumbled at the end of the video as she couldn't hear it and had played it over and over. Well Turly, we said "wreaths with flowers". And, I do think a wreath of just holiday flowers with metal centers would be fabulous.

For today's giveaway, comment on this technique and I will send out a pack of metal (one sheet of each color we have) to some lucky metal nut. The winner will be picked this Friday and who knows I may throw in a flower.

We just completed all of next month's videos and we've got some really cool ideas for you guys. December is a long month so there's 5 videos! Hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving and don't stuff yourselves too much.

Updates and Winner Congrats

I can't believe how fast this week has flown by. It's been a really sad week at TSS because we are feeling the loss of our little Annie. The other two dogs are even acting a little weird, Mocha just walks around and stares at you or leans against you...she loves to lean. Megan has been looking at all the little puppies at the shelters online and if we lived on 100 acres I would probably adopt all of them. There really are no ugly puppies. You're probably wondering why I'm rambling about all this, but this is the reason I'm posting the winner for our giveaway this week on Saturday instead of Friday.

I want to thank all of you who posted comments and your condolences about Annie. The winner of this week's giveaway is the posting that made me laugh. I really needed a laugh this week, so congrats to: Christy Gail and her fruitcake recipe. If you haven't read that comment you really should check it out, it was cute. Christy email me your address and we'll get the tin out to you and it will have a surprise in it!

This is Margaret Wheat, she told her mom that she was our number 1 fan (they watch our videos together) ( I hope they don't watch all the videos together)!

She actually put us up there with Hannah Montana. Does it get any bigger than Hannah Montana? I had this crown bank waiting to be decorated and thought Margaret's name would look wonderful on it.

Thank you Margaret for being our number 1 fan, we appreciate all the fans we can get.  Hope you save lots of money in your bank.

For those of you who have asked if we are going to "Tweet"....the answer is "NO". I'm lucky to get all the things I do done in the hours I have right now. I bought a Flip so I could just video anytime, anywhere...anyhow. Guess how many times I've done something on my Flip? Two, and when I played them back they were stupid. (Right now I'm drinking my own coffee that I made in a ceramic cup that I can wash.) For anyone who cares!

Updates on classes...we've got our last PMC class of the year next Saturday. That's right the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We've had a lot of sign ups for this class and I've increased the number for this class so everyone can get in their holiday gift making. You can sign up online. 

For those who have asked about our next Certification Class we have that date and it's March 18-21, 2010. This will be at the BRAfree Retreat space and the price includes food. For more info just email us.

Megan and I are coming up with a PLAY date at the studio for the month of December. We will announce that when we figure out the right dates and times. Hope all of you have a great weekend and have fun at the store stocking up on all your turkey fixin's.

Metalized Fruitcake!????

Take one plane jane tin, add metal and you have a fabulous decorated tin for just about anything and everything including Fruitcake. Of course, it has to be a flat fruitcake, but if yours are like mine....they are flat. 

My Mom makes fruitcakes every year to give to my favorite hubby and that man can eat an entire fruitcake in one sitting. His thinking is that it's a food group...fruit...

We will have these tins on our online store but it may take a day or so before they are up. There is a limited quantity.

We hope you like today's Taco Tuesday Video and are inspired to cover all sorts of tins.

 This is another can I did which is an actual paint can. I did the top using our Rose Kabuka mold and then decorated the sides with just strips of metal. Pop in a gift and you're done.

This is the side view and as you can see you don't have to do the entire area. This can is this week's giveaway, so just leave a comment and one of you will get to receive this gift can "just for you". I promise I won't send a fruitcake in it! The winner will be picked on Friday.
 
 

Annie

Yesterday was a very sad day for us, Megan's precious Annie had to be put to sleep. She was about 14 years old and hadn't had her usual spunk for the last several months. Everyone sees the other two dogs in our lives...Mocha and Roxie, but Annie was the cuddler and usually spent most of her days sleeping. We took a lot of really great photos of Annie as she was sleeping, walking around with a chew stick in her mouth or staring at the cat. Annie was just a sweetie who would look at you with her big eyes that said "feed me steak". She would act like she was 2 years old if she smelled steak. Rest in Pease Annie, We love you and miss you.

And the Winner is......

When we started this blog and our Taco Tuesday Videos last year, we had maybe 4 viewers, who soon became 5 viewers and then 6 and so on and so on. Now, we have thousands of viewers and are amazed at the emails and phone calls we get from all you wonderful nuts out there. It cracks me up when I answer our phone and someone starts hyperventilating and squeals "is this really Cheryl?" Especially, since I've probably just been cleaning the toilets at the studio, or as in one recent video when I was picking up fertilizer for my pumpkin garden. I actually do work, but my job title is also head toilet cleaner.

You guys leave the nicest comments and we really appreciate everyone who supports our products in their local stores and are trying to keep this economy rockin'. It's really hard picking  winners and I wish all of you could get one of my pieces so today's winner for the canvas with the fragments is....Penny Arrowood!

you two kill me! i am amazed that i learn anything for laughing at your carrying on >:-D thanks for the GREAT inspiration to do more with metal! *not to mention the coercion to purchase MORE stuff to obtain obsolete tools - slick!*
...off to finish my order!

So, Penny email me your address and I'll see that this goes out to you.

For the rest of you fans, I'll be giving away other pieces that I've done in future posts so that we have a giveaway every week til the end of the year. So, keep watching for the next "original" from yours truly. Hope you have a great weekend and metalize your world!