Have dominoes (and stamps), will travel!

Before I get started, Anna Stern asked a question on my Anatomy of a Spiral post on if there's a way to join two ends of a spiral for a continuous spiral necklace.  I don't know if she'll get my reply.  I get e-mail notifications of all comments, but I don't know if it sends e-mails to people I reply to.  I have a feeling it might not.  Anyway - Anna, I've been thinking about your question, and I think I might know how to do it.  I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I hope I'll be able to do that soon and will post about it here one way or another.  Stay tuned!  (And thank you for your lovely compliments!)

Back to our regularly scheduled blog post:

I've mentioned many times that I'm a member of the Loose Bead Society of Greater Milwaukee.  Not only do I get to learn about all different kinds of jewelry making (and other things to do with beads), but I have made quite a number of friends.  That was extremely important because when I moved to Milwaukee from Illinois I only knew one person up here who I met through a Cricut message board (Hi, Jackie!).

A few times a year we have "Bead-Ins" - we all sit around tables and bead all day long.  It's simple but a lot of fun.  During the winter Bead-In, I was sitting with my friend Kat.  She knew that I'm a stamper and scrapper, and she asked if I'd ever worked with dominoes.  She had bought an embellished domino and wanted to learn how to do that or something like it.  Well, stamping on unique objects is right up my alley, so I started listing various things we could do with them.

They're slick, so we'd have to use Staz-On.  She nodded.  To make them more durable, we'd have to seal them.  She said, "Yeah, I've thought about that."  I laughed and said, "What do you need me for, then?"

Well, she determined she did need me and organized a class at her house at the end of March.  I made up a number of samples for her to show people.  Here are a number of them:

Kat took this picture.  Isn't it nice?

You can glue a bail on them for a necklace or glue on a pin back.  You can also drill through it for a key chain or another pendant option, but the one time I tried that I got the drill bit stuck, and Steve was less than pleased.  I'm not allowed to touch the drill anymore.

I had 5 students plus Kat.  Everyone fit around the kitchen table which Kat had covered with a plastic tablecloth and newspaper.  I had written up a bunch of instructions in case they wanted to do this again after the class.  I brought a bunch of my stamps (a small subset of the whole - have you seen my OCD Stamp Index post?), and Kat brought out some of hers.  They seemed to have a good time, and they made some very pretty pieces!

Kat's the one in blue smiling.  She thinks of everything - gloves so hands won't get inky and name tags so everyone knows who everyone is!

A few people couldn't make it to this class, so Kat held another one!  This class happened this past Saturday, and we had eight people plus Kat!  I got there, and newspaper covered everything: the kitchen table as well as both levels of the counter (one side is higher with stools).  As I was setting up I teased Kat that no one sitting at the counter would get anything done - it was nothing but the funnies!  She did that on purpose so there wouldn't be anything depressing like the obits.

This class went as well as the last one - everyone had fun and made at least 4 pieces each.  Kat even had some dominoes that her husband drilled for key chains, along with key rings!

So cute and colorful!

Everyone looks so serious, don't they?  I do wish I had taken more pictures of pieces, but I was a bit busy answering questions, checking on people, cleaning stamps (multiple times for some of them!), and spraying sealant on finished items.  I was able to sneak in a little stamping with some of Kat's very cute stamps!  Kat took pictures, and hopefully I'll get them from her soon.

Thank you, Kat, for holding such wonderful classes in your home!  I truly hope everyone had a great time and will experiment with this technique more, either on dominoes or on other things!

If anyone reading this lives in the Milwaukee/SE Wisconsin/NE Illinois area and wants to have a stamped domino party class, please e-mail me at traci@creative-pursuits.biz.  I'll give you all the details.  Here's a teaser - any host who finds at least 5 people to come gets her class and kit for free!

If you're going to the Milwaukee Bead Show on October 7th (admission is only $2 and parking is free!), I will have my instructions (nearly 18 pages of content and pictures!) and some domino kits available.  There will even be some pendants for sale.  I'll give 10% off your whole purchase with the code phrase "Stamps are sexy."  Yeah, I know they're not, but I sat here for at least 5 minutes trying to think of something clever and witty and can't come up with anything.  So, "Stamps are sexy" is it!  I want to reward people who read my blog all the way through.  :D