TENseconds Studio

Metalized Fragments

Don't you just love looking in your drawers of "stuff" and finding different uses for the "plethera" of stuff we have? I had a bunch of Fragments from Tim's Ideology line and thought I would flatten our metal to attach it, and it works great.

Here I used all of the little tag fragments with our metal on the backside. The "A" is our copper art metal.

These are the large fragments with our Barn Red Metal and our Alphabet Kabuka's.

In today's Taco Tuesday video, we show how I wrote Megan. This technique is so easy and simple, you will be putting metal behind all your acrylic.

Here is the frame I worked on with this technique. I took one of canvas frames and covered it in the Poison Ivy Metal with all our fragments adhered on top.

Post a comment on this blog entry and we will pick a lucky winner for this framed piece. A little something from us to one of you. The winner will be picked on Friday, November 13th. So, someone will get lucky!

P.S. I posted this last night without mentioning our little cutter shown in the video. This is a limited supply and if you purchase $75 of product from the online store...you get the cutter free. This is a special we are doing with our "Wuz Up Wednesday" emails. So, if you haven't signed up for that you may want to sign up. There are specials that we do and only our "Wuz Up Wednesday" nuts will know about them so, you will know about limited supply specials we do from that newsletter.

Advent Calendar Metalized

 

We just got in our Advent Calendars from Kaisercraft and they are so easy to metalize! Of course, you can go the standard format and put photos and glitz on one and it would look wonderful, but to get it to FABULOUS well, ya gotta decorate with metal.

For the center piece I covered matboard squares with Poison Ivy Metal using various molds, decorative wheels and my own handwriting. I backed them with Foam Core so they would float above the canvas.

 The kit comes with numbers and I Glimmered Misted those, but, I also wrote numbers on various metal covers.

The box with the "8" on it is actually cardstock run through The Big shot with one of our Kabuka Molds. Ink has been added for it to show up.

I used our Humungo Killer Adhesive to stick everything down and applied Ranger's Glossy Accents to adhere the numbers to the metal.

I used several different colors of scrap pieces of metal from my stash. I think the various colors work well with the over all look of the piece. Metals used: Dijon, Barn Red, Plum, Poison Ivy, Dark Chocolate, BRRblue, and Pure Copper (#9 is copper).

The backdrop behind the center tiles is a piece of canvas that I painted with Ranger's acrylic green paint. Frayed the edges and then wrote with a black pen the word "merry" between the tiles and around the edges.

The number 14 is the same cardstock embossed with a Kabuka. I tried to use at least 3 or 4 of the same color of metal to scatter them around so the boxes would look different.

If you would like to make your very own Advent Calendar we have them in our store and hopefully, you'll be inspired by this sample to create your very own wonderful, keepsake for the holidays.

Halloween Part Deux.....

I don't think people realize how involved doing a weekly video can become. We spend about TENminutes thinking about ideas and techniques, shopping for props, doing the samples and stepouts and of course all the hair and makeup we have to go through.  Several people have actually asked us if we film these videos back to back because sometimes we're wearing the same thing. PEOPLE, we do not have a crew of stylists shopping for us like they do on TV. If we did, we would look better!

Once you do one off the wall video, like we did last year for halloween, you've got to keep doing them and we hope you liked what we came up with this year. This was actually a rather short video....the reason being....you get to see what we didn't do today. We had a lot of out takes and actually filmed two versions. I think Megan went over the top and lost her head on this video.

In more ways than one! We had to carve a huge opening for her head to even fit in.

I think we will have to bring Julia back for another video. On another note, for those of you who are sending us 12 Step Programs,

we

really

don't

drink....that much.

On Friday night Megan goes to her favorite Salsa Dancing Restaurant (Gloria's in Addison) and yes, she does Salsa Dancing too. Everyone was dressed up and guess who's there none other than Dog and Beth. That isn't a wig on either one of them. She didn't know who they were but had to get a photo with them. I think those are real Big Mama's also. Luckily, Megan's were covered.

So for another version of Halloween Part Deux hope you enjoy another Taco Tuesday.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We've been brewing up a new video for Halloween and we've brought back the "DEAD" in our Halloween Taco Tuesday (that's really a Friday).

We kinda went nuts on decorations this year with our Ghoul in the kitchen. We're debating on if we keep it up year round, but that might freak out the Calligraphy Group that comes for their Tuesday Night meetings.

Maybe Igor will be hung in Shipping.

 Thanks to Mark from Dead Beat Designs for his fabulous coffin in our Appletini and Plum metal.

You gotta love what you can do with stamps and metal. This little box had these really cute little origami folded puffy stars. I am amazed at everyone who creates origami anything...thanks Mark.

So on to the video....hope you enjoy and have a wonderful "spooky Halloween".
 

EASY Gift Idea...Made EASY

Today's TACOtuesday showcases initials made easy from our DVD/CD. We added another spin by coloring in the flowers with Ranger's Alcohol Ink Refillable Pen.

This letter is traced on our new Poison Ivy metal, which adds such a rich color as a background. Hopefully, this idea will spark an idea perfect for that special someone in need of a gift, or just make it for yourself, and who cares who gets a gift.

For those of you who are wondering where is our Halloween Video, we will be showing that video on Saturday for Halloween. So, this week there is a special issue of two TACOtuesdays. Who could ask for anything more!

PMC on Saturday

If you would like to learn how to use PMC and make your very own unique jewelry pieces, then come on down on Saturday Oct. 24th (yes, that's tomorrow). We still have a couple of spaces left and you can get a jump start on holiday gift making. I doubt that very many who actually take this class give any of the pieces they make away, but these do make great gifts that you can personalize.

This is just a small sampling of what I've made over the years using our tools and molds. We also have a wide variety of stamps that you can use, or bring your own.

Even if you can't come tomorrow, we will have the class again on November 28th. That's the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Again, another great day to make your gifts for the holidays. These classes are held at the studio and you can get more info here.  One of the special surprises we will be teaching at these classes is using Bronze and Copper PMC. Hope you have a great weekend and hopefully we will see some of you for the classes.

Notebooks Made Easy

On today's TACOtuesday, we show you a really quick and easy gift idea for $1.00. Where can you find a gift for a $1.00? You'll see how to take scrap metal, some adhesive, and that stash of TSS molds and decorative wheels to create personalized gifts for the holidays.

You may be amazed, and take a moment to make a list of all the people in your life who would love to have a creation from you. I think this project is such a cool gift to give and would be perfect as a cover for an address book. That's something I would use!

As they say..."We have a Weiner".

Well, I picked a number and that number was Cynthia who submitted the following...congrats and email me your address. You won't get the one shown because I can't find it, but you'll get another one just a beautiful.

How do I love thee? Well, let me count the ways. 1. I LOVE purple. 2. I LOVE crosses. 3. I LOVE Taco Tuesday. 4. I LOVE to win. 5. I LOVE to win a purple cross from Taco Tuesday. Very Humbly Submitted, Cynthia

Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment. Megan and I are constantly amazed at how inspiring we are...no, I meant that our viewers find us as inspiring as we think we are, no, that didn't sound right...I mean that anyone even watches these videos and still gets what we're saying. Anyway, you know what I'm thinking or trying to say.

If you would like to know more about what we do or have coming up sign up for our "Wuz Up Wednesday" Newsletters. Megan sends out a newsletter on Wednesdays (not at the crack of dawn but sometime on Wednesday). You've got to be on the list to get it so if you're not you can sign up here. Don't worry we don't give anyone our lists, unless they pay us $10M and then we're outta here and sipping margatuties in Costa Rica!

Metalize a Cross

We have probably gotten more comments on this cross than any project we've done. I think using the Plum Metal certainly sets it apart.

Everyone is always asking how to cut around shapes and this is the perfect Taco Tuesday video that shows the process. 

Some of you may be thinking "but, that looks very familiar". And, you would be right...this is a "rerun". We have never run a rerun before, but, it seemed to tie in with the gift giving theme we are going with until the end of the year. Plus we have these kits in stock.

I hope you're enjoying fall. I love this season and wished it would last 6 months instead of 2 in Texas.

Make a comment here and a lucky viewer will get to win one of these crosses that I've done. I'll even sign it!  I'll pick the winner on Friday.

Catch Up

I wanted to show what Megan and Geoff did a couple of weeks ago when they went to New Orleans to study with Thomas Mann.

Megan made this piece with brass and aluminum.

Geoff made this piece out of Brass. All the pieces of metal and acrylic are layered, cut, drilled, stamped, etched and rivited.

Hopefully, Megan and Geoff are going to teach a class next month in sawing metal. Hey, if they can do this....you can do this. We've ordered some cool kits for this type of art that I'm sure all of you will go nuts over. 

Geoff sitting at his workstation with the piece he made. This is one instance where you want to sit low to the table for all the sawing that is done.

Megan holding her piece at her work station.

 Megan and Geoff with Thomas. You've got to check out his work and his gallery and if you're ever in New Orleans go to the gallery on Magazine Street...very close to the convention center.

 Group shot of everyone in the class. This was the same weekend that I was in Houston teaching at a wholesale show. I know I would have dropped a wad if I had gone, which is what I did last year when we were in New Orleans.