Always on Sundae

I think I must have been daydreaming about mint chocolate ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry on top when I made this girl bead.

I do that a lot. Well, not only daydream about sweet stuff, but make beads that aren't planned, but just so you know, they show up on my mandrel. My hands aren't really possessed, but I start making something and then take a sharp right turn into something else.

My Sundae gal, has a chocolate chip skirt, a mint top with chocolate dripping down, whipped cream and of course the prerequisite cherry on top. Her bracelet and hair decoration are made of cherries too. I'd love to have something healthy and say they're organic, but honestly, I think they're more of the out of the jar variety. Too red to be real, wouldn't you say?

So my question for today is...do you pre-plan your beads? (honestly, I do plan plenty of mine), or do you wing it? Tell me a little about your process. I think we'd all learn from it.

And once Etsy is up and running again, I'll be listing my Mint Sundae girl at http://www.StudioMarcy.etsy.com. I think they're currently down for repairs. Hmmm, that will teach me to write my blogs at the crack of dawn.

See you tomorrow!

Photo Tip: Have Your Cake and Eat It Too!

I wanted to show you the difference in a slight change in my chocolate cake bead photo editing that I did this weekend. I think it makes a positive change and wanted to share it with you.

The lower photo shows how the photo was originally edited. I used the aluminum take out lid that I wrote about in an earlier blog. I used my Photoshop Elements 4.0. Please note, I am far from being an expert in this and seem to bobble along and get by.

I posted that bottom photo as my chocolate cake's first shot in my etsy listing. And then looked at it and wondered what would happen if I tried putting a white background behind it instead.

So I tried the magic wand tool with it. Which is often how I remove the background and after clicking a few times, was able to remove the pinkish background. I noticed that I still had the reflection from the aluminum, which was the part I really liked on it. So voila. I went to "edit" and "fill selection" and chose "white." It turned out like this top photo and I really prefer it.

Do you have any little photo tricks that you wouldn't mind sharing? Please let us know.

And until then, enjoy the chocolate layer cake a la mode with dripping vanilla ice cream. Yum.

Just for fun, here is a recipe for a delicious double chocolate layer cake from one of my favorite recipe sources, epicurious.com.

I'm On "Watch Me Create"

Have you visited the blog, Watch Me Create?

It's the brain child of Lori Greenberg, which is a collaborative blog written by a variety of bead artists and jewelry makers who write about their creative processes.

I recently wrote a post about baking glass pie beads and how I came up with the changes in this slice of apple pie a la mode with caramel sauce. (mmm...)

I have to say, a major influence is one of my favorite current television shows, "Pushing Daisies". Their creativity and quick banter really hold my interest.

So what are your favorite pies and desserts? What would you like to see as beads? I love hearing your ideas.