The Dish on As You Wish

San Diego Beach Baby

Posted on: July 7th, 2011 by As You Wish No Comments

Just spent the weekend in San Diego and saw all those Arizona Babies running around on the beach in San Diego and was reminded of our San Diego Beach Baby Plate.  How cute is this reminder of your fun in the sun this summer?  It really is an easy plate to paint, but take this idea, and feel free to change it up by painting this design on an iced tea pitch, a family style bowl, or even a larger platter if you’d like to include more than one pair of sandals!

  1.  Begin with painting your child’s foot with Light Pink or any skin tone color you choose. I like to use a sponge for feet just because a brush tends to tickle quite a bit, but a fan brush, or any other paintbrush will do just fine. Just wipe the paint on their foot and stamp it on the plate. Repeat for the second foot. 
  2. While the prints are drying, take your favorite Yellow paint and make the sun. Just do simple one coat brush strokes.  Don’t forget to include the rays. If you are unsure of free handing it remember you can draw the sun on first in number 2 pencil if you like and then fill in with paint like a coloring book.
  3. Next, it’s time for the water. I used one coat of Neon Blue in a swishy brush stroke technique. You may use any blue that you like. We have many to choose from.
  4. The prints should be dry by now, so take a medium round brush and dip in Bright Pink, or any other color you prefer. Paint around the footprint in the simple shape of the flip flop. It is ok to have a little bit of white between the flip flop and the footprint.  Again if you are unsure you can use a number 2 pencil and draw a line around the footprints and outline your flip flop and then just fill in with paint.
  5.  Add the straps in Bright Caribbean and make the little flower bling with funwriters.
  6. Finish the piece off with Black funwriter outlining and detailing and of course the name and place you are commemorating.  It doesn’t get much cuter than this!

Thea’s Tips and Tricks

Posted on: June 28th, 2011 by As You Wish No Comments

Our custom painter Thea not only does our custom painting and samples but she also designs all of our classes.  She is a wealth of pottery painting information and we asked her to give us tips and tricks of the trade!  Her first one, involves a pencil and a couple of lines!

Many times, we hear the comment “Oh, I could never do that” when someone is looking at one of our sample pieces and our answer is almost always “It’s easier then you think!”  One way to make it easy is to simply break down the design into pieces.

Let me show you an easy way to tackle a large, complicated piece with outstanding results. Take this Old Time Cookie Jar. I wanted to have lots of different images on the piece, so that I could feature all kinds of dogs, lots of colors, and even a few names.

Begin by splitting the jar in half horizontally with a regular #2 pencil, and then do the same thing only going in a vertical direction. Since this particular piece is rather round, I divided it a second time vertically so that I had more even sized spaces. We now have several small areas to paint instead of one intimidating and very daunting large piece of pottery.

Mix up the design. Use pure color in some spaces, then maybe patterns in others. If you have a main image in mind, use the #2 pencil to sketch it in first, and then work out from there. Remember that the #2 pencil completely burns off in the kiln, so feel free to experiment until you are ready to paint. You can even write in each square what you want to paint there! Once you have it broken down into small spaces, you will be surprised at how easy it is and how cute the end result will be!

Julie, Julia, and Tyler Send Kids to Camp!

Posted on: May 13th, 2011 by As You Wish No Comments

This week’s blog post comes to us from our District Manager, Tyler Willis.  Tyler continues to be involved with our primary charitable partner -Camp Soaring Eagle.  She has been a camp counselor,volunteered at golf tournaments and recently she was part of a Camp Soaring Eagle charity event featuring Julie Powell, author of Julie and Julia.  We are proud of Tyler’s volunteer efforts with Camp Soaring Eagle and our own involvement raising funds to send kids to camp through our Tiles For Smiles program.  Here’s a peek at Tyler’s evening raising funds for Camp Soaring Eagle with Julie Powell.

Just over a week ago, I was invited to attend a fundraising dinner at Le Cordon Bleu for Camp Soaring Eagle. The evening consisted of a four course dinner with wine pairings, silent auctions, and an opportunity to meet Julie Powell. My invitation for the evening was to interview Julie!

For those of you who do not know who Julie Powell is, she is the author of Julie and Julia. The book was turned into a major motion picture in 2009 and Julie was the guest of honor that night.

I rushed out Friday and decided that an event like this deserved a new dress, accessories and an appearance by a special pair of shoes, although I had all of these already I took advantage of the situation. When I arrived at Le Cordon Bleu, I was greeted by the members of Camp Soaring Eagle and had a chance to talk with Julie before all of the other guests arrived. It was a calm and relaxed atmosphere which seemed to put everyone is a fantastic mood. There were auction items, book signings and an opportunity to sponsor a child to go to camp. It was so great to see such amazing and wonderful people come together for such a special cause.

After dinner was served, Julie and I hopped on stage and began our chat. It was such an honor and so exciting!! Julie is a down to earth person and so easy to talk to. We could have been up there for hours lost in conversation and laughs. I still could not believe I was on stage with her and that I was given this awesome opportunity.

I have worked with Camp Soaring Eagle in many aspects and I have to say this was one exciting evening. It is so awesome to see people come together and help such an amazing organization. The silent auction items included weekend getaways, a Tiles for Smiles mirror, wine tastings and pampering weekends at a spa, just to name a few. To be able to have someone like Julie Powell be able to be there as well made it a pretty special evening. There are so many children and families that benefit from events like this and I am more than honored and excited to be able to have a part in it.

You too can be a part of sending seriously ill children to camp! Come on in and paint a tile as part of our Tiles For Smiles Programs.  It costs jut $10 to paint a 4″ tile and $7 of the $10 goes directly towards sending a child to camp!  This summer as we send our healthy kids off to camp think about what it means to a child who is facing serious medical issues to be able to go to camp and experience the healing power of laughter!  Come on in!  Paint a Tile!  And be a part of making a difference in the lives of kids attending Camp Soaring Eagle!

Paint inside the box!

Posted on: April 22nd, 2011 by As You Wish No Comments

Now most of the time we are extolling the virtures of painting outside the box and embracing all those creative juices!  But this week’s Pottery Painting 101 tip shows us that painting inside the box or coloring inside the lines can help those of us who aren’t necessarrily the type of artist that can whip something out off the tip of our brushes!  This week’s tip comes from our Ahwatukee manager, Cynthia.  Enjoy!

Have you ever wanted to go paint at As You Wish, but worried that you would get there and not be able to come up with an idea? Have you ever come in to paint and ended up walking around for half an hour trying to figure out what you want to do?  Have you ever come in with your kids or friends and decided not to paint because “you don’t have an artistic bone in your body?”  Well, we have a fantastic solution to all of those problems!  The Tissue Paper/Sharpie Trick!!

If you find an image you like in one of our idea books or on one of our samples, you can put that image on your pottery even if you can’t freehand (like me!)  Here is all it takes!

*You put tissue paper, the cheap stuff you wrap gifts in, down on the image you want to transfer. 

*You trace it with a pencil.

*You put your tissue paper down on your pottery and go over the pencil with a sharpie. The sharpie will bleed through the tissue paper onto your pottery so you can paint inside the lines, and the sharpie will burn out in the kiln!!

And voila! From there, all you have to do is paint your image!  If it’s tiny detail work, you can literally just paint with our Funwriters, which are just our normal paint poured into smaller squeeze bottles so you can use them like a pen.  Funwriters come out as 3 coats so you only have to use them once to get solid coverage!

I tell our amazing customers in Ahwatukee this incredible trick and I watch the light bulb go off in their head and I see the smile brighten on their face as they begin to understand the world of possibilities now open to them!  This trick lets you come in with your idea prepared and you tissue paper already traced.  I Google things like line-art, clip art, drawings and images of things I like and do the first tracing at home.

It is so very simple! This wonderful trick lets you look like you can freehand! It lets you put just about anything onto your pottery and end up with a masterpiece!  So, don’t get caught up in all the worry, hesitation and self-doubt!  Even YOU can paint like Picasso!!

We “heart” pottery jewelry!

Posted on: February 23rd, 2011 by As You Wish 3 Comments

We’d like to introduce you to Nicole! Many of you probably know her from our Desert Ridge and Deer Valley studios -she has worked for As You Wish for several years and now manages our Deer Valley Studio. We know that Valentine’s has past, but we have been talking about hearts and add-ons lately and we saw Nicole wearing this necklace and we just had to have her share with you all of the FABULOUS jewelry she makes with our heart add ons and more! We hope you enjoy this post from Nicole as much as we do!

I LOVE to show off the things that I make. What better way to show off your pottery painting skills than to proudly display your work around your neck for everyone to see? Now, I don’t really recommend stringing the handle of a mug and wearing it like a necklace, but our add-ons are a FABULOUS alternative! When I wear my “add-on” pendants at the studio I’ve found that our customers really enjoy looking at them and a few have started making some of their own, so I’m offering this blog entry to help inspire our friends to try it out. You will truly “heart” it, I’m sure!

A few years ago I bought a red, glass heart pendant at my favorite clothing store and I ended up wearing it so much that the clasp wore out. One day, whilst sweeping up the concrete floor in our Desert Ridge location, my heart slipped from my neck and shattered on the floor. I guess you could say I was “heart broken”. Then I realized that my favorite pendant was EXACTLY the same size and shape as our Puffy Heart Add-Ons and I decided to make a replacement. Being a bit of a funky chick I soon realized that it’s IMPOSSIBLE for me to paint something entirely one color. It wasn’t long before painting heart pendants became an obsessive hobby of mine. I give them away as gifts during the holidays, for birthdays, just because or wear them myself…I even had one admirer demand to buy one off my neck while I was just walking down the street!

I eventually branched out and experimented with other mediums besides the fired-on glazes. We offer Acrylic Bisque Stains at all our locations and they’re super fun to use on the hearts because we have the metallic and glitter paints. Acrylic painted pieces can be taken home the same day you paint so they’re a great idea if you need to make a last minute gift. When it’s dry, we can spray it with a clear gloss for shiny and protective finish. Another nice thing about the acrylics is that you can add other things to it - my faves are sparkly rhinestones and tiny flowers glued on as accents.

 Have you ever used Modge-Podge before? Modge-Podge is like clear shellac that’s water proof and allows you to seal on colorful images and stickers.

When creating a pendant from one of our add-ons, this first thing you should think about is how you are going to attach it to your necklace. We can drill small holes in them if you would like. Some of my pendants have a hole in each heart hump, some have a single hole in the “V” of the heart and some have a hole in only one hump so it can be worn kitty-wompus. Sometimes I don’t drill a hole at all and instead I glue an eye pin with a jump ring to the back of the heart and then cover the back with felt or suede. You can purchase suede scraps from leather shops for almost NOTHING! Make sure that if you want a hole drilled in it to let us know BEFORE you paint as sometimes the hole can break through the piece while it’s being drilled.


My favorite (and easiest) way to wear an add-on pendant is to just string some pretty ribbon through the holes but a hand beaded chain looks FABULOUS as well. The add-ons can be heavy so I would not recommend using your best silver or gold chain.
On almost all of my add-on pendants I like to use my favorite words for decoration. Doesn’t everybody have favorite words that just evoke happy feelings when they hear them? I like words like “Harmony”, “Breathe”, and “Beauty”…………and “Kitty-Wompus”…..”Fancy-Pants”……”Chimichanga”.

My Victorian-inspired pendants are the most popular with admirers so I’ve created a step by step process to show how EASY it really is to paint them with the glaze paints. For this piece I’ve chosen one of our “plain heart add-ons” which are about 2.5” tall and 3” wide, giving lots of space to work with.
1) Using a large fan brush, paint the entire background with Tweety Bird and allow to dry. Once dry, pencil a smaller heart shape around the contours of the heart.
2) Using a medium small round brush, paint two thin coats of Hint-O-Mint inside the penciled heart shape. Be sure to make long, sweeping strokes, this will allow the Tweety Bird to come through the Hint-O-Mint just a tad for light yellow tint.
3) Now for the roses! These dainty roses are painted in only THREE steps. Believe it! I’ve made a small reference chart for painting them. On this pendant, I made two large red roses, two large yellow roses, and three smaller white roses.
a. Using a small brush lay down your base color in one coat in a circular shape. Let dry.
b. Next, using your contour color, make two semi-circle strokes inside the base color. Let dry.
c. Use a long skinny brush and your petal color to make the petals of the roses. Once the petals are dry, you may choose to add accent colors like the white shine on the red roses. I put a little bit of light blue on the white petals to give them dimension. (Another note for the white petals…I mixed a tiny tad of white Puffy Paint in the Polar Bear white glaze paint to make it more opaque.)
VOILA!!! ROSES!!!
4) Use a small brush to stick some leaves in between the roses. I used Pea Soup for these leaves and accented them with Mocha Fudge.
5) Next write your inspirational word using a fun writer, for this project I chose Je t’aime which is a lovely French translation of I Love You, outline the inner heart and add small dots to accent. I used Mocha Fudge to pick up the color in the leaves.
6) Lastly, dot the yellow border with Pure White puffy paint. Make sure to smush the puffy dots down or they’ll fire up like sharp spikes!

Wasn’t that easy!? The hardest part is having to wait the three days to pick it up. *Le sigh*. This heart would look ever so lovely hanging on a strand of pearl beads or frilly ribbon. I hope you find inspiration in this blog entry and enjoy creating your own wearable art with As You Wish! Don’t forget to send us your pictures on Facebook of the wearable art you make using our add-ons.

Pottery Proposals and more!

Posted on: February 14th, 2011 by As You Wish No Comments

We love Valentines Day at As You Wish!!!!!  The candy hearts, little notes, the flowers,- all of it!  We love the romance it can bring out in people.  We’ve seen husbands suprise wives with a date night at As You Wish complete with flowers on the table and a bottle of wine; we’ve helped several men paint “Will You Marry Me” on the perfect piece of pottery and last year we even witnessed our first in studio “Pottery Proposal!”   Nicole thought she was just going to As You Wish on a date with her boyfriend,when she stumbled upon a painted plate that said “Will You Marry Me?”  He had secretly come in and pre-painted that plate and placed it just where he thought she might look.  The staff was in on it, her friend was in on it, and her boyfriend….well, he was just plain romantic!  So all you men out there, take note – we happen to think the “Pottery Proposal” ranks right up there in the Top Ten Creative Propposals of All Time! 

Angie Fraley our Community Relations Director has another great Valentine’s Idea – “We have an annual tradition on Valentines Day.  We get as many of our couple friends as possible and all go painting together at As You Wish.  The idea is that we all paint a wine glass for the other person in our life – how fun is that? It is really two gifts in one – a creative evening together and a wine glass!”  We couldn’t agree more!    Enjoy your Valentines Day, we hope it brings out the creative, romantic side of you!

Pottery Painting 101 – Love Bug Flower Pot

Posted on: February 8th, 2011 by As You Wish No Comments

Each month we will feature a simple pottery painting project that you can complete in 10 easy steps or less!  For those of you out there that are scared silly by paint and brushes, or those that need a little creative inspiration than Pottery Painting 101 is your destination each month.  Enjoy!

This month we are featuring an adorable Valentine’s gift you can make with your little ones.  Bring your little love bug into As You Wish and make a special flower pot for the person you adore this Valentines season! It’s easy to dance their fingerprints through paint to make these love bugs to decorate the perfect gift for a teacher, a parent, or even a grandparent! They will be so honored to receive a special gift made with Love! 

 

 1.  Ladybug Body - Using the large sponge on a stick make pink circles at various spots around the flower pot.  Just dip the sponge in paint and press it lightly on the flower pot.

 2.  Ladybug Wings - Once the pink is dry, brush some red on your child’s thumb and make two thumbprints on top of the pink circles to make an upside down V shape.

 3. Ladybug Head - Use the small sponge on a stick to make the ladybug’s head.  Just dip the sponge in black paint and press it lightly on the flower pot at the top of the pink circles to make the shape of the head.

 4.  Stripes – use a wide square brush and make a single brush stroke in intervals around the rim of the flower pot to create your stripes.

 5.  Details of Ladybug – Using a black funwriter, draw the antennas onto the ladybugs head.  Then make a rough circle around each ladybug’s body.  Remember, look at the picture, the circles are not exact.  Lastly, place a few black dots on the ladybugs body.

 6.  Details of Rim – Still using a black funwriter, outline the vertical sides of each red stripe.  Again it doesn’t have to be exact.  Then if you like add a wavy line across the bottom of the rim.

 7.  Polka Dots on Rim – these are created by dipping the wrong end of a paint brush, a qtip, or the eraser head of a pencil into black paint and placing it on the rim of the flower pot.

 8.  Saucer – we used a light pink.  Take a fan brush and dip it in clean water, place it directly into your paint so it is a little watery and mix it up, add a few more drops of water if you like, this makes the paint more translucent.  Make large brushstrokes all over the inside and outside of the saucer until covered.  If you need to add more water do so.

 9.  Dots on Saucer – using the same technique as you did for the Polka Dots on Rim.  Dot the saucer with red and medium pink dots as desired.

 10.  Writing on Rim – using the black puffy paint, write your preferred wording on the rim.  If you are uncomfortable free handing it with the puffy paint, you can pencil it on first with #2 pencil.  Just be very careful to sketch on top of the paint with the pencil, if you make grooves in the paint with the pencil, the pencil lead mark will go away once it is fired but you will still see the grooves.

That’s it you have a lovely Love Bug gift for Valentine’s in 10 easy steps!

Have a Heart and Share the Love!

Posted on: February 1st, 2011 by As You Wish No Comments

It’s February and that means Valentine’s is right around the corner!  Valentine’s Day is all about sharing love and this year As You Wish is holding a very special event that is close to our heart!  From February 1-14th As You Wish will donate $1 for every  Heart Add-On sold, to the Nick and Kelly Children’s Heart Fund. 

The Nick & Kelly Children’s Heart Fund (NKCF) assists Arizona families of children with congenital heart defects and acquired heart disease.  Their goal is to minimize the financial and emotional burden on families and enable children with heart disease to enjoy an active, fulfilling life. As You Wish became aware of the NKCF through our very own Amy Thompson.  Amy was diagnosed at 6 weeks old with HCOM (Hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy) and had her first open heart surgery at 4 months.  She wasn’t expected to live past the age of 3.  She had a pacemaker put in when she was 8 and is now a lovely 25 year old young woman working for As You Wish and pursuing her dream of owning her own café.

 Since Amy was 8 years old she has been involved with NKCF.  Every year NKCF pays tuition and travel expenses for approximately 80 Arizona children with congenital heart defects wishing to attend a non-profit, medically supervised residential summer camp on Catalina Island. Amy attended those camps as a child and is now a camp counselor. “I was never expected to live a normal life or even to be alive this long. At age 8 NKCF found me. They sent me to camp for kids like me, where I was able to rock climb, snorkel, and do archery.  I attended every year after that and still return as a camp counselor.  I now have a chance to give back to a charity that saved my life.”

We are so proud of Amy and her quest to give back to the charity that helped her and to pay it forward to other children afflicted with heart disease.  So As You Wish asks you to Have a Heart and Share the Love with the Nick and Kelly Children’s Heart Fund, Feb 1 – 14th!  Come on in and create some Valentine’s Gifts for the one you love and know that you have touched our heart, Amy’s heart, and countless children’s hearts in Arizona!

Tiles, Games and other Gifts

Posted on: November 20th, 2010 by As You Wish No Comments

As many of you know, As You Wish supports Camp Soaring Eagle through our Tiles for Smiles Program.  Camp Soaring Eagle sends seriously ill children to camp so they can be a kid again and experience the healing power of laughter.  Our Tiles For Smiles program allows As You Wish customers to paint a tile that is donated to Camp Soaring Eagle along with the proceeds that go directly to sending children to camp.  Last weekend, Angie Fraley, our lovely and talented Community Relations Director volunteered at Camp Soaring Eagle’s Annual Affair, here is her report on the event:

Boy oh boy, I’m am one very lucky girl.  I recently was able to volunteer at Camp Soaring Eagle’s Annual Affair at the JW Marriot along with Becky, our Desert Ridge Manager and Nicole our Lead Supervisor from our Deer Valley studio. We were privileged to witness the most incredible giving I have ever seen!  My job was selling tickets for guests to play carnival games under the market lights while listening to local talent play inspiring music that enlivened the atmosphere.  Becky helped take in silent auction bids and Nicole was my partner in crime at the ticket booth.  Then, the real games began as the lovely and talented Jane Seymour helped the auctioneer sell donated items all for the sake of raising money for Camp Soaring Eagle to send seriously ill children to camp, including a tile mirror that she painted for As You Wish as part of the Tiles For Smiles program. There was cheering, clapping, laughing, and happy tears as guests outbid each other for the sake of sending these beautiful children to camp.  Bids in the thousands!!!  I was in awe.  I actually saw a couple of my favorite campers dressed to perfection as they also volunteered manning the booths of games.  The slogan for the event couldn’t have been closer to the truth – We PLAYED, we LAUGHED, and everyone CARED!  I am truly touched and thankful for the opportunity to witness generosity in action.  What a gift.  

If you’d like to take part in our Tiles For Smiles program and help send a sick child to camp.  Simply contact your local studio or visit our Camp Soaring Eagle webpage for more details!

Be Thankful Everyday!

Posted on: November 2nd, 2010 by As You Wish No Comments

Last week we gave away a lovely little vase on our Facebook page.  It is perfect for a Thanksgiving centerpiece but can also add to your everyday seasonal decor, especially here in the Phoenix area where we don’t really experience a true Fall Season – the colors and the leaves on this vase bring us a little hint of the beauty of leaves turning and more importantly the  vase whimsically reminds us to “Be Thankful Everyday.”

 

For those of you who didn’t win the vase we thought we would give you instructions on how to paint it!  It is sooooo much easier than it appears!  So here you go:

1.  The background of the vase pictured is a combination of two colors Peachy Keen and Peach Fuzz.  Simply dip a damp sponge into Peachy Keen and beginning at the bottom of the vase wipe the paint on in a continuous circular motion around the vase working your way about a third of the way up.  Next dip a damp sponge in Peach Fuzz and wipe the paint on in the same manner starting where you left off with Peachy Keen.

2.  The Leaves – Couldn’t be Easier – They are Thumbprints!  That’s right just a set of three thumbprints.  We used Simply Cinnamon, Blazing Saddle, Orange Crush, and What a Yolk.  All you do is dip your thumb in the color of your choice and make three thumbprints grouped together – left,center,right.  That’s It!  We also blended colors – for example we dipped our thumb in orange crush and then in what a yolk and then made our thumbprint – this will give you that variegated color of leaves changing.  Make as many leaves all over the vase as you choose, just leave a space on the front of the vase for your lettering.

3.  Outlining the Leaves – this is what makes your thumbprints look like leaves.  We used a Chocolate Moose funwriter.  The key to the funwriter is holding it at an angle and very lightly squeezing it to get a light flow of paint coming out, just do a free form outline of a leaf around your thumbprints and fill in with the veins of the leaf.  The Most Important thing to remember about your outline is it isn’t supposed to be perfect, look closely at ours, sometimes the thumbprints are inside and outside of the leaf outline and that’s the fun of it – it isn’t perfect!

4.  Lettering – now take that same funwriter and do your lettering.  If you aren’t comfortable doing it free hand you can pencil it on first.  Just be very careful to LIGHTLY pencil it on, the pencil goes away but if you cut a groove into the paint it will show up.

5.  Splatter Paint – the most fun ever!  Take a toothbrush and dip it in a accent color – we used simply cinnamon.  Now just flick the toothbrush and let the paint splatter onto the vase.  If you want bigger splatters flick it onto the vase right after you dip it into the paint.  For  a finer mist like we have done, do a couple of flicks onto scratch paper to get rid of the excess paint and then flick onto your vase.

6.  The final touch is the dots around the top edge to finish it off.  Just dip a pencil eraser into an accent color – we used the chocolate moose and make your dots around the top edge.

That’s It!  You are Done!  See it doesn’t take any kind of amazing artistic ability and you have something that will put a little touch of fall on your table and remind you to

“Be Thankful Everyday”

Happy Painting!