Sunday 26 December 2010

First mega giveaway!!!



Pink cupcake necklace
 Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas! I bet you got plenty of presents but I have to tell you that you can get more! :D I would like to announce that from today I will be organizing a massive free giveaway! As you can see on pictures below, I will be giving away 12 (yes 12!!! :D ) different sweet items! So there will be 12 lucky winners! The deadline will be on the 2nd of January and the prize draw will be held on the next day, and on that day I will announce the lucky winners! :)


So you are probably wondering how to enter this giveaway? Well it's simple, just follow these steps:



                                                  

1. Follow my blog,
and write about this giveaway on your blog
(with direct link to this page).

2. Follow me on Twitter,
and retweet about this giveaway
(link at the bottom of this page).

3. Join my Facebook Fan Page.


As you can see everyone can have three chances to win if you complete all of these three steps :) I would also required all of you wanting to participate to add a comment under this post, with your name & nicknames (from Twitter and Facebook) so I would know who is who and what you've done already :) You can also add a link to your blog where you've written about this giveaway. I don't mind it and I won't treat it as spam, because I like to read blogs people who like my blog :) 

If you are already following me here, on FB or Twitter, then just add a comment, so I would know that you would like to participate :)

I hope this all is not too complicated! I have to say that this is my first ever giveaway I'm organizing, so if you'd have any questions please ask! :)

Pink cream earrings set

Pink cream adjustable ring

Chocolate cream adjustable ring

Cream pink roses hair clips set

Chocolate & strawberry Swiss roll cake phone charms
(two separate prizes)

Banana & blueberries millefeullie, and donut phone charms
(two separate prizes)
  
Chocolate & strawberry ice cream phone charms
(two separate prizes)
I will announce a list of everyone included in this giveaway on the next Sunday's evening (UK
time :) and I will draw the lucky winners on Monday. Good luck everyone! :)

I hope you will enjoy this giveaway as much as I will be enjoying giving all these sweet things for free!! :D

And thank you for visiting my blog!





Thursday 23 December 2010

Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone!

First of all, I'd like to wish you all Merry, Happy and Sweet Christmas! :D I know, it's not Christmas yet, but I might be away fore couple of days so I think now is the best time to do it :)
I've said before that I would like to make a giveaway for all of you. I've checked my statistics recently and now I'm only 70 hits away from reaching 10 000 views! Amazing! I'm so excited! I'm also really grateful to all of you who visit my blog. It's all because of you and I would like to thank you for following my blog, all your nice comments and even just popping by to read some of my posts.
I've been thinking what items I should include into my giveaway. I haven't chosen them yet but I've already decided that I will give away more smaller items, so I will be able to make more people happy, rather than couple of lucky winners. And it's cheaper to post smaller items too..... :P So there will be some phone charms, maybe jewellery, I don't know yet.I still have couple of days to think about it.
I'm also glad that it will happen around Christmas time and I will feel like Santa! I have to be honest that I would make a perfect Santa. I love giving presents more than receiving them. And if I could (I mean had funds) I would give all my creations for free! :D
So now I have to think how to organize my giveaway and just to make this post more visually attractive I will show you my new items I've added to my Etsy shop:



Do you remember this mirror? I've decided to put it out on sale and now you can purchase it from my Etsy shop! :)

Thank you for looking and Merry Christmas everyone! :)

Saturday 18 December 2010

Market day!

Hi guys!

It's so good to be back to normal blogging! :) I've done my market day on Friday and now I can finally have some rest! :D I feel really tired and I'm looking forward to Christmas now. These last days before the market were quite tiring, because I had to finish and varnished rest of my items. I also had to pack my jewelery and accessories so they would look more appealing :)

The market wasn't really what I expected. We had heavy snow weather warnings night before, so probably because of that it wasn't particularly busy at the market. It was half empty and most of the stalls were filled with antique jewellery and collectors items, so you can imagine that the only people coming there were mostly older pensioners :D Being honest I didn't sell much but I'm still happy that I've done it. It gave me courage and made me believe in myself more :) 

It was an inside market and each one one of us had the table. I was a bit concerned about the size of it and I didn't know if I had enough of stock made, or if my table cover would be big enough. But it looked perfect and I had just right amount of things to fill the whole table :) As you can see I used a simple paper party table cover. I wanted it to be blue or turquoise but I couldn't find one so I went for raspberry colour. A bit girly but oh well... ^_^

I'm a big fan of shabby chick style so I decided to use some paper doilies as a decoration. I wanted it to look like a country table, I don't know really If I've achieved that but I still liked it :)
I had a large cork board to hang my phone charms. I covered it with piece of fabric but the charms covered most of it :) I wasn't shure how I will stand it but luckily  I found my old paintings frame stand. It also had a small drawer which I used to display rest of my jewelry.
I have to say that I didn't know how to pack my rings. I couldn't find any way to make them stay nicely on these little card boards, so I just put them onto a little cloth.
I've made quite a lot of accessories and at the end I ran out of cello bags for my hair clips, so I had to just slide them onto cards.  




I found out an easy way to make cute packaging :) Before I thought that I would have to print labels but my printer didn't want to print on thicker paper. Instead, I've used my custom stamps which were in perfect size! :) I also really liked the colors I've used. I have to say that my favourite colour is turquoise but they didn't have card in this colour so I bought the one they had and it was the best choice I could have made :) It went well with all the charms and jewellery and I think I will be using this colour theme from now on.

I have to admit that doing this market was a really good experience and I would like to do it again, probably not at this place, instead I will try to find some craft fairs. But for now I will focus on having a good rest and enjoy the Christmas :)

I have to add that I've checked my statistics recently and soon I will reach 10 000 views! Whoo! This could be the perfect excuse to make some massive giveaway which I wanted to do for some time, I just didn't have any good reason for it :D I don't really know how to organize it and what rules I should apply to it so I think I good use some useful advice :)

I hope that you enjoyed this post and I will be happy to know what you think :)
And thank you for dropping by!

Sunday 12 December 2010

Sweet deco Jars :)

Hi everyone!

This will be quick update post with plenty of photos :) . I feel a bit guilty that I don't make proper posts recently but I'm trying to finish everything before Friday market. And yes, I will be doing this market this Friday! Yay! I've booked a table and I have to say that I got a bit scared. The lady there told me that my table will be 8 ft long O_o' I thought it will be a bit shorter so I had to revise how much stock I have. Now I have to wait for last pieces to dry, varnish them and finish my little jewellery.

Today I would like to show you some photos of sweet jars I've decorated with cream and different goodies :)
The cream is of course modelling paste and everything is already varnished. I've also made three smaller jars but unfortunately I haven't taken any pictures of them. Btw, I've still got lots of things I want to take pictures of, but I haven't got time! :( So many things to do and so little time! Only work, work work..... I think I need a good rest on Christmas! :D





I hope you enjoyed this tiny post and thank you for visiting my blog! :)

Sunday 5 December 2010

Pink Deco Mirror

Hi guys!

It stopped snowing here in south UK and finally we've got some sunshine :) I'm glad because I hate cold and I could take some pictures of my deco items I made before.
I wanted to show you some more frames I made but I decided to post something different. I will add photos of some more frames next time (I've got so many of them! :D )
So here you have mirror I've decorated with Grace pink cream and some sweets. I'm particularly happy with fruits, I don't know if you can see them properly. I also have other mirror with white cream but it's still drying and I have to varnish it.

I don't know what to say more about this mirror :) If you have any questions just ask and thank you for visiting my blog! :)


Friday 3 December 2010

Blogs and Shop Pages updated :)

Hey guys!

Just a quick update: I have finally edited my Blogs and Shops pages. I also created Freebies section where I will be adding websites where you can get some free interesting stuff :)

Pages are not finished completely. So far I've added my favourite blogs and I hope I will find time to add some more, although I don't want to make this page too messy :) I propably won't write about all the blogs I visit. If you'd like to see more you can check out my profile for more cool blogs. The ones I've added so far are the ones I visit every day. Yes every day ^_^' So check them out and have fun!

Thursday 2 December 2010

First sweet photo frames

Hi everyone!

It's been snowing whole day today here on the English beach! :) And because of that our Cafe was closed and we didn't have to come to work. Whoop whoop! :D I kind of wanted to because I need money now but on the other hand I did need an extra day to make some more stock for my market day.


Today I'd like to show you couple of my first sweet photo frames which I want to sell at the market. I made them some time ago but I had to wait for cream to dry out completely so I could varnish them. I used modelling paste as a whip cream and it dries a bit longer than Grace clay. The white one here is Galeria and the chocolate one is that grey Marabu paste, which I coloured with acrylic paint (thanks Riechan! :D )
They may not look like all these fancy Japanese versions of deco frames, but I didn't want them to look too heavy. I like this minimalistic style :) And I think that the bare wood blends with deco really well.

I have more already made deco frames in others colours and I will be showing them to you soon, when they will dry completely. I also have many more things to show you so stay tuned for more sweet items!

I hope you enjoyed this tiny post and thank you for visiting my blog! :)

Tuesday 30 November 2010

How to make mega easy ice cream scoops

Hi everyone!

It's almost December now and proper winter has come to UK. It's been snowing today where I live and I think that this eveningg is the coldest one ever! You should see me now writing this to you: I'm wearing three layers of clothes and gloves! :D I live in a flat on the beach and almost everyone is jealous about that, but they don't realize how cold it's here in winter :) I'm really happy that I don't have to make anything from polymer clay because my hands could not cope with kneading it. But I still have some work to be done and today it was time to finish the rest of my ice creams. I've already made individual scoops and today I made scoops on waffle cones, and I decided that I could show you how to make them from air dry clay in a really easy way. It may take a bit longer than normal technique but you have a total control over the process. You can use this method with measuring spoon to make individual scoops as well, but I would like to show you that you don't really need it :)


The photos will be shown in kind of random order because I made two scoops on each cone and photos of the second scoop were just better :)
I also would like to apologize how dark they are but I usually make things in the evening and here in UK it gets dark before I finish work :( I tried to fix this problem with photoshop and hopefully you will be able to see everything.


So ffirst you have to make a ball shape from your coloured clay.


Here you can see that i attached it to already pre made ice cream scoop with deco glue.





Next you will need a piece of kitchen foil folder couple of times into a thin piece. The thickness will depend on how big ice cream scoop you want to make. The bigger, the thicker the foil piece should be, but it all depends how much define you'd like this scoop to be.
Using it make round creases in the clay, just like in the picture here. Try not to make one long line but rather more smaller ones. This will give you the basic texture of the scoop and most of the times, depends on what effect you will get (I get different every time :) it could be enough. If not, you can use another piece of kitchen foil in a ball shape and just dab slightly the surface of the clay.
Next you will need a pointed tool. You can use a needle tool, dart or just a toothpick. Whatever you prefer :)

Using it, rip a random pieces from your clay leftovers.

Try to get fluffy bits and stick them gently together. It doesn't really matter if they are perfect or not. Just try to avoid big chunky pieces.

I'm not shure if you can see it in the photo, but I usually apply a bit of glue on the scoop and then add fluffy fluff onto it :) to make sure that it wont fall off.

I would recommend using glue for larger scoops and the ones that will be bashed around a lot :) . I don't usually use glue for mini scoops.


And here you have ready made ice cream! :)

I've tried many method of making scoops before and I find this one the best. I don't have to care about clay sticking to measuring scoops and I can create scoop in any shape and size I want.

I also like the fluffiness of the edges because I've always had problems to create this realistic look using measuring scoops.

You will have to varnish it after it dries out and then you will be shure that these fluffy bits won't come off.

I hope you enjoyed this mini tutorial and I'd be happy to hear what you think about this method. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask :)

And thank you for visiting my blog!

Saturday 27 November 2010

Cream puffs tutorial

Hi everyone!

I think that cream puffs are one of the easiest and most adorable deco sweets to make. I said easy because now I know how to make them and I would like to show it to you, so you could make your own ones :)

Cream puffs, in UK called profiteroles, are just little puffed pastries filled with cream, and usually topped with chocolate glaze. Most of you know them very well. They are one of the most popular desserts here in UK, especially on Christmas, so I thought that I will make some for my market day.

I made couple of bread rolls in the past so now I thought that I could make cream puffs, as they are very similar to bread rolls. Well, I was wrong. Bread rolls have more or less symmetrical pattern on the top, whether cream puffs are more chaotic. In my opinion, off course :)
I tried to search for a tutorial on how to make them, but I couldn't find it. Maybe it's too obvious for many how to make them, but it wasn't for me. And so I created my own way of making them and here you have my little cream puffs tutorial :)


First you have to colour your air dry clay with acrylic paint off course :) I used a bit of ochre colour.
Then you make a little ball in a size of cream puff you want to have.
Divide it in four more or less similar size parts. I wanted to have rather simple cream puff so I divided it in four. They don't have to be perfect ball shape, because cream puffs are not perfect when they raise in the oven :)


Take three balls (I chose bigger ones) and join them together.

Put fourth one on the top and squeeze them gently together.

Try not to squash them and try to keep it in shape.

I also joined them together underneath, by smudging the creases, so it wouldn't fall apart.




This is difficult part for me as I don't know how to explain it properly in English :D

Using pointed tool (I used knitting needle (???) in small size) smudge and dab the creases, trying to separate the parts a little.

(It's very similar process to making macaroons  I think.)


And here's the easy part :)

Using rough brush (I used nail brush as it's harder that toothbrush) make the texture on the dough.

Don't push too hard and if your creases become smaller, repeat dabbing them and then use brush again until you'll get desired look.



After your cream puff will dry it's time for baking! :) I used raw sienna colour and a make up sponge.

You can just paint them once but I like to do it in two parts. First I use wet sponge with a little bit of paint. I paint the whole dough and I get kind of light coloured background.
After that I use rather dry part of the sponge with more paint and gently apply the paint on the higher parts of the dough.

One tip for you is to dab the sponge with paint onto the piece of paperfirst and then on the cream puff, to get even colour on the dough.
After the puffs are completely dry, you can cut them in the half and fill with cream :)

I hope this tutorial will help some of you and you could make your own Christmas cream puffs! :)
If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

And thank you for visiting my blog! :)

Friday 26 November 2010

Birthday gifts

Hi everyone!

Market day is getting closer and closer and I've been busy trying to get everything done on time, but I still could find some time to make birthday gifts for my boyfriend's sister and his niece :)


I wanted to make something sweets related for my boyfriend's sister, but she's older than us and more serious :) therefore I've tried to create something elegant and "lady like", and so I made these two cute picture frames. I didn't make frames off course, I bought them in Ikea, my favourite store :D To make these flowers, I used Soft Fimo and this was the first time I worked with it. I don't think I will come back to normal, classic polymer clay as this soft version is much easier to work with and hands don't hurt so much :D

My boyfriend's niece is nine years old so I could let my imagination free and make something deco sweets related. I decided to make this sweet clock, partially because I was wanting to make clocks like this for long, long time and finally now I had a chance to do it.

The clock is from Ikea too and it's quite small, about 10cm tall and it was made from transparent plastic.
I wrapped it in air dry clay, "baked it" and then applied all the cream and deco.

For anyone who'd like to make clock like this I have one advice: varnish the clock dough before applying cream and deco. I used pastel powder to bake it and I had to be really careful when varnishing, because the powder mixed with varnish was getting onto the cream, making it brown.


As a deco I used my old sugar coated polymer clay cookie and polymer clay strawberry slices. The white chocolate and pink candy are also made from polymer clay (candy is made from translucent mixed colour polymer clay). 

The rest of the deco is made from air dry clay and cream itself is a Galeria's modelling paste, which was varnished twice.

And here I had to point out something. I've never used modelling paste in such a big quantity and I didn't know that it will take around four days to dry out. Being honest, I had to help it with drying using a hair dryer... Yeah, now I know that you can do it, just use the lowest setting, so you wont get everything burned :D Well, it won't burn but it might wrinkle or something :)

I wanted to add some strawberry sauce on the top of the ice cream scoop and I used mix of resin and glass and acrylic paint. I did it when I made my chocolate sundae with the same technique, and here you can see that the sauce has spread all over the scoop :( Disaster but my boyfriend's niece didn't notice anything :D I can tell all of you in a secret that I've discovered how to make you own sauce and I will share it with you soon :)


The cookie behind is meant to be a "Party Ring" and some of you living in UK know this type of cookie :) This is a gift for a little English girl and I wanted her to have sweets on this clock that she could recognize, not some French fancy sweets that even I don't really know :D






Overall I'm quite happy with this clock and I hope that she will like it too. I want to make more of them and sell them on the market day. I have couple donut shaped ones, and also one cookie and one pastry shaped :)

I'm really curious what you think about it :)
Share a comment!
And thank you for visiting my blog!

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Blue wedding cake phone charm treasured!

Hi everyone!

This will be a quick update :) I have added couple of new items to my Etsy shop last night, pink and blue wedding cake phone charms, and guess what? The blue charm got noticed straight away and it's been added to Etsy treasury! How sweet! ^_^'

This treasury is called "Don't be blue..." and it featured lots of beautiful items. You can check it out clicking on the image below. Have fun  and thanks for visiting my blog! :)

Monday 22 November 2010

Work in progress - Chocolate sundae

Hello again!

I've mentioned in my last post that I'm currently experimenting with resin making jellies. I tried to use resin for something different, this time to make deco sauce. I've tried epoxy resin glue before to make sauce (well, once) and maybe because I bought cheap one, it didn't really look good. It became opaque and not transparent after mixing it with acrylic paint. My crystal epoxy resin was my next choice. I mixed it with acrylic paint and waited couple of hours until it became thick enough, and used it on my first ever sundae photo holder :) 









For a whip cream I used silicone and modelling paste. I put silicone inside of the glass and modelling paste on the top, just to be shure that deco won't fall off and I will be able to varnish it after drying. 

I must say that this resin sauce worked well inside of the glass, but it wasn't thick enough to stay properly on the top of sundae. You can see that it has "melted" on top of the ice cream scoop and it doesn't look like a zig zag anymore :(


But there are some things I am proud of, like my almond pieces which I made using mix of transparent and normal polymer clay :) I didn't want to spend much more money on grace or modena clay to create this semi translucent effect (which is required to make proper nut pieces, I think). I made a long cane, baked it and then sliced it just like you slice it for banana pieces.

I also ordered some custom made stamps with my logo and some extra ones for special occasions :) And this chocolate piece in the back is made using texture stamp for metal clay. Yes this is my next crafting idea to start making silver clay jewelery, but so far I'm too busy with making these clay little (and not) babies.

I hope you enjoyed reading this and thank you for visiting my blog!  :)

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Blue heart cookie charm featured on Etsy treasury!

Hello everyone!

I'd like to share with you happy news. My blue heart cookie bag charm is featured on Etsy treasury created by Amaranthopulent. The theme is "Gifts for girls" and she features lots of beautiful items there. You can visit her treasury just by clicking on picture below :) Have fun!

Tuesday 16 November 2010

Cookies and jellies


I'm back again! :D Just for a little bit to show you some quick photos.

I finished work a bit earlier the other day and I decided to play with resin :) I've always wanted to make little jellies and these little babies are my first ones that came out pretty well. I used normal silicone ice/jelly mould and glass paint. The mould itself is not smooth so my jellies look a bit frosted. I got the parcel from Japan today with different smooth jelly moulds so my next jellies will be shiny :)
I don't know what I'll make from them, maybe fridge magnets...


The next thing I've been working on were cookies and biscuits. I need a lot of them so I've made different types, here you can see only one and some wafers for ice creams. I've used makeup sponge to "bake" them and I must say that I don't know how I could live without it before! It's so easy to shade things with it and it creates totally different look than brushing with pastel powder. If anyone's reading this is just starting to make deco sweets, makeup sponge is a must! Believe me, it will make your life much easier :) .



Some of you know that I've tried to make whip cream from fimo air dry clay before, but I failed. Well I tried again :) I added less water and I made "swirl" cookies :) I don't know their real name so I call them swirl cookies :D
I also made these twisted... things. And off course I used now my favourite sponge. So easy! :)



I still have much more things to make and recently I get lost  what I need more or not. I think I might have wrong way of creating things. It's like with my clothes shopping: I buy things I like without thinking and then I'm stucked with items that don't match each other. So now I'm worried that I will be left with deco that won't look good together :( I need to revise what I need and stop reading blogs for some time, not to get distracted. I just see things and I want to make them, forgetting about all the other sweets I was planning to make before. Total mess! But I am messy and chaotic :D Well, at least my room is after my crating.... ^_^'

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for looking!