Thursday 28 October 2010

Halloween Nightmare and homemade whip cream experiment :)

Hello everyone!
Just like the title of this post says, this year Halloween is a nightmare for me.  I showed you some of the Halloween decorations I've made in my last post. I also said there that I'm going to make Halloween cupcakes. And I did.
I didn't want to waste my Grace cream and I didn't want to use silicone, because I wanted them to be more durable, and so I decided to try something new: mixing my air dry Fimo clay with water and make my own first homemade whip cream. I must say that it takes a while to mix it properly, and i think i got over exited with water and I've added to much of it :( The cream was soft and I could pipe it through with ease. The cupcakes looked lovely up to the moment when the cream started to "melt"... I don't know how to describe it in English. The cream didn't stay on top of the cupcakes, it just melted around. The decorations didn't stay were they meant to, but instead they moved away from each other. It was a disaster :) And that's why I won't show you photos of my nightmare cupcakes here, because they are  too embarrassing for me :D

Instead, i will show you my other cupcakes I've made with Fimo cream  leftovers. I've made them when I finished Halloween cupcakes, when I didn't know that the cream on them is melting :( So I wasted half of my nice cupcake bases, but oh well, it happens...


As you can see, this clay is matt and I will have to finish them off with gloss varnish. I've used my handmade photo holders, which were sprayed with white paint, but as you can see it starts to chip off, and that is a sign for me not to use them in my Etsy work, but to use proper photo clips ^_^


You can see how the decorations has moved apart from each other :( Especially on this strawberry cupcake.  And the cream has lost it's definition, and now it looks more like frosting or icing (I don't know which one is professional definition:P ).


Here you can see the cream closer:

It doesn't look bad but it's not perfect either.  I just made a mistake not trying it out on a side :( Hopefully I will learn a lesson from this mistake :) Next time (oh yeas, I will try it again! :D ) I will add less water, and even if it will be harder to pipe it through, I will be shure that it won't loose the shape.

The clay cream is now hard enough to be varnished, and it feels much sturdier than Grace cream, which even after drying can be squashed with fingers. This one feels really tough. I can't judge how it holds tiny items, because I have attached them with tiny bit of glue underneath, but I think it would hold details pretty well, especially after varnishing it couple of times (to achieve this glossy effect).

I must say that even if it was too watery, it looks nice on small items, like these tiny macaroons:
I've filled them up with Fimo cream because I really, really don't like wasting things :) (when they cost so much!) You can see that the cream hasn't lost its shape and it looks like a proper cream :)

So what have I learned from this? Well, not much :D One thing maybe: not to be so impatient and try things out first before using them.
I have done all of this mess day ago and I must say that it made me really sad. I had to wait a day to write about this, otherwise you would get really depressing post! :D I was really looking forward to make these Halloween cupcakes, which i was planning to sell in a shop next to my cafe. Now I have nothing for them and I have to think about other ideas for them :)
I have also bought loads of stuff in a moment of desperation ^_^ I bought four different types of modelling paste and I will try to review them the best I can in the close future. I've done it because I want to stop using silicone, and use Grace clay only for mini items, like jewellery, because this clay is a bit expensive. So stay tuned for some unprofessional reviews! :D

Hope you enjoyed it and thanks for looking! :)

8 comments:

  1. I think you cupcakes look lovely! I think I'm going to try your trick too! see what it gives when I'm mixing DAS clay with acrylic paint and water, so thanks ^^
    I have a questions, on your facebook button on the right, under "Status" it says your latest post there but when I update my status, it says "no recent updates" :s do you maybe know how I could fix that?

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  2. Thank you Riechan!
    I've use DAS clay before but I didn't really like it. It said on the packet that it's white but it was grey inside O_o' And I'm not sure how would it pipe through because it's a paper clay and I'm sure you've noticed that when you rip a piece in your hands it fells like you'd be ripping a wet paper. So I wouldn't recommend it but you won't know untill you try :) I just don't want you waste your clay, and I know how sad feeling it is :D

    About Facebook:
    I just can see my latest status, I cant see anything about my latest post lol

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  3. Your cupcakes're very cute !! ^____^
    thanks for your trick , i have to try ! i'm going to mix with Kutsuwa clay

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  4. Thank you Noonpuppet!
    It's acctualy not my trick. Someone on Deco Den Live Journal has tried it and decorated whole box with cream made from air dry clay and it looked nice. That's why I tried it and I failed. I will do better next time :)

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  5. @Mini Mo: I don't like DAS clay either but it's cheap and easy to find. Some time ago I bought another brand but haven't tried it yet.
    about fb: i meant, i see your last status update but with me I just see "no recent status"

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  6. Riechan:
    Have you tried to search for Fimo Air dry clay? Its really cheap. I buy it for about £4 which would be maybe 3$ :) I think its German brand so it would be easy to buy it in Europe.

    And I still don't know what you mean with Facebook :D I'm sorry.

    And I'm sorry for random layouts of my blog. I'm currently changing the look of my blog :P

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  7. Hey you could actually mix your air dry clay with PVA glue. It looks really nice and it also holds. (just make sure you don't add too much glue) Also, since it is mixed with glue instead of water, the stuff you put on the cupcakes can actually stick to the 'cream' and not fall off. Hope this helps!

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  8. @KawaiiDen:
    I didn't know that I could mix it wit PVA glu, I've never used it :) I will def try it out :) Thank you for advice!

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