Small update…here, takes some doodles…

So, the plan is, in the next week or so, to start on some tutorials in preparation for Valentine’s Day. Sound like a good plan? I thought it did.

I’ve planned a couple thus far, and have also been avoiding my computer like the plague. Until last week anyhow. My husband finally located my tablet which had been buried in a forgotten box that was left unpacked. So, I’ve been spending a tad bit of time drawing. drawing, drawing, and more drawing.
Before I show you, does anyone remember Neopets? That cute little game online from years back? I’ve had an account for 13 years, believe it or not. Though, I will admit, I hadn’t touched it until one day I was looking at some old pictures and found one of m holding a brand new hand held Neopets game my dad had bought me when I was little. I had to check it out. Of course, it is completely different now, and the interest is no longer there, but my son finds the little games interesting, and though he can’t really play them yet, I think it’s cute watching him clicking away like mad in his attempt.
Well, long story short, seeing those old Neopets of mine, I got bored one night and decided to draw them…and have since just been drawing more. Nerdy? Yes. Childish? Possibly. But, when you are bored, there are a lot worse things you could do, right?

Anyhow, the doodles!

And the work in progress:

Yep, THAT’S what I have been doing. Not exactly the most exciting thing int he world, but hey, it keeps me occupied!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Polymer Clay Tutorial

Today, I’m going to show you a super quick tutorial for this chocolate chip cookie:

These could make adorable last minute gift ideas. They are super quick and easy to make, and using the basic idea, you can customize it anyway you seem fit (i.e making it into an M&M cookie, leaving out the chocolate chips and making it a sugar cookie, changing the color, whatever you wish).

Chocolate Chip Cookie:

What you will need:
Tan Clay (Mine is Sculpy Brand, bought at Michael’s)
Brown Clay (Sculpy, bought at Michael’s)
Chalk Pastels in the colors pictured above (I bought mine on E-Bay)
A tooth brush or bottle brush like the one pictured for texture (I bought my tool at Michael’s)
Eye Pin (also bought at Michael’s)
Soft Bristle Paint Brush (bought at Wal-Mart)
Blade (I am using an X-acto I bought at Michael’s)
Parchment Paper (bought at Wal-Mart) (not pictured)
Cookie Sheet (not pictured)
Oven (not pictured)

1. Start by rolling your brown clay into a long, skinny snake. Bake for 3-5 minutes at 275 degrees on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

2. Once the brown log, snake piece has cooled, begin cutting small pieces off. This will serve as your chocolate chunks.

3. Next, using a piece of tan clay the size you will want your finished cookie to be, condition and start including your chocolate pieces. You are going to smash and pull the clay. Make sure that you can see a good amount of chocolate pieces when you are done.

4. Now, use your brush to add a bit of texture.

5. Use your blade to scrape off some of your chalk pastels. Mix the colors a bit and brush them on where a cookie would normally begin to brown.

6. Add your eye pin (this might be a little tricky since you now have to work around hardened clay pieces), and bake at 275 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

And there you have it!

Christmas Dress!

With my husband’s assistance, my daughter’s Christmas dress was completed just in time. Her great grandfather has a dinner every year around this time where the Christmas gifts are exchanged. This year, it’s being held, well….tomorrow. Lol.

I had been working on her dress for a few days, but, unfortunately, I hit a bit of a bump in the road…namely that every needle that we own wound up missing. Of course.

But, here it is, done and she looks completely adorable. Not that that is a shocker. I mean, look at that face. She could make a gunny sack look cute. 😉 We even got her hair fixed up the way it will be tomorrow.

The front, inside of the dress is lined with a fluffy white fabric to keep her warm.

The back is almost floor length.

Is it a bit much for a simple dinner? Probably. But, what can I say? I looooooove dressing up my little girl. 🙂

Disney’s Frozen Inspired Cameo

My friend is coming into town this week, and after Christmas we have made plans to go to the movies. Him, my husband, the kids, and myself.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Frozen for a while now, and wanted to make a necklace to wear when I go. Meh, why not, right? At first I thought I might just make a chibi of Elsa. However, after looking through all the findings I have, I settled on making a cameo.

6 hours later and I finally pulled it out of the oven, completed.

I’m not entirely happy with it, but I’m not unhappy either. I think I could be fairly proud to wear this…into a dark theater. x)

So I tried my hand at sewing…

My sister loves Narwhals. Now, granted, I could have stayed within my comfort zone and just make her a Narwhal necklace out of clay or something, but I decided to try my hand at making her a mustachioed, monocle wearing, Narwhal PLUSHIE.

The first time I had ever seen these horned whales depicted, I was watching one of my mother’s favorite movies, The Last Unicorn. I thought they were fascinating, and have since learned that infamous horn is actually an extremely large tooth, much like an elephant tusk.

Anyhow, enough of marine life lessons.

For this plushie, I followed a tutorial and used a pattern I found online, and dressed him up like a little Sir, because, well, my sister just loves mustaches and monocles as well. I had some blue, plush fabric left over from a failed attempt to make a baby blanket for one of my husband’s friends who had just welcomed his first child into the world (I ended up making bow tie onesies and some burp cloths instead. They didn’t mind the blanket being missing, they still seemed very happy).

You can find the tutorial and pattern here on this site called Craftster. I would also recommend visiting her Etsy shop, if you are thinking about adopting a little Narwhal buddy for yourself. She has a lot of other cute and colorful creations, and honestly, I’m thinking about putting an order in for one of those little Corgis, “for my daughter”, of course. 😉

I did a search on Google for mustachioed Narwhals to give me an idea of what I wanted to do, and believe it or not, there are already a lot of cute gentleman Narwhals out there. However, this one here was most like what I had in mind.

It took 4 hours of sewing (did I mention that I don’t know how to sew?) and two days to actually finish with the monocle and all. In the end though, I think my little sister will like it. If not…I might lock myself in my room and cry for a week. No big deal. ;P
Anyhow, say hello to her new whimsical horned whale of the deep blue, yet to be named, of course.

The Moon Chibi

So, this is going to be the first in my planetary chibi’s. Yes, I am well aware the moon is not a planet. It’s a moon. However, it was after completing this and showing a dear friend that they suggested making a chibi to represent all the planets. Personally, I adore this idea, and will slowly be making these.

I was sort of think of adding her to the POSSIBLE giveaway in the near future. Idk, we will see what happens. 🙂

 

And it still hurts: Just a Rant

What is it about the invention of social media that has made everyone feel like they need to plaster their daily life on it? I do it too. That’s not even what my rant is about.
I know some things are best kept to yourself, but there are times when it feels just so dang GOOD to get it out for all the world to read!
I suppose it might be a good thing I deactivated my FaceBook account a while back.

Anyway, to the point of this rant. A while back, someone I put a lot of trust in hurt me pretty badly. Someone who any person should be able to go to when they need help. And honestly, her word weren’t meant to be hurtful, I don’t think. But she used a conversation we had as a springboard, and that is what made them so painful. You see, that day something that cost her a pretty penny had went missing, and we spent a good portion of the morning searching. One spot in particular had all 4 sets of searching eyes on and inside of it at one point, but the item was never found.
When she arrived to work, we got out of the car and she decided to check that spot one more time….and wouldn’t you know it, there the missing item was, tucked away safe. She pulled it out and says to me, “See Portia?! God WILL answer your prayers if you actually have faith.”
Now, normally, this wouldn’t bother me, but the conversation on the way to her place of work passed to my daughter, and the moments when the officer knelt down and told me there was nothing they could do. I dropped to me knees, I prayed, I begged, I pleaded for God to let me take her place. But we all know that’s not how these things work. God gives you the things you need, not what you want.

And so, I couldn’t help myself, I was angry. “Oh, I am so sure God thought your stupid *insert item here* was just SOOOOOO much more important than my daughter’s life, right?!” I shouted at her, not even thinking before I decided to open my mouth. Now see, smart Portia would have just kept her mouth shut and smiled. SMART Portia would have nodded and said “I’m so glad you found it”. But no, this was stupid, angry Portia speaking.

And so, she says back to me, “No, you just didn’t have faith. That’s why you lost her. This is God’s way of telling you that you need to live for HIM.” And she just kept making me angrier. Shut up Portia, just let it go. You KNOW you won’t win here.

“I HAD faith until she died! Don’t you DARE tell me that I didn’t. Don’t you DARE tell me my daughter’s death was a LESSON.” I hissed this last word.
Dang it! That is NOT what you were supposed to say. You were supposed to just keep your mouth shut.
“I am NOT going to argue with you on this. I prayed to God that this would be found, and it was. I have my faith. That should be enough proof for you.”
 Smart Portia took over here. This is where I shut my trap. She won, and I got to stop listening to the most insulting things to come out of the person I trusted more than anyone.

It’s been a couple months since then, but there are nights, like tonight, when I am sitting all alone, when my husband is at work and my children are asleep, when there is nothing good on TV to watch, and my heart is already aching like it does every time the memory of that little red haired baby floats into my mind, that those nasty words replay themselves. And I start to cry, and I start to shake, and my resolve to let it go and forgive start to weaken.
My relationship with that person is more important than some stupid words that I am sure she didn’t mean to be hurtful, but I am weak, and I am angry, and I am easily offended these days.

Does that not make me human?

The Snow Globe (Polymer Clay) Sugar Cookie

Finally, I have finished this time consuming little charm. It took longer than I had hoped because I ended up having to use this acrylic ‘water’ for fake flower arrangements that…unfortunately, takes 2 days to set. Well, now that it is all done, I love it. ❤ It’s even scented.

If you want to find the tutorial I followed to make my cookie, you can visit this blog: http://myrandas-sweet-treats.blogspot.com/2013/10/christmas-cookie-gifts-3d-snowglobe.html

The instructions are for an actual cookie, but the basics are pretty much the same (it’s easier to make a fake cookie if you ask me).

Like I mentioned at the beginning, for the clear ‘glass’ part I used an acrylic ‘water’ for flake floral arrangements. I recommend resin however.

The inside I used micro-beads in silver, white glitter dust, and some blue glitter. I decorated it with the fake icing, which you can find the tutorial for that here on my blog.

The biggest issue I had, minus that dang acrylic water, was that the glitter…sticks…to the…acrylic water. Huh, I guess all my issues really stemmed from it.

Well, that’s it for today. What do you think?

Sugar Cookies

Alright, if we are talking about making real, edible sugar cookies, I just can NOT do it. Sugar cookies are the one cookie I am completely incapable of making. No matter the recipe, no matter what I do, I just can’t seem to get them right. The dough always, always, ALWAYS turns into a far too sticky mess (even after hours in the fridge) that I end up trying to remedy by adding extra flour…and then they just taste like flour. Bleck. I’ll leave those to the more talented people in my life.

Now, polymer clay sugar cookies? I can do that! Not as amazing as others out there, but I do like making them. Today, after thinking about it a bit, I decided to mix up some clay to get the fluffier looking sugar cookies I have always wished I could make. And you know something? I think I got it. I ended up making a charm perfect for a necklace, and will probably end up making a bunch more.

Also on that note, with Christmas approaching rather quickly, I was thinking about hosting a giveaway. I’m planning on a couple winners receiving a couple of cute sugar cookie charms to keep, or to give as gifts for the holidays.

I would suppose it would depend completely on the level of interest. What do you think?

Edit:

Instead of making a whole new post for these, I decided to just add them to this post. The ‘sugar cookies’ I finished off tonight:

The snow globe one is sort of the clay 2-D version of this amazing sugar cookie from a blog called Myranda’s Sweet Treats: http://myrandas-sweet-treats.blogspot.com/2013/10/christmas-cookie-gifts-3d-snowglobe.html
How amazing is that?! I can’t even make a regular sugar cookie, and this talented person is able to make one that looks like an actual snow globe? *face desk* I’ll stick with clay, most certainly.

I am going to TRY to recreate her sugar cookie completely in clay, but thought this would be a simplified version to finish off tonight. I’ll tackle the more difficult (and smaller version) tomorrow or so.

Well, ignore my rambling, I’m just feeling tired. Have a great night everyone!

Edit EDIT:

So, after browsing around on the webs for other polymer clay snow globe cookies, I found this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweetcherrydesigns/6427293961/

Obviously they created the original, though I do swear I unwittingly copied them. *face desk* Well, I hope they don’t mind too much, I don’t plan on selling it anyhow. They have an Etsy shop, if you care to purchase one of these for yourself. Their work is gorgeous. http://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetCherryShop?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Now excuse me while I slunk off into a deep hole and scold myself for not researching BEFORE basically stealing someone’s beautiful work. ;_;

Polymer Clay Gingerbread House Template and Tips

So, after thinking about it, it’s not exactly easy to make a tutorial over a gingerbread house to begin with. I mean, you can walk someone through on how to make the things like the gingerbread, or the candies, but when it comes to decorating, that’s all about how they like it.Soooooo, with that in mind, I made a template, and will be posting just some tips on how I pulled mine together. Take from that, and you can make yours anyway you wish.

What you will need:

1. Clay in some variation of brown.
2. Chalk Pastels in varying colors of brown
3. Soft bristle paint brush
4. Blade
5. Tooth brush, bottle brush, or something else with stiff bristles to texture with
6. Needle tool (not pictured)
7. Clay ‘candies’ you made, or any type of polymer clay cane you think is interesting (not pictured)
8. Polymer clay ‘icing’ (there is a tutorial for this on my blog)
9. Template (click the link to download)

Tip #1:
It’s a good idea to bake your pieces first, this will make them easier to work with.

This is what maine looked like after texture, dusting, and baking them.

Tip #2:
Make sure your icing is THICK. You don’t want it runny as it won’t hold your pieces together during the baking process well, and when you decorate later, it won’t keep it’s shape. Don’t make it so thick that you can’t spread it though. You gauge on what you think you can work with here.

Tip #3:
Decorate your pieces as much as you can and bake BEFORE putting them together.

Tip #4: Put the pieces on your base but leave one wall off. This mean you should have three walls on, then bake. After that, you can add the final wall and re-bake. This will end up saving you a LOT of trouble. Trust me…

Tips #5: When you add the final wall, bake with that wall facing UP.

Tip #6: Put your roof on ONE piece at a time. Bake between each piece.

Tip #7: Notice how mine has crack where the pieces didn’t seem to connect 100%? Don’t fret of them! Use your ‘icing’ to fill in these gaps and add a bit of decoration.

Tip #8: You can leave it as it is, or you can do what I did and add it to a base. I wanted mine to look like it was sitting in snow, so I grabbed a piece of my super soft white clay (Scupley brand called Pluffy if that helps) and stuck the house right on top of it.

And there you have it. My tips for making your own polymer clay gingerbread house. If you make one yourself, be sure to link me any pictures, because I would LOOOOOOVE to see how it turns out. My husband drilled an eye pin into mine for me because he thought it would make a super cute ornament.

***Get the Template HERE!!!***