On the Front Page!

Yay!  My Polymer Clay Decorated Pumpkin Tutorial made it to the front page of Instructables!

Nevada Day Costumes 2012

Nevada Day is on Halloween so at my kids' school, they have to wear Nevada themed costumes.

This year Charles went as a miner and Sienna as a giant piece of silver!

P.S.  You can see some of their past Nevada Day costumes HERE.

Custom House Ornament

Recently completed...

another custom house ornament:

P.S.  I will only be accepting ornament orders to be delivered before Christmas for a few more days!

I plan to close my shop this Friday, November 2, in order to catch up on current orders and make sure they are ready and delivered before Christmas.

Lovebird Cake Topper

Recently completed...

a custom lovebird wedding cake topper:

(You can order your own HERE.)

Polymer Clay Decorated Pumpkin

We made a polymer clay decorated pumpkin!

And...I'll show you how to make one too!

This project kind of reminds me of a Mr. Potato Pumpkin Head:)

 I made mine look like a bat, but really...the possibilities are endless.

You can even just make a bunch of teeth and add to a carved pumpkin (like this).

First...make all of the parts.  

You will only need polymer clay and either toothpicks or skewers.

You will want the toothpicks to be thick and of good quality.  

The toothpicks I used were thin and flimsy, and I did have some break when pushing into the pumpkin.

For the bat in my example, I made (pictured above):

#1- teeth

#2- ears

#3- eyes

I also made (pictured above):

#1- a heart with a scar

#2- bat wings

Bake according to clay directions.

I baked the parts with the toothpicks in them.  Remember how the parts will be attached, so you put the toothpicks in the appropriate places.  You also could poke the hole for the toothpick, bake the clay, and re-attach the toothpick after the clay has been hardened.  Another option would be to drill a hole for the toothpick in the hardened clay, but remember you do want the toothpick to fit snugly in the hole, so you don't have wobbly parts!

To attach the polymer clay parts to the pumpkin, I poked a guide hole using a needle tool.  This will make it easier to push the toothpick into the pumpkin.

Pictured above:

#1- poke the guide hole

#2- gather your parts

#3- attach the polymer clay parts to your pumpkin

...and that's it!

Another super simple polymer clay project!

 Even kids can do it!

My 6 year old, Sienna, made the pumpkin below (except for the little top hat):

Hope everyone has fun with this project!

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Another House Ornament

Another recently completed house ornament:

Dia de los Muertos, Sugar Skull, Dead Bride Costume

Ramona got to dress up for school today, so we were able to see what her costume looked like with everything put together...the dress, headpiece, and makeup:

It looked great!

If you would like to see the costume details, you can read this.

More House Ornaments

A large order of custom house ornaments I recently finished:

...and I still have about 14 more to make!

(P.S.  I am still accepting orders for some of the other ornaments in my shop to be delivered before Christmas)

Lalaloopsy Costume Tutorial

We finished Sienna's Lalaloopsy costume!

Everything came together really easily...except for the wig!  

The wig was quite a pain, but I'll try to explain how I did it!

 1. the wig:  Here are a couple tutorials that didn't work out for me, but look great and might work for your Lalaloopsy costume.  Peanut Big Top has pig tails, which made it a bit more difficult. I'll try to explain how I did mine, which isn't very difficult or time consuming.

• Lalaloopsy Hair Tutorial by the owlchemist
• Easy Raggedy Yarn Wig Tutorial from Ucreate

I started out my wig using the Easy Raggedy Yarn Wig Tutorial (which will show you how to cut the yarn and tie the sections together), but ended up doing something different.  I wrapped a bunch of yarn around a piece of cardboard to get the desired length.  I cut enough to gather 5 groups of yarn.  Then, tied each group of yarn together with another piece of yarn off-centered, like where the part in the hair would be.   Peanut Big Top has a side part.  Next, I hot glued the yarn, while twisting, to a knit beanie, but later cut it out.  If I were to do it again, I would glue down to a piece of purple felt (the color of the yarn hair) and cut out.  Then, I just gathered the yarn on the sides, like pig-tails, and tied together with a piece of yarn.  To get the twisted, ringlet shapes, I just twisted and hot glued the yarn together.  I also trimmed the pigtails to make the ends even.  So, really, you just have the front part of a wig.  I hot glued red bows to each pig tail and glued the whole piece to a soft headband.  It's much more comfortable that anything else we tried and won't be too hot, like the beanie.  Plus, the beanie wouldn't stay on her head!  Oh...and everything else we made looked so bulky!  This was definitely a test of my patience!  But, we have something useable, and it's pretty cute...especially with the rest of the outfit.

 2. the shirt: I used a shirt we already had and used a pencil eraser dipped in red fabric paint to make the polka dots.

3. the gloves: We bought these on eBay.
4. the tutu: I used this tutorial with gold organza.

5. the tights: I bought striped tights and painted a heart on one of the legs with red fabric paint. I made a heart stencil by cutting the shape out of masking tape.

6. the boots: They are just pink Crocs boots I found on eBay.

Anyway...

It's a semi-handmade costume...my favorite kind!

Oh, and we painted her face to look like Peanut Big Top too!

Please feel free to ask any questions you might have!

Dia de los Muertos, Sugar Skull, Dead Bride Costume Idea

My oldest daughter (who is 10) is dressing up as a Dia de Los Muertos Bride for Halloween.

I thought I'd share how we are going to put the costume together-

because it's a really easy idea, and I think the result will be great!

It's kind of a...pretty/scary costume!

Really, the only things I have made were the head piece and bouquet.  I will also be painting her face.  Everything else we already had. 

The dress came from my Grandma (the shawl too).  It's a mexican wedding dress with really pretty embroidery, but I think any black dress would work.

For the head piece, we bought flowers at the dollar store and sewed them to a piece of elastic.

We also bought a bouquet of red roses at the dollar store for her to carry.

For her makeup,

I will be using these sugar skull makeup examples as inspiration:

Source: 9gag.com via Marjorie on Pinterest

So, pretty much, just take a black dress...paint on a pretty skull face...add some colorful flowers...and VOILA....
You have a super cool, dead bride costume!
I can't wait to share the picture of how it actually turns out!
(you can see pictures of the finished costume here)

P.S.  this snazaroo face paint is the BEST I have found.  It has great coverage and isn't sticky and easily smeared, like some of the stuff you find at Walmart, etc...

A Cake Topper and Instructables

What's black, white, and red all over?

My most recently completed cake topper!

I just love how it turned out:

 

And...

My Polymer Clay Notebook Paper Ornament made it to the front page of Instructables!  Yay!  

It's had lots and lots of views too!

Thanks Instructables for helping me share my tutorial!

Lalaloopsy Costume

So... my youngest daughter wants to dress up as this Lalaloopsy doll (I think her name is Peanut Big Top) for Halloween.  I'm hoping to share how we end up creating it here on my blog...stay tuned!

P.S. I only have one more custom house ornament available in my Etsy shop!

**Update: Sold Out**

I will not be taking any additional custom house ornament orders until after Christmas.  Sorry!

Recently Finished

Here is my most recently finished custom house ornament.

P.S.  I'm still accepting ornament orders to be finished before Christmas.

They make great gifts!

My Etsy Shop

Tutorial: Polymer Clay Notebook Paper Ornament

 This polymer clay notebook paper ornament is SUPER easy to make and is the perfect way to display memories on your tree!  It would also make a really cute gift tag...especially on a teacher's gift!

Supplies: 

white polymer clay

playing card

x-acto knife or steel blade (like shown in the picture below)

small round cutter or straw

ultra fine point sharpies in blue and red

 Roll out the clay.

You can do this using a pasta machine

(I used the thickest setting)

or 

you can roll by hand with a rolling pin.

Just flatten the clay!

You do not want it to be too thin and fragile, so pick a thickness that feels sturdy.

 I used a playing card as a template for the paper shape and used an x-acto knife to cut it out.

 I also liked the rounded edges the playing card template gave.

 Use the small circle cutter or a straw to cut the three holes.

I centered the first hole, then placed the other two closer to the top and bottom edges.  Look at a real piece of notebook paper as a guide.

 Bake the clay piece according to the directions on the brand of clay you used.

You could probably use an air dry clay also, but just make sure to use a thickness that is not too fragile or breakable.

 Drawing the lines.

To do this, I looked at a piece of notebook paper as a reference.

I left a bigger space on top (about 5/8 inch) then, with a ruler, marked increments of 1/4 inch.  You want to have enough space to write, so don't put the lines too close together.

 I marked all of the lines with a pencil and ruler first, so I could erase mistakes.

 Mark the vertical line also, using the same technique.

 Using a straight edge or ruler, go over the horizontal lines with the blue ultra fine point sharpie.

 Yay!  It's looking more like notebook paper!

 Draw in the vertical line using a red ultra fine point sharpie.

 Finished!!!

How easy was that?

I think I will have my kids write their Christmas lists on them, so I can keep them forever...

and remember what their handwriting looked like!

 Lastly, I added some hemp string to hang it with, but you could use ribbon, yarn, or anything you think would look best.

 There are so many memories that could be saved on these ornaments!

They could be used as a baby's first Christmas ornament, listing name, birth date, weight, height, etc...

What about writing a love note?

Or the year's highlights...like, "Sienna lost her first tooth in September"?

You could also write your kids' teacher's name, their grade, and their favorite book or game this year...

Seriously!  So many uses!  I could go on...and on...

(for more notebook paper fun)

Another Completed House Ornament and Shop Update

Here is my latest finished ornament.

Also, it shows what the ornament would look like with a banner attached to the front.

I can also add a message (like an address) to the back. 

I always add the date to the back, unless requested otherwise or it has already been added to the front.

SHOP UPDATE:

***I am listing 10 custom house ornaments that will be finished before Christmas (if shipping within the USA), once these are gone, I will not be accepting any new orders until after Christmas. Also, I will not have a wait list.  Thanks! 

And feel free to send me a conversation with any questions you have.***

MY ETSY SHOP