Polymer Clay Cat Brooch

As part of my polymer clay making rampage I took a little detour from bead and necklace making and tried my hand at cat face brooches.  I really do love kittens and even though I will probably never own one I can certainly own hypoallergenic pins of them! Take a peek:

Me-ow! I am super happy with how they turned out and liked making the different faces and patterns on the cats.  It also gave me another opportunity to try to master tiny little paint strokes which is super challenging.  I often see crafts and projects people make and wonder how the heck they create things so effortlessly.  Painting tiny details is actually really hard and these pins were far from effortless at my skill level - but practise does seem to me improving my abilities.

I really love the little orange cat the most with his smug expression perfect for the label of a jacket:

and in case you are concerned how you will be attaching said brooch - I glued on a nice sized bar pin with epoxy:

So what do you think? Are you big into brooches? or cats? or both!?!

Matte Clay & Satin Wood

Here it is folks - my favourite Sculpey project I've made over the last month! It took way longer than I expected (which seems to be a trend with all my crafts), let me use my favourite custom mixed paint colours, and let me stretch those creative juices by making interesting combinations of wood, clay, and colour. Check them out - lovingly handmade polymer clay bead (with a touch of wood) necklaces:

Aren't they just dreamy? I am super thrilled with how they turned out and am impressed with how they came together despite my complete lack of planning on what size and colour beads to make. I went with a matte finish on the clay and a satin finish on the wood beads for a bit of interest and contrast. I think it helps show the texture and imperfection of the clay to give it that one of a kind handmade and lovingly crafted look. Once again I turned to good old organic waxed cotton cord to string them and tied adjustable slide knots so you can easily adjust the length of the necklace. Here is a shot of the necklace I've been wearing non stop: 

I really like how you can dress it up or down and how it reminds me of the neat statement necklaces Lisa Congdon is always wearing (she's my internet artist hero - so obviously I want to be just like her).  Once again I went slightly overboard on the making and ended up with a whole collection of clay and wood necklaces that are all a little bit different:

I alternating the number of beads, the colours, and the proportion of clay to wood with each necklace I made and kept falling in love with each one when it was finished! I'm planning on shipping these beauties off to Funktional in Kelowna (minus the one I showed you that I've been wearing) but totally want to make more soon! I figure if I can make them thinner than 2 cm in an envelope they would be great to sell online too! (FYI: parcels over 2 cm in thickness cost an arm and a leg to ship from Canada and usually deter people from online buying from me). Yay!

So what are your thoughts? Do you have a favourite? Are you going out to buy a giant block of Sculpey clay so you can get making too?

Earring time

The next polymer clay craft I have to share with you is 100% inspired by me wanting to wear my custom acrylic colour pot colours (link).  What better way to add a tiny touch of your favourite colour to any outfit than with some nice stud earrings! Ok...so there are probably lots of ways to incorporate colour to an outfit that doesn't involve your ear lobes, but I am a sucker for simple studs. Check out my Sculpey earring creations:

How fun! At first I was having trouble getting two little flat circles to be the same size until I started just making a tiny ball of clay and then cutting it in half to get two equal sized portions. These are totally everyday earrings for me and am super stoked with how they turned out. Here's a hand shot for size reference:

I also decided to do some with matte varnish and some with satin so you get a different look depending on what you're going for. And on a related note - these are incredibly sturdy little earrings. How do I know this you may ask? Well I accidentally stepped on a pair which seemed on par with stepping on a lego piece (there may have been cursing involved) and the earrings remained perfectly intact! I take product testing to a whole new level apparently...

sort of flat clay beads

Well I may have finished sharing my Sculpey pendant necklaces I made, but I made some other polymer clay necklaces too - this time with handmade beads! It seemed like a natural transition from pendant charms to beads and although these flat beads are far from perfect, I am totally digging the imperfection of them. Take a peek:

Hooray! Colour blocked and stacked bead necklaces! Once again I used some waxed cotton cord to string these onto and tied them with adjustable slip knots so they can be different lengths super easily!  I did learn one lesson quite quickly once I finished sanding, painting, and varnishing them...I didn't make the bead holes big enough and ended up having to bead ream the heck out of them to get them threaded on my strong! Oy! I will know better for next time.  Here's another close up so you can see their wobbly perfection:

Yay! I love them! They were insanely time consuming to make so I only ended up with the two of them - but that just makes me love them even more! Any thoughts? Have you ever made clay beads before?

Polymer Clay Pendants - playing with Studio Ghibli

Well we've made it to the end of the work week and here are the final Sculpey painted pendants I made into necklaces! I've been on quite the Studio Ghibli binge lately so I painted these little dudes with soot sprites and Totoro! Take a peek:

Aww! Aren't they darling? I also decided to use different coloured cord for these pals since my go to light brown seemed like too much of a contrast. Once again I took these pictures before my new grey organic waxed cotton came in so I will be switching out Totoro's cord for the waxed smoother version. Oooo I'm just thrilled with how these turned out and am such a sucker for cuteness! 

In case you missed out on any of the polymer clay fun I've been sharing this week here is picture of all the pendants I made:

Oh my! Apparently I don't like just making one of a project and ended up with eleven different necklaces in the end. What do you think of them? Any suggestions for pricing? Which are your faves? Happy Friday!

Polymer Clay Pendants - playing with dots and lines

Ok, so these necklaces are pretty darned similar but I really had a fun time painting the little lines with my new tiny paintbrush (thanks for the recommendation Lisa!) and making more dots! Check them out:

Yay! They sort of remind me of the fun mid-century modern patterns they used all those years ago and I love how the layers of dots turned out. I also decided to use different colours of cord to string these ones together and thanks to a lovely package I received the other day I can now switch out the grey bamboo cord I used for grey organic waxed cotton (which sits better and feels smoother on your skin)! Hooray! What do you think? 

Polymer Clay Pendants - playing with triangles

Today I am sharing two of my very favourite Sculpey painted necklaces I made. I feel like triangles are all the rage these days so I played around with these three sided wonders to come up with these:

The small triangle mustard/dark teal/white one was actually the first pendant I painted and probably took the longest with all those tiny lines.  I feel like with all that effort I need to keep that necklace to enjoy, but in all honestly I sort of love them all so it's hard to pick any one favourite over another. What do you think? Enjoying my week of pendants so far? Do you have a favourite?

Polymer Clay Pendants - playing with dots

My week of sharing my polymer clay pendants continues with two more designs I made where I played with painting little dots. Check them out:

My mom really said she loves the pink and red and gold chevron dot one and my pal Jim thinks the light blue and teal one is his favourite and looks a lot like an egg (which in hindsight I totally agree with even if that wasn't my original plan)! The dots were super difficult to paint on at first but after lots of practice it was super fun! I used lots of different sized toothpicks and dowels and scoring tools to make the dots and by the end I felt I mastered it. 

In other (very much related) news, Wild Olive did a polymer clay raindrop pendant on her blog a few days ago (link)  that shows the same steps I used (more or less) to make mine! Great crafty minds think alike! 

Polymer Clay Pendants - playing with lines

As usual, I had good intentions to get lots of blog posts done for last week and then somehow ran out of time and didn't write a single one.  Instead I took the lovely (sarcasm - I got so sick) 10 hour drive with my parents up to Telkwa/Smithers for a surprise visit with my sister and my adorable little nieces!  I guess I was so busy playing with my favourite 2 and 4 year olds that blogging got thrown on the back burner. I did however have a whole week's worth of scupley pendant necklaces to show you so I will share them this week instead!

These necklaces were super fun to make and I really enjoyed using the custom paints I mixed up in little pots (link) as my go to colour palette!  The painting ended up being the longest and most time consuming step - but making the pendants themselves was pretty simple. Here's my process:

1) Sculpt some pendant shapes from polymer clay (My personal fave is Sculpey) and make sure to make a hole in there so you can attach it to the necklace later

2) Bake said clay according to the package instructions

3) Let them cool and give them a light sand to remove any lumps or fingerprints

4) Paint them up with acrylics and when you're satisfied with your creation - cover it with a coat of varnish. I voted for matte varnish for these guys. Let dry and cure for 24 hours or so.

5) Attach a jump ring through the hole you made

6) Add a necklace string! I went with a waxed cotton cord for these ones and tied them with an adjustable slip knot fastener so you can easily adjust how long you want your necklace to tie.

7) Enjoy! Hooray!

Here are the first few I have to show you (part of my "playing with lines" series):

Yay! I am such a fan of lines and blocks of colours and like the geometric feel of these beauties and can imagine wearing each of them to top off many outfits.  I however do not plan on keeping the plethora of necklaces I made and instead will list them in my etsy shop which I (really really) hope I can get organized enough to open up again soon - but I might be tempted to keep a few.  Which is your favourite? Any ideas on pricing? 

DIY Postage Pins

Geeky childhood confession - I collected postage stamps.  I actually feel like it was instigated by my mom who got my sister and I "Canada Post Stamp collecting kits" which I remember as being free in the early 90's (which I could be wrong about - but that was 20 years ago...).  As I got older I stopped thinking stamp collecting was super awesome but my mom continued on the collecting for years.  I still make a note of checking out the stamps on any mail I receive and I always like checking out the new stamp collections at the post office when I'm there.  It's such a neat art form and with this rad tutorial from Miss Vicky Voila (link) - you can turn that post marked postage into pins! Check it out:

(source)

Oh do I ever love this idea! I'm also on quite the Sculpey accessory making binge so this fits in perfectly! Now all I need to do is find some cool stamps worth pinning to my cardigan and I will be set! How about you? Do you go on craft binges? Did you collect anything embarrassing as a kid?

The best news for polymer clay users!

I'm a big fan of making things out of polymer clay. It's super fun to stretch those creative muscles and take a stab at sculpting shapes and creatures from clay! I'm partial to using Sculpey brand polymer clay because it doesn't dry our or get all crumbly if you leave it out and only gets rock hard after baking. It's also a great base to paint on and is super durable once its cooked.  I decided to whip out my box of Sculpey this past weekend and attempt to make a few projects I have been thinking about for quite some time! As always, my craft projects always seem to take way longer than I think they will (so I'm nowhere close to finishing them and sharing) but here are some of my past polymer clay projects I've made: 

1) Geometric pendants and rings!

2) Albi the racist dragon magnet set (including badly burnt albanian boy and jelly bean) for any FOTC fans out there!

3) Love robot charms! Back when people hung things off their cell phones...

What a lovely little trip down past craftiness memory lane! Now - what is this big news I was hinting at from my blog post title? WELL! If you've ever spent ages playing with clay you quickly come to realize that it is incredibly hard to get off your hands. Friday night I made a bunch of little white Sculpey balls and with all that rolling the palms of my hands were coated with a nice layer of clay.  When I finished baking my creations and went to wash up with soap when I remembered how much scrubbing it takes to get that layer off. I whipped out the gardening nail brush scrubber and ended up getting the clay off after 5 minutes of elbow grease.  The next morning I decided to search Pinterest to see if they had any fun polymer clay projects I may want to try with my remaining Sculpey and found a life changing tip - hand sanitizer dissolves clay for quick and easy hand clean up! AH! MY SAVIOUR : 

My polymer clay cleaning days are forever revolutionized! A little squirt of this stuff and that pesky layer of mess on your hands rubs right off with no scrubbing involved! Oh! I'm still ecstatic about this discovery and thought I better share it with all of you! Hooray for clean hands! What a wonderful world we live in! 

More Geometry!

A little while ago I shared this tutorial with you and boasted about how I was all ready to jump on the trend train and get going on my own version of the geometric pendant:


Well unlike most of the projects I never manage to find time for and seem to disappear on my never ending crafts I want to do list, I actually got around to trying this one out! And, just as I promised, I skipped the glitter and painted each side of my creation for a bright springy fun take on the project! Take a looksie:


Ah! I am in love with this necklace! I just adore how the colour combination turned out and how neat it looks at every angle. It's even reversible since I painted the other side with more shades of teal and blue (no red, pink, and gold) for a more subtle accessory day! Hooray! I bought the chain off etsy (during a supply restock shop) since I wanted to be able to alter the length easily but I am enjoying the 24" size for this piece. Yay! Like most projects I start, I decided to make the polymer clay geometric jewelry in mass and ended up with two necklaces and two rings:


Fun! Although it wasn't really intentional, each piece is a little bit different since I randomly sliced off chunks of clay to form the shapes. I mixed all of the paint colours up from my scattered collection of acrylic paint tubes (I do love my colour mixing) and used the same shades for each geometric bit. Much like my geometric brooch I made a few days ago for brooch week, I stuck to a neutral gray/blue/silver base with a few contrasting sides thrown in there for a little pop and interest. Check out that pink and red from the side angle:


What a super project that was! I had so much fun playing with polymer clay again and making these and I'm just thrilled to be able to share a finished project with all of you! So - I'm dying to know...what do you think?