Let's make soap! I decided to try an experiment in soap making and ended up with these super realistic looking cinnamon bun soaps. The soap smells just like a sweet, buttery, cinnamon roll too which is the best part!
What You'll Need:
Soap Base - From Michael's (White or light color, not clear)
I wanted to make some custom scents for charms, and I couldn't find any new ones at Hobby Lobby, or Michael's so I decided to try and make my own.
♥ What You'll Need:
Extracts
Oil
Bottles
Labels
Markers/Pen
You can find these extracts at any grocery store, and their normally used for cooking.
You'll need an odorless oil as the base because the oil will help the scent/extract stick to the clay.
I used Craftsmart bottles that I found at Michael's in the painting section.
I was going to try this with olive oil because that's all I had but olive oil has a distinct smell, and I didn't want every scent I made to have a touch of olive. So I went to GNC and purchased a 16 oz. bottle of grape seed oil, and 16 oz bottle of sweet almond oil. Both are odorless, and the almond oil was on sale for $4.99 (the grape seed oil is $9.99). The bonus is you can use the left over oil on your skin and hair (the grape seed oil isn't as greasy as the almond oil).
HI! I haven't written in a while so I'm excited to share something new with you!
Inspired by a petit four rement, I made a mini truffle box keychain. I thought the chocolate box would look so cute attached to my keys or handbag.
I started by making the box template. Then I traced out the box template onto metallic gray card stock. I also made another box using pink card stock. You can choose whatever color you like!
Remember to cut only the BLACK lines on the template when folding the box.
I then cut out small strips of silver, and gold card stock. This is for the inside of the box. The high shine will make all of the little chocolate truffles pop!
To glue the box and all its parts together I used E600 glue.
Each truffle was made using different colors of polymer clay (the brand doesn't really matter, just choose the colors you like).
Real truffles sit in those mini cups that looks similar to cupcake wrappers so I made a miniature cupcake mold and used black clay to make the mini cups. You can skip this step if you like, but the wrappers make the truffles looks even more realistic and cute.
Here is a link to the MOLD that I used in the video:
I made four miniature deli sandwiches using polymer clay. The sandwiches can be made into charms and put onto a key chain, necklace, earrings, charm bracelet or even magnets.
3. Reuben Sandwich with Corned Beef & Swiss Cheese
4. Poppy Seed Bagel with Cream Cheese
OIL + POLYMER CLAY
Did you know that you can make frosting, sauces, or whipped cream by mixing polymer clay and oil together instead of FIMO Deko Gel or TLS (Translucent Liquid Sculpey)? In this video I mixed white FIMO clay with mineral or baby oil to make the soft cream cheese. It mixes in with the clay just like FIMO Deko gel or TLS would.
I stumbled upon this method a few days ago after I realized almost every block of clay I had was getting dry and crumbly. So to soften the clay I mixed in some oil (because polymer clay is oil based or oil soluble) as I don't own any clay softeners. When I mixed the oil into colored clay, like red, I noticed the clay started to dissolve onto my fingers. So I started experimenting with different amounts of oil. I started with a very small amount, and worked my way up to larger amounts. This is what I found out:
1. If you mix a small amount of oil with crumbly or dry clay, you will get clay that is the perfect texture. Not too soft, and definitely not crumbly.
2. If you mix a small amount of oil with clay that is already soft you will get something that resembles frosting or whipped cream (like cool whip).
3. If you mix even more oil into the frosting mixture you will get a thin sauce that will be the texture of hot fudge, or tomato soup.
You can use any oil, like olive oil, vegetable oil, baby / mineral oil, tea tree oil, etc.
Try it & let me know how it works for you!
XOXO,
Toni
The tutorial is uploading now to my YouTube channel!
I love to eat Chinese food...of all kinds, so I wanted to make a tutorial about how to make them into miniature charms.
I'm in Orlando at the moment, and I'm uploading a video here for the first time. Thanks to PaperPastels (Ashley Ann) for some free internet..WOOHOO!
I made the take out box myself because I couldn't find one anywhere else. I'm sharing it for free if you'd like to print out your own version, and make one for your own personal use.
I'm uploading the tutorial right now so you can check my channel (ToniEllison).
Cupcakes are one of my favorite things to make in miniature, and one of may favorite things to eat.
I posted a charm update this past weekend on my Youtube channel, and the #1 request was a cupcake tutorial so here it is!
I made the cupcake bases by pressing translucent clay into a cupcake mold.
Not just any cupcake mold. I have purchased nearly 10 cupcake molds from Etsy never to be satisfied so I set out to make my own. One year later and I'm very happy with the result.
I love this mold because I can bake the clay while it's in the mold. Once it's baked and cooled, I popped the cupcake base out (very easily, because the mold is flexible). Then I mixed translucent clay with a small amount of tan clay. To color the cupcake tops, I used dark yellow, and light orange chalk pastels. Using a paint brush, I dusted the edges with color.
I used sandpaper (Resin grit from Home Depot, or any hardware store) to texture the top.
To make the cupcake bases look "realistic" I painted them with a mixture of white, yellow, orange, and brown acrylic paint. Then baked the entire cupcake again. (NO, it won't burn as long as you bake it at a lower temperature)
To make it into a charm I trimmed the headpin, then used round nose pliers to create a loop, or circle.
Here are more cupcakes I made with this same mold:
I decided to do a bit of an experiment with resin. I added things that I've never tried before, and here are the results.
BUBBLES: If you mix your resin well and slow for about 3 minutes, then let it sit for about 3 minutes you shouldn't have very many bubbles at all. In fact, none of the pieces I made had bubbles...YAY! Usually I almost always have a few bubbles here and there, but I was patient this time and it paid off.
I made these to look like diamonds or jewels. I am going to turn these into various pieces of jewelry like rings and pendants.
I added two different types of sprinkles to these pieces.
I added dried flowers to these. I got the dried flowers at Michael's but they were on clearance, and I didn't see anymore so I suspect that they've been discontinued:( I also painted the backs of most of these a peach color using acylic paint, and I like the result.
I added peppermints to these and used green and red glitter to cover the backs.
And I added skittles to these and cover the backs with glitter as well.
These were very easy to make, and I can't wait to try more!
These are two versions of fake or faux terrariums. The first small one looks like a little forest, and the second one looks similar to an underwater pond...minus the scum.
I used miniature bottles from Michael's craft store, lichen + miniature bushes from Hobby Lobby, miniature gray rocks from Hobby Lobby, and clear glue from Joann's Fabric.
The beach versions were actually inspired by candles. One is made to looks like underwater shells, and the other looks like a mini beach.
To make the beach versions I used miniature bottles from Hobby Lobby (The bulb shaped bottle), and Michael's, craft sand from Hobby Lobby, mini seashells from Hobby Lobby, clear Elmer's glue from Joann's Fabric, and food coloring from the grocery store.
They were pretty simple to make, and you can always substitute anything I've used for supplies you already have on hand.
So bearliz2222 from YouTube requested that I make nightlock berries...only a few hours ago...and I scrambled to make this tutorial and upload it in the same night!
The berries are made from navy blue polymer clay, and I just added them to the liquid (Elmers clear glue + blue & red food coloring) without baking them. The bottle on the right was my first try and I added way too much food coloring...so don't make that mistake.
I almost always work on a black granite tile from Home Depot, that costs about $5.00. I loved them so much that I convinced my friend to make an entire table covered in them so I could have multiple work spaces. Nine tiles were used in all.
Of course I made the Nightlock berries into a necklace that will go into my bottle collection.
Also about Nightlock berries:
Nightlock is a wild plant with poisonous berries that Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark used to win the 74th Hunger Games. Katniss first heard this kind of plant from her father. The berries are
infamous for the lethal poisonous juices that are inside. - The Hunger Games Wiki
I found the miniature bowls on Ebay, and I just pushed in translucent clay, then poured on white liquid clay from katoclay. You can also use white paint instead if you bake the cereal before you add them to the paint.
I added in miniature knives...that look like spoons.
I baked the bowls with the spoon/knives and they turned out fine!
So my best friend loves....absolutely loves Baskin Robbins. I'm not a huge, fan of their ice cream, but she is. So much so, that on her birthday she even gets their ice cream cakes.
So this tutorial is dedicated to her.
I made the cup the same as in the Pinkberry tutorial. Then I added "vanilla ice cream" which was a mixture of ivory, and white polymer clay (Sculpey Ivory & FIMO white). The chocolate syrup was made from FIMO Deko gel (you can find it on Ebay) and brown chalk pastels. The cherry was made with Sculpey "Red Hot Red" polymer clay. And the whipped cream was made using the same technique from the Pinkberry tutorial as well.
To make the Baskin Robbins label, I just used this picture, than copied and pasted it into a word document, and resized it to be very small.
The banana split dish was made with white clay, and a lot of patience. I baked the dish, then added brown (FIMO brown), pink (Sculpey ballerina), and white clay (same as the sundae). I added the same chocolate syrup from the sundae, and used red, and yellow chalk to make the strawberry and pineapple syrup.
It was pretty easy to do once I finished the cups and the dish.
So I've made a miniature Hollandse Appeltaart in a collaboration with GentlemanBunny.
Here are more pictures for you!
So have fun & Make you're own!
XOXO,
Toni
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
An Alice in Wonderland themed necklace!
So first I made the pendant with the tiny illustration. I used a bezel from Hobby Lobby, and a random illustration I found here after searching for "alice in wonderland illustration." You can use any illustration you like, but I chose this one.
I used Dimensional Magic by Mod Podge to make the picture glossy. Don't forget to seal the picture first with any clear glue so the illustration won't change colors. This is a very important step.
To make the drink me bottle I used a miniature bottle from Michaels (but you can also find these on Ebay, at Hobby Lobby or Joann's Fabric). I filled the bottle with clear glue, and a tiny bit of blue food coloring.
I made the label by typing out "Drink Me" in size 8 font. I printed out the word, and cut it into a tag like shape. To make the hole for the string I used a needle.
So as apart of a collaboration this week I made treats from Laduree! They are fairly simple to make, and I've made it a little easier for you by making templates for the boxes, and a bonus shopping bag:)
These are templates for the miniature macaron boxes.
This is a template for the miniature chocolate box.
And this is a template for the miniature shopping bag, just be sure to print out two (one for the front, and one for the back).
The Ice cream truck tutorial features Strawberry Shortcake, Neapolitan Ice Cream Sandwich, Bomb pop, Orange Creamsicle or Orangesicle, and a Vanilla Sundae Cone....all charms of course:D
Now on to the Treble Clef earring and necklace set!
Watch the videos to see how to make your own:) I used 20 guage wire from Michael's to make the earrings and necklace. I made the gold chain from supplies I got at Hobby Lobby.
