New layout + new clay charms + my first deco box

Made another new layout! This one will be used for awhile.

Also, here are a few new clay charms I made recently.

 

Valentine's Day chocolates

 

Latte with whipped cream and a wafer

 

Fruit tarts

Also made my first deco box! I made a few mistakes, but I like it (:

Clay Lollipop Tutorial

Here's a tutorial on how to make polymer clay lollipops. I think these are one of the easier things to make and they're so cute! You can make lollipops in any colors you want. You can also use as many colors as you want in one lollipop, but I think 2-4 is best. I'll be making a light blue and white one.

Materials I used:
- White Premo polymer clay
- Turquoise Premo polymer clay
- Ecru Premo polymer clay
- Eyepin
- Wire cutters

 

1.  To get a light blue color, mix white and turquoise clay together. The picture shows the approximate proportion I used. 

2. With your light blue and white clays, roll out two snakes of equal length. Keep them semi-thick since you will have to roll them again later.

3. Hold your two snakes together and twist in opposite directions until you achieve an effect like the second picture above.

  

4. After you have a twisty snake, keep it on the surface and roll with two fingers. This will make the snake's surface smooth while maintaining the twisted colors effect. Make sure to roll a few times, twist in opposite directions, roll again, twist again, etc. The more you twist, the more of a swirly effect you will have.

You're done when you have a snake that looks like this.  

 

5. Keeping the clay on the surface, carefully roll the snake into a circle. I cut the end at a diagonal so it looks cleaner. 

6. Take your ecru colored clay and roll into a small thick snake for the lollipop stick.

7. With your wire cutters, cut your eyepin. 

8. Take the end part of your cut eyepin and stick it in your lollipop stick about halfway. Make sure the end that is peeking out is not too short so the stick and lollipop can stay put together.

9. Insert the stick into your lollipop. Insert it straight in and slowly to make sure the eyepin doesn't stick out on the other side of the lollipop.

10. Take the top part of your cut eyepin and insert into the top of your lollipop. Bake according to the package and now you have a finished lollipop charm! 

p.s. - on an unrelated note... RIP Alexander McQueen.

Donuts, fruit pie, and lollipops

Some recent polymer clay creations. I'm leaving to study abroad in Shanghai in a few weeks and there's no way I'll have room in my suitcases for my clay tools nor will I have the time to make these cute creations. That's why I'm trying to make as much tiny clay food as possible before I leave!

After I leave on February 18, I won't be back until August so the blog will mostly be about beauty/fashion for those six months. There will be no new tutorials or pictures of new crafts during that time, however I'll post some tips and techniques for jewelry-making and polymer clay crafts.

But... before I leave, I'll be sure to post some tutorials and plenty of content for everyone to enjoy (:

 

 First time making donuts... they're easy to make and so cute!

  

I always eat this certain fruit pie from Whole Foods market and wanted to re-create it with clay :)

 

Lots of colorful lollipops. I like the pink ones the best... will probably use one of the smaller ones as a cellphone charm.

Cheeseburger

Finally... a fat-free cheeseburger!

Another creation made from polymer clay (:

Polymer Clay Basics

Lately, I've seen a lot of questions about polymer clay from people who are just starting out. Now, I'm definitely no expert, but I've done plenty of research recently and can share a few general tips.

Choosing Your Clay
There are three main brands of clay that most people work with. Sculpey, Fimo, and Premo. I, personally have not used Fimo so I don't know much about it. It's more similar to Premo than it is to Sculpey though. Sculpey is very good for beginners. It's the softest and comes in a wide variety of colors. Premo is made by the Sculpey company, but it is firmer. It takes some time to condition (softening the clay in your hands) before you can work with it, whereas you can work with Sculpey pretty much right out of the package. You'll find that later on, when you're working with small tiny pieces, soft clay tends to mush in your fingers and it gets hard to sculpt details. But for beginners, I definitely recommend Sculpey.

Preparation
The basic tools you will need are clay (obviously), something to use as a rolling pin (a pencil works), and an x-acto knife. I like to work on top of wax paper. The clay doesn't stick to it (it sticks to paper) and it's a smooth surface. Other tools you might need are eyepins (to make charms), cookie cutters, cute add-ins (like crystals, pearls, etc. that you can stick into your pieces). Also, make sure to wash your hands well and dry with a paper towel. You don't want to get dust into your clay, which is very easy to do!

Making
Fingerprints are hard to avoid! After you construct your clay piece, you can rub some water over the prints to slightly rub them out. Or you can wear latex gloves, but most of the time it wrinkles up and makes lines in my clay. I only wear gloves when I'm working with dark clay. Speaking of dark clay, they will stain your hands! And if you do not wash it out before working with lighter clay, it will stain your clay as well! Make sure to wash your hands thoroughly in between switching colors. 

 

Baking
Bake according to the directions on the package. I recommend using parchment paper laid in an aluminum baking pan. Baking on aluminum foil will leave a shiny spot on the bottom of your clay pieces. You can use your home oven or a toaster oven to bake your pieces. Just make sure not to over-bake, or else the clay can release toxic fumes that will stick to the walls of your oven... which is bad if you plan on using the same oven for food =X

After Baking
To get the shiny look on your clay pieces, apply Sculpey Gloss Glaze after your pieces have cooled. They will dry after about 30 minutes and you'll get a nice shiny finish.

How do I make cute little charms that look like little characters or tiny food?
There are tons of tutorials online. YouTube and DeviantArt have a ton of great tutorials made by people who are awesome at this. You can also look on flickr and etsy for inspiration.

This book is great too:

The Polymer Clay Cookbook

By: Jessica and Susan Partain

They have an excellent intro chapter that teaches you all the basics about types of clay, color mixing, and jewelry techniques. Their tutorials cover a bunch of cute tiny food you can make, such as pretzels, cupcakes, coffee cups, ice cream, tacos, etc.

Just remember, anyone can learn how to make cute charms out of polymer clay. If you got some time on your hands, it's a fun hobby to learn! And with practice, it'll get much easier.

Hope this helps for the beginners out there!

Cupcakes

Since I don't have school these days, this blogging everyday thing is not so hard (:
Although I doubt anyone is reading... hehe~

Made these cute clay cupcakes a few days ago. The colors turned out a little darker in the pic... they're actually lighter and kind of a pastel color. But yeah, it's hard to do piping on tiny cupcake bases =X

On a different note, I want to plug these two sites. I'm doing small internships for them this winter and they're both great sites!

Second City Style: A fashion online magazine and blog. The magazine has interesting articles every few days while the blog is updated very regularly with news, trends, best dressed, outfit ideas, etc.

Cuff Luv: A local Chicago designer that sells cute cuffs that you can add to your long-sleeved shirts. Plus, there's 10-way cardigan wraps and magnetic pins. Unique and adorable items =)

I think I'm going to do another beauty review soon... maybe tonight. Just used a product that I am not fond of -_-

Hello!

Hello! This is the first post of my new blog. I'll just be posting stuff about fashion, my craft projects, and just any random thoughts.

First post... made this clay charms a few days ago. Just started polymer clay recently... definitely need to get better! I want to be good enough to sell my stuff on etsy (:

That's it for today! As part of a new year resolution, I'm going to try to blog as frequently as I can... even if no one is reading lol