Sunday 23 March 2014

Mar Giveaway!! Dolls House

Hi all! As I said in my previous post this giveaway is a dolls house and finally I found and put all pieces together and I have it ready. The house has never been put together and is brand new.
Thank you all for asking about my sister. She is better but because she has MS she will maybe never (unless they find a cure and the medicine today is moving very fast) be well.
Regarding the berries, is actually not as easy as just making a round shape on the tip of the toothpick. I  tried to attach the beads in a round shape but because I needed more layers of  those to build up a ball,  it would become too big and I would loose the scale. The toothpick is not the best because of its shape. You need to fill out the very tip where there is less wood. As Jane said in her comment, maybe attaching them to wire it would be easier to create a ball shape....but then, she said she tried and they don't come out nice so I wouldn't want to waste my time.......
 I made more things with polymer clay but it will not be me to show you those, but it will be Jennifer whenever she will get her package!! If I show you what I made I will ruin her surprise and I have already shown the berries cheesecake!
In these last 2 days I have been going around blogs to see what you have been doing and I'm getting there in visiting you all. I'm a good girl!! :) Just have a bit of patience and I'll reach you all!

The giveaway this month is a dolls house. You will receive the dolls house in pieces and then you will have to build it. Obviously I will send the plans to whoever will win the house. This is the house that was featured in the animated movie UP. It has 2  floors and you can paint it and decorated as you most like it and I might even get ideas from you on how to paint mine as I still have to build it!!!!  :)

Everybody can participate. No matter where you live. To participate you have to be a follower and leave a comment.
I will draw a name on the evening of the 1st of May. I'm choosing this date because my family is coming over to visit me and I will ask my beloved sister to pick out a name.

Good luck to all of you!!

Front of the house


Side of the house

Design from the plans.



Friday 21 March 2014

Berries, Macaroons and Plates

Hi everybody! I am so sorry that I have not been blogging for so long but as my sister is sick and we live in different countries, I had to help her with some things so I had to travel and also, I need to go back to work so I have been doing a lot of interviews with companies and job agencies.
I have to say that I did miss to read all of your posts guys!! I always enjoy to see what you create and how you create and I will do my best to see what you have been up to by coming to your blog and commenting.

I have been doing some items with polymer clay and I wanted to ask you all what's your method of making blackberries and raspberries. I use a method that I read in one of Angie Scarr book where you make some molds with super tiny beads glued to a toothpick and I wanted to know if there was another method of making really small fruits.
For those of you that don't know this method or don't have Angie's book, I'm going to post below the steps to make them.


This is how the blackberries and raspberries come out.

First step: Put some tiny, no holes beads, in a container.

Put some glue (I used superglue) on the tip of the toothpick and then put the toothpick in the container with the caviar beads. They will attach to the tip of the toothpick.

Prepare your mold material and once ready just put the tip inside the mold. Don't make the mold too small or it will be impossible to bend the mold when you need to remove the berry from the inside. Wait until the mold material is dry and remove the toothpick.

Prepare some colors for the berries.

Now, with a toothpick, get one drop, and I mean 1, bend the mold a bit and put the drop inside the small hole. Try to move the liquid around with the toothpick otherwise you will have pockets of air that will ruin the berries. Once you do that, you might see the liquid go further down, so just add another small drop to fill the mold. 

Put them in the oven and once cold just bend the mold to remove the berries from it. You might need to cut the top, to make the berries shorter.


(Cake idea from Angie Scarr book) - I think they look OK but I wanted to know how you can make them rounder, still being very very tiny.
Now, how do you make yours?? 


I also made some macaroons and I wanted to know which shape you prefer or you think it's closer to the real macaroons.
A, B or C?


I also made some plates with paper clay. I was looking for an heavier and less plasticky material than polymer clay and I have to say that I like plates made with paper clay more than polymer clay. They feel better (for me!!!) and sanding this clay it's a joy!!!! Very easy, very quick.
These are 2 of the plates I made with paper clay. I used metal plates to get the shape and then I sanded them. The 2 plates you see in this picture, are just out of the metal plates and then need to be sanded. I'll show you how they came out as soon as I paint them.

I found the dolls house I was talking about while I was preparing some boxes to send to Italy. You might wonder why I'm going to give away a dolls house.... well.... I have 2, the same, which were bought by mistake. Actually I bought one meanwhile somebody knew I wanted this dolls house, bought another one for me. The person that bought it for me didn't know that I had already bought one, so I'm going to give one away! I just need to put all the pieces together and then I will post the giveaway.

Sorry again for my long absence. I did miss you all and I'm looking forward to see what you have been up to. Big hugs to all of you!!