Tutorial: How To Make Paper Clay From Newspaper

Hello! Today I want to share with you how to make your own recycled newspaper air dry clay. 

Besides being an environmentally friendly craft project, it is also very easy and inexpensive. 

This clay is lightweight and works well for large and bulky pieces. It doesn't, however, hold detail well.  

Click the image below in order to full view the tutorial.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. 

If you choose to share be sure to provide a link back to my blog.

Polymer Clay Miniature Tutorial Scans for Fruit, Flowers, and Teapots

Recently I downloaded a Japanese book titled 200 Polymer Clay Miniatures. Overall its a decent book with step by step instructions. It isn't in English, but the photographs are pretty straight forward and easy to follow.
I would like to share with you a few of my favorite pages. These pages include tutorials for polymer flowers and dishes (including teapots).

Tulips are my favorite on this one.
I'm planning on making some polymer clay miniature plants, this should be helpful.

I collect teapots, so my reason for liking this page should be apparent.

Click the photos to full view.

I don't remember the direct link to the book download, but I found it somewhere on giftjap.info

These photos/scans and tutorials are not mine, all rights belong to the authors of the magazine 200 Polymer Clay Miniatures. I am posting for educational purposes.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Blackberries

Happy Valentines day everyone! I hope you have a wonderful day with your loved ones.

Today I made chocolate covered strawberries and blackberries. I love them, they're so delicious and easy to make.

Here's the recipe
Ingredients:
strawberries, blackberries, or whatever other fruit you want
Chocolate chips or a good chocolate bar broken into small pieces (I used semi-sweet chocolate chips)

1. Wash berries ahead of time, be sure they are completely dry before you begin.

2. Melt chocolate in a double boiler, stir until chocolate is smooth and remove from heat.

Alternatively you can melt the chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave at 10% power for 2 mins. Stir. If not melted heat in additional 30 second increments, until smooth. Be sure to stir after each 30 second period, often times chocolate chips will look unmelted but once mixed you will discover they're fully melted.

3. Hold strawberries by stem, dip into chocolate. Swirl as you lift from chocolate, give a light shake to remove excess chocolate. Turn the strawberry upside down, so that the tip is pointing towards the ceiling. This will ensure the chocolate sticks to the berry and is sealed.

4. Place berries on wax paper to cool and harden.

5. To dip blackberries, stick them onto a wooden toothpick and swirl in the chocolate. Use same technique as you did with strawberries. Slide berry off toothpick onto wax paper and repeat with remaining blackberries.

It is best to make them the same day you plan to eat them. Eat within 24 hours, served at room temperature for best results. The berries will leak juices and make the chocolate weird if you wait too long to eat them (usually past 24 hours)

If you want to make them more fancy you can melt some white chocolate to drizzle over them.

Thank you for reading, please enjoy! ♥

Decoden Sugar Cookie Polymer Clay Tutorial

Hello! (｡･ω･)ﾉﾞ ｺﾝﾁｬ ☆彡

I have a new tutorial for sugar cookies, perfect for decoden and sweet lolita jewelry projects! This tutorial covers how to make polymer clay cookies that are textured and browned. This technique is simple and the project doesn't require many supplies, which makes it good for beginners.

Please enjoy! ♥

You can also view this tutorial at deviantArt

Click image to enlarge.

Tips
♥ After you have applied the chalk pastel you may have to touch up your clay's texture.
♥ A soft toothbrush will create a different texture than a hard toothbrush, you can also use a nail brush or sandpaper. Experiment and try different textures.
♥ A soft paint brush also works well for applying the chalk pastel, especially for smaller pieces.

Sweet Decoden Tutorial from Love Deco

Here are a few scan pages from Love Deco magazine. I thought this sweet deco tutorial was really cute and could be very helpful for beginners. These tutorials show you how to make clay macaroons, cookies, ice cream scoops, and other sweet clay desserts.  Besides being helpful for deco, you can also use this for jewelry making.

This is something I would have liked to have seen when I first started out with sweets jewelry, instead of having to figure it out myself with trial and error. Because of this, I want to share these pages.

It's in Japanese, but the pictures are easy to follow. In this tutorial paper clay is used, but I typically use polymer clay.

Click on the photos for the larger version and please enjoy.

Bow Tutorial

Here is a simple method for making bows. Click the image to view the large version. You can use either handsew or use a sewing machine. Before I bought my sewing machine I made bows by hand using the same method, it just takes longer.
You may recognize this bow from my recent post about the hairbows I made.

I hope this is helpful to some of you, please enjoy.

I am working on another tutorial right now for making cute and tiny pincushions. I'll post it when I am finished, so keep an eye open.

I have also submitted this tutorial to my deviantart. If you have an account and like this tutorial please fav it.

Dripping Chocolate Effect For Deco

This box is unfinished, but was the best example I have

Ever wonder how to get the dripping chocolate effect on your sweet boxes, like the one above?

It's actually super easy and inexpensive, all you need is puff paint (aka 3d or dimensional paint). It can be found in the fabric paint section of your local craft store. Just squeeze it on your item in a dripping chocolate pattern and allow it to dry.

Scribbles 3D Paint is the brand I use

A few tips:

♥ When you squeeze it on, you want to make sure to apply it thickly.

♥ If you apply it too thin it won't be puffy and won't look much like chocolate.

♥ I always start at the end of the drip, using more pressure, then move upwards and lighten my pressure as I go, that way there is more paint at the end than the rest. Sorry, I don't know how exactly to explain what I'm trying to say.

♥ Avoid the paints that are shimmery or have glitter, instead choose the one that is labeled as "shiny"

♥ You can use it on other items other than boxes, I use it on ice cream scoop jewelry as a topping.

Hope this was helpful! ☆彡

Tutorial- Painting Stripes

I've made a few jewelry boxes that have a stripe pattern on them. A couple of people who have seen them asked me how I was able to get my stripes so straight and the same size. I explained to them how to do it, but today I decided I should make a tutorial that way everyone can do it. It's really easy and pretty simple.

I submited it to deviantART, so if you have an account and you like it, add it to your favorites here

Click to full view

I hope you find this helpful. Enjoy ♥

Shoe Transformation

Last week I found some high heels on clearence at payless for $5.00, normally $24.99. They're white, plain, and boring. But how can I pass up shoes for $5? And I know that with a little creativity they can be improved. I'm calling them my Cinderella shoes.
Above you can see the before and after. The total cost, after supplies, comes to around $9.00

What you need for your own shoe makeover:
A pair of shoes
Needle
Thread
Toothpick
Tweezers
Craft Glue (I used Aleene's Jewel-It Embellishing Glue)
Gemstones
Faux Flowers

1. You need to clean the shoes. You don't want there to be any dirt that may prevent your gemstones from sticking.

2. Using your needle and thread, sew your flower to your shoe. You need a needle that is thick and strong to be able to push it through the shoe without it breaking. Also, a shorter one is easiest since you might not have a lot of room for a longer one.
My shoe was made from a thick material, so this part was a little difficult at times. I had to use a pair of pliers to grab my needle and pull it all the way through.

3. Now it is time to glue the gemstones on. If they are small use a pair of tweezers to pick them up with. Dip the toothpick into your glue, just enough to get a small bead on the tip. Apply the bead of glue to the back of your rhinestone, wait a few seconds, then stick it onto your shoe. Repeat for all the gemstones. You use a toothpick to apply the glue to help prevent getting too much glue on the rhinestone.

4. Repeat the above steps for the second shoe.

5. Allow glue to dry for atleast 24 hours, or according to the directions on the back of your glue.

And there you go! You just turned plain and boring shoes into beautiful, sparkling shoes.