Alphabet stamp Handles

I have these great little alphabet stamps that my Hubby sells and I use. I love letters and stamps, and I thought these were adorable.

They were though, a little hard to use with out getting my finger nails in the clay, so I made my own handles.

Links for the tools will connect you to my Hubby's shop if you are looking for these products.

Thank you so much for supporting myself and my family.

You will need:
Clay Extruder and square disk that comes with set M35055
Alphabet stamps
Scrap Cernit
Crafter's Pick Ultimate Glue
Kemper Slicing Blade

Condition Cernit scraps until they are one color and smooth and pliable.

Load up the barrel of the extruder and put in the 1/4" square disk and extrude a square log.

Cut the square in to 1" to 2" sections.

Lay them out on a piece of corrugated cardboard on a cookie sheet.

Make sure the little sections are straight when you place them on the cardboard.

Bake in a pre-heated 275 degree F oven for 30 minutes, shut off oven and let cool until you can touch them with out burning your fingers.

Peel off the foam baking on the rubber.
Glue the individual letters to the square logs with glue and let dry.

Now they are ready to use. So much better now!!

Wednesday wonder- the eyes have it

This is amazing. The eyes have the focus and the medium.
Mascara is not just face paint any more, or actually it still is.
Face paint or painting faces???

Playing with my food again-episode 4

You will need to refer back to Episode 3 where I made the fondant checkerboard.
Refrigerate the checkerboard cane for about 1 hour.

Links for the tools will connect you to my Hubby's shop if you are looking for these products.
Thank you so much for supporting myself and my family.
The other links will take you to Pila's Pantry, I do not get paid or any special compensation for doing this for Pila, other that good feeling in my heart for giving a mom and pop a plug (I do understand that mom and pop thing). They provided great service, have great prices and products, and I just like the atmosphere.

Cut off 6 slices about 1/8" thick from the checkerboard. Lay them together so they are 2 across and 3 up and down.

Press all the squares together and roll with the green roller M35001 from Makin's (remember it won't stick to the fondant, and the price? wooooooo whooooooooooo, comes with rolling cutters too) When you roll the fondant, roll up and down and then roll from the left to the right, switching each time you roll the fondant.

Or you can turn the cutting board and roll one way and then turn the board one quarter and roll again. This will spread the design evenly. This is rolled out pretty thin, about 1/16".
Trim away the excess so you have a rectangle. I just cut the edges so the whole thing had straight edges all the way around.
It was rectangle when I finished.

Now extrude some black fondant (from Pila's, my new favorite play place) with the stainless steel extruder.
I used the 4 round hole disk, it comes with the extruder.
You have to keep these cords pliable and flexible, separate them from each other and then cover with a dish towel or plastic sheeting, because putting those legs and antenna on the ants is a slow process.
I tried to put the legs on one at a time, one side at a time, and that sucked big time. So I started cutting longer lengths, about a 1", and then laying the ant body over the top of the 3 legs (really 6 individual legs).

The bodies are made from 3- 1/4" balls of black fondant (You get at Pila's, black is hard to make yourself. Just to get a good dark grey will take some time and work, also known as kneading and kneading. It does not taste like Licorice, LOL)
The abdomen ball you roll in to a little football shape. Roll in to a ball first and then roll the ball back and forth a little on the work surface with your finger.
A tiny bit of water between each segment will stick them together too! Remember that water will break down fondant, do not use too much water.

You can see my first ant at the top by the blue towel and then the next two are much better and I did not hurt my friend Jodi either.
Making the first one I wanted to scream or hurt somebody and Jodi was the closest person.
Her Hubby is pretty smart, he seems to disappear at times and when you look back you realize it was a really good time to leave, LOL!!

At 5 pm this day he got up and said very gently, "isn't it time to eat?"
At dinner and Mojitos(mummies). I finished mine and he said "she'll have another of those." Haw haw haw, gotta love a smart man.

Oh, and I used a bit of water to hold the legs to the bodies.
Just put the legs down and connect them all in the center and fan out the ends of the legs and then add tiny bit of water in the center and place the body there.

I wanted the legs to arch up and then bend down, duh, like ants, so I placed tooth picks under the legs and let them dry that way.
Doesn't the first ant look like an ant wreck?

They are multiplying just like real ants, must be all the sugar.
Dab a tiny bit of water on the top of the head. Pick up a 1/2" section of extruded coil and place on the top of the head.
Press down in the middle of the coil with the pointy tool end that comes in the modeling tool set M35002. These do not stick to fondant either and they have 6 ends for modeling on three tools and the price is way good!!

Frost that cake.
Extrude a half circle of red and then one of black.
That disk comes in another disk set M35156
(At the bottom of this page on my hubby's store are all kinds of combinations for discounts on multiple buying of disks and tools.)
Place the red one around the bottom of the cake and the black one around the top of the cake.

Cut both ends with a clay slicing blade or razor blade.

Add the tablecloth you made from the checkerboard fondant cane.

Add some of the ants to the top of the cake. Stick right in the frosting. The black seam at the top border didn't seem as prominent so we left it alone. I though, we don't want it to fall off and look like it was poisoned by the cake! Or maybe we do. LOL!! Tired, long day, too much sugar, no food, fading fast.
For the one covering the seam on the red border on the bottom, we used a little frosting to attach it to the border.

To make the basket: Roll a 1" ball of the chocolate fondant (Pila's, yes this tastes like Tootsie rolls, mmmmm mummies) in to a little log, I then shaped it to the best of my ability in to a basket bottom.

I marked the outside in a basket-like pattern with the knife-like green tool in the 3 tool set.

I added a small piece of the excess left over from the trimmings of the checkerboard table cloth, to the basket bottom.

I then rolled a little log about the length of the basket and maybe a 1/2" in diameter and flattened it with the roller or you could flatten with your fingers.

I then cut it in half. I placed one side on one half of the basket bottom over the table cloth. I placed the other half on the other side. If you rolled the log to long or flattened it too much you can trim these halves to fit.

I rolled a little log about 1/4" in diameter or the chocolate fondant and cut the handle to fit and attached it to the sides of the basket.

Look out it is the attack of the giant ants!! Maaaaahwahhhhhhhhhh!! 

I have the ant attack going on at my house lately. I don't mind ants at all as long as they stay outside.

Hubby and I have this discussion every year at this time.

Him "they are just looking for water". 

Me "I just watered, they can look outside".

They are pretty cute on a cake though.

Oh, wouldn't it be fun to place them on the plate too, in a line crawling to the cake?

Up the cake pedestal, LOL!!

On the table??

Naw! The ants were the hardest part of this whole thing and then they were not hard, they just took some patience, and someone stole mine.

I haven't been able to find it in a long time. ;-P

I still think clay is easier, but I am having fun getting to know this new (to me) clay-like medium.

Food Clay!!!

So Dark So Donna

My friend Donna from the So Dark So Donna does so many cute things, but they are slightly macabre.

In a good way to me. I got these two in the mail last week.

What sweet little girl!!

She doesn't scare me a bit.

I love her.

She is going on my tree this year.

I also got this great necklace.

These may be considered dark or scary, but how can they be bad, when they bring such a smile to my heart.

I love the detail on this sweet little face and the smell of it too.

It has fur for hair.

I am known to walk in to leather stores too, just for the smell!

Now I don't have to.

Donna, you may be so dark, but baby you got style and I love your style.

Visit Donna's blog store

SO DARK SO DONNA"S 

Jan Brattain- Laughing Dog Arts

I won this on Jan's Laughing Dog Arts blog. I wish I could get the right pictures and the perfect words to let you in on how delighted I am.

I adore this broken hearts wall hanging and the work is impeccable.

The stitching is so nice and even.

It is large. It will make a wonderful addition to my favorite things.

There are beads and buttons and yarns woven in to different areas of the hanging.

There are many broken hearts, but mine is whole and bursting with joy!!

It has loops to hang it by.

It is also signed on the back in stitches.

This was one of her giveaways.

This is a talented, interesting, and mulitfaceted woman and I am so lucky to call her friend, and I thought that before I got this!! 

Thank you, Jan.

I ADORE it!!!

Susan Holloway- A rose by any other name...

I got this from my friend Susan this week. It is a corsage and it is large, it weighs almost nothing, it is made from Cloud Clay from Amaco.

First thing I did was put it up to my nose, I know, must have been reflexes.

It is papery and thin, but very durable.

This clay is made for children.

What beautiful detail.

It is 4" in diameter and it weights less than a 1/2 of an ounce!!

Thank you Susan, I love it!!!

Well done you!

...and she sent Madi a handmade Llama, she loves it.

Susan likes Llamas she has an Etsy store Sonnallama

Wednesday wonder- stuck on you

Post it® notes. I knew these were good for more that notes and reminders. WOW!

See, it is not the medium you work in, but the mind, the heart, and the soul of the artist. That is where art becomes.

Take a look in the Post-it® Products Gallery

http://www.post-it30years.com/main/artwork/lifeasart-gallery.aspx

There is a contest going on right now, submit your masterpiece

http://www.post-it30years.com/main/artwork/lifeasart-submit.aspx

Hurry though, the contest ends on the 30th of September, 2010

In honor of 30 years of sticky notes, nice.

They want to thank people for sticking around.

Some very nice prizes.

Some interesting history

http://www.post-it30years.com/main/celebration-history.aspx

UPDATE: On another note.

Check this out

http://www.crookedbrains.net/2010/09/notebook_22.html

From plain to fabulous

I have these cardboard paper mache boxes. I love them, they are inexpensive, they are hearts, and I love brown paper covered things for some reason.
I have had these for a long time, I was going to do something with them but never did.

I used the top as a template on the black Cernit clay rolled out on the first thickest setting.
Cut out the heart that I traced.

I used the Crafter's Pick Glue for the top and spread some on it. A thin even layer over the whole top is all you need. Do not get it on the sides of the lid.
I then took the cut out black clay heart and placed it on the top of the paper mache lid and made sure it was lined up and gently from one side to the other pushed the clay to the box.
I stamped the heart with a stamp I got from Rubber Stamp Plantation, Lotus Corner.

I decorated the lid with a word mold "Believe" I made with large alphabet noodles, and some other molds I have made.
Then I took some Pearl-ex pigments and brushed them on the clay.
I used the Reflex Violet around the outside so that it would match the 569 violet Lumiere I was going to paint the box with.
You can see how to apply the Pearl-ex in this post
I used the same colors of Pearl-ex too!
I baked the box lid with clay in my home pre-heated oven to 275 degrees for 30 minutes. I then shut off the oven and let it cool in there until I could touch it with out pain. ;-D

When the lid was completely cool, I painted the box inside and out with Violet Lumiere and let it dry completely.

Tah-dah!

I wish I could transform myself this easily.

Collette Baron-Reid calls these "God boxes"

put your troubles in there and give it up to God.

I wonder if they make bigger(huge) heart boxes???

Playing with my food again-episode 3

I am continuing this saga with the fondant cane. I just had to try it.
You can see episode 2 of playing with my food here
You can see how the clay checkerboard is done here

I extruded the white fondant first.
The red fondant that Pila makes at her pantry is super saturated red and so much easier to buy than to make.
And since it was so inexpensive we bought the hardest colors to make.
Making them ourselves from the white would have taken the whole weekend, we had food we had to play with.

The fondant checkerboard cane

Extrude the white with the square disk.

Comes out like this. One thing I learned is, fondant is heavy and pliable, and the fondant you have extruded will pull from the disk and thin the fondant coming out of the extruder.

So move the extrduder over a table or cutting board as you extrude.
Look at that red, just a yummy, intense red. Well done Pila!!

Now using the same square disk, extrude the red.
If you load up the barrel of the extruder you will get close to the same amount.
Another thing I learned, is to cut both extruded pieces in half, they will be much easier to work with.

Another thing I learned, is to brush on a very tiny bit of water to get the two square logs to adhere to each other.




I said, very tiny bit of water. If you read episode 2, you will remember I learned that water breaks down fondant.

Now I had to put a very tiny amount of water on the one half to get it to stick to the other here.
I put these together so they go red, white, red, white.
This is called a pattern ;-D too much Sesame Street, sorry!!

After I put them together, I add a tiny bit of water. Did I mention it was tiny?
Water will break down fondant.

I cut the whole length in half. No, No, No do not bring out that ruler, go ahead live dangerously, you can do it!
Whatever is left over can be mixed in to a nice pink fondant, right?
Or maybe more of a salmon.

Turn one of the halves over (you can also rotate horizontally 80 degrees) so the pattern is the opposite of the other and place one half on top of the other.

Does it look like this?

If it does...





you did good.

Now cut the stacked ones in half.

Rotate or turn one half over again and stack. you may have to add a very tiny bit of water to one half.








Once the two halves are stacked together press very gently together and then rotate one-quarter turn and press that side together gently. Keep turning and rotating one-quarter turn until it is compacted together.

This was hard to cut with the blade I had. I forgot to bring a clay slicing blade.

Stay tuned for the episode where I do something with this. LOL!! I didn't say the next episode either.
Another thing I learned is "You can cane fondant", what a blast. I learned a lot, didn't I?
What is next?
Cookie dough??? LOL!!