Today is my birthday and I thought I would share one of my crafty presents with you crafty folks in a bid to show you the wonders of polymer clay. A tiny clay mini me! Yay!
The mini me, with authentic cat ears and knitting, is the crafty work of my studiomate Sarah McIntyre, a wonder of the world of children's illustration. It's made from stuff called Sculpey which I had no idea existed and now have an overwhelming urge to buy a ton of so can take over the world with my tiny handmade creations.
The beauty of the stuff is that it stays squidgy till you bake it. No adding water and getting that muddy 'Ghost' look.
I did a bit of digging and came up with a whole world of polymer clay projects. Check out Hub Pages for 10 Cool Polymer Clay Projects.
There are also some amazingly intricate projects on Cindy's Art and Soul. Check out the flower beads.
I will leave you to create your own little clay army. I'm off to eat birthday cake.
Flickr isn't just about photos these days. Something crafty picture-snapper Elegant Musings, who dubs herself "a creative sort" proves by using the site to pass on her tutorial for her good-enough-to-eat Cherry Brooch.
Snapping as she makes, and adding a how-to in the description of each image with Flickr's tag system acting as a way to bring the tutorial together, Elegant Musings whips up this fruity piece of jewellery click by click.
See the full tutorial, as well as some other crafty creations, in her Elegant Musings Flickr-stream here.
Some of us are far too busy for bandying about town searching for something shiny to say I love you. There's crafting to be done and no time to do it in. Which is why this super-quick how to for a felted heart necklace is perfect for a quick but cute valentine's crafting.
The free Heart-Felt Necklace pattern is simple: a quickly knit square of pure wool which is felted, cut and strung on a necklace with a heart-shaped charm. There's a free PDF with a heart-shaped template for your cut out and a handy link to some rather lovely MODA DEA "Bamboo Wool" in a kicky chilli pepper red to make things even easier.
A cute little pendant in less time than it takes you to fight the crowds in the bustling shops to buy something half as nice.
The armadillo. Weird, wonderful and the perfect accessory for night out. I stumbled across a pattern for an armadillo bracelet on my crafty wanderings and had to share. It's quirky, its made from stuff you've probably got lying around and it's oddly cute.
The bracelet is fashioned from little more than a cardboard tube, a handful of pebbles and lots of lovely glue and the how to for it couldn't be easier. It's just the sort of slightly unsettling thing that might suddenly pop up on the catwalk. Images of sozzled celebs lurching out of limos with pebble-made mammals strapped to their wrists doesn't seem all that unlikely to me.
Odd as the bracelet might be to some I do like the idea of using pebbles in a crafty manner. Credit crunch eat your heart out.
See the full tutorial here.
I love to see crafters making affordable (or downright cheap and cheerful) copies of items that would cost a small fortune to buy, especially when they're honest about how simple it was to whip up their own.
From the two photographs above, it's almost impossible to distinguish the 'genuine' piece from the copy, but while the version on the right costs $198 here, the one on the left was whipped up using ribbon, an old watch bangle and a piece of rhinestone jewellery. Seeing the two side by side is amazing, and I salute Tricia, who has posted her instructions here.
Bzzzzt. Bzzzzt. Pop. Christmas light fail. It's that time of year again when you get to thinking about untangling those Christmas lights and wrapping them round a dead tree. Magic. But those pesky bulbs seem to have fragile hearts and are constantly giving up the ghost. What to do with a handful of burned-out Christmas lights bulbs?
Singing "I'm dreaming of a green Christmas..." Reloved Designs shows off her ever so fabulous Burned Out Lightbulb Brooch on Craftster. The brooch is a simple but very effective cluster of bulbs, beads and shiny stuff that will certainly grab fellow Christmas party-goers by the fake antlers and turn them elf green with envy.
That's not the only recycled string to Reloved Designs handmade bow either.
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The trend for all things chic and Chanel-like has led to a bit of a craze for interwoven fabric chain accessories, obviously inspired the straps that Chanel uses on its iconic handbags.
These chains can be worn in all sorts of ways, from necklaces and belts to hair pieces. They can be dressed up or down and add a note of sophistication to your look. Love Meagan is on to the trend as usual and has made the chains pictured above, which are made by simply threading a length of leopard print fabric through a basic chain - and the results are so effective! See the full process here.
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