Plans for 2013...

It's New Year's day tomorrow! AND my birthday :) It's less than 24 hours now until I'm old enough to learn how to drive lol! Even though I'll probably be like 30-something years old by the time I have enough money for driving lessons (sighs).

I've been planning to start selling some of my handmade stuff for a while. I'm currently trying to work it out so I can at least make a profit from it :) My mum and dad think it's just a waste of my time, though. I'm mostly on my own doing this... Not even my friends are really being much help. They just keep telling me that  I should sell things. I suppose there isn't that much they can do anyway at the moment.

So anyway, I'm going to start selling things at some point hopefully in 2013 :)

I hope you all have a happy new year :D I probably won't update for a while after the holiday because I have exams :(

I've managed to put the Blog back in to the right time zone again btw. I was annoyed at the times always being wrong, but didn't realise it was because it was set in an American time zone...

Dragon Fruit cane

I love dragon fruit, or any exotic fruits really :) Unfortunately, I'm the only one in my family who likes them!

(picture found online)

Here's what they look like, in case you haven't seen one before. I know it might sound strange,but a lot of people I know have never even heard of dragon fruit! You eat them in a similar way to how you would eat a kiwi fruit: you basically cut them in half then take out the fruit. They taste quite similar to kiwi fruit, they're a little bland but sweet. The fruit has a soft and slightly slimy texture, but there's also lots of tiny seeds in fruit.
Anyway, I've only seen ones with white fruit before, but you can also get them with purple fruit. I don't know if they taste any different.







Now we've got that out the way, let's start with the tutorial! 

We're going to be needing the following colours: black, translucent, and a bright pink colour mixed with a little white.










Start by rolling out the black. then cut it in to equal size pieces.

What I did with the translucent clay, I rolled it in to a ball then flattened it out. Then I cut it in to quarters. I rolled out one of the pieces and used it for the centre. I put 4 rolls of black clay around it. Then wrap it up.
Keep doing this until you've used up all of translucent clay quarters.

Now we've finished making the fruit :) Now for the flesh. Take your pink clay and roll it out. Wrap it around the clay (or 'pack' the clay) and reduce it in to a cane (start by using your fingers to reduce/squeeze it down and after that you roll it).

Now you cut the ends of carefully with a good blade. Don't just push the blade down or you'll mess up your cane (typical beginner mistake!). Instead, sort of roll the cane with the blade as you push in through gently. 

And, you're done :D When you bake the slices, the white part will go translucent. Sorry, I don't have a picture of a baked slice just yet.

I don't recommend baking the cane unless you know what you're doing. If you want to use it for Decoden or nail art, I think it'll be best if you make as much slices as you think you'll need and bake them as normal.

Just a short update :)

I had a happy Christmas. Did you have a happy Christmas? I'll assume you answered 'yes' and say 'good'. Anyway, it's that awkward time of year now when you have no idea what to do because Christmas is mostly finished and it's the New Year next week (and also my birthday!!!).

So, anyway, you may be happy to know my conjunctivitis decided to leave me alone without even spreading to the other eye like it normally decides to do :) In fact, it didn't even hang around for that long. Only for about two days. I guess not touching it really does help... Also, eating a load of immune system-boosting oranges helps too! (Sorry, teeth.)

Moving on to something slightly more relevant, it's about this time last year that I discovered polymer clay. My mum got my sister a jewellery making kit with polymer clay in it last year. Not very good polymer clay at all - most of it didn't go hard at all after we baked it and it's still pliable now. Anyway, my sister ended up getting all frustrated with it (she was only 8!) and I ended up gaining a jewellery making kit with polymer clay in it. lol. I was already in to jewellery making, but I guess making polymer clay jewellery with my sister was what really got me in to jewellery making. Soon after that, I managed to get my hands on some real polymer clay (well, it was Sculpey III polymer clay, so at least close to real polymer clay) and I started off by making a few charms and earrings. Then my favourite craft shop got Fimo Soft clay in!

My first polymer clay earrings lol :) I cut them in half when I was making them
with scissors because I didn't have a blade or a craft knife lol!

A few tutorials I'm planning on making:

• I'm going to make an updated version of my polymer clay Plumeria Flower tutorial. It's by far the most popular tutorial on this Blog! I think I could make a much better version of it now, though :)
• I'm also going to have a go at making a Plumeria flower cane, but I don't know if I'll make it in to a tutorial or not.
• More ear cuffs!
• I'm planning on making a dragon fruit cane, because I love dragon fruit but there is a severe lack of tutorials for the canes :D
• I'm currently going through an artistic-looking-earrings phase, so I'll be making a few tutorials on that.
• I want to make some 'Kawaii' style charms... I'm not entirely sure what, though.
• NYAN CAT!

(Btw, I know this is no longer a 'short' update!)

It's Christmas!

I'm so happy that the world didn't end yesterday. lol. Actually, it did kind of end for me because I got conjunctivitis! I HATE conjunctivitis. I would rather have a bad migraine or a cold. I've only had it two or three times before, fortunately it doesn't seem to get worse each time you have it. But it doesn't get better, either! So I'll be trapped at home for the next few days. It's so annoying and no matter how much I try to stop it, it always finds a way to transfer to my other eye. The good thing about it is it never seems to last very long, just  three or four days :) I can remember only having it for one weekend before (that was before I got glasses to help it transfer to my other eye though).

Anyway, rant over, as mentioned in the title, it's Christmas!!! And exactly a week after that, It's New Year's day AND my birthday! I'm going to be 17! I really can't believe it :) I feel so old! I'm going to be old enough to drive :D Oh yeah, and you did just read that right, my birthday is on the first of January.

So, anyway, I'll be making some special posts because I have the time now :) I feel like doing something to the layout of my blog, too. It needs something!

How to make eye pins

for beading, it's best to use head pins, because they have flat head (but you can get them with different shaped heads). For polymer clay charms, you can use either head pins or eye pins. It's probably best to use head pins on charms that are flat at the bottom, and I find it's best to make the eye at the top after you've baked it. 

To make the eye pin, or make an eye in the head pins, it's very simple. You need round nose pliers to do this, and if you're making your own eye pins, you need wire (preferably quite firm/hard wire) and wire cutters. 

You just basically take the wire and form a loop in the top of it. You can make lots at once, or make them as you need them. I usually make them when I need them, but you can do whatever suits you. 

If, like me, you think this style is way too boring, you can try my style of eye pin! :D

Sorry the quality is so bad, but you basically need to make your normal eye pin, then bend the wire back on itself to make another loop. After this, you make one more between the first two. This one is like the 'eye' where you will put through your jump ring or whatever else you want to put in. The wire should go away from the 'eye' after this. You can cut the end off after this, but make sure you leave a good amount of room on the eye pin so it has enough room to go through the clay charm or whatever else you want to use it for.

Tips on making eye pins stay in polymer clay!

You won't have this problem if you are using head pins, but you can't always use head pins. Some times, you can only really use eye pins. The only real problem is, they tend to fall out. Usually what I do, is I pull the eye pins out after I've baked the clay and put glue on the pin. But there's a better way :)

If you make the pin an L-shape before you put it inside, it shouldn't fall out.

After you've put it in, squeeze the charm around it so it stays in. This is quite a common trick to use, but it is very useful to know :)

polymer clay Christmas Cake

The cake originally said 'Merry Xmas' on it, but now all you can see is the 'merry' part. lol.

Ok, tomorrow I'll be showing you how to make my very weird looking eye pins. :) I've not seen them like that before, so I'm hoping I've come up with an ooak idea lol! The only problem is, I've been having a few issues with my computer (again). Maybe my computer will behave tomorrow!

Polymer clay Biscuit style Christmas tree decorations

Bad quality ftw! (that stands for 'for the win' btw)

Yay! I'm getting more excited about Christmas everyday :D It's not like last year, I spent the whole time super depressed. Anyway, I had the random idea to make these :) I have no idea whether they've already been done or not. But I made them anyway because I felt like I was making ooak tree decorations.

Anyway... It's the 12/12/12 and NOTHING exciting happened. That's right. Just another day. Ugh :( I was expecting at least something to happen! It's kind of depressing to think about, though. To be honest, I wish something did happen. (Now I'm hoping someone will turn around and say "Oh, but something did happen...")

Christmas Lollipop jewellery :)

It's that time of the year now where everywhere you go is all Christmas-y and it takes about five hours to go shopping because there's so much people!

I know it's been done like a million times, but I decided to make some polymer clay lollipops :D

They're in Christmas colours :) Red, green, gold and translucent clay. I'm going to wear them on Christmas Eve, lol!

I haven't got round to making anything else yet, I've been a good girl and done lots of revising :)

I've decided to change the layout of the Blog, too :) I'm in a Christmas mood haha XD

Toffee/candied/candy apples picture

http://sapphirescrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/toffeecandiedcandy-apples.html

Toffee/candied/candy apples

This is probably one of the easiest polymer clay tutorials I've made so far :D

You will need light green polymer clay, a bamboo skewer or a toothpick, and wire cutters. To make the chocolate apple you need brown chalk and TLS (If you don't have TLS, you can paint it). For the toffee apple you can use watered down acrylic paint or clear liquid clay (such as Fimo Deko gel). In this tutorial I will be using the paint.

The apple

First, you need to condition the clay. Then roll it out and cut it in to equal pieces. After this, roll each piece in to a ball shape.

Click to enlarge :)

Use your wire cutters to cut a piece of your skewer/toothpick off. Push this in to the 'apple'. You will probably have to reshape the clay after this.

Don't worry if it's wobbly, we'll sort that out after it's baked :D

The chocolate

Mix brown chalk with TLS. It's very easy :) You want to do this on a scrap piece of paper, preferably one you've already used but don't need (Wasting paper is BAD!). Then, just dip your apple in it. Make sure it's nicely coated with chocolate, but leave a bit of green showing at the top.

If you're wanting to make a toffee apple, and you have fimo deko gel, now would be a good time to use it :) I don't have fimo deko gel, so I can't show you how. Sorry :(

Now you need to bake them according to the instructions on the packet.

One quick tip... The wooden part will probably not stay in the apple after baking. To fix this, take the skewer/toothpick out and cover  the inside and the wood with glue. Anything that dries clear will do :)

Toffee/caramel

You can also use this technique to make caramel, by using light brown paint. You want to water down some acrylic paint, don't add as much water as I did! Dip in your apple and leave it to dry.

NOTE: I haven't got any pictures of the finished product yet. Will upload them later in a separate post :)

...

Yeah, I'm not sure what to call this post... Anyway, I haven't been in the mood to update this week. I've not exactly been myself lately. And my family has 'issues' with Halloween, lol!

One thing I'd like to mention, is the hurricane in America. I can't believe it's really happened. I thought the news people were making up stories, lol. Anyway, I've heard that the damage, especially in New York, is pretty bad. It's crazy, all the pictures we've seen on the news are the complete opposite to what people over here think of when they think of New York. I hope everything gets back to normal soon and that the damage to people's lives aren't that serious. I've never actually left the UK in my life (yet), and the worse thing I've ever seen is probably the flash floods and a relatively small earth quake that happened a few years ago, but nothing that compares to this. I can't imagine how people in America must feel :(

Anyway, on a more positive note, I made this necklace out of polymer clay because I love bats and it was Halloween!

I was going to make a tutorial for it, but I noticed it was way too similar to other tutorials I've seen. It's pretty much straight forward, too. Just draw your image on paper, cut it out and use it as a stencil to cut out your clay. Done :)





I know that most other countries don't celebrate it, but it's Bonfire night on Monday :) To my family, it's A LOT more exciting than Halloween. If you don't know what it is, it's basically a festival to mark the day when the houses of parliament were almost exploded, but the people doing it got caught (hence the fact we burn a little model of a person on a Bonfire). There are firework displays up and down the country, and they never seem to stop exciting people :D The only problem is, people tend to go crazy letting off fireworks (not in a potentially dangerous way!), and so the dog goes completely mad!

One more thing: sorry I haven't made any tutorials :( I felt that everything I'd come up with had been done. But I'll definitely be making some more soon :D

Halloween charm bracelet

I made this charm bracelet :) It looks cool with all my other bracelets. It has glow in the dark ghosts, one has a moustache :D


I don't want to make any tutorials on how to make the charms because there are already lots of tutorials like this on the internet. In fact, parts of this bracelet were inspired by tutorials I've seen (I'm not going to lie)

Polymer clay Halloween charms!

YAY! It's Halloween :) I noticed I got a CRAZY amount of hits when I made my last post saying I was going to make this, so I guess the pressure is on for me!

Warning: this post is NOT a tutorial! I'll be making a tutorial later!

This is basically a showcase of some of the polymer clay charms I've made to inspire people. I know by now  people have probably made everything, but I kind of forgot to make this earlier in the month :( Stupid me.

Polymer clay Dolly Mixture

Don't ask about the chocolate bar. I went a bit mad, ok?

In real life I hate dolly mixtures, lol. But they're so fun and easy to make :) I'm planning on making these in to a charm bracelet.

Table with sweets on it (creative title lol)

I had a bit of a creative moment and ended up making this :) It looks like the table at our house at Halloween. The reason why there's barely any sweets is because they all got eaten. (Actually it's because I couldn't be bothered to make any more. But if I say that, it'll ruin the moment.)

Scrap clay bats

I made loads of these out of scrap clay and painted some of them. The one at the bottom I just covered with glue and stuck rhinestones on. One fell off because I touched it before it had dried (silly me). Don't even ask why I put two holes in them. I thought it looked good :) The one at the top is actually broken, I tried to put a jump ring through one of the holes and it just wasn't working. Me being persistent, I kept trying to push it through. Oops.

CAKE!!!!

Just something I made with my sister :) It looks kind of cute though!

Completely unrelated to the subject: memory wire bracelet with semi-precious stones

Don't judge me, it felt lonely!

The title says it all. Completely off topic! But it looks nicer than the other bracelet, ha ha!

More posts coming later. Now, I will browse the internet whilst looking bored XD

Memory Wire Bracelet

Last year I went to a continental market, and there was a stall there that was selling memory wire bracelets with silver plated beads. They were really pretty so it bought one, it was £8. It took me forever to work out how they made it :)

I eventually worked out that it was just beads on memory wire. It's super   easy to make. In fact, I felt stupid when I worked it out, lol!

Never mind :)

Anyway, as I said, it's pretty simple to work out yourself. All you need is  a few rings of memory wire and LOTS of beads. If you feel creative, you can try making the beads :D.

How to make Ear Cuffs: method 1

I love ear cuffs :) They're so cute, and you don't have to go through all the pain and after care that comes with a real piercing. All you do is put them on your ear and you're done.

I thought of several different ways to make Ear Cuffs, each method requires a strip of wire. You can add on beads, chains... If your ear piercing is 100% healed (be careful... newly pierced ears rip easily) you can join it all together using studs or tiny hoop earrings and it'll look really cute and unique :D

My ears look so weird lol!

In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to make a relatively small cuff, like the one in this picture :)

Basically, all you do is make the design flat, and then use something round (such as a paint brush) to make it curved.






1. It's easier to draw your design out on paper first. Draw it in the way you want to make it. Curve your pencil around and DO NOT take it off of the paper. You might find you have to re-do it a few times :) But it will give you a good idea on how you want to make it. Tip: you want to start it with a loop and end it with a loop. You can make them whatever shape, as long as it makes a continuous loop that doesn't have any gaps. Remember, we start by making it flat.

2. Make your design.

You can thread on beads and make the design in whatever shape. Make sure it isn't too long, make it a little shorter that I made mine. Remember, it has to start with a loop of some sort, and end with some sort of loop. By the way: if your wire is soft enough, you might find it easier to actually use your fingers to form the shape of the wire.

3. Use a paint brush/pen to curve to design around.

You may find you have to use your fingers to change the shape so it suites it more.

And you're done :)

To put it on your ear, slide it on to the top of your ear where the cartilage curves around (I believe it's called the 'helix'), and gradually make your way down until you find it sits comfortably. For some people, you'll find it slides in to a comfortable position quite quickly. For others, it'll take a while to find that position where it fits nicely. It all depends on the structure of your ear.

I'm going to make some more tutorials on how to make ear cuffs. I'll show you how to add charms, stud earrings and chains...

Polymer clay canes

I can't be bothered to make any tutorials today... But here are my canes :)

I'm going to make some tutorials on how to make some of them in the future. I hate people who buy them off of the internet! (No offence if you do!) They're so EASY to make. Yes that's right, you MAKE them.

Anyway, before I start myself on a rant, I've decided to make some tips on how I get my canes to work!

Another thing is: I don't bake them, I keep them in a box, It doesn't matter if the sides get dirty.

How to cut canes

At first, I started with circular ones because they're easier to slice. You have to roll the cane with your blade as you cut it, and then it shouldn't deform as badly. If you just push the blade straight through it, it might make the slices go a weird shape, and in some cases, the colours might mix. You don't want that to happen!
With square/rectangular canes, there isn't exactly loads you can do except push the blade through slowly. You might have to reshape the cane with your fingers every now and then. For triangular canes, such as the strawberry cane, slice it down from one of the points. Again, you might have to reshape the cane sometimes.

You can make heart shape canes too, but the problem is (see my purple heart cane), they might end up making a triangle shape. If you want, you can use clay to make the edges of the cane rounded so it's easier to slice.

'Surprise' Polymer Clay Cake Charms

This is an idea I had a long long time ago :) I don't know if anybody has made anything like this but I had the idea to make a pie that was a cake on the inside. When I made it, I decided to make it in to a keyring for my bag, I used the wrong sort of wire by accident :( It fell off my bag, but I found it, so never mind...

I'm sorry, but I'm not going to make a tutorial on this a this point in time...

This is like a little present I made :) Just a blue cube of clay, wrapped up with a yellow strip of clay for the bow.


I decided to make a cake version of it too XD

The strip of clay broke off. D:

Oh, and I made a cupcake that's really a cake too....

Shamballa style hoop earrings

In my Millefiori Shamballa Bracelet post, I mentioned that I wanted to make earrings like this. Since then, I've noticed that there aren't really a lot of tutorials like this at all... I haven't seen any at least (so I'm sorry if there are!). So I've decided to make this tutorial.

You can buy earrings like this on the internet. But it's so much nicer to make them :) (Plus it can be cheaper and you don't have to wait as long!) The only problem is, they're VERY heavy... But I suppose that would also be the case if you bought sterling silver genuine Shamballa beaded earrings off the internet.

Anyway, all you need to make these awesome earrings is memory wire (preferably bracelet sized), round nose pliers, wire cutters, Shamballa cord, jump rings and beads. I used left over cord from Shamballa bracelets.

You can enlarge the pictures if they're too small (which they probably will be!)

First you need the 'base' for the hoop earrings. Cut one hoop off of the memory wire and use your pliers to curl one of the ends of the wire inwards, so it makes a hoop shape like on the picture above.

Now for the fun/hard/artistic part - the square knots :)

Click to enlarge!

If you can't read what my writing says, basically what you have to do is thread your cord underneath the wire, bring the right side over the wire and under the cord on the other side. After that, you need to bring the thread on the other side under the wire and over the thread on the side we started with. It should make a sort of upside down pretzel shape, like in my picture. If you don't get it the first time, don't worry and DON'T give up. Once you learn how, it'll be super easy XD

Pull on each side of the thread until it makes this tight knot :)

Now we have to go in the opposite direction. Don't worry, it's loads easier than it sounds :)

Click to enlarge

I think you'll probably be able to understand it from this picture. It's the same, only in the opposite way. So rather than going over the cord, you go under the cord etc. 

Now you have to repeat these knots in the order I taught you them. Keep going until you think it's ready for the beads to go on :) (If your knots are twisting around like mine are, see the tips below. It's nothing to worry  about, it just makes the earrings look a little different)

You can either put all the beads on at once, or one at a time. 

As you can hopefully see in the pictures, I add each bead then tie a square knot. I don't pull too tightly, just enough so it looks like the bead is in a pink cage. If you want, you can add a bead, then make several knots, then add another etc. It would look good :) but I don't have enough cord...

When you come to the point where you don't want to add any more beads, tie several more square knots and cut off the excess cord. I find it's better to leave a tiny bit of cord at the end so you can glue it down and it won't come undone.

I hope you can see what I mean in this picture :)

OK, now we need to make it so we can attach a fish hook :)

use your pliers to curl the other end in to a hoop shape. Now open a jump ring and thread it through both 'hoops'. Close it, and it should look like the picture at the end.

Now all you have to do is add another jump ring and an earring hook.

And now finally... You're done :D Well, after you make one for your other ear, of course lol!

Tips

I'm not exactly sure why the knots tend to twist around when I make them... It seems to look nice to me, but I think most people would make it so it doesn't twist around. As I said, I don't exactly know why it does that, I'll definitely make a post about it if I find out :D

Remember, you can use whatever colours you want :) Try out different colours to find out what combinations  look the best. You can use as much cord as you want, too. You don't have to make it exactly how I made mine...