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...