Basic Paper Lantern Tutorial

This is my 100th post! 

Getting ready for Halloween or just a party?  Here is a great money saving way of sprucing up your porch or backyard.

Hope you enjoyed the picture tutorial on making a basic paper lantern tutorial.  This is a no frills tutorial.  I will post soon how to make this into a garland and pretty them up a bit.

The plus is for the battery operating tea light to sit in allowing the paper lantern to actually glow.

Thanks for reading kiddies and catch me later for Sunday's Labor Day weekend post.

New tools and right clays

Working with new tools and harder clay makes all the difference in the world.  This is the fourth attempt at the Tardis with my new tools and I wasn't getting anywhere with my new tools.  My biggest problem was not my new tools it was the clay I was using.  The clay was way to soft and squishy.  I went through three different clays before I tried some of the Scupley III I had and it was nice and stiff.  It held together much better through all of the impressing and sharp edges.  I don't usually work with squares, I'm more of a circle person. 

Nail Dotting Tools bought on Amazon 

Really sloppy attempt at a Tardis using super soft clay.

Sclupey III, Tardis charm, and one of the tools used to make it.

 

I think when my Premo comes in I will have all the tools it takes to make everything I want.  I am very excited!  I am still working on the whole Indiana Jones party stuff but I don't want to really show anything until I have finished.  But we will see.  I'm thinking paper lanterns.  Hope you will like to see it because I am probably going to show you a tutorial on how to make them.

 

Thanks for coming back to see me.  Hope you are well and craft on kiddies.

 

Getting ready for Christmas

I am beginning to prep for Christmas season.  Time to make a ton of crafts.

I made Duck Tape rose pens last year and this year I am doing that again but I am going to pre-make a few for easy purchasing.  This year I am adding to that by making charms and some Christmas ornaments too.  Right now I am going to be working on a labor day weekend party so my crafts and tasks are sort of all over the place.  I have no DIY's, crafts, or anything at all except one lonely picture of some of the pens I have made so far. 

Enjoy.

 

P.S.  I won my eBay bid!  YEAHHHHH!  Now I will have plenty of product to make charms and ornaments with!
 

Thanks so much for reading and please, come again!

  

Polymer clay bidding wars

We are all fully aware of my new obsession with polymer clay charms and more.  One thing I have decided is that if I am going to sell on Etsy or even just through word of mouth I will need to have far more clay, tools, and a plan for shipping & handling to be a proper seller.  To buy all these things at my local craft store is really going to cost me an arm and a leg.  I am serious!  For example, Since it might not even pan out and is still just sort of a hobby I really needed a good deal.  I decided Ebay would probably be a good place to get a large amount of polymer clay in multiple color choices at a discounted price.  I hoped against hope that there was some crafter out there just dying to make some space by getting rid of a toosh load of clay and maybe there would be something else there in a nice package deal.  There is, but, I have no idea how to bid properly.  Time to learn!

Here is what I have found.

Don't max bid.  Doing this can cause the bid to raise beyond a point of worth.  Read all of the description before bidding to make sure you are getting what you think you are beyond the image.  And look daily if you are hoping for a great deal to come around you have to watch for it.  When a seller puts something out for bidding it usually comes with a buy now as well but, as soon as the first bid is made you loose the opportunity to Buy it Now.  If there is already a bid in place just watch the auction until the very last minute then place your bid.  You may be able to squeak by with just pennies over the last bid not leaving enough time for any other bidders to catch up by placing in their own higher bid. 

I wish I had known this before I lost a few bids.  I did find this package of Fimo and Sculpey III on Etsy and of course it's on a buy now type of system.  Although I wish I had read the description better.  I saw a beautiful pile clay and my favorite thing in that picture was the 1 lb box of Super Sculpey, unfortunately the description mentioned that the Super Sculpey was a little hard and may have been cooked in transport.  It was.  I wasted a bit of that order on what I thought I was paying for but over all it was a good buy and less stress.  I still have a bid I am watching to get a nice batch of Premo Sculpey.  The best of all worlds polymer clay.  I can't wait to win it.  Which I plan too!  Wish me luck and happy bidding to the rest of you.

Hope I didn't bore you all too much and I hope I didn't ruin any future chances at some bids for myself! (HA-HA!)

Keep on reading and visit my site every Wednesday and Sunday to see something old or something new.

Paper Butterfly Tutorial

Get together 2 x 8/10 pieces of paper, scissors, and floral garden wire (or pipe cleaners, whatever you have available).

Fold your paper into a triangle. 

Cut off the excess paper from only one piece of paper.

Accordion fold the square piece of paper on a vertical.  Fold the full 8x10 piece of paper into an accordion and cut the ends off into a scallop to add interest.

Cut a 10 inch piece of wire.  Squeeze the middle of the two accordion pieces with the square on top and the rectangle on the bottom.  Wrap the wire around the middle and twist like a twist tie and curl the ends for antenna. 

Use the leftover piece cut off to make a little butterfly.  If you cut the rectangles edges you will get a more decorative butterfly.

 Enjoy your beautiful, versatile paper butterfly.  Play with the cutting textures, layering of paper, and even size of the accordion folds to get a different effect.  This has been great as decoration on presents, center pieces, hanging in a garland, and more.  I will show in a later post how I used tissue paper pom-poms and the butterflies in a beautiful party garland.

Thank you for reading and I hope this helps you create a beautiful piece of decoration.

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August Book of the Month

Cute Polymer Clay Popsicles & Ice Cream: Polymer Clay Kawaii Food Charms (Polymer Clay Kawaii Charms)

 

For August's book of the month, to go along with my clay kick, here is a book with a tutorial on how to make cute little polymer clay charms of sweet treats and other foods.  This would also be a really good choice for Kawaii style charms (any simple clay charms with a little face on them). It's also a really good price at 99 cents for a Kindle download.

On 8/12/13 it was 99 cents and that may have changed by the time you read this so check the price before purchasing.

 

Enjoy and thanks for checking in.

 

Doctor Who Charms Me Over

Clay Crazy!!!

I know I have already mentioned it but I am on a clay kick.  I apologize to any of my readers looking for another craft or art form to oogle at.  Don't worry, I will have something new to view on Wednesday.  This however is only a post detouring from my Harry Potter Charms.  Once again my husband asked for something Doctor Who theme craft so I made these.  I am not really happy with my Tardis or some of the other details like the eye pits on the Cyberman but I ordered a set of dotting tools to help with the details. 

 

Dalek 

Cyberman, Dalek, Tardis

It wouldn't be complete if I didn't show off a few Harry Potter themed Snitch charms.  They are the size of beads but of course you can use them as charms seeing that they already have eye-pins in them.  If interested email me.

Hope you enjoyed Sunday's Post and keep on crafting kiddies.

Any Questions or comments for me?  Leave them below please.

 

Tips on how to simply use a charcoal BBQ

Want to make the most amazing BBQ but you don't know how to use your charcoal grill?  Me too!  
So, I decided to ask my Dad to teach me how.  

 

  Here are the picture steps he took me through.  To make the best BBQ.

 

Materials:

1 & 2. Grill, charcoal, matches, grill brush, and fire fork.

3. Clean the grill with your grill brush.

4. Pile up the charcoal into a mountain on top of the lower grate.  Old briquettes can still be useful so just pile the new coals on top.

 

6. Take your charcoal fluid and squeeze it over all your coals evenly, just a small touch on each with the fluid.

7. Then cover the grill and close the vent to let it soak up into the briquettes for about 5 minutes.

8. Re-drizzle the grate and briquettes with just a quick spray of fluid.

9. Make sure the vents under the grill are open.

10. Get your matches or grill lighter and set the coals on fire. There is no special place to set it alight it because it is all saturated with fluid.

12. Pull the grate back over with your fire fork and then wait for the fire to burn down.

 

13. The coals should be white and red on the inside of the mountain but, not still on fire.

14. Spread your coals with the fire fork across the bottom grate.

15. Re-brush the top grate.

16. Wipe the grill down with a cooking oil soaked paper towel to create a non-stick surface.

 

17. Put you meat of choice on the grill.  Depending on the meat will depend on the cooking time.  In this case we are using chicken breasts which have been cut in half and marinated in a Hoisin sauce, mixed with garlic, lime zest, soy sauce and other ingredients.

18. Cover the grill and leave the vent open. Leave it for at least 3 minutes.

19. Flip the meat.  There should be nice grill lines across the meat.

20. Repeat steps 18 and 19 until meat is cooked through.  We cooked the chicken another 8 minutes or so.  Flipping it 2 more times.  With chicken it is very important that the internal temperature is at 165 degrees before it's done.

 These are the most basic techniques but for a beginner this should be pretty helpful.

 

Thanks for reading kiddies and keep on crafting.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to follow me on Google+ and comment below.

 

Paper Pom-Pom Garland Gift

...Continuation of the Flower Pom-Pom tutorial (click here for the full flower pom tutorial).  This is a tutorial on a smaller fuller version strung along a garland.  You can use this to garland for decoration and you can also use this to decorate gift bags and stuff.  Here, again, is a picture tutorial to help.

1. Cut a tissue paper sheet into eights.

2. Accordion fold the sheet, wrap in wire and then cut a half moon off the ends.

3.  Pull up the tissues from each side evenly until both sides are full. 

5. Take your full Pom-Pom

6. Use curling ribbon

7. Find the gap in the center of the flower and tie the string tightly.

8. Do the same to the full Pom-Pom and re-fluff.

You can hang this off a simply wrapped box or a gift bag off of the handle.

 

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and thanks for reading kiddos.

 

Click below to pin on Pinterest or leave a comment with any comments or questions.