Re-Ment collection

RRcherrypie posted her Re-Ment collection on youtube. All the pieces aren't available anymore but they are fun to watch!

I know that Sophie & Toffee carries some of the Re-Ment collection here but I haven't seen it anywhere else yet.

Featured: Mini Mo - Sweet & Tiny

Second one in our Feature serie is Mini Mo from the blog Sweet and Tiny. 

I wanted to feature her because she makes such lovely miniatures, not only the regular ones but she also uses deco on 'not your usual items' like clocks and plates. Mini Mo tries to discover new and unusual materials to use for deco. She makes lot's of reviews for all the different tools and materials she uses. Read her blog to found out more about this ;).

On to the questions:

1. Who are you and what do you do (decowise)?

My name is Monika but I use Mini Mo as my nickname (I am usualy called Mo by others and I'm realy short person! :D ). I am Polish and currently live in UK.
I love to make fake, deco sweets from clay and decorate various things with them. I'm also interested in other types of crafts, like jewelry making, sewing, resin etc, and I try to incorporate them into deco sweet items. I used to use polymer clay but since I discovered air dry clay I totally fell in love with this medium.
I try to use wide variety of air dry clays, like Fimo Air Light, porcelain clay and translucent clay, because from my experience I can tell that it is impossible to achieve real looking sweets with only one type of clay.

   

2. When did you start working with clay/ to make little desserts and things?

I discovered polymer clay about year and a half ago, but I started properly learning how to make deco sweets in September 2010. I remember this date so well because it's the same time when I started blogging too! :D
Therefore I still consider myself a newbie to deco sweets and I'm still learning new things.

3. Where do you get your inspiration?

At the beginning I was gettin my inspiration from internet and blogs, trying to learn basics and simple things like how to make cookies, ice creams and so on. Everything was new to me and I was surfing through the Internet and passionately reading tons of blogs. I also learned that deco sweets are acctualy inspired by French desserts and patisserie (how amazed I was when I discovered that there are REAL macarons in France!) and after that I became searching for inspirations in real desserts.
I am also a fan of shabby, girly country style and I try my deco sweets to be in this style too.

4. You have a wide variety of things you make as we can see on your blog, what are your favourite things to make? And what is your absolute favourite?

I don't think I have a favourite thing I like to make. For me it's more of a question what I can or can't make. Most of people say that they like or hate making certain things, but I think that in
reality they can or can't make them. When they can, they love making it, but when they struggle, then this thing is propably one of the things they hate making. And for me it's all about challenge.
It's not fun for me anymore when I know how to make something and then I search for more things I want to learn. It's exciting when you learn and then you see the first results of your hard work! :D
Propably that's why my blog is full of different things! :)
But if I would realy had to choose, then my favourite thing to make would be fruits made from translucent clay, only because they can look so real when made properly :)

5. And lastly, do you have any tips/tricks that you want to share with our readers?

As I said before I still consider myself a newbie to deco sweets, but the thing I could share with everyone is to not to let yourself think that you're worse than someone else who makes deco sweets
(or different things). Sometimes when I make my clay sweets and at the same time I browse and read other blogs/websites, I look at my creations and think that they are not as good as I thought they are.
I get frustrated and sad, and I think that maybe I should stop because I'm not good enough. And when this kind of mood gets you, thet it's the best to turn your computer off or just watch anime or something else,
and stop comparing your work to others. Everyone has their own style and that is the most important thing that differs deco artists. I noticed that some of the most known deco sweets creators on Internet is not
that good at making certain things, but it's their original style and enthusiasm that makes their work so popular. Therefore you shouldn't compare yourself to anyone else but try to put the best of yourself into your work and that's how
you will create your own original style, because everytime you make someting you put a tiny bit of your personality into it. And that's why it's unique :)


You can follow her on her blog Sweet & Tiny, she also has an etsy Sweet & Tiny where you can find her items for sale.

Blog about deco?

I'm going to make a list of different blogs about deco so you'll can find inspiration or other people who like this hobbie. Do you have a blog where you post your deco projects? Or do you know any blogs about deco?
Let me know in the comments and I'll add it to the list!

Making jewelery with cabochons: easy and quick!

I haven't done a tutorial in a while and getting those cabochons from Sophie & Toffee, made me wanted to craft. Making these jewelery is very easy and quick, you can pop a thing up in 5 min. and than wait for the glue to dry =D

So last week I took an evening off and made a few things. 

Now for the tutorial,

You'll need:

Findings: ringpads with small or large pads depending on how big the cabochon is, ear-studs, pendant bails, ... I forgot to include hair clips but you can use those too :) You can get these at your local craft store if you want to try it, but from my own experience, you can better buy these online 'cause they are cheaper there, for example on etsy, dawanda, Sophie & Toffee.

 Glue: best is Epoxy glue or 2 component glue. Hot glue (like with a glue gun) isn't going to hold your cabochons on your findings (been there, done that). When using epoxy, you'll have to mix up the 2 components so you'll also need some toothpicks and a scrap of paper, use an old magazine or some cardboard from an cereal box (don't use a white piece of paper, reuse is better!)

And off course your cabochons, you can find these things on etsy, dawanda, in beading shops, Sophie & Toffee, just look around you, if it has a flat back you can use it! In this picture you also see some fabric roses, little diamonds which they use in scrap booking, you can also use buttons, broken earrings, and so on. 

Now onto the 'how to',

prepare your glue, mixing the components and take a toothpick to add your glue to the ringpad or the cabochon. I like adding the glue to the ringpad so you won't use to much glue but it will hold. Hold it in place and than let dry. Finished! Yep, it's that easy!

Here are some backs of rings I did.  

 And the result, the black/orange thing are 2 buttons stacked on each other.

 You can also turn these things into ear-studs. Remember the fruit cabochons I got? I turned them into earrings ^^ 

 The strawberry things you see were shanked buttons, I simply removed the shank with a plier or wire cutter (be sure to cover your eyes if you're doing this 'cause the shank will fly everywhere)

 I love these apples ^^

That's it for today. In the next few days I won't be posting much as I'm very busy for school. I'll post an update from time to time how I'm doing and such.

Have a nice week and thanks for reading! 

This post is crossposted to riechanster.blogspot.com

Sophie & Toffee Review

Disclaimer: this post is sponsored by Sophie & Toffee, but I will give my honest opinion on these products.

Shop: Sophie & Toffee

url: http://sophieandtoffee.com/

Location: Singapore

The package arrived here quite fast, in 6 working days.

Everything was very tightly wrapped with bubble wrap and came in different little packages.

  

Now onto the items, I forgot to add a coin in my close-up pictures so here's an overview:

Some of the items aren't here anymore 'cause I took a evening of from schoolwork yesterday and did some deco ^^ Post is coming this weekend.

 Now onto the close-ups. 

I actually never heard of Anna sui ... after a quick trip to wiki, I found out she is a famous American fashion designer. I really like the rose on the emblem though ^^ This item also has glitter! The butterflies you see here are also very glittery, especially the black. And glitter = win! ^^

I think these flowers are really adorable, they are very glittery and I think one of these would be very lovely as a big ring.

 Another type of flowers, while the above ones are plastic and aren't movable, the petals of these white and black flowers are movable. The petals are each attached with fish thread (I call it this way, don't know the real name, it's clear plastic thread used in jewelery making)

Next are another type of flowers, which are made from clay. A flower with different coloured petals, butterflies with golden edges and 2 poodles and a purse. I'm not such a fan of poodles

 flowers

And here are the backs of the 3 types of flowers, you can see the glittery flowers has a very wide back, the black one has the petals attached and the clay ones has a smaller back.

I love these fruit pieces! Although the only downside is that the apple slice and apple halve aren't in the same colour. But I don't know it that's for all the pieces or that it differs.

fruit

And last but not least, a bag charm which I added to my mobile. At first I thought it was clay but it turns out to be plastic/silicone, which I think is a good thing because my mobile get kicked around in my bag and coat and such and when the charm is clay and has little parts sticking out it's sooo likely going to break off :( But with this one, the little pocky sticks are bendable so won't break ^^ The glass to hold the icecream is plastic.

Reading from the site, these usually get sold in surprise packs but they let you pick the design you want ^^

And it also says it comes with an edible chewing gum, ..., I have yet to find that XD

link

Conclusion: I think they have really nice products, in very different sizes and styles which is great to deco. Hope this review was useful to you!

(The products shown in the pictures are linked for easy access under each picture, items not linked are not available yet on the website but will be linked after they are available )

This post is crossed posted to riechanster.blogspot.com.

Ambassador for Sophie & Toffee

Hello everyone!

I recently became one of the ambassadors of Sophie & Toffee,

an online shop which sells all kind of deco and art supplies like cabochons, clay, kits, and so on.

If you are interested in these things, please check out their shop!

I wanted to became their ambassador because they have a wide variety of things available, not only ready made deco supplies but also clay, kits, findings, molds and miniatures.

I just love the items they sell and would buy 80% if I had an nonstopflowing cash supply. The owners are very nice and friendly too which I think is higly important in stores, on- and offline.

Their prices are also reasonable. And I just LOVE the name ^^ How cute is that, Sophie & Toffee, I always imagine a little girl in a giant milkshake/icecream for some reason ^^.This is what the other ambassadors have to say about Sophie & Toffee:

sassyNpunk loves Sophie and Toffee because they provide crafty people and small businesses with the best and most kawaii supplies around! Come check out all of our one of a kind pieces made with the help of Sophie and Toffee products @www.sassyNpunkBoutique.com"

"I love Sophie & Toffee because it's such a convenient and easy way tobuy Japanese craft materials... where you'd normally have to searchetsy for days to find all the items you need, I can just get them allfrom the one shop! I also like that you have a high standard of theproducts you select for your shop. You can never really determine thequality of an item from just photos, but I always feel a little moresecure shopping from a "real" store rather than a private seller. Andin my experience the items have been great in quality compared to whatI used to buy (especially the metal hardware!). And of course, thewebsite is totally cute and the staff is really lovely and helpful through the facebook page ♥" 

"I love Sophie & Toffee because I have a passion for crafting! The Sophie & Toffee website always brings a great deal of inspiration to me. I love all the cute products this company has to offer. I am so excited to be a part of the Sophie & Toffee family of ambassadors!"

You can expect a review of some of their newest items tomorrow!

(this post is crossposted to Riechanster.)

Featured: GentlemanBunny

First up in a series of feature posts: GentlemanBunny,
I have been a fan of hers for more than 1 year. She makes amazing little cute things,
one of her specialties is making little people from different movies and groups.
But I'll let her do the explanation.

1. Who are you and what do you do (decowise)?
My name is Päivi (or Shiri, or Gentlemanbunny as known in the internet world). I create tiny deco items using polymer clay. I usually sculpt miniature foods like cute cupcakes, cakes, sushi and make those into charms and jewelry (earrings, pendants, rings). But the sculptures are so tiny that they can also be used to decorate your phone or camera, for example.

2. When did you start working with clay/ to make little desserts and things?
I first started with real clay when I was a teenager. I made all sorts of pottery items (bowls, mugs and ornaments). But then after I found polymer clay, and saw how easy it was to use (that you could bake it in your regular kitchen oven, unlike real clay) I was hooked. The first items I ever made were tiny little figureens of animals like bunnies and cats. After awhile I begun to make miniature cakes, lollipops and other food related items.

3. Where do you get your inspiration?
I get my inspiration from everywhere - basically the daily life. I sometimes browse through cook books of flickr food photo galleries to get inspiration - and to challenge myself into making something I've never made before. I also get lot of inspiration from music and movies. It's fun to make miniature foods but I also love making miniature people, actors, musicians and movie characters.

4. You have a wide variety of things you make as we can see on your youtube channel, what are your favourite things to make? And what is your absolute favourite?
Well, bunnies are easy and fun to make. But they are also very delicate because of the tiny ears. Also, with bunnies you can make them into "sceneries". For example I've made easter bunnies, halloween (witch) bunnies, christmas (elf) bunnies and so on. It's fun to have a simple character which is easy to make and build something (foods or items) around it.

5. And lastly, do you have any tips/tricks that you want to share with our readers?
Love what you do and keep pushing yourself. When I make my tutorials I usually have an idea on my head, take some clay and press record on my camera. I don't reherse my tutorials and sometimes the sculptures end up looking very different from what I was thinking at first. You don't need a lot of clay or expensive tools. Just a few blocks of clay and some tools you could find around the house like a food knife and a toothpick are great to start with.

Thankyou very much for this little interview!

Here are some of my favourite videos of her:




If you want to see more of GentlemanBunny's creations you can visit her blog , her etsy, House of Mishibu and her deviantart.

(all photographs belong to GentlemanBunny and are posted with permission)