Update- my busy workspace!

It is probably not a surprise to learn that I am not a very organised person. Oh, I don't tend to forget about my obligations, but it would be a lot easier if I could learn to somehow put them in some sort of order! I love diaries, I'm just terrible at using them.

Anyway, sometime last fall I was messing around and I made some starfish!

At the time I thought I'd keep them until summer came back around because they weren't very wintery! Well suffice it to say, I forgot about them.

This is my tub of spare charms and things that haven't been made into anything (the bag is full of unvarnished stuff). I was sorting through and found all my starfish, so hopefully I'll actually get them up and listed because OOPS!

This is the current state of the back of my work area. The worst it's been for a while, to be sure. I have a bunch of little commissions on the books right now- not huge jobs, but for some reason I've pulled out everything I need for all of them! Ha! Also pictured are random things I've used in the past few days for other non-clay crafts, and confusingly a pot of Lush. Would someone like to come organise me?

But anyway, as I mentioned, I have lots of little commissions to do right now, and some of them will be good for tutorials. I'm going to be playing with mica shift, and if it goes well I will be sure to share the results.

<3

My CC12 contribution- Behind the scenes plus a CC Giveaway!

I don't have my Crafty Creatives box yet this month, but I am itching to talk about it. Consider this your warning that this entry is a pretty big spoiler for one of the items and a hint at the general theme of the box! So here's a few photos, some general chatter, and a GIVEAWAY!

This is what kept me so busy in May- these little cake slice charms! I am so lucky that the gals over at CC let me be a part of their 12th box. I suppose after months of spoiling myself on the box themes/contents, I was basically pre-spoiling myself yet again, but that was worth it. (For the record, as of right now I haven't fully spoiled myself on the contents though I've seen a couple of things on another blog post... trying to be SLIGHTLY good, anyway!)

Cake slices are one of the charms that got me started and I did a tutorial a few months ago on how I make them. Let's just say that after the marathon session of cake-slice making I've refined those methods QUITE a lot, ha!

One of my clay orders- I ended up using Fimo Effect pastels, the colours were perfect for the brief and it cut down on my production time so much. I'm lucky these were launched recently or I would have spent SO much time blending! My husband was quickly drafted for conditioning the clay, and we made quite a team, even if he never graduated to any other clay jobs.

One of the casualties- the toothbrush I used to texture the cakes. First the handle broke, and I learned to love it as just the top, but then it split in half too. Luckily I had plenty more of these complimentary airline brushes, though using a new one with the handle was harder after so much time with this little friend. I'm sad, right?

Making lots of cakes at once. This day was a bit crazy- I did two 'batches' in one go and for some reason it took me so much longer that way. I like the colours all lined up here and the 'school' of cake-fish as my husband referred to them.

But this part was satisfying once they were ready to be baked!

This is a good look at the varnishing part of it all which my husband took charge of, he was the second casualty courtesy of a sharp metal scrap used to create the cake-forest for varnish drying. A noble sacrifice.

Here are all the colour combos- I ended up needing to make an uneven number and it was SO HARD to choose which 'combos' I liked best for the extra cakes. I'm eager to see which ones I get in my box when the postie finally hands it over!

Goodbye little cakes. Even though I knew exactly how many I was making, I still counted them multiple times, put them in bags of equal number, and then dreamed about finding extras hiding in containers that I hadn't sent. It was an adventure and I'm so glad I did it- I didn't think I could for a while, but it got there and I'm pretty amazed that it happened. The Crafty Creatives gals are great to work with!

And as a further awesome move on their part, Crafty Creatives is sponsoring a giveaway, right here! There are three CCBox12s up for grabs, and all you have to do is 'like' our Facebook pages and then use the widget below to enter. You can enter up to four times daily!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks again to Claire and Isobel at Crafty Creatives for letting me be a part of something that has really sparked my imagination over the past 10 months or so. We are all lucky to have such a great little box land on our doorsteps every month!

Shop news and looking to the future of the blog

Well, it's been a crazy few weeks around here and I haven't had much time to devote to making anything, let alone making things with a tutorial in mind. It's coming- maybe in the next few days- but sadly not today.

So, yes! A tutorial is coming- and I think you'll like it. I'm hoping for a sunny Tuesday so I can get some really good shots. And, even if you're not sure you're ready to jump into the world of polymer clay, you'll still be able to purchase the finished product in my Etsy shop, and get a look at how I make everything. Check back here at the end of the week!

I'm going to start listing autumn designs in the shop this coming Friday, including pumpkin pies, candy corn, fiendish fancies, and maybe few new-for-2012 designs as well. Christmas items will start going up in the beginning of October with more being added up until December.

So... are you hungry?

Late to the Party...

Since starting my Etsy shop last October, I have been wanting to start a blog to show the technical side of things as well as to share some tutorials and host the occasional giveaway. Almost a year later (has it really been a year already?) and I'm finally happy with my photography skills! This is perfect timing, because there are some posts I know I need to make in the next few weeks and a giveaway near the end of September that I'm really excited about!

Anyway, let me know what type of items you'd like to see me break down in a tutorial- I have a few in mind, but am always open to hear your comments!

<3