My Sticker Clips

Here are the sticker clippies I have been working on all week.  Monday I drove over 45 miles, 10 miles at a time, lugging 2 two year olds in and out of shopping carts to find 8 sets of each sticker set I needed.  We visited 4 Micheals stores, Joanns, Walmart, and Hobby Lobby to find all the sets that were missing.

Whew!  It makes my arms ache just thinking about it.

I hot glued each sticker together the way I wanted it, glued it to white felt, cut it out, glued it to black or navy felt, cut it out, then glued them on the lined alligator clips or ponytail holders as requested.

I will apologize now for the terrible picture quality.  With it getting dark so much earlier I can't get a decent photo in our black hole of a house :0)

I have to say that baseball bat/glove one is my favorite!!!

Now on to the felt order! 

(Ofdah! I think I need a nap)

Luv Bug Hairbows

I made this little bow a few months ago and posted her on Etsy for sale.  Yesterday I got a special last minute request for 9 of them.  The darling customer wanted them for her daughter's soccer team this Saturday.  Guess what their team name is...that's right, the Love Bugs!  How cute is that!?!  When I played little league soccer we were the panthers or the bobcats, nothing cute like the Love Bugs :0) 

The actual colors of the team were red and pink with black and white accent colors (nothing like our brown and yellow of the 80's).  Due to a mishap involving my husband being sent to Hobby Lobby alone on his way home, I had to go back to the store myself.  While there I realized that the ladybug ribbon not only comes in pink and green (which I already had), but in the exact team colors as well!!!  You know what that meant...

I HAD to make all new bows in the new ribbon colors to match those polyester soccer shorts exactly!

After a lot of diet soda...and some sugar to replace what was missing in the soda...I finished these babies about 4:30 this morning!  That is the latest night I have had in some time :0)

Cute though, right?

9 little girls running all over the soccer field wearing my baby bug bows this Saturday...Priceless!

It was all worth it :0)

The Saga Continues

Well, my customer asked for MORE...and this is what I came up with.  I am totally thrilled about most of these.  There are a couple hair clippies that are a little out there, my lame attempt at abstract art, but the rest turned out fabulously!  I have decided that I love to work with felt.  It is my newest addiction :0).  

I used printable transfer paper to do the books and the glues.  I bought both the transfer paper for light fabrics (for the glues and open book) and the one for dark fabrics(for the Dr. Seuss book).  Apparently they have two different sets of instructions and OFCOURSE I did not read BOTH sets :0)  That would have been crazy!  My end result was backwards labels for my glue.  I guess you are supposed to flip the image on that one :0)  Now we all know.  Also, when you iron on felt, it melts a little, so those items are a little lower in the loftiness category, but I love them all the same.  I also did the book, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, I found images of the cover and the inside pages online, but got sick of putting together samples so I will save that one for next time.

The wood pencil and the rainbow are both made from chopping pencils into tiny pieces and gluing them back together.  Crazy huh?  I had high hopes for that rainbow, constructed from colored pencil pieces, but it just never happened for that poor creature.

These are my little bit cheaper clips.  I tried to use actual school supplies to make these.  The little books are made out of wood.  I LOVE how they turned out!  I made a 2-cover book the same way up at the top.  That one I filled with real paper, these I just painted the sides white to be the pages.  The little scissors I got at the Dollar Tree.  I glued them to my little paper shapes of wood and layered felt in there to look like it was being cut. 

The next couple pics are of 3D stickers I used for the clips.  These pics were just my sample pics to show size and options, but I have spent the last two days gluing the stickers to white felt, cutting them out, then gluing them to another color of felt.  The children who are to wear these wear school uniforms so they want them all on either black or navy felt. 

 

If I ever get these sticker clippies finished :0) I will show you. I have to show you all the clippies I make because I am getting little else done these days. I have pushed the clippy thing big time lately because we are going to Disneyland in a couple weeks and I need all the spending money I can get, right!?!

Oops...forgot this one.  Isn't it cute!  My little clipboard.  I made him out of one of my paper sized wood pieces, cut the clip out of wood, modge podged the scrap of paper to the board, and made the pencil out of a BBQ skewer :0)  I am very proud of the pencil.

These, a terrible picture I know, are for another customer.  She requested "chocolate" designs, among others.  I could not resist making a whole assortment of clay chocolates.  I used the cheep fimo knock-off (only $.99 a color) and was very happy how easy it was to work with.  In fact, I bought purple sculptey brand clay Monday to make some mini grapes and it was WAY harder to use than the cheep stuff!  I think we have a new favorite! 

I have another two weeks of clippies before vacation strikes.  Wish me luck.  My one hope is that you enjoy, even the slightest bit, looking at my mini creations :0)

Happy Crafting!

Clippie Madness!!!

I finally shipped off my order of 18 hand painted clippie sets!!!  What a HUGE project! 

Tomorrow I get to start an order double that size!!!  I may need brain surgery after that order :0)  There is only so long a person can stare at tiny wooden shapes before the sanity starts to slip away. 

I spent the better part of the last two weeks cutting, sanding, wiping, painting, penning, gluing and assembling these beauties.  I figure after all those hours I should at least get to show them off.   

These next ones are applique my customer ordered for me to put on clips and ponys.   

Wew!  As much as I appreciate the business, I have to admit I am glad this one is over.  I will be even more thrilled when I complete the 38 set order that looms over head.  As for tonight, I am just going to go to bed and pretend none of this exists :0)

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate Cake For Me!

Well, the cake wasn’t for me…but I had a blast making it!!! My friend came to me Wed. and asked if there was any chance, if I wasn’t too busy getting ready for Halloween, that I could make a pirate birthday cake for her son. I lied and said “No, I could probably do that”. With her assurance that it was OK if I didn’t finish, and the fact I was already making cake for the Halloween party, I jumped in head first.  

I baked a 10" round butterscotch cake Friday morning. I chose the butterscotch cake because it bakes up quite like pound cake in density, which makes it easy to sculpt.

Now for the shape. I cut the back flat, rounded the sides, then went back and angled the back corners. The only thing left to carve was the top.  Torteing first!

 

I use 3” pans for my cakes, then I torte them. Torteing is when you slice the cake and put a filling in. When you do cakes this way, instead of putting two separate layers of cake together, you get a much more moist cake. I get asked a lot why my cakes are so moist. There you go...the secret! I actually torte twice. Just the right amount of filling in every bite! 

Shave a deck into the boat...

I mixed blue frosting and frosted the cake board to look like water.

Now to introduce Mr. Boat to Mr. Water :0)

I frosted the cake plank-like with Basketweave tip no. 2B.  I used the ridge side for the planks and the smooth side for the trim.  I tinted the bag first with coloring before putting the icing in.  It makes the frosting multi-colored to give it that wood look. 

 I tinted the frosting for the water also. I piled up waves in the front.  Don't you just love star tip no. 21!!!  It's my FAVoRITE!!!

Here is the treasure chest I made the night before.  I took a butter box, cut the end off at an angle, and covered it with fondant.  I sculpted the top out of a roll/log shaped piece of fondant.  I brushed on corn syrup and attached the black trim, lock, and coins in the trunk.  The beach was tan frosting covered in brown sugar.  The little coins were made by rolling a small ball of fondant, squish it flat, dimple the middle, then brush with gold luster powder.

TaDAH!!!  I guess I skipped a couple pictures.  I tend to get too into my work to remember to take pics along the whole way :0)  I made the cannon, side cannons, scroll, treasure map, and anchor out of fondant the night before.  The stuff could have used another day or two to dry (the scroll cracked) but they all turned out SO AWESOME!!!

Here is a close up of the trunk...

The sail of the ship was made out of paper.  I printed out the skull and cross bones, distressed paper with distressing ink and sprayed with tea, dried, tore the shape out, burned the edges, and hot glued it onto the pole. 

Here is a back view...

Back side...

And a close up of the deck!

I was so totally thrilled with how totally awesome this cake turned out!!!  So fun to do and even more fun to see the end product!

I was feeling in the mood to Cake :0)  Thanks for the opportunity!