Embedded Fimo Rose Nails

I'm so in LOVE with my new mini STAEDTLER Fimo rose nails!

I wanted to share them with all of you for Valentine's Day. They would be awesome wedding nails. Or spring nails, or summer nails..... Or you could make little red roses and have darker green foliage and make Christmas nails!!!

I kept them short and almond shape. 

I used white stiletto tips as a base. I prepped my nails and cleaned them. Then I buffed them up and glued on the tips.

I cut the tips back about two thirds and rounded off the ends to make an almond shape. 

I based the nails in a coat of builder gel and sat a rose on the smile line of each french tip before curing in the UV lamp.

I floated gel around and over each nail embedding the roses. I made sure not to leave any large air bubbles around the flower or leaves. It took a few coats before I had the roses covered. I filed the nails smooth and buffed them.

I made little curly dots on my thumb and ring fingers with white nail polish and then top coated.

These are pretty great. They totally remind me of old resin paperweights..... Is that a good thing for fingernails to remind you of?  Oh well...  I like 'em. Hope you do too.

Now I'll have to try out the molds and see what I can come up with using them!

If you aren't a nail tech, don't despair! You can make the tiny roses and take them to a nail salon and have a pro apply them for you!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Teeny Tiny Roses... and a Mold.

I've been thinking about making teensy roses for ages now. I day dream about them while I'm working away on other things. I doodle them in the margins of order lists at my day job. I make swirly rose shapes in the soap bubbles in my dishwater... 

I'm pretty excited to finally have made these.

Here's how they came to be... What they'll be used for will come later.

They really are tiny! Most are about a half centimeter.

I'm using my favorite clay.... STAEDTLER Fimo!

I had a white, a pink and a green.

I made five gradients of pink by mixing less and less colour into the white clay.

I also paled out the light green by mixing that with white clay too.

I rolled each clay shade out into roughly 2 mm thick worms.

I cut off a bit of the darkest pink and rolled it into a ball.

I flattened the ball onto a sub-straight, I'm using a dowel here because I want the finished roses to have a curved base,

I used a pointed tool to push a hole into the center of the flattened disc of clay forming a donut shape.

Continue to make tiny balls of clay keeping the colours gradient as you work,

Push a hole in each flattened disc. Each new colour ball should fit inside the previous.

I made tiny little leaves from teardrop shaped green clay. I flattened the center vein of each leaf using a pointed tool.

I like the rose with the lightest colour on the outside a bit more than I like the dark on the outside. I'll use both though to give a bit of variety.

Here's my bit of dowel filled with tiny blooms. I really do like them and can't wait until I can use them in a design.

I've made a mold of the flowers so I can reproduce them easily and quickly. This'll be fun to play with later too!

Finally... Time For Sewing!!!

I have most of today to do with as I please....

and Please.... I'd like to sew!

We let Lily choose from a few of my vintage patterns and gave her free rein in my fabric stash. Here's what she chose! Her very first design choices. 

The edges are left over from the kitchen curtains, but they match the dotty cotton just enough.

The dress is all done! Now on to the bloomers! Maybe we'll even get a matchy headband in too.

So nice to have a bit of free time. I've missed playing.

Goodness in the Mail

 I love getting packages in the mail. It's like a mini birthday, even if the contents aren't mine.

Looks like we're planning a wedding!!!

So very, very, very (ok, I'll stop. You get the point.) EXCITED!!!

These two are perfect together. 

Can't wait to see how much we can create on our own for this amazing couple of kids and their day.

Cheery Rainbow Cupcakes

We've been experiencing a bit of winter around here. I decided  to cheer us all up with a bit of colourful baking. Lily helped, thank goodness!!

These should cheer up even the most ferocious winter blues.

Lily's first experience with sprinkles was fun to watch. She has discovered, to her extreme surprise, that they are crunchy!

She's not sure what to make of all that colour though...

First taste........

Oh yeah!!!

Computer Trouble

Unfortunately, my very good and faithful friend Lappy the computer has breathed his last breath. I'm awaiting a newly built computer to house his memories. Sorry for the brief post and my time away. We'll be back very soon with a new year full of fun projects and experiments.

Aunt Janet made us these BEAUTIFUL ornamnets this year and I had to share them with you.

The Santa is felted. Isn't he cute!!??

These are FIMO Air Light discs that have been stamped and coloured and coated with FIMO Deco Gel

Soooooo Pretty!

Happiest of Holiday wishes to you all.

Some Christmas Baking

We've been having a load of fun getting the Christmas baking started.

Lily's helping by picking out some recipes.

These ones were pretty good. They're cherry cheesecake biscuits.

We made Grandpa George's saltine cracker toffee and added some reindeer.

We also made some lime cordial cookies. I think these are my very favorite. They're just plain icebox cookies with lime zest and a bit of juice added to the batter. I glazed them with a simple icing sugar/ powdered egg white and lime zest and juice glaze. They're a bit tart. but they are a great change after all the sweet/

Giveaway Winner!

First, before we announce the winner (I know, I know you're very excited to see who won), we have to show you what we got last night while we were sleeping!

SNOW!!!

Ok..... Here we go!

And the winner of our fantastic STAEDTLER colouring for grown ups giveaway IS!!!

Congrats Bev!

Bev said, "Hoping I win Kellie!!! I'm missing colouring. Was noting that to my Kelly just the other day. Would LOVE to work with such nice quality tools!!!"

I'll need you to write me with your mailing address and phone # for the shipping slip.

(My email can be found on my contact page.)

Thanks to everyone who entered.

This grown up colouring thing is fantastic!

We'll see more of it soon I'm sure.

STAEDTLER Colouring Giveaway!

Contest Closed

Winner will be announced Soon!

Follow our Blog and leave a comment on this post to enter!

Enter to win a STAEDTLER Coloring Set! 

Prize includes one 20-piece set of triplus® fineliner pens, one 24-piece STAEDTLER colored pencil set and a copy of the new Johanna Basford “Lost Ocean” coloring book. 

Retail value of this set is $60.00. 

Open only to residents in the US and Canada.

The giveaway will be drawn on the 22nd of November.

Good luck!

Snowman Snow Globe Pendant

It’s cuteness overload. Create this mini snowman in a glittery water-world in just a few easy steps. The

package will make tons of these so you might want to have another idea ready for the rest of the clay. How

about some flat ornament shapes cut out with cookie cutters? Visit www.fimo.com for more project ideas.

materials:

 1 package FIMO air basic, 8100-0 white

Staedtler Lumocolor permanent marker, Black

 White rat tail or any thin smooth white cording

Aquarium sealant

Glycerin

Clear or white glitter

Mini glass bead vials or tiny jars emptied and cleaned

Orange seed beads

Wire

tools:

Double round nosed jewelry pliers with cutters

basic supplies:

Clear nail polish top coat, Distilled water (or previously boiled and cooled water) white glue