Miniature Modelling

There are times when Jessica takes advantage of my keeness to craft and I start to question my sanity. Last weekend I found myself modelling all sorts of things from polymer clay and hot glue for her Sylvanian families. It was therapeutic and Jessica was delighted but surely there were better things I could have been doing with my time!

It all began with making bowls of cream for the cats...

These were moulded around small marbles, baked and then filled with hot glue "cream". Jessica then decided that they needed remote controls for their television and a ladder to reach their top bunk in the caravan. Naturally, they also needed a new set of tiaras as well. 

 

Perhaps this weekend Christmas will arrive in the Sylvanian town and I'll find myself making tiny rrees, lights and tinsel!!! I will not be giving these ideas to Jessica; we're going to be far too busy finishing Christmas gifts.

 

Jessica's Christmas Wreath

It's certainly beginning to feel a lot like Christmas this week. I can't remember the last time we saw snow so early in the season and just a short walk around the neighbourhood yielded 65 houses with Christmas lights up last Sunday. Our tree went up on Thursday and out came all of our window ornaments, Christmas pictures and this wreath that Jessica made last year. 

She made candy canes, stars and bells from polymer clay and riffled through my suppliers to find ribbon, skeleton-leaves, ribbon flowers, bells, wire flowers, pine cones and pom-poms. She used a blank rattan wreath from Hobbycraft and carefully designed it before giving me the instructions with the hot glue gun! It would appear to have survived a year in storage and is now hanging in pride of place in the conservatory again for a few weeks. 

The Christmas Craft Cupboard is Open!

That's right - we're beyond October half term, so it must be time to crack on with some Christmas crafting, surely!! As a result of returning to teaching and struggling to adjust to a new work-life balance we didn't do much for Christmas 2019 but I have built up a huge supply of blanks and bits in the sales over the past two years so we've certainly got enough to get us through this lockdown comfortably! 

Today we kicked off with polymer clay modelling. Jessica wanted to do a Christmas tree and snowman (again) but I think we might be ready to try something like a penguin next time! 

These lovely little creations are destined to hang on our tree in fillable baubles looking like little snow globes. We've got a few different options for the shapes and sizes of baubles and for the accompanying filling matter currently in my stores from places like Hobbycraft and Poundland and haven't decided exactly what form they will take yet but here's the general idea...

With the remaining warmed up clay, Jessica decided to also make some little marbled pendants in unusual shapes. I love how simple rolling and folding creates such beautiful effects.

We use Fimo Soft, which is smooth and easy to blend. The colour does bleed onto hands and surfaces so you have to be slightly careful and be prepared to clean your workspace between colours if you need to keep crisp colours and brilliant white. It's a lovely activity for everyone and I'm always surprised how far a little block will go.

Unicorn Baubles

I've turned my attention to my sister's tree now; her style is somewhat different from mine! I have to admit though, these have been my favourite baubles to create this year and I'm really pleased with how they've come out...

These are made from fillable baubles, which means that the glitter is all enclosed! Jessica and I painted the inside of the baubles with clear PVA glue and poured in the glitter. She also helped me make the horns from Fimo Soft. I then painted the eyes with acrylic paint and made the ears from card before using my cool glue gun to put it all together with a few ribbon roses and crystal flower to finish them off. We've made four large and two small unicorns and I can't promise that Sarah will get all six because I think Jessica is going to love them!

Snow Globe Baubles

So, this is what we did with our Christmas tree and snowman figures from yesterday. We glued them to the base of fillable baubles and added a scoop of artificial snow and glitter to create fabulous little snow globe baubles.

We also used a miniature gold bottle-brush tree to do the same thing, which will look stunning on our tree but has far less charm and character than our entirely homemade ones above!

Introducing Fimo

My word, Jessica enjoyed crafting with Fimo this afternoon. I had picked up a Fimo Soft Christmas Kit when it was on offer a few weeks ago so we had some good colours to play with and a moulding tray to try out but we quickly went rogue and decided to try making candy-canes. Jessica was so good at making them; I was so impressed! The ones pictured above are all her own work and I love them all! The bigger ones, at least, are definitely destined for my Christmas tree.

It is such a long time since I last dabbled with polymer clay (we're talking a couple of decades here!) and I'd forgotten just how good it is. It's wonderfully simple and very satisfying. As well as the candy-canes and a few little things from the moulding tray we made this snowman and Christmas tree together. I have a feeling we'll be making more before the festive season is through! Just wait until you see what we did with these figures later in the day...