Of Mice and Men

Loads of mice... but not a man in sight

I spent some time back in February making some little clay mice... it was mostly to create one that my daughter could give to her friend at school... out of the three little mice she took the middle one.  The big mouse as a decidedly sparklie nose which I thought added that special charm to him... and now the mice are sitting at my computer desk looking up at me.

Cruising by way of The Mini Food Blog I found the website I found the link to TinyHands (her site is quite awesome). Who in turn has some really fabulous work and a new website... and because I have a love/hate relationship with my past job experience as a graphic designer I almost had a heart attack when I clicked on the link to a WordPress theme designed for selling jewelery and well... anything charm-wise...basically what we do here at Lovely and can use it on this theme.  Oh My God... seriously I'm getting giddy just thinking about the possibility of having my own little shop on the web. Check out the really awesome looking WordPress theme for a Jewelery Shop... here.

I have to say I've been rather lazy with my clay work, jewelery work, or basically anything crafty for the past couple of weeks.  I'm not sure if it's a case of "I have too much on my plate at the moment... excuse me..." or if I'm just generally procrastinating, realizing that my workspace that is the kitchen table just isn't really cutting it.  It got me thinking today to go hunt down a cheap second hand table (or just cheap table) for me to setup my clay stuff and well all my craft stuff I've got wedged in my kitchen cupboard and feel like I have a place of my own to create.

See... start a website, sell my stuff, get a table... it's swirling around and I feel almost paralized to do anything.  Ask me why... I really don't know... maybe it's the roadblocks I place in front of myself that I never get anything accomplished.  Maybe it's time to change that and get excited about making a change, making cute charms, beads, jewelery, stuff.... just get something going that I love to do.

Good times :)

A Charming Day Eleven

Lovely Little Sweater

I had fun making this little charm.  I think I have to work on the lighting of the shots, as I've added a bit of detail to it that this picture doesn't bring across.  By far one of the fun charms I've had to do so far.  My little lovely sweater, just about the size of a penny and I figure it would make a cute bracelet charm or cell phone charm... I might even try making a pair of earrings from it.... now just to make another one like it.  Hmmm... maybe the next time I make a sweater, I'll measure it out so I have two of each portion so their both the same size.

A Charming Day Ten

Whoo, Whoo, Whoo

My first attempt at a little owl charm.  Not the best picture of this little fella.  I ended up using a translucent white on the owl for the eyes...which wasn't quite what I wanted, but for a first attempt at making a little charm... I think he turned out quite well

A Charming Day Nine

Bunnies!

When I was making these little bunnies on the one on the right I added an innter colour on the ear.  The colour was mixed with a sparklie white Fimo clay... but it ended up baking almost translucent, which wasn't quite what I was looking for.  Both are pretty cute and would make a great pair of earrings I think.

A Charming Day Eight

Little Blue Birds

On these little charms I actually tried something a little different.  For their white little chests I actually took the clay I was going to use and ran it through the pasta machine to make it one thin layer.  I then took one of my circle cutters to make them all uniform.  You don't know how much easier it was to make them look the way I wanted.  I'm sure for those of you who have been working with Polymer clay for a while... or those of you who are just plain smarter with the clay than me knew that it's always easier when you have a uniform pattern to add.... sigh!  Live and learn :)

A Charming Day Seven

Lovely little chicky

Looking at some Kawaii sites... they had cute little characters and I thought I'd give my try at a cute little chicky.  I know I've made one previously but it was so cute....Darn those Kawaii sites.  I used polymer clay and some mica blush I had.  Very vivid pink, but it came out quite well on the little chick (which is so nice... considering the mica blush was WAY too pink on me!).

A Charming Day Six

Feeling a little mouse-y?

I'm not sure I can come up with whitty things to say on each of these little charms I'm making this month.  But here's an attempt at a little grey mouse.  I think it turned out quite well, I think if I make another one I'll have to be a little more focused on making sure my ears are equally seperated ... as I looked at my mouse after baking it and found it was a bit off.  Ah, well... still cute :)

A Charming Day Five

A little bouquet of roses

This charm I ran with romance and what someone would get for their special someone on Valentine's Day.  In the process so far, I cannot find my little heart cutter... so I'm still a bit frantic about searching for it.  Not exactly a good time to lose it!

I'm also thinking I'm going to have to try putting my pictures in a better lighting setup.  Right now all my pictures have a bit of a yellow hue.  So I think if I ever do plan on selling these charms I'll have to take new pictures in better lighting so the true colours show up.  But I think that's still a ways a way yet.  I have to come up with some charms to fill the store... so far I have 5.  Not enough... yet.  I'm hoping by the end of the 28 days I'll have 28 charms and I'll open my Etsy shop on March 1st.

There's my second goal... March 1st.... open my Etsy shop :)

A Charming Day Four

Little Sweet Chicky sent with Luv

I seriously liked making this little charm.  I borrowed my daughter's Sculpey Yellow as she had found it baked to a really nice yellow, which I hadn't found with the Fimo I had.  So I think my little Luv Chick turned out quite well... now to think of other little charms.

Any suggestions?

A Charming Day Three

So I've been busy working on making the charms for my own little goal for February... and somehow in all this love fell a little Leprechaun.  Go figure.  I just felt like making him :)

I was wondering as I'm making these little charms, would you buy one?  If you wouldn't, I'd love to hear why - of course constructive criticism is welcome.. the mean troller type of comment... well, keep that to yourself please and move on to another blog that would like that sort of thing.  But seriously I'd love to hear your feedback!

Lookie Here... a Wee Leprechaun spreading his love. :)

A Charming Day Two

I have to say when I'm making these little charms, I thought I'd have a ton of ideas.  Seriously.... so much out there that represents love that I was sure I'd have great ideas about making these little charms.  Not, so, much.  I've come up with 5 so far and I'm grasping for other ideas that were to roll with the them of love.  'Tis the month of love, right?

Well I decided to try my hand a Cupid... then after I'd baked it... realized I missed putting wings on the little fella.  So here's the one I've made (minus the wings).  This may give me yet another opportunity to make a nother little winged Cupid charm!

I also wasn't overly happy with the way the little fella's hair turned out, but maybe I'm being to critical.  I think I'll try to change it up a bit on the next little cupid I make.

Little Cupid... missing his wings... duh! :P

A Charming February

I thought for February I would make some little charms that could go on a phone, necklace, bracelet or even maybe a snazzy pair of earrings. I thought I might try a month of charms that would relate to love ... As it's February ... But I ended up making a few love themes a little leprechaun showed up. How he got there I don't know :).

So here's to a charming month!

Little Love Kitty

Pretzels!

I decided to get back into the Polymer Clay Cookbook that I'd picked up a while ago and try my hand at making another little food treat.  This time it was Pretzels!  I think they look pretty good for a first attempt... although I think I have to look for a more brown type of finish to it...not bad but maybe a bit more "cooked" looking may not be a bad thing....

Mmm... Pretzel Charms!

I added some "salt" (small white bits of clay) to them after this shot and I do have to say for a first time it was a pretty good turn out.  I think I'm going to try a bracelet with hotdogs, pretzels, pop, and maybe some other similar foods.  We'll see.
What I'd like to do next is try to make a polymer clay cane.  I have the instructions on how to make an orange cane in the Polymer Clay Cookbook... and I've seen some YouTube videos on it.  I even came across Angie Scarr's website and she has a good little tutorial on how to make some very realistic miniature oranges too.  Now I'm really looking forward for those books I'd ordered to come in, since a couple are by her!

On a completely other note... and totally off topic, I take my pictures with my iPhone 4.  The other day I bought an app called Hipstamatic, which has different old film types and lenses to choose from... and here is the results... old school baby with a gratuituous shot of my cat.

Going Ol' School on this pic of my kitty