February 2012

Book Lust: February

2. The Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits

Oh yes, your eyes do not deceive you! This is indeed, a book on crafting with your cats hair! I mean... what... the...... %$&*! Really? Finding this did, however, give me a good laugh so thought I would share it with you!

So what do you think? Would you like a tutorial on making a finger puppet from cat hair? I am partly tempted to buy this book just for comedy value but I fear someone might find it in my house and i'll get a reputation as the creepy cat lady! Of course, if you fancied having a go at some alternative kitty crafting, you can purchase the book HERE.

Puff could potentially make me some new socks or a jumper....

Rilakumma Polymer Clay Charm Tutorial

I've always loved the cute characters created by Sanrio & Sanrio-X and it's become increasingly popular to make these into charms using polymer clay. You can make them into keyrings like the macarons or just them on zips!

I thought I would make Rilakumma (Japanese for bear) as it's one of my favorites so here's a tutorial for a really simple bear head charm! I could be completely wrong but I assumed that Rilakumma in brown is male and Rilakumma in cream is female? I'm going to show you how to make the female one!

You'll need:

Polymer clay (Fimo Soft) in baby pink, white and cream
Black acrylic paint
A toothpick
Eye pin
2 black & 2 pink 2mm crystals (optional)

1) Start by rolling your cream clay into one 2cm oval shape and two 1/4 cm balls. This will form the head and ears.

2) Position the ears on top of your larger piece of clay to make your bear shape!

3) Take 2 small equal size balls of pink clay and flatten them onto your bears ears making sure they are not too thick or as large as your ear base.

4) Take a small piece of white clay and shape into a flat oval.

5) Stick this onto the center of your bear head and push an eye pin into the center of the head. Bake according to your clays instructions. My Fimo Soft goes in the oven at 110° for 30 minutes. Once baked, allow to cool.

6) Using a small blob of black acrylic paint and a toothpick, paint on eyes and mouth and allow to dry.

7) Alternatively, you could use 2 tiny flat back black crystals for the eyes and 2 pink ones for some little flushed cheeks! You can also repeat the exact same process in brown, yellow and white to make the male Rilakumma.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial! Do you have a favorite Japanese character? Would you like to see more charm tutorials?

Lisa X

Kawaii Cakes & Baking

Nothing gets my heart racing like a disgustingly cute cake! These would almost break your heart to eat... although I think I would be able to get over that pretty quick and within moments be left with an empty plate!

These beautiful creations make me want to take a night class in cake decoration although, making sugar flowers à la traditional wedding cakes isn't quite what i'm after! I want to make a hello kitty cake damn it!!

I've had to resist posting too many photos because I want you to enjoy discovering them yourselves so wrap your eyes around these two blogs full of kawaii eye candy http://www.hawaiikawaii.net/ and http://kawaiifoods.com/ both created by Smultron, a student from Gothenburg, Sweden.

I found links to these two recipes on her amazing blog... I NEED to make them!

Watermelon Cake Recipe

Pink Velvet Roulade

The pink velvet roulade cake from Sprinkle Bakes is just one of many amazing recipes and I just spotted she has a book coming out in May!! As technically, buying through Amazon doesn't break my Paypal ban... I am SO buying this!! *Happy dance*

Pre order HERE

I am now hungry. And frustrated.

Thread Banger: Makeup Brush Roll Tutorial Video

I want to make one of these!

DIY Studded Cross Tote Bag

Usually I plan out in advance exactly what i'm going to do for a tutorial, but, after realising i'd forgotten to pick up something for the one I initially planned on doing, today's one is literally a spur of the moment thing! Even I wasn't sure what the end result was going to be like but actually i'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

So here's how to make an easy, diy studded cross tote bag, perfect for rolling up small and keeping in your handbag for when you pick up a few things at the supermarket! Much cooler than a Tesco bag fo' life ya hurrr!

I hope you like it!

Lisa X

You'll need:

A canvas tote bag (You can pick these up for about 50p each on eBay)
Pyramid studs
Fabric Pens

1) I started off messing around with the studs before deciding to go with a cross pattern. It's much better to decide beforehand what design you want to do because once you start studding, you will obviously be making holes in the fabric.

2) Push the studs through the fabric in the formation of the pattern above. In all honesty, pushing studs through thin fabric is quite fiddly to get them straight, so line them up as close to your previous stud as possible.

3) Close the back of the studs.

4) Your cross will look like this!

5) Repeat over the tote bag with as many crosses as you want.

6) Pick a couple of coloured fabric pens and draw some random little triangles at different angles over the bag. Leave to dry for 5 minutes.

6) Place your bag on an ironing board and cover with a tea towel. with your iron on the cotton heat setting, run over your bag for about 30 seconds, this will seal your fabric pen design making it machine washable!

7) And you're done!

I'm... a Bad Blogger!

I haven't blogged for 5 days! Shame on me! I have always prided myself on my multi-tasking abilities but it seems when you throw food into the mix, it all goes to pot!

I'm on a diet/fitness thing at the moment and the last week seems to have become one big blur. Clearly I have been so consumed by what i'm eating i've zoned out the world haha!

Totally my attitude towards exercise!

But i've been forcing myself to do it!

I won't bang on about all that but I will share a tumblr I came across and really enjoyed browsing through! (Yes alright Sean, I finally 'get' tumblr! haha!) http://healthandfitnesswithkate.tumblr.com/

Anyway! I have some new tutorials I need to get cracking with and I will also be holding a contest which i'm planning on getting up next Thursday as it'll be the 1st of MARCH! %^&*UH%$!! How did that go so quickly!?!

For lent, even though i'm not actually religious, i've decided to give up Paypal so no online shopping for 40 days! Naturally, that meant I had to have one last splurge today and ended up buying a couple of things from Topshop....

~~Hopefully~~ I WILL get a new tutorial up tomorrow!

Oh and finally...... it's PANCAKE DAY!! I'm totally allowing myself to have a couple with maple syrup & cream! I can't wait, my mum's are the best ever! Mmmm!!

DIY Polymer Clay Macaron Keyring Tutorial

Today I've combined two things I love, polymer clay which I haven't used since I was about 8 and always l.o.v.e.d & French macarons, possibly one of my favorite things to eat/make/look at.

I'm currently on a healthy eating stint which unfortunately knocks macarons and McDonald's apple & blackberry pies (which if you haven't tried DO IT! Best 79p ever spent!) off the menu. Only one thing to do then, make some fake ones and stick em' on a keyring!

I have to say, i'm now a little bit obsessed with making these as they are so cute! I am also FULLY enjoying the whole Fimo experience so you will be seeing some more tutorials featuring it in the future!

You'll Need:

2 packets of Fimo soft (My white is Premo! Sculpey which is the same thing)
Keyring chain
Toothpick
Ribbon
UHU glue
4mm eye pin
4mm jump ring
2mm flat back rhinestones

1) Cut off a piece of Fimo in the colour you want for your macaron and roll into 2 equal size balls about the size of a Malteaser. (See.. still can't stop bringing it back around to sweets!)

2) Flatten gently with your finger and then using something with a smooth surface (I used a marker pen!) roll out until your left with a 10p piece size circle making sure it's not too skinny on the sides.

3) Once you've rolled out both balls, gently place one on top of the other to make sure they are pretty much equal sizes.

4) Taking a tooth pick and starting from the middle of the side of your piece of macaron, make small little strokes in the clay to rough up the edge and create a little bit of a lip. Basically recreating the texture you find on real macarons! Do this to both pieces. These form your macaron top and bottom.

4) Take a ball of Fimo that you are going to use for your filling and roll out two lengths into a thin line.

5) Twist the 2 pieces together.

6) Turn over one piece of your macaron and, starting on the outside, lay on your piece of twisted Fimo and then loop any leftover into the center. This makes your cream filling. Alternatively, you can always just roll out a piece of white into a circle and put that in the middle depending on what effect you like.

7) Put the top on your macaron and then push an eye pin into the cream like the picture shows.

8) If you prefer you can add the eye pin to the top of your macaron, it just depends on what way you want it to hang on your keyring.

9) Refer to the time and heat setting on your packet and bake in a pre heated oven. For Fimo Soft, place your macarons on a baking tray and bake at 110°c for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven after half an hour and allow to cool.

10) There are lots of ways to decorate your macaron but i've decided to add a few small rhinestones to mine.

11) Put a tiny bit of UHU glue on a toothpick and stick down your chosen rhinestones. Allow them to dry, this will only take 5-10 minutes.

12) Open up your jump ring and hook on your eye pin and keyring chain. Close it up.

13) Tie your ribbon in a bow and your done! Guilt & calorie free!

Here's a few other ways you could decorate your macarons, I guarantee you won't be able to stop at making just one!

For reference, I got my rhinestones HERE, eye pins HERE and Fimo HERE

I hope you enjoy this tutorial!

I also want to say hello to my new followers! I noticed a jump in numbers last night thanks to the sexy Gemsmaquillage! I'm really happy you've come on over and it's great to have you here! If you ever have any comments or suggestions for tutorials please do let me know and you can always catch me via twitter @lisacardarelli