Gingerbread Men Ornaments

It might be a little bit too early to be thinking about Christmas, but I've got some Christmas craft fairs coming up so I need to think ahead.

In addition to the things I make for Etsy, I've been adding to my stock with some seasonal items.

This gingerbread man ornaments is made out of Sculpey - a flat base with the features added on - and then painted with acrylic.

I also made some smaller gingerbread men.

Gingerbros, if you will.

For these I painted on the features, using the tiniest brush, instead of making the bits with Sculpey first, as I thought that would get a bit fiddly.

I love how these turned out and I'm looking forward to seeing what people think of them [whether they buy them or not!]

My first craft fair of the season is this Saturday.

For anyone local reading pop down to the Letchworth Settlement between 10:00 and 4:00 for the Garden House Hospice Arts, Craft & Design Fair.

Tiger Hair Clips

My sewing box is kind of a mess. In the bottom part there's lots of little things I made and haven't done anything with.

Like this tiger face.

I made a few of them at the time - and even made one into a necklace - but the others got forgotten.

The tiger face is a circle of fabric sewn around a disc with a bit of stuffing.

I decided to buy some hair clips from Ebay to do something with it.

I made a simple bow from this black leathery fabric, which I've used here and here, and attached the tiger face to the front.

Then I glued the hair clip to the back of the bow and it was done.

As well as a tiger face I also had a couple of tiger print circles.

I attached one to another bow that I'd started to make but didn't finish because the fabric was too thick to be a proper bow, but it worked for this hair clip.

I love these simple project where I've done most of the hard work already.

This Week I...

...survived working 3 days in a row.

30 hours in 3 days? Nailed it.

On Wednesday my sister invited me and my parents round for dinner and to watch the Great British Bake Off final. The final was aired on Tuesday evening so we all spent the day avoiding media to keep the surprise. Unfortunately the radio was on at work at it gave away the winner.

My sister surprised us with these GBBO masks. That girl cray.

On Thursday I went to the private view of the New Maynard Gallery's Open Exhibition, which I have two paintings in.

This one...

 ...and this one.

The private view had a great turn out, yummy nibbles, and the prizes were awarded by the Mayor of Welwyn.

The Mayor!

How was your week everyone?

Dog Photo Holder

I'm gearing up for Christmas craft fair season so I made this little guy to add to my stock.

I sold some of the animal photo holders I made last year, so I thought I would make some more.

The dog is made of Sculpey and when moulding it it spends a long time looking really bad until suddenly it looks like a dog. There's a lot of doubt in that first period though.

I used a pokey tool to give the fur a little texture, and painted it with acrylics.

I think my favourite part is the tongue!

What other animals do you think I should make? I am open to suggestions

Beach Painting

In between working I've managed to finish this painting I showed you the start of.

It's my friend Lizzi at the beach.

The painting is based on a photo I took when we took a trip to the beach at the end of August.

Lizzi's always a good sport and doesn't mind me taking lots of photos.

So there might be a few more paintings from this occasion to be made.