My nets working atm and so I figured I would add some of the things I wanted to do this morning when I started the last blog post at about 5 this morning. Its now 2am, and as usual I'm wide awake. XD I'm such a nite creature. Anyways, back to what I was doing. I left off showing you my clay collection. I have done a few things. Here on the left are my first attempts at roses, which I have to say for a first time, and always dreading roses and thinking I could never do them,considering I can't seem to draw them for the life of me, I believe came out pretty well. I'd like to make them a little smaller and scale. My favorite one is the one in the little vase with silver holeless beads. I wrapped them with floral tape and HATE how they came out. They just seem to be thick and pudgy even tho it was thin wire. I redid them 3 or 4 times each.
The cake was also my first attempt at a layered cake. I went with Irish colors and was going to put shamrocks all over it like a fondant covering, but it got late and I got lazy and tired and used pearl green clay and TLS. I'm not happy at all with how that came out. I forgot to texture the bottoms, and opposite sides of each slice of cake. And I just don't think it looks real. I used a little hang gift tag from the craft store as a little platter for it. I got a bag of tons of them years ago.They're paper with silver metal lining, the little hole, and each had a white piece of DMC type floss.They actually work pretty well for platters or you can cover them and do tons of other stuff with them. I have yet to play around more with the tons of sizes I have.

On the right is a better shot of the fave rose of the bunch in it's vase for the moment. That's a free bottle I got from some company when I was searching for wholesale glass vials and bottles and they sent samples. She told me they had lots of tiny ones and sent me about 10 bottles. This was the smallest. The rest were about the size of salt and pepper shakers. Maybe that's small to some people, but even this smallest one, cute as it is, is a little big. Was nice of them to send samples tho. I didn't think people did that anymore. AT ALL! So I'll find uses for the others.

That thing next to it was me playing. It ended up coming out a freakish scalopped bowl/shallow dish. And the white ball in the middle is made with the same pearl for no reason. Just playing. The purple things in it was me trying out ratios of color vs. translucent Sculpey/Premo and making small grapes that I want to put on a thin wire to see if they look believable. I believe it was just regular Trans and not the white trans. Still unsure of the difference. All these things were done at like 4 in the morning one nite when I was bored and grabbed out the clay and started mixing and matching and playing.


On a different note, I've been doing a bit of shopping lately!!! Quite a bit. (Yes on top of and aside from the clay) Even tho at Michael's I spent a ton each time. The clay turned into wood, tiles, woodsies, saws, miter box, felting, stickers, chalks, and god knows what else. But the rest I been doing on Etsy and Ebay. But unfortunately my net is acting wonky again and therefore I'm really going to say good nite this time and try again tomorrow. I pressed my luck with this little bit and got some in I guess. Least it leaves for something to look forward to tomorrow to see if interested. I know I love all my little bits and bobs I've gotten. Can't wait to order more. Plus I'd love to share the shops I got the stuff from since they're amazing! Therefore, I bid adoo, good nite, farewell, til we meet again. XD

Penny

Good Morning!

I been up all night pretty much. Couldn't sleep. I've always had problems slee ping, and always been a night owl for as long as I can remember. I jumped from one thing to another. This lil' flower right here is one I actually got for free at the grocery store. They were exactly like this. Fresh, but almost like they were perfectly preserved already. I told the girl who worked that area that I only needed a small bunch and not the whole bouquet. She gave me an empty floral sleeve bag, and let me take a few stems of these pretty pink little stars they look like up close, some babies breath, and some of the green florally stuff which I didn't know what it was. Then she told me I could have them for free when I went to pay for my new pretty little flowers. I think I may have to go back and get a few real bunches. They're awfully pretty, and these are a week later with nothing done to them. No water no nothing. I'm starting to think it's true..having flowers around really can put you in a better mood. And it's the closest I can really come since I can't have a flower garden or anything like that. These can be the next best thing. If not better, they're small, they're pretty, they don't die or shrivel up.. win win all around!!!

I put them in a large hole black and white round bead I found in my stash.

The block/square/box, is another thing I did around 3 or 4 this morning playing around with my bags of Woodsies that I have. My mind goes to a million places of what you can do with them. It's endless! So far I have the mix bag of rounds, mix bag of rectangles, a large bag of all mixed shapes (hearts, squares, circles, triangles, stars...each has about three different sizes of each type. So far my fave bag out of them all I think.), I also have a bag of the square mini dowels or tooth pick type things, and the mini round dowels.

Tip I found when doing my clay that if you want a thin layer of equal thickness, the mini square dowels are great. You put them on either side put your clay in between, and use your rolling pin and roll on top of the dowels and it gives you perfect thickness through and through. I usually turn it about two or three times just to make sure. I'm sure this can be done with any number of things, but these dowels seem to be a perfect thickness for doing thin layers of parts of cakes and other things like that. XD

After that was old (about 10 minutes later tops...) I got out my bead loom and laced that up and started a mini rug. I forgot to take pics, but there's not much to see there since I only did about an inch or so and got bored again. Hehe

Next I took out a huge pile of fabric I had brought out of storage and cut pieces and parts and squares to make some hand done quilts and stitched blankets. Got alot of Valentine's-y Day stuff, some cute americana looking fabric that had Raggedy Ann and Andy on it, but I took the other parts that had dots, denim, hearts, lines, argyle looking lines, and some plain squares, the next was black and white checkered hearts with red and pink ones all mixed in, lastly was a really cute fabric with mini houses with rainbows behind it. It reminds me of what Leprechaun Land would look like... If there were such a place. But hey, who says there isn't? I'm Irish, I believe it! Haha So I think I may pick one of those out to play around with and piece together with straight pins to see how I like it and start hand quilting one. Maybe that can keep my attention for a little bit.

After that, I decided to show you some of the things I recently bought and am/will be working on. First this pile to the right is the first thing of clay I bought. That was a while ago. I got the Sculpey III 30 mix pack at Michael's and I waited til it itself was on sale for I believe it was like $12 or something and then I had a 50% coupon so I ended up spending only $6 for it. Which is an amazing price if you've ever looked at it or bought it. I think I lost 3 of the original blocks. Don;t remember which ones. But it's ok. Once you see the next pic, you'll understand why. Recently on youtube I had seen lots of videos about "My Giant Clay Haul" type videos while watching other ones about sculpting and other clay ones. And kept thinking I can't wait til my store puts it on sale so I can go stock up. Well low and behold, I went to Michael's one day to return something I had gotten and intended to leave....Yeah right! I can never go in somewhere and leave empty handed. Or if I go for one thing I end up with a cart full. ^_^ Fun, but my wallet never thinks so. Heh. Anyways, I walk down the clay aisle, and low and behold guess what....the sale I was hoping for and waiting for and wondering when it would happen the night before, thinking it would be like summer or something before it happened, happened that very next day! Sculpey, Sculpey III, the Sculpey Accents, and Premo were all on sale. Everything but the Fimo. Which I haven't tried cause I won't pay $3 for one block of clay. But these instead of being $2.49 ea were all on sale 5 blocks/bars for $4. I believe I got 68 of em? Then I had to go back another day cause I realized when I went hogwild grabbing pack after pack, that I got a few doubles of ones that I didn't need extras of. Well guess what, when I went to exhange, they had replenished and colors that weren't there before were now...so guess what. Not only did I exchange the 5 I intended, but I got another 15 or so more? GUILTY AS CHARGED!!!! But hey it'll last me, and it's ALOT cheaper. And I now have every color they make I believe. I'm tempted to go back again. Since the woman told me she refused to give me a rain check. Here's the pile that I ended up with.....

There's more in bags also, but you get the idea. Plus more bags aren't pretty. I gotta find a list somewhere. I'm actually curious if I do have all the colors they make. But then if I don't I will HAVE to go get the other few! Just anal-retentive like that I guess. And I always think that'll be the one color that I need for some rhyme or reason. I have em' lined up in color code, at least to me lol, and there's only one orange. I know Sculpey and Premo even tho by the same maker make each color and each are a shade different. I don't know where I put the other, I'm gonna have to go look. I got the glow-in-the-dark, haven't played with that yet honestly. I like the translucent. Can anyone tell me if one is better then the other? Or is one more clear when you mix it? I read different people just prefer different ones... Maybe I got to keep messing with it.

I started this post at 5 this morning. Hence the good morning. I've had internet problems all day and couldn't connect for more then 2 mins at a time. For some reason only place it will work atm is in the kitchen or bathroom. Haha Puts a whole new meaning to doing your "business" I guess huh? XD  But since it's working, I may as well show the few things I did last night.

I was going to show some other pics of things I've done and working on atm and my crazy mind last nite, but they way my net is acting it's impossible. This post (If I can post it) will be almost 24 hrs later... Hopefully things clear up and things can go back to normal and I'll do a regular post and do a lil update/preview of what I'm working on. Til then, have a great nite. I'm gonna go play with my clay or something else. At least that doesn't need a connection!!!

Penny

Can Anyone Help Me With The Banner?

I've tried and tried but it only stays tiny and to the left like that. Im trying to get it centered and larger as a proper heading. Eventually I will use my own pics, but this will have to due for now in the meantime. I've played around non-stop with it and it doesn't change anything. Hoping someone with experience with blogger will know and help me out. Thanks a ton! XD

Penny

My New Page and Introduction...

Hello all. My names Kristen. I go by Kris, or to some Penny. I follow many mini posts, but finally decided to put my own up. My goal with this is to meet new people, get ideas, show some of my own, have a place to show the mini's i'm working on, and whatever else comes to mind. But as you can see from the poll on the right hand side, I would like to use this to connect miniaturists from around the world by doing swaps. I'm not sure how it would go yet or how many people would be interested since I just started this, hence the poll. But my idea was that either monthly or bi-monthly, a swap idea would be agreed upon, a certain date to be done by, who swaps to whom, etc. Each swap would have a theme, I.E- Homemade, a bought item, decorations, a piece or furniture, persons choice, a certain holiday theme, an item for a certain room, etc. You get the idea. And if you all would like, a price point. Like $5 or $10 or persons choice to make each swap equal for all. I've been thinking about this for a while as I follow many of your blogs and adore the items that people make. Plus it gives people a chance to receive items from around the world they may never come in contact otherwise. Plus, who doesn't like getting a package in the mail?!?! I know I do... Hence my E-bay and Etsy addiction. LOL. I also plan to open up an Etsy shop soon, but there's only so many hours in a day.

Now to tell you all a little about me. I've been into mini's as long as I can remember. They've always fascinated me. How small and cute and detailed an item so tiny could be. I have 2 kids, a 12 yr old girl Victoria, and a 6 yr old boy Dameon. Loves of my life. I no longer work, due to my having MS. For those of you who don't know, it's Multiple Sclerosis. It's not a pretty or fun disease. I also have fractures in my back and other back problems, and Fibromyalgia. So minis for me is an outlet to give me something to do and keep my mind off of pain and my hands busy.
For anyone who wants to know more about MS or find out what it is you can google it and find tons of sites and info. I plan on donating 10% of any sales I make on my Etsy site once I do it to the MS Association.

I don't really have any pics to put up at this point as I need to get a new camera, and my webcam takes ones that aren't very pretty. As for the site, please give me time to work it out. I'm getting use to the format and all the ins and outs. But wanted it up. I hope that you find it decent at the least for now. But as time goes on I hope to have a wonderful blog as so many of yours are. If I could come close, I'd be honored.

And PLEASE.....If anyone has any tips, hints, critiques, ideas, or anything else for here, please let me know. I'd be very appreciative. Any little bit helps! XD