Happy Easter Wishes!

From my family to yours, I want to wish you all a very Happy Easter!

A little bit of a BIG project: Tutorials and Givaways

Good morning good folk of the globe! How are your projects going?

Now you might have seen that I dabble in Polymer Clay here on the old blog from time to time...."dabble"...who we kidding there Jane?..your nick name is Clay Fingers McGee!

Well, you know how much I love polymer clay and the fact that I am always trying to get you folks to use it in your projects, then you can imagine my excitement when the makers of Sculpey, Polyform Products asked me to create a project for them!!!!   Woooooooooooppieee!!!

A fantastic lady I am in touch with at Polyform Products sent me a little starter package..don't pass out when you see it..like I did!

 Ahhh that new clay smell!

 

Now I don't want to completely spoil the project but I will give you a sneak peek of my work in progress, this is just the start of the foundation..

 

So..amongst the class I am teaching, the tower build, trying to finish Undersized Urbanite and HBS Contest...I am creating what I can only tell you will be a masterpiece crafted in a rainbow of Sculpey Polymer Clay.

 

At the end of this project in May you will be able to see my tutorial on the Sculpey Website.

 

And since I will be in the mood and crafting I thought we could have a little giveaway or two to go with this venture, so that some of you can enjoy that new clay smell for yourselves ;)

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Thank you fine folks for all your support and comments, I appreciate them and want to share this with those of you who always have a kind word!

 

I will update with info in a couple of weeks. 

Smiles sent from Simona!: A Soft and Malleable Friendship

Good morning good folk!

I am very lucky to have made such wonderful blog friends throughout the world and a few of you have become closer both in mind and chat ;)

I want to share some of what the lovely lady Simona of Soft and Malleable sent me recently.

Now she told me oh..I am going to send you this little thing..and of course like a lot of us do..BAM! Big box of amazing! 

 

As you can see Simona was more than thoughtful and generous in her gifts and choices to amaze!

 

She sent me some of my first Re-Ment minatures! I have heard other folks talking about them and I looked online at them but they are just more wonderful in hand.

 

The packaging alone on the Re-ment items is amazing, as you can see real printed plastics and mangos inside a sealed package.

 

Simona also sent me a array of fantastic items like these cakes on a tray

 

This beautiful hunk of fabric, my daughter already has claimed as "make something for me" These little fine detailed tapes and a wonderful bit of molding clay to try out!

 

And of course the little gift she sneakily hid all these other amazing gifts under, These are erasers, Simona having a fantastic eye realized that they are extremely detailed stamps as well! She knows her stuff and knows me pretty well I can see!

 

I want to thank you again Simona, for your wonderful conversations we have and of course your humbling generosity in gift giving, Big hugs to you fine lady!

 

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I have a bit of a announcement in the future post about a project..

Things I like now....

Good day good folk of the globe.

I thought I would share some pictures from the interweb'

 

 

 

 

 

Happy April 1st ;)

 

 

 

 

 

Miniatures...FOR SCIENCE!!!!!!

Good day good folk of the fifth densest and largest of the eight planets in the Solar System!...<earth>

Science fairs! I am sure a few of us are around this time of the season for our kiddos and nieces, nephews and grandkids.  My daughter and I are growing Alum Crystals at the moment, the science fair is this Friday..

What are Alum crystals you might ask???

Alum is a common pickling spice that can be found in most grocery stores. Of course it is used for many more uses and a variance of crafting techniques.

 

It also grows some fantastic crystals overnight!!

 

We started this project because growing Alum crystals are very easy..cheap and mostly non toxic for children to do the process. You don't want to have constant exposure to Alum but in small doses its fine.

 

Now while researching Alum we found another project that we are doing for the display. They were advertised on Martha Stewart as Cyrystal Egg Geodes:

Beautiful right?

 

Then I came across this interesting beauty...and now we get into miniatures. As we all know we gain ideas from life sized objects and attempt to recreate those objects in smaller scales. So I have decided to try something in the name of MINIATURE SCIENCE!!!!

 

Here is the example of a Alum encrusted Chandelier from Zdeněk Vacek and Daniel Pošta.

 

Where are you going Jane??......

 

So this is just the first attempt ..and its crap... but I thought that I might form a interesting technique for you folks to create your own crystal covered objects. I give to you the ..it was in the water too long..but it has crystals on it...bead and wire..chandelier..ish

 

I don't think anyone else has attempted this technique? Am I wrong?

 

In any case I will attempt another go at creating a better wire structure and soaking it in for a particular time limit. The crystals grow on the structure in hours. So for smaller crystals I think less time may produce smaller finer crystals, maybe multiple soaks.

 

I think we may have stumbled on something here folks!! More testing is needed more miniature scientists..maybe a lab...maybe some funding from NASA

.............ok I am rambling...

 

but yell this in your mind before you go...

 

FOR SCIENCE!!!!!!

Minifanaticus teacher?...Fairy gardens and spring fun

Good morning children!...er I mean folks!

I will have to start to get used to little imaginations and messy hands soon as I have been asked to teach a 6 week course in miniature arts and nature for my local school. So starting at the end of April ...

Fairy Gardens and Troll Homes will officially commence!

I am so excited about this new venture to get children interested in our "little hobby" and to help them spark their minds to think on magical worlds.

I decided I will have them create projects over the 6 weeks that will include painting and decorating small birdhouses, creating air dry pots and bowls, collecting rocks, planting mosses and bringing home their very own magical place to entice the wee folk to visit.

As you can see here I have created a mini version of the whole idea ;P

 

Are you fine folk thinking on your very own fairy gardens for when the Artic thaw happens?..if it ever does?

 

Fairy's, Fairy gardens and magical things always spark imagination because the worlds you create can have such vast backgrounds and stories.

 

You can see some of my Fae in this Aprils Miniature Collector.

 

Keep fantasy and whimsy in your thoughts!

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I also wanted to show you the work goes slow but steady for the sorceress tower, each side will have to be front and back ...5 panels plus details trims ..yada yada work goes on...

Peeking out and seeing my shadow: Jane's hybernation is almost over

Good day good folk!

I want to thank you fine folks for messaging me and asking if I was alive.... I AM!! Just took a bit of a winter blues..depression about winter...non active.. break for a bit ;)

I am alive and although we apparently might get another dusting of snow..F**K.. I think nature is letting me know its over. The Canadian geese are returning and spring birds are starting to sing!

We had 2 birthdays here in March, my daughter who's birthday was the 5th. She turned 7 this year and is growing more beautiful and smart and wiseassery by the minuet!

I did make the little guy Olaf at the top, for my daughter since we now sing songs from Frozen ..allll...dayyyy...looongg:

I also had a birthday on the 7th I decided I would show you this picture of myself working at my desk, I think I look very lean and tone in this shot.

 

I decided to purchase the Greenleaf Lighthouse and create a Sorceress Tower out of it. I did not get very far but..the ideas are strong..so that's something ;)

 

Paper clay play..

 

and lastly I have been working a tiny.. tiny bit on my Miniatures.com build. I have all year for this one so I will probably work more on the tower since my heart is in it..but you know scatter brain Jane..so umm...SQUIRREL!

 

I hope all your mini adventures are going well, I am slowly thawing from your hugs ;)

 

My Plush Valentines: Jennifer wow's me some more!

Good day good folk!

Some of you know that Jennifer of Plushpussycat and I have been having a gift battle for the last month. I send her stuff then she has to just outdo me and blow my socks off with bountiful baskets of beautiful minis!

Jennifer was of course a gracious gal again letting me do a Valentines swap with her and of course she sent me a big box of mini love.

As you can see Jennifer is serious about this gift battle and threw in her best "give Jane a tear when she opens the box"...Well played lady..well played!

While everything she sent was just beyond gorgeous I want to show you these flowers in a glass vase. Just a stunning gift!

 

I played around with some of the beauties she sent me and made a little valentines scene.

 

This doll you see is wrapped in some of the lacy fabric she sent..yes it will look like me eventually ;P Some glasses I think....

 

This is how I wanted my Valentines to look in life sized but we got tons of snow.

 

Jennifer brought me my romantic scene like a little Valentines Fairy :)

 

Thank you again sweet Jennifer, for your friendship and thoughtfulness!

 

Battle on missy >=P

Happy Valentines Day: Pictures of my 2 feet of snow..so far

Happy Valentines Day folks!!!

I hope you are feeling loved in your parts of the world!

I just wanted to throw a few pictures of the snowstorm we have just survived through. It was 24 hours of snow sleet and ..tears...

While where I live big snows are not uncommon they have been uncommon for the last 7 years..and I live in the boonies!

Last report for us in the states was, that 49 of 50 states had snow even areas that are uncommon for snow.

Well my day is going to be filled with love and shovels and warm thoughts and snowballs and hearts..in the snow.. and flowers..well in magazines anyways!

Here are some shots of the fun day I have ahead!

 

My car is hiding ;P 

 

Hugs and luv to you all!

Snow, Icefluberg and valentines fail: A tiny sneek of my Miniatures.com contest build

Hello fine folk of the frozen world!

I am sorry I did not come through on my goal of a Valentines swap but I have been battling the flu and early on I got my first ear and sinus infection since I was about 9 years old..ouch!!

So needless to say I did not want to send out beautiful looking valentines goodies laced with tiny nasty germs to dock with your face..like it did mine.

My ear had been muted for 4 days now...crapshit....That's right I said it!! ;)

We can try for a spring themed swap instead.

Speaking of spring!!...Did you hear? Its been snowing here on the east coast..and tonight we are going to get 8 inches..then another storm will follow it with about 5 inches...then apparently there might be a storm of all storms to end storms that will cover us in the range of 1-2 feet! 

YAY!!!!!!!!!.......*wahhhhhh* Tears*

 

All this makes for a very:

 

If there is any of you other folk going through a stormy

season, keep safe, keep warm and seems like a great time to mini doesn't it?

 

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I worked a bit more on my Undersized Urbanite I did some painting and scaled some supplies for the "safe room" 

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Some info on my Miniatures 21st Annual Creatin' Contest:

 

It will be a fantasy themed house. I will be covering the entire house in a new purchased paper clay that I am now in absolute love with called Polyform Model Air.

 

As far as I have researched it will be the only dollhouse in its existence that has been built in this style..as far as I have seen...I think :)

 

So the first and truly one of a kind....I think...

 

And here is a shot of some of the stonework:

 

 Hugs, sniffles and best wishes to you all! See you on the other side of the storm..sssssss