Valentine’s Day Fimo Hearts Teacher Gifts

For the latest Staedtler Try-It-Tribe challenge we were asked to make some Fimo Hearts for Valentine’s Day, using a Fimo mould. The kids were not so keen on making hearts (can’t we make more spaceships?!), until I suggested we make them to give to their teachers for Valentine’s. They LOVED this idea as they are still at the age where they love their teachers and want to give them nice gifts!

Here’s the hearts we made:

The 6 large ones are teacher gifts, so we added ribbon to those to make them into decorations. The others are spares for the kids to play with (though they gave the tiny yellow one to me).

Want to know how to make your own?

Step 1: Start with some Fimo, a Staedtler Fimo Clay Mould, some talcum powder, and a brush:

Step 2: Sprinkle your mould with talcum powder:

Then use the brush to dust it around and into the creases of the patterns, tapping any excess off:

You should barely be able to see the talcum powder:

Step 3: Knead the Fimo a bit to soften it then roll it into a ball:

Step 4: Press the ball into the mould, making sure you are pushing it down enough to fill the dips of the patterns:

Once you’ve pressed all your Fimo in it should look a bit like this:

Step 5: Turn the mould upside down and use your thumbs to press the Fimo out of the mould, the mould is quite bendy so it’s easy to do:

Ta-da!

Make sure you re-dust the mould with talcum powder if you are using the same heart again. We had to re-do the rose one almost straight away, as I managed to put my elbow on the one we’d just made. Doh!

Some hearts may need a bit of excess Fimo cut off if there was a bit too much for the mould:

You can experiment too. We thought the plain heart shapes looked a bit boring compared to the patterned ones, so we twisted 2 sausages of Fimo colours together, then pressed them into the moulds for a marbled effect:

Here’s the ones we marbled:

Little Miss also got creative with the back of some of them, making a pattern with the point of the plastic knife:

Step 6: When you’ve finished making hearts use a wooden kebab stick or similar to make a hole through the hearts which you want to hang up. You will need to wiggle the stick around a bit to stretch the hole so it’s big enough to fit ribbon through. And don’t forget to pick the heart up and make sure the hole is big at the back too, not just at the front:

Step 7: Arrange on a baking tray covered in tin foil, and bake according to instructions – for the Kids Fimo we were using this was 30 minutes at 110 degrees C:

Step 8: Once they are baked and cooled you can add a ribbon – you may need to use the kebab stick to help poke the ribbon through – and tie a knot to hang them up:

The kids can’t wait to give them to their teachers (Cheek Boy has turned into Spiderman!):

I especially like the patterned hearts, they’d make nice Christmas decorations too I think:

They’d look even nicer with a bit of gloss varnish on, as some of them look a bit talcum-powdery! But I didn’t have any gloss varnish, so never mind.

Do you ever use moulds for any of your creations? I want some small ones to make some embellishments for my scrapbook pages!

Have a great day – it’s a rather stormy one here with Storm Imogen rattling the windows. We’re staying snug inside.

Disclosure: Staedtler sent us the products to use for this post, but all photos, text, and opinions are our own.

Bye for now, Jennifer x

Mermaid Pattern Bowl DIY

I’ve always wanted to be a mermaid. You know, just for a few days, to swim with the whales and discover the depths of the sea. We just watched Disney’s The Little Mermaid again last night and I was signing along merrily. My kids told me to ssssh. I ignored them.

This mermaid pattern bowl won’t magically turn me into a mermaid, but it makes me happy to look at it while I eat my cereals:

Here’s how to make your own…

Step 1: Begin with a plain white bowl and Edding’s Porcelain Brush Pens:

Step 2: I ended up doing this step wrong and having to start it again. You’ll see a couple of reasons why!

Draw a pattern of fish-scales by drawing connected semi-circles around the base of the bowl:

See how the filled-in semi-circle on the left doesn’t look as smooth as the one on the right? You need to use broad sweeping strokes when colouring in with these pens, as they don’t bleed together too well if you try a more scribbled approach like I’d used on the left.

Don’t try to correct it by drawing over it again either – if the ink had already started to dry then you’ll just make scratches in it:

It’s best to wipe off the offending section with a damp cloth, then dry with a dry piece of cloth (I used kitchen paper for both) before starting again:

However it still wasn’t quite right, as when I went to do the next layer I realised the semi-circles would have to be huge in order to connect with the first layer in a mermaid-scales pattern. Too big – it looked more like flower petals:

So I wiped it all off and drew the first layer again with smaller semi-circles:

Step 3: Now draw and fill in the next layer with a new colour. The semi-circles should be offset with the first layer, so that the dips of the 2nd layer meet with the middles of the semi-circles on the first layer:

Step 4: Repeat 3 more times with new colours each time, for three more layers:

Step 5: Your mermaid scales are done but it needs a little ‘something’ to make it look finished:

So draw a scalloped line around the top edge with a contrasting colour, to give it a ‘frill’ and make it look more mermaid-like!

Bake according to instructions and your bowl is finished and ready to use:

 

The perfect gift for someone who wants to be a mermaid.

On my belated hen-party I was allowed to give out stickers to my hens for ‘good work’ eg. if they said something funny or re-filled my wine etc. One of my friend’s said I looked like a mermaid when I was swimming so I gave her a few extra stickers!

Have you ever wanted to be a magical creature or to have super powers? I hope most people have crazy dreams like that!

Bye for now,

Jennifer x

Concertina Christmas Trees and the Frosty Festivities 2015 Wrap-Up Post!

(This post is part of my Frosty Festivities 2015 Blog Event – see a list of all the posts HERE)

Well, it’s the last day of November, which means it’s also the last day of my Frosty Festivities 2015 event. Have you enjoyed it?! I have a few things to mention and then I have one last project to inspire you with!

There’s a list of all the Frosty Festivities 2015 posts on THIS PAGE of my blog. Make sure you check to see if there’s any posts you missed, especially all the giveaways {ALL NOW CLOSED}! Look at all the fabulous prizes you could win:

Al the giveaways and the challenge to be inspired stay open until 10pm GMT on next Sunday the 6th of December {ALL NOW CLOSED}. Winners will be announced on Thursday the 10th of December so make sure you check back to see if you’ve won.

If you have enjoyed the event, I’d be really grateful if you can pin or share the projects you like. Whilst I do enjoy making all the projects, running the events, and reading your comments, it’s visitor numbers that convince me to run it again and convince sponsors to add a prize. So the more visitors the better!

Talking about sponsors, make sure you shop at Lettera Etc, The Paperdashery, Little Dorrit & Co, Feed Your Craft, and SVG Files Shop, when you can, to thank them for being fabulous sponsors!

If you have any questions or suggestions about how these events are run, then don’t hesitate to contact me at jennifergrace(at)hotmail(dot)co(dot)uk!

Now for one last project, these Concertina Christmas Trees:

These were a fun way to use a bit more of my favourite Christmas collection (Christmas On Market Street by My Mind’s Eye)!

I started with a pile of items from the collection, plus some plastic cups, a score board, a hole punch, a hot glue gun, some sand, and some bamboo sticks:

However I did end up swapping the bamboo sticks for chopsticks, as the bamboo sticks were too thick, and swapping the hole punch for a big bite hole puncher, as the normal hole punch couldn’t reach far enough:

If you want to make some of your own…

Step 1: Cut 2 triangles from patterned paper. One of mine is 11″ tall, and the other is 7.5″ tall:

Step 2: Score the trees horizontally at regular intervals – my score lines are about 3/4″ apart:

Step 3: Concertina the trees by folding back and forth along the lines:

Step 4: Draw a line down the center vertically on the back of your triangles. Then punch holes on each panel, along the line:

Step 5: Make the holes a little larger by gently pushing the chopstick through, from the front of your triangle to the back, to widen them:

Step 6: Push the trees onto the chopsticks:

Step 7: Use hot glue to add some embellishments – I added a gold snowflake and a gold garland to the tops of the trees, and sentiments in the middle:

Step 8: Add any other embellishments – I added a few enamel dots to each tree:

Step 9: Decorate the plastic cups by hot glueing on some glitter ribbon at the top, and another die-cut card embellishment at the front:

Step 10: Fill the plastic cups with coloured sand (I had to add some coloured stones too as I didn’t have enough sand), then stick your trees in and put them on display:

Make sure you display them somewhere that they won’t get knocked over and spill sand everywhere!

These concertina trees would also look good made in miniature and added to cards and scrapbook layouts! You don’t even have to punch holes and add a stick if you’re going to be sticking them down flat.

Be Inspired:

Make some concertina Christmas trees

At glitter tape around the rim or edge of something

Use a wooden stick on a project or page

Remember to let me know what you thought about the event. Which was your favourite project?

Thanks so much for stopping by! I have enjoyed reading every single comment! Bye for now,

Jennifer x