tea cups and inspirations

Today is Mardi Gras. I thought it would be fun to do a vignette inspired by this venerable New Orleans holiday so I started putting a few items together on my table. Somehow it turned into a tea party. I think I secretly wanted one all along, having been inspired by one of my favorite blogs A Fanciful Twist. My old friend Mrs Penny Bunnie even hopped out of the cupboard to have a look.

Well one thing led to another. Out came the teacups and the M&Ms. This little bottle of Calming Draught was waiting patiently to be shipped to his new owner until deciding to join our little party.

Lemon cherry sweets, a snow frosted party cake and teapots on parade. I love parades!

Then a shiny new idea popped into my head. I loved making this vignette and playing with the pictures so much that Mrs Bunnie and I agreed to do it again.

chocolate strawberry cupcake queen

And here's the finished charm bracelet. It's actually quite comfortable to wear. The clay is very light once it's baked so it's easy to load up the chain without it feeling cumbersome. I like the look of the double chain and the antique style brass which gives it a vintage feel.

chocolate strawberry charms 2.0

Batch no.2 of my chocolate strawberry charms. I'm getting the hang of shaping the bottoms which I like chubby instead of tappered. I might glaze the bottoms too but with matte instead of gloss.

Graphic I made in Photoshop. Added the 'sugar' sprinkles but they sort of disappeared after I put the sealer on. Will see how it turns out when sealer dries.

Glass hearts and beads I assembled last night plus 1 more picture charm of a chocolate cupcake mix. Just waiting for the sealers on the pictures to dry then I'll make the bracelet later. Just in time for Valentines Day.

cupcake queen charm bracelet

A few more charms later I decided to try doing a charm bracelet. I stayed with a chocolate strawberry cupcake theme and used a vintage style brass chain, glass and acrylic beads, rosettes, leaves and a silver crown. After I  finishedI thought it reminded me a little of Mary Englebreit so I'll call this one 'It's Good to be Queen of the Cupcake Garden' for now.

cupcake charms and beads

Just playing with an idea for the polymer charms. I first thought of making a charm bracelet but I wanted to try something different. I like the texture of the velvet cord and flowers and I also like the little pearl beads. Something about the metal I'm not too sure of yet. I think I'll keep working on this a bit more.

sculpy cupcake charms

After reading a few tutorials and watching even more on YouTube I picked up 4 colors of Sculpy and gave it a try last night. First I had to get over the fear of possibly asphyxiating my family if I used my kitchen oven to bake the clay. I decided that I was doing such a small batch that if I opened a window it would be okay. Hopefully I didn't get enough polymer residue in the oven to taint my next chicken roast.

#1 was interesting. #2 looked like a soccer ball. I was going for chocolate chip sprinkles but maybe not. #3 tried to be an ice cream swirl. I started getting the hang of it by #4. I liked it enough to put an eye hook in it.

Once Luna went to sleep I finally mixed a shade of pink I liked and made chocolate covered strawberry tops. 

Not sure about the sprinkles yet but I really liked making these so I'm going to get more colors. One video showed someone using chalk pastels to color white clay which sounds interesting. I also want to try the liquid Sculpy for making  fluffier icing. Time to find another Michael's coupon. Now I'm really craving a cuppycake.

lampwork cupcake beads by keiara

These beautiful lampwork beads are by Keiara, an artist in the UK. I love the little sprinkle details. She has several other beautiful pieces on her site. I found these while searching for cupcake jewelry and discovered a whole world of mini handmade cupcakes. The polymer clay ones really inspired me and are a better medium for me to start with instead of glass. Since my paper mache project hasn't completely dried yet I'm going to pick up a few blocks of Sculpy clay and see what I can come up with. I love trying all these different mediums but still having a theme to stick to. It gives me more focus I think and definitely makes it fun.