A Piece O Cake!

Hello,  I just wanted to share my latest pieces, and announce one more candy winner, for June. 

I am finally starting to add some cake to my store.  Here are some photos, of my tester batch,  I am quite pleased, and plan on making more soon.  They are very time consuming though, and will more than likely be made to order. 

All the roses are hand made..  I shape each tiny petal by hand, and form the roses one petal at a time. 

I do like making roses,  and it has been far too long.  Today was the first time I have made these tiny roses in 8 years.  I hope you like them :)

There are four different cakes, A raspberry with a raspberry mouse, a raspberry with white frosting layers, blue raspberry the blue raspberry layers, and blue raspberry with white frosting.  They are each topped by a little rose, some of the roses are light, some are dark, a there are three multi colored roses (pictured above)

Now,  for our last June Winner!!!  Cotton candy was suggested by Tearyeyedstars!

This will be a very limited item in the shop..  as they are made using the glazed the polyform re-formulated. 

I did make 18 of each color..  I am unsure how many more I can create, so if you have to have them grab them.

Tearyeyedstars, please email me your address at sweetandsavorytrinkets@yahoo.com

July Contest.. 

I am still taking suggestions for ice-cream.  I am a little behind, so You have at least one more week before I start really making the ice-creams.

The Rules:

1:  You can only make one suggestion per day, that allows you multiple entries but many can play :)

2: Read through the suggestions to make sure you aren't duplicating any suggestions already made.

I am still donating through global giving.  we are now at 100.00.  My store contributions have gone to the Tsunami relief in Japan, and the latest 2 donations have gone to tornado and storm relief.  I will try to provide the link I donate through in each blog.. (last time I forgot)  At the link you can see all of my past donations.  Here is the link. 

Rock Candy A Tutorial

Welcome to my very first tutorial.  I hope to take video, and make you tube video tutorials in the future, when I invest in better video equipment.

I was recently asked in my Etsy shop how do you make those little rock candies?  I must admit I pondered many ideas, through trial and error I came up with the rock candies you see at the right.

This is definately the easiest of my miniature foods, so I thought it would be a great first tutorial for you all. 

Meterials:  
Sculpy gloss glaze, powdered food coloring, head pins with a ball at the end, clear micro glass beads, paper plate, a tooth pick, and a sheet of paper.

If you are making it into a charm, you will also need wire cutters, flat nose pliers, and round nose pliers, and a jumpring.

 Sculpy gloss glaze was some amazing stuff!  Unfortunately they changed the formula.  I decided to make the rock candy with the old and new formula to see if the new one will work for the rock candy.. 

The clear bottle on the left was the old formula, the one on the right is the new formula..  if you happen to see the old formula grab it!!  In my opininion it is liquid gold. 

The micro glass beads I used were the Martha Stewart brand. 

Step 1:  Pour some micro beads on a paper plate.
A small pile will do, keep the bottle near though, you will need it.

  Step 2:  Prepare your headpins

If you are doing miniatures, just cut down the length, mine are 1" long

If you are making the into charms, use the flat nose to form the right angle, and use the round, and flat nose pliers to form and close off the loop.  You can add the jumpring later.

There are great tutorials online showing you how to do this . :)

Step 3: Prepare your glaze.

Pour a tiny amount of glaze (size of a dime) on to your sheet of paper.

Dip your toothpick into the food coloring and scoop out a tiny bit.

Step 4:  With your toothpick stir the food color into your glaze.  Thouroughly combine it. 

Step 5:  Paint the colored glaze on the head pin with your tooth pick. 

Now very gently lay it on your small pile of micro beads, and gently pour on additional micro beads (just enough to cover it).

Let it rest for around 8-10 minutes

Step 6:  Repeat step 5 :)

Only make sure to paint on the additional glaze very gently..  otherwiseyou will lose your first application. 

*** If using the new glaze you will have to wait at least 30 minutes to repeat step 5.  You may have to create more colored glaze if yours has dried already.

Let them dry for 24 hours, and they should be ready to go!

The one on the left is the old sculpy gloss, and the one on the right is the new.  I just made these now for the tutorial, so I can't vouch for the strength of the new glaze.. 

I will however test strength after the 24 hours, and report to you  back here about the strength.
The new glaze is a dismal failure for this use.  It crumbled completely away, no strength at all.  I did contact polyform about the formula change.  Here is what the chemists response was  

“Our new glaze is not going to give her the “candied” look she was going for and it never will give her the three dimensional look.

Not sure we can help her here with this one.

She may have to switch products.”

One other clay artist suggested krylon? triple thick  Hopefully this product will work

I hope you have enjoyed my first tutorial :)

If anything here was unclear, please let me know, and I can address any questions the the comment area :)  Thanks

Heather

National Candy Month Continued.....

The Monthly contest theme is now ice-cream.  Here are the suggestions made so far, please feel free to add your own.

I did make some more candy to celebrate June (national candy month).  Licorice Allsorts were suggested by Pam.  When I saw Pam's suggestion, I went out hunting for allsorts.  I actually went to 4 different stores trying to locate them.   I did find some great licorice allsorts at a local store called Sprouts.  They were very pretty, and made great models... They behaved very well ; ).      P.S. Pam if you are reading this please email me your address at sweetandsavorytrinkets@yahoo.com

I did want to take a moment to thank you all for joining in my monthly contests.  All of the suggetions have been amazing, and I wish I could make them all.  Candy month was definately a fun theme, and I do hope to make some more of your candy suggestions.  In the mean time,  I wanted to share a little bit of my selection process with you.  because it really affected my decision with what to make for candy month. 

When you all make your suggestions, I start searching through pages of google images for the suggestions.  They inspire me greatly!!  From this point I start deciding If I am going for particular color themes.  Then I will do an Etsy search to see how many of my fellow miniature food artists are making that item.  If there are already fellow shops that have perfected a particular food, I usually wont make that particular item, unless there is great room for variance. Here is a couple of great examples.

This month I found some amazing gummy bears at  Bit O Sugar .  Bit O Sugar is a wonderful shop run by Brad and Lei.  They opened Bit O Sugar in September 2010, the same week I opened Sweet & Savory Trinkets.  Brad and Lei are in Hawaii, and have over 90 very cute items to browse though.  You should read their profile if you get a chance, it made me smile.      
I wanted to share these amazing gummy bears with you.  Brad and Lei have definately perfected these  little guys!

These lollipop earrings were created by Inedible Jewelry .  Jessica and Susan are sisters, and opened Inedible Jewelry on etsy in February, 2007.  They are an amazing team, and make very realistic goodies for you to wear : ).  
This team of sisters actually wrote a book on making miniature foods, called Polymer Clay Cookbook.  I would highly suggest it for those of you that want to make your own minis :) 
When I saw their tiny lollipop earrings, I was amazed at the color and detail.     



For those of you who are new to the blog, and contest, I run a monthly contest, Every month I give a new theme, and take food suggestions that fit in with the theme.   If I make your suggestion for my monthly charm club, or for store inventory, you win!  The prize is a charm of the food item you suggested.

The Contest Rules

1: Try to limit your suggestions to one a day. You can make a suggestion every day... in fact I love seeing as many suggestions as possible.  I just want to make sure that everyone gets a chance to make suggestions.

2:  Take a quick look at the suggestions, to make sure you aren't duplicating a suggestion. 

 July's Theme

July is national ice-cream month!!!  So lets hear your ice-cream suggestions.  I already make ice-cream mochi, and a hot fudge brownie, so those two ideas are excluded everything else is up for grabs. :)  They can be ice-cream itself, to anything with ice-cream or is ice-cream related.  You can start making suggestions for ice-cream month now :)

I decided after the Japan 9.0 that I would make donating to natural disasters a part of my regular business practice.  I have been donating 5% of sales to natural disaster relief. It is donated through global giving on a donation page, so if any of  you are curious to see the progress you have access to it Here.   So far I believe we are at 84.00.  These donations were made for tsunami relief, and more recently tornado and flood victims.  I also plan on giving the the New Zealand quake too.  As natural disasters happen, I will shift where the donations go, but you can always see the information provided in the link above

June National Candy Month

Welcome back :)  The May charms have been fun, but I was ready to start work on June.  July's Themes for our monthly contest will be announced  towards the end of the blog.

You all had amazing suggestions!  I really wish I had more time, so I could make all of your suggestions.  Today I will announce our first winner.  I will probably be making more candy before the month is through, so check back in around June 1st, incase there are more winners:)

The last suggestion made was rock candy in different flavors.  This suggestions was made by Katherine. 

This sounded like a wonderful challenge, and I pondered how I would make polymer clay clear enough to pull it off.  After around 24 hours of pondering, I decided not to use polymer clay at all.

I hope you like them as much as I do :)  The rock candy set of six charms are the official June charms of the month for those of you that recieve the monthly mailings.

The next candy I tackeled were gummy rings.  I really wanted to make candies that could accompany, and compliment the rock candy.  I made a matching gummy for each color of rock candy.  The flavors I tried to mimick are green apple, grapefruit, grape, watermelon, blue raspberry, and blueberry.

                                                                              Monthly Contest information

For those of you that are new to the blog,  We have a monthly runningcontest.  Around mid month, I will announce a new theme.  To enter the contest you make food suggestions that fit in with the theme (in the comment section).  I will make at least one of the items suggested for the charm of the month club, and store inventory.  Who ever made the suggestion gets that charm free, as a thank you gift.  If you are one of the winners you send me an email including your address at sweetandsavorytrinkets@yahoo.com   

The Rules

1: Try to limit your suggestions to one a day. You can make a suggestion every day... in fact I love seeing as many suggestions as possible.  I just want to make sure that everyone gets a chance to make suggestions.

2:  Take a quick look at the suggestions, to make sure you aren't duplicating a suggestion. 

 July's Theme

July is national ice-cream month!!!  So lets hear your ice-cream suggestions.  I already make ice-cream mochi, and a hot fudge brownie, so those two ideas are excluded everything else is up for grabs. :)  They can be ice-cream itself, to anything with ice-cream or is ice-cream related.  You can start making suggestions for ice-cream month now :)

I decided after the Japan 9.0 that I would make donating to natural disasters a part of my regular business practice.  I have been donating 5% of sales to natural disaster relief. It is donated through global giving on a donation page, so if any of  you are curious to see the progress you have access to it Here.   Sofar I believe we are at 84.00.  These donations were made for tsunami relief, and more recently tornado and flood victims.  I also plan on giving the the New Zealand quake too.  As natural disasters happen, I will shift where the donations go, but you can always see the information provided in the link above

May: National BBQ Month!!!

Hello, I have had a lot of fun searching through tons of BBQ food images.  All of your suggestions are wonderful, and I wish that I could have made them all.  I will be working on making more BBQ items over the weekend, but wanted to leave you with a sneak peak.  These are the first two official charms for May, for the charm of the month club.  I will update this blog with more photos as I complete different foods over the weekend.  I may pick more from your suggestions, so check back soon.

*** June is National Candy month, so put on your thinking caps, and start leaving me those candy suggestions :)

I will have the contest directions and rules at the bottom of this blog. For those of you who are new to the blog, and are unsure of how the contest works.

  Here are three of the winning suggestions.  

The BBQ ribs dripping  with BBQ sauce was suggested by Joy 1961.

The Beef Kabob was suggested by Sharon.  

The watermelon slices were suggested by Pam
The roasted corn was suggested by Beverly


P.S. If any of you are checking in, please email me your address at sweetandsavorytrinkets@yahoo.com  

These were very fun, and time consuming little guys

.

I am quite pleased with how realistic the ribs are... This photo absolutely shocked me. 

This little rack of ribs fit on the tip of my index finger, so I couldn't believe how real it looked in the photo here.

My little Beef Kabobs were quite fun to make.  As you can see here, they have green bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, marinated steak, and a pineapple slice.  

Thank you again for all your wonderful suggestions!!!

 These watermelon slices actually took quite some time to make.  It took around 5 hours of mixing and baking, to find just the right pinky color.  The good news is that I made around 40 of each type so I will have them for a while :)


Unfortunately they are only detailed like this on the front, they were far too thin for me to texture both sides.

Contest Info:

For those of you that are new to the contest, you make food suggestions, that fit in with the given theme.  I will pick at least one of them for the charm of the month club, and inventory in my store.  The prize is the charm you inspired.  Right now the theme open is Candy, for June.

 The Rules:

1:  You can only make one suggestion per day, that allows you multiple entries but many can play :)

2: Read through the suggestions to make sure you aren't duplicating any suggestions already made.

Shop Donations

  Here is the link the shows my latest donation.  Good news!!!  I was just able to donate to Red Cross through Global Giving for tornado relief.  I also added a project for the storm and flood victims too.I just made my profile on Global giving public, so you can see what projects I have donated to (and how much for each project).   So far the donations store sales 05% donated amount is at $84.00

May Charms

Hello :)

I just added another donation from store sales.  It is again going to Earthquake relief for Japan.  Here is the link the shows my latest donation, I forgot to log on first.. so this time it says anonymous.  I hope to make the next donation for storm and tornado relief for the mid west here in the U.S.  I will make that donation at the end of the month.  So far the donations store sales 05% donated amount is at $40.00

donatio

I just wanted to let you all know that the BBQ charms will be a little late...  I was sick, and am a little behind, but I am catching up.  I will be making them over the course of the next week.  As soon as they are finished I will post pictures,  and the new winners here.  Here is my latest creation :)

I have also been working on coin purses.  They are food themed as well.  I am posting just I couple here now :)

I hope to have the new charms up by the 23rd, or 24th.

P.S.  I will have bagel and donut coin purses soon too.   The charm I make, do fit perfectly on the zippers of the coin purses too..   Very fun :)

Hope you all have a great week.... 

June Theme:   Candy.  It is National Candy Month,  so start making your candy suggestions :)

Heather

Heartsy Submission

Hello every one!!!
Please refer to this post for the raffle results,  and this post for this months contest info and current entries.

I recently discovered a advertising site, that advertises etsy shops, by offering heavily discounted vouchers.  To give you an idea,  I recently purchased a voucher for $10.00 that was worth 25.00 in a bath and body shop.  I thought it was a fun way to discover new shops.  Anyhow,  I decided to submit a request to be featured.  It is also to celebrate my Sweet & Savory Trinkets store being open for 6 months on Etsy!

   
Their community votes..  and if the community is excited about your submission they consider featuring you.  Here is the heartsy link of my submission.   So if you have a hankering for some charms,  and would like a discounted voucher voting yes definately will increase my chances of being featured. 

I also wanted to mention it, because if I do happened to get featured I wanted to make sure you all know about it.  because their discounted vouchers  are limited by time, and quantity.

If I do get featured I will let you all know,  because if anyone was was to receive 50%-70% voucher,  I want it you be you guys ;)

The purse pictured is one of my hand knit babies.  I always show you my miniature foods, but you don't get a chance to see that I can knit too :)

Anyhow you all are wonderful!!! 

Profit Donations Update:
I have donated 22.00 to the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami relief.  The 5% of sold item prices are already building up :).  Here is the link showing the direct shop donations.  I will donate at least once a month, but sometimes more..

Thank you all!!!!

Heather