Happy Thanksgiving!!

This fall has almost completely passed me by.  I do have three Thanksgiving foods that I want to share.  First will be the winning entry for the fall foods, Pecan Pie.  If you suggested pecan pie, please email me your address at sweetandsavorytrinkets@yahoo.com .  The Fall monthly charms will be sent out Monday :)

The pecan pie is very reallistic looking, the filling is actually a mixture of 5 diferent colors of clay.  The buttery crust, and toasted pecans look toasty too.  I also brought back my roasted turkey, but I took a lot of time perfecting him, he looks much better than lasts years turkey.

The last food for Thanksgiving is pumpkin pie.  I did really want to make a lot more, but just didn't have enough time. 

 I am still taking Holiday food suggestions.  Please leave your holiday food suggestions in the comment section below to enter the contest.  You can make one suggestion a day.  Just browse through the suggestions to make sure you aren't replicating any suggestions.  If google wont let you leave a comment, just let me know your suggestion through etsy or by email.

A Unique Gift for Teacher

Welcome back!!   I haven't had time to do much creating in the last month, but I did make some fun teachers gifts.  I made several varieties of apples in trying to keep with the tradition of bringing your teacher an apple.

Suprisingly enough, all these apples in the photo above are based off of actual apple varieties. I spent a lot of time scouring images of different apple varieties, and found some very pretty apples.  Each tiny apple is hand painted in layers of color then I finish them with a glossy glaze to achieve a glass like look.

This is my replica of the Black Arkansas Apple.  The Black Arkansas Apple is shaped a lot like a plum, it is much rounder than the apples you normally see.  These apples are usually picked when they are a deep crimson red, almost burgandy, and they darken to a deep purple to black as you store them.  It is believed that they were cultivated in Arkansas in the 1840s by a man named John Crawford.  It is usually a apple that is stored, and gets better as it ages.  It is said to have yellow flesh, and is sweet and tart like a dessert apple.   The flavor is known for being complex and has honey and almond undertones.   

This pretty apple is the Ginger Gold Apple.  In 1969 Hurricane Camille left Nelson County, Virginia flooded. Clyde and Francis "Ginger" Harvey's orchards were devastated, and while trying to recover what trees they had left, they discovered one tree that was different then the others.  The Ginger Gold is a rounder shaped apple, that varies from a pale golden apple with a pink blush, to a rich golden color.  The flesh is a cream color, and the apple has a mild flavor with a tart finish.  The Ginger Gold is used a lot in making apple pie.   The Ginger Gold was the offspring of Golden Delicious, Albemarle Pippin, and an unknown apple.

The Jazz Apple has the more familiar enlongated apple shape.  It is a very golden yellow color, with a rich orange rusty colored blush that darkens to red with age.  The Jazz apple was cultivated in 1985 in New Zealand.  They are a cross between Gala and Breaburn apples.  They are sweet, and a densed fleshed apple that are great for eating fresh, or baking in pies.

 The Granny Smith Apple was cultivated in 1868 by Maria Ann Smith in Australia.  The Granny Smith is an enlongated apple shape that contains pretty bright green an yellow colorations.  The Granny Smith is actually the only apple I am familair with on this list.  I have had the on many occasions, alone, and in candy apples. 
Yumm!!

These Duchess Apples have a very water color feel, to an extent they all do, but these really do.  The duchess apple has the familair apple shape.  They ripen in a very stricking way though.  They are a pretty yellow green, then as time goes by pinks and red start appearing around the middle of the apple leaving the shoulders green.  The Duchess Apple is believed to come from Russia in the early 18th century.  These apples are often used in making apple pie. 

The Viking Apple is a beautiful crimson red apple sometimes containing burgandy tones with an enlongated apple shape.  This apple was introduced in 1969, on the east coast of the United States, and is used mostly for making pies.  It is known to have tart white flesh.

The Pink Pearl Apple  is a pink fleshed apple.  The skin is a creamy translucent color, The pink flesh can add pink tones to the outside of the apple from the inside.  The apple was developed in 1944 by Albert Etter in northern California.  I read somewhere that they make a fun pink applesauce.

This fun apple is the Maiden Blush Apple.  The Maiden Blush originated from New York in 1817.  This cutey caught my eye because of its donut shape, and fun coloration.  Most of the images I came across of this little cutie were green on one side pink on the other. 
I hope you enjoyed this little Apple Collection, it is seasonal and will only be offered a couple of times a year.

The Contestis still running as usual.  We are just finishing the Fall foods which will appear in my next blog.  Now feel free to start making your Holiday food suggestions :) in the comment section of the blog

Welcoming Fall

  Fall is here, and living in sunny southern California the seasonal changes are far more subtle than most other places.  The weather is starting to get a little colder, and with Halloween practically here, I am starting to think about the fast approaching holiday season.  Thank you all who stop by my blog, I love reading your suggestions for the monthly contest!
  My newest items can be found in my Etsy shop. I am not finished making Fall foods for the store, so make sure to keep making suggestions for Fall themed foods, check back in see if your suggestions won.  So far pecan pie, a gravy boat, pumpkin pie, a turkey dinner plate, and a roasted turkey are the only suggestions taken up. We have 2 new winners  candy apples, and carmel apples.  You know the drill:) if you won, email me your address at sweetandsavorytrinkets@yahoo.com 

My miniature carmel apples are granny smith apples dipped in a rich (sparkly) carmel sauce . I added a little gold and copper sparkle to these guys to for the holidays.  They come in charms, earrings, and I can even make them into stitch markers. 

The candy apples are made with tiny claygranny smith apples, and is dipped in a rich red (sparkly) red candy coating.  The sparkles I have added look so pretty in person, they catch more light than the photos show.  The color reminds me of the shimmery deep red corvette colors from forever ago :)

I haven't made my wonderful turkeys/ dinner plates yet, but here are my pumpkin pie slices :).   The coloring and texture on top and in the pie filling is actually real pumpkin pie spices.  

For those of you that are new thank you for stopping by the blog!  I have a running contest, every month I choose a new theme, and ask you to make food suggestions that go with the theme.  If I make your suggestion, you win your suggestion as a charm:).  Leave your suggestions in the comment section of the blog.  Right now the theme is Fall

Rules:

1 Try to make sure that you look over the suggestions that have been made, so you don't duplicate a suggestion.

2  Make up to one suggestion per day. 

 

In total I have donated 175.00 from sales since the big quake in Japan.  We have donated to the Japan earthquake/ tsunami relief, the New Zealand Quake, and the midwest U.S. tornado storm relief.
Here is the link of our charity page.

Happy Halloween!!

Thank you for all the wonderful Halloween instructions!!  My fingers have been very busy : ).  I do wish I could make them all, and I might be able to find time to make some more, but I wanted to share what we have so far.  At the end of the blog I will announce the new theme.

Our first monthly winner suggested candy corn, way back for candy month.  I will go back to locate your suggestion and contact you : )

The White Cinderella Pumpkin was suggested by Noell.  She actually grows them, and sent me some pictures of hers, they are beautiful!   I made some gummy ghosts 

I brough back one of  my favorites from last year too,  my Vampire Delight ice cream.     Idecided to create some freinds for our little white pumpkin too.

Contest Theme

You can make Halloween suggestions till the 1st of October,  but today the new theme starts as well.  The new theme is Fall/ Thanksgiving.   I already make a whole turkey, a turkey dinner plate with mashed potatoes, green beans and cranberry sauce, and  I make pumkin pie with whipped cream.   Everything else is up for grabs, so start making suggestions for your favorite fall and Thanksgiving foods. 

Rules:

 Try to make sure that you look over the suggestions that have been made, so you don't duplicate a suggestion.

Make up to one suggestion per day. 

Have fun,  I look forward to looking at your suggestions.  

Exciting News!!   I am doing my very first fair on Saturday Sept 24th.   If I get good ictures of my booth, I will share them with you in the next blog.  Keep an eye out on the blog, I intend to update it by the 1st weekend in October..  If there are any more Halloween winners, I will be announcing them then.

Heather


I made my last contribution to our global giving page.  I put 50.00 in from the sales of July, August and September.

In total I have donated 175.00 from sales since the big quake in Japan.  We have donated to the Japan earthquake/ tsunami relief, the New Zealand Quake, and the midwest U.S. tornado storm relief.
Here is the link of our charity page.
Heather

September- Better Breakfast Month

Hello everyone :)   I am pretty much caught up!!!  The September monthly mailings will be sent out within the next couple of days.  I will have the monthly contest theme and info at the bottom of the blog.  September is National Chicken month, and better breakfast month.

I decided on   Anti-better breakfast :)  Fro me this means pop tarts.  I have two of the three monthly pop tarts complete.  When the third is finished I will edit this post and include the new pictures.

My poor camera died, so the new pictures wont be as pretty.  I will try to replace my camera as soon as possible :)

Contest Info:
New Theme:   Halloween!!!!  Get out your ghoulish food ideas, and leave them here in the comment section.  If I make your suggestion for the shop, you win a free charm (the one you suggested).
I just ask you to limit your suggestions to one a day, and make sure you aren't replicating prior suggestions.
So far Rachel has suggested Candy in a skeleton bowl, and candy apples from a prior post. Katherine suggests Halloween suckers.  Jamie suggested carmel apples, mellocream pumpkins, eye ball gum, and sixlets.  Joyce suggested popcorn balls, and cupcakes for the Halloween theme. choc bottom, orange frosting and those licorice sprinkles that are black, orange, purple and yellow, and cupcakes .  Noell has suggested Frankenstien Cakes, Cinderella pumpkins, and sugar cookies with ghosts and spooky stuff.  During candy month someone suggested candy corn, so I will take that as a suggestion for this month. 

P.S.  If you have trouble leaving comments, shoot me a convo on Etsy, and I will edit the blog to include your ideas just like what you see above.  I will also make sure to add them to new posts if I create a new blog befroe we stop taking Halloween ideas. (Sept 15)....

As I create my pieces, they are entering the Etsy shop, so taking a peak will show you the new porducts before I post them here ;)

Announcment
For the time being I pulled the charm of the month club out of my shops on Etsy and Artfire.  I am planning on bringing it back, but due to baby sitting... I just haven't been able to complete them before the first of the month for the past 3 months.   For those of you in the club you will still be receiving your monthly charms until your membership expires.   I hope to make the club available again to you by January 1st.

I will still be making new charms monthly and continuing this contest I just didn't want to disappoint anyone with things taking longer to go out.    So if your membership expires before I bring back the club , I will give you the discounted price each month on the new monthly charms.

I will be making my next monthly charity payment soon, and will leave you the amount we have raised so far here once I make it:)  Here is the link to the business donations made so far.

Heather

   

August Charms

Hello,  I just finished and shipped August's charms.  They are a bit late, but  I am very happy with the results.    I made some peches with a leaf on the side, and slices of peach pie as well. 

If you made either of those suggestions please email me with your address at sweetandsavorytrinkets@yahoo.com

New Contest Theme.

The new theme is Halloween, get creative and start making your suggestions :)

Sorry this post is goin to be short. 

Thank you all so much !!!


Heather

Melty Summer Fun!

I can't believe how quickly the summer is passing!  As each year goes by it seems that each year goes by faster and faster.  It always feels like there is never enough hours in the day to do all the things you want to do.  When I look at my daughter, I remember sitting at school staring at the clock, waiting for the school bell to ring.  It seemed that time never passed quickly enough back then.  

Now I treasure the spare moments I get to slow down and just relax.  National ice cream month has been a perfect reason to slow down and savor some of the simple things in life.  Your suggestions have been wonderful, and I am sure that they are responsible for a couple extra pounds I have put on (researching ofcourse)  ; )

I decided to focus on nostalgic ice creams this month.  The first ice cream has a rich strawberry center, and is surrounded by a creamy layer of vanilla.  it is then rolled in a mix of cookie crumbles, coconut, and strawberry bits. 

There are several brands that carry these starwberry shortcake ice cream bars.  They were my absolute favorite as a kid, if you haven't tried them you should, they are awsome! 

The second ice cream of the month is a neopolitan ice cream sandwich.  There are several brands that make these little guys too.  Pam suggested the ice cream sandwich, and I love the memories that they bring back!

I loved dark chocolate cookies, and enjoyed licking the bit of cookie, that would always stick to your fingers as the warmth from your hands melted the ice cream.

The last ice cream of the month is an orange and cream bar.  This was suggested by Sher, I think think this is the dreamsicle?  My mom calls them 50/50 bars. What ever you call them, they are a wonderful ice cream.  A sweet creamy vanilla ice cream, surrounded by a slightly tart orange sherbert like coating.

 These are the three ice creams of the month, and will be shipped this week to all of you that receive the charm of the month club.

August's theme is peaches, we have received a couple of suggestions already, in the comment section of the last blog.  I hope that more of you will join in with more suggestions!  I really do enjoy looking up images of your suggestions.

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 have made June's donations to the tornado and storm victims.  We have donated 125.00 so far : ) 

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. 

National Ice Cream Month

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!!  

Things here have been pretty busy.  I have 2 of the 3 new charms of the month complete and am working on the 3rd.  I will be posting the pictures as soon as I have them all done.  The monthly shipments will be running a bit laet but I think they will be worth it : ).

In the mean time, I wanted to share one July creation and winner with you, and I want to introduce you to EscargotArtsyBits on Etsy.

  First, here is our first Ice Cream month winner Tearyeyedstar suggested snow cones.  I have been meaning to do snow cones for a while now :)

Thank you so much for the suggestion!
The other winners will be announced throughtout the month. 

August is National Peach month. You can start making  suggestions for foods with peaches. 


Escargot Atsy Bits

Escargot Artsy Bits is a wonderful business created by Sara Rask.  She does amazing collage pendants.  I have seen tile pendants all over Etsy with photos, but I was amazed by the detail of these little collages. 

Her work is beautiful and unique.  I love the colors she puts together.  Every little collage is a work of art. 

I must say that her customer service is amazing!  
I contacted her asking if she was willing to do special orders, and she has been a delight to work with.

I was unsure of what I wanted exactly, but I wanted her to make pendants of images of my miniature foods.   

 She made me many wonderful pendants, and she was very attentive through the whole proccess.  She was extreemely quick in answering all of my convos and requests.  I was planning on showing you all of the wonderful pieces she made for me, but her collages are so pretty that I really wanted to share them with you instead.

Here is the link to her store.  She is a wonderful seller! http://www.etsy.com/shop/EscargotArtsyBits?ref=seller_info



Contest info
To enter make your themed food suggestions in the comment section of the blog. 

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.

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