Attempt at sugarcraft...

Hi All

Hope you are all well. We have returned from our spa break today...was lovely, really relaxing and didn't want to come home! Had a nice anniversary yesterday, apart from a disastrous meal out but I won't bore you with the details! Lol! Got back this afternoon and was going to do a bit of crafting but wasn't in the mood so thought I'd have a little play modelling with sugarpaste! I have been getting back into my baking recently and really want to have a go at sugarcraft. I have been buying a few bits and pieces and am going to the show at the NEC in November (as well as the papercraft show...going to be an expensive weekend!!) so had enough to have a little play! So below you will find my first attempt ever....trying to justify the quality a little! Apologies as this post has lots of piccies! Thought I would share with you what has gone well and what hasn't from the start as I start this new craft!

My first little project was a snowman. First of all I must mention the fabulous Ann Pickard who is often on Create and Craft. All of these designs are hers and I have tried to follow her instructions in order to make these little Christmas cuties....practice makes perfect I guess! So I used her techniques of making cones for body and arms and then a double cone so that his nose didn't fall out and just a disc for his scarf to keep it simple. I would ideally like to have done a different colour but was messing around with orange, black and white so just kept with that for the majority if what I made. What do you think? Honest opinions please....any tips anyone can give me would be gratefully received!

The eyes and buttons are painted on using a cocktail stick and licquorice paste...another tip from Ann.

My next little project were Christmas trees....not as successful as my snowman...had a go at the scissor technique that Ann suggested but think I need a bit more practice with these...looks like a 5 year old went made with the scissors and some plasticine! Lol! A tip she mentioned was to put icing sugar on them to make them look Christmassy...when I make a decent one I will have a go!

My next project was the one I was most excited about having a go at....little penguins! Although they aren't perfect, I'm pretty pleased with them for my first attempt. Hubby has given this one the name of Elvis as he has a little quiff at the top of his head! Lol! His eyes went a little wrong so need to practice those but thought he was cute all the same!

I had another go at a smaller penguin and was happy with the result but again the eyes went a little wrong again....made them too long! What do you think?

I then had a little go with some flower cutters that I have. Made a few black and white little flowers.....though they might look nice as a whole batch of cupcakes! Think I can do a lot better than this but not wholly dissatisfied with them....just cut them out of the sugarpaste and then used a cocktail stick to give them a bit of dimension....can't see it very well on the picture though.

Just a couple more pics of the penguins and snowman/trees together...

Think I might need to make my trees a little bigger or my snowman a little smaller!

Finally, just a couple of pics of all my little projects together. They don't look too bad all stuck together so I am encouraged to keep practicing and will keep you posted with how I get on. I made my own Christmas fruit cake on my own last year (using my Mum's recipe and a little bit of her know-how in the kitchen!) so am hoping to do the same this year and to decorate it fully...we will see how it goes!

That's it for now! Would appreciate your honest comments to help me improve my sugarcrafting skills! Hoping to do a bit of papercrafting tomorrow and enter a few challenges....had some new digi images, some I won and others accidentally fell into my basket so watch out for those ;)

Hope you have all had a lovely day and thanks for looking!

Hugs

Arline

xx