Sunday, October 26, 2008
How to make chocolate candy
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1/2 c. maple syrup (Grade B or Amber preferred)
1/3 c. of raisins
1/4 c. currants (optional)
1/2 c. hazelnuts or almonds, chopped finely
1 tsp dark rum (Myers is good) or vanilla
Combine well. Drop onto wax paper in rounded spoonfuls, using two spoons or a small ice cream or cookie scoop.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes, then store in a ziploc bag in a cool place.
Tastes like those square chocolate "Chunky" candies in the foil wrappers.
How to make a Lip Balm
1 Tablespoon Bee's Wax
1 Tablespoon Shea Butter
1-1/2 Tablespoons Avocado Oil
1/4 Teaspoon Glacier Mint Flavoring
This lip balm is delightfully cold on the lips, very refreshing!
Melt Bee's Wax on the stove. Take off the heat, mix in shea butter and avocado oil. Mix well, then mix in the Soap Crafters Glacier Mint flavoring . Pour into 7 Soap Crafters Lip Balm tubes .
For easier pouring, use a rubber band to hold all the tubes together. Then they stand upright easily. Use a Soap Crafters dropper cap to fill them. Keep filling until they are a little overfilled. This gives each lip balm a rounded top and not a sunken in one. After a couple of hours they will be cool, put on caps and clean up to label. They are ready to use!
What is Polymer Clay Anyway?
- What is it anyway? check out this information from Jaedworks.com
- What is polymer clay?
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Polymer clay is, as the name implies, a pliable, blendable polymer compound for artists and crafters. It's not a true clay - clay is fine particles of silicate suspended in water, whereas polymer clay is fine particles of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) suspended in plasticizer - but it can be used much like clay.
What makes polymer clay special is its versatility. It comes in dozens of colors, and you can blend clays together like paints to make your own colors. Since the color is inherent in the particles, you can also work two or more colors together without blending them, if you prefer, for special effects such as caneworking and marbling. The clay's pliability and ductility let you use techniques from glasswork, textile arts, and sculpture. And polymer clay doesn't dry out, so you can sculpt and form it without worrying about a time limit.
Firing - the process that fuses the particles into a solid - requires only low temperatures, low enough to use a home oven as your kiln. The colors and size are not changed during firing. When fired, the clay gets hard enough to make durable objects, and can be finished in various ways to obtain textures from glassy to stonelike.
Basic Colors for Mixing Clays
- Red
- Blue
- Yellow
- Orange (Red + Yellow)
- Green (Yellow + Blue)
- Violet (Red +Blue)
Color Recipes
How to Paint on Polymer Clay
Q.
What do you need to consider before starting to paint?
A. Follow the directions in the main FAQ for molding and baking polymer clay pieces. Any color of clay can be used in the molds. However, if you plan on painting your pieces, clay color is an important factor to consider. When using light washes of paint, choose pastel clay colors because they accentuate the translucency of the paint. For example, pick a lighter color such as Champagne when molding an apple. The baked clay apple can be coated with a wash of red paint, and a bit of paint can be removed with a damp cloth for a highlight. This gives a much richer, livelier finish than molding an apple in red clay and painting a white highlight on it.
Q.
What type of paints work well on baked polymer clay?
Click here to continue
Don't have money to buy polymer clay? MAKE YOUR OWN POLYMER CLAY
Polymer clay can be expensive, but it's so easy to make, and you can color it with food coloring. The best food coloring is the paste colors that cake decorators use. They last forever.
The recipe is:
ONE PART CORNSTARCH TO ONE PART WHITE GLUE (LIKE ELMERS GLUE).
That's it. If you want it thinner, just add water. How Cheap Is That.
By Ardis Barnes
Read more here
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf681300.tip.html
Editor's Note: There were many questions about this recipe. Fortunately, Ardis submitted another tip that may help people understand the process. Here it is:
MAKE YOUR OWN POLYMER CLAY CHEAP
