Little Fimo Chocolate Bunnies

Easter always brings to mind the images of chocolate bunnies!

I have to admit, I rarely find any of the giant chocolate bunnies to taste very good, but I feel they

need to be included every Easter for some strange reason. 

Well these little bunnies look cute and chocolatey but are not edible, they are for play!

 They are very easy and quick to make too!

Here is what you will need;

• +Fimo clay in shades of brown and dark brown, white, and pink
• +a toothpick
• +small knife (like pearing knife) or sharp clay tools

 So first, you see all the shapes you will need to make. The final bunny is just over 2" tall.

Roll your clay into the following shapes, just molding with your hands

• Brown oval shape for body, about 1" tall
• 2 brown flat circles for legs, about 3/4" tall
• 2 brown small rolled ovals for feet
• 1 brown perfectly rolled ball for head, about 1/2"
• 2 brown 1" flat ovals for ears
• 2  lighter brown/white flat ovals for inside ear
• 1 lighter brown/white 1/2" long flat oval for belly
• 1 pink tiny little triangle for nose
• 1 pink rolled ball for tale, about the size of a pea

When the pieces are ready, take the two brown flat circles and attach to sides of the main body shape.Position the feet on bottom, facing front.

 Using the knife or flat tool, smooth the edges across the back of bunny, so they look like one surface. Leave edges on sides and front, to make legs.

Next, position the lighter brown/white pieces on the ears and belly. Flatten them a bit so they become more flush with the surface.

 Get the head and attach the ears side by side to the back. Use the same technique with the knife, so flatten the edges smooth on the back of the head.

 Then get the head ready to attach to the body. Rough up the "neck" area and the bottom of the head, so they  attach better.

I curled one ear slightly, just because it is cuter.

 Again, smooth out edges in back of head, so it becomes one surface.

Add the pink triangle nose to center of face.

Use toothpick to poke an eye on either side of nose.

Roughen up the areas where the tail will attach to bunny, then attach. I gave the tail a little more texture just using my finger nail, so it was not a perfect ball. 

Use the knife again to lightly add "hairlike" texture over surface of bunny. 

Also, the toothpick along the paws, for toenails.

Then bake in the over, following directions on the clay.

Now they just need somewhere to live! 

Bunny house coming soon!

Shrinky Dink Barrettes

My daughter has a crazy head of thick curls, that is in constant need of some kind of hairband, barrette or something or other to tame it. We have an endless supply here, and she is pretty bored with them all, so I 

decided to personalize some for her.

Paper Mache Circus Animals

I have been working on a miniature circus, which you can see here.
I had it almost finished, but making the animals was holding me back.
Finally, I came up with a simple form in a paper mache style that seemed to work pretty well.

Using a 20 g. wire, and pliers, I made an armature for each animal.

Just sort of a line drawing in 3-D to hold the form.

 We have our elephant here.

a giraffe, 

and a tiger, to jump through a flaming hoop!

 Then, using tissue paper I had lying around, I stuffed it in and wrapped around

the shapes until they looked right, and secured with masking tape where necessary.

This sort of makes them look like poor little wounded animals in an
animal hospital, so let's fix them up quickly!

I used just what I had at home already,an made a sort of quick paper mache.

I tore strips of tissue paper ( used green b/c I was impatient, but white tissue paper would probably work best), and painted the surface under and over each layer 

with a watered down white glue mixture. This takes about 24 hours to fully dry. When they do dry

they are lightweight but very sturdy, and ready to be painted.

I did apply one coat of white primer to them first, before adding color.

They really came to life once I added the details: the spots, stripes and faces.

They just need some props!

 The hoop was made from 20 gauge wire with felt flames glued on.

 Then I painted some old wooden bobbins I had for the base.

These bobbins came in handy. They also worked as stands for the
elephant and the performers.

You can see the finished Circus these animals belong to here!