Restaurant day happening; Cafe TriiNelli

Restaurant day 18.5.2013 is a big happening where anyone can create their own restaurant for one day. Usually I just go and eat in other peoples places but this time is different! I am making my own restaurant with my good friend Triin. We are going to sell home cooked food in her lovely home in Espoo.

Anyone can register a restaurant at the Restaurant Day homepage. I was so happy to realize that making my own event is so easy! Over 300 restaurants have already signed for the event. Most of my time is going to planning the menu with my friend Triin. So far we have come up with:

Creamy salmon soup
Spicy chicken soup
Overcooked pork sandwich
Shrimp sandwich
Croissant
Salmon pie
Feta-spinach pie

Milkshake (blueberry, vanilla, chokolate)
Chokolate cookie
Chokolate muffin
Lemon muffin
Date cake

Drinks: Tea, coffee, juice

We made a happening in Facebook for our restaurant! Were stocking up for 100 customers so I really hope were gonna get just as many. I am looking forward to cooking and having lots of fun around new people. It's going to be great!

Here is also the happening on Restaurant day pages!

I hope to see you there :)
Sorry for the lack of pictures, i hope to be taking some next week! :D

Restaurant day homepage
Restaurant day in Facebook

Free template maker for boxes and envelopes

Create your own boxes and envelopes easily!

I was surfing in the internet yesterday and found this really handy template maker. You can easily create any size box or envelope template! Just put your measurements on the webpage and press CREATE. So easy! There are three different templates, two for boxes and one for envelopes. So easy to just print out and use :)

Check it out and have fun creating your own boxes!



BOXMAKER



This is what Ideogram says about this boxmaker:

This generator simply creates a custom sized paper model for a box or an envelope. It does the math and all the drawing-work for you.Some of the uses for a paper-box:

• A nice gift-wrap for a present with an irregular shape, for example a sphere or a jar.

• Profesional-looking package.

• Storage, for example: create card boxes to store all the assets from a board game.

The template will have the exact size you enter, but you need to turn of scaling when printing.When you're printing from Adobe Acrobat reader, set page scaling to none in the print options dialogue box (example).Boxes need quite a lot of paper. Using an standard printer, the biggest you can print is a 6 cm x 6 cm x cm box. (6 cm is appr. 2.5 inch). The first things that will fall of the page are the 'tapers' and glue-strips. That's okay, these don't need to be exact.

• Use heavy paper for folding: the heaviest my printer can still manage is 180 grams. (Normal office paper is 80 grams)

• Use a scissors and a ruler to cut halfway through the dotted lines (scoring). This will give very sharp folds.

The template creates just a blank template. If you want a nice pattern you can either:

• Print on the same sheet twice. The first time you print the pattern, the second time you print the template om the backside.

• Print directly on paper with a pattern, for example paper used for scrap-books.

• Glue the template onto a piece of gift-wrap. This creates nice, thick paper.

• Profesionals: open the PDF in Inkscape or Illustrator and edit it.

How to make lace patterned polymer clay earrings

Lace patterned polymer clay earrings 

Lately I have been working on multiple new ideas for my shop. I decided to make these pretty detailed earrings when I first had a workshop about printing patterns on polymer clay with fabrics. These earrings are most likely going to be a regular part of my shop, as well as some nice buttons made with the same technique. The technique itself is pretty easy and also doable with children. This technique works on hanging earrings as well as stud ones and of course buttons.

Hanging polymer clay earrings with a lace pattern.

This post shows you how to make these earrings.

What you need: 

Polymer clay (pick the color you like!)

2 jewelry pins with a loop

1 piece of lace or other patterned fabric

1 small piece of baking paper

scissors

jewelry pliers with a round top

One pair of earring hooks

other: oven

1. Warm the polymer clay by rolling it in your hands. 

2. Make two balls that are approximately the same size. 

3. Put a jewelry pin inside the ball and squeeze it a bit to make it flatter.

Jewelry pin pushed inside the clay.

4. Put the polymer clay shape on a smooth surface (covered with a small piece of baking paper that fits both earrings on it) and flatten it more with your finger. Make sure you keep it as round as possible (unless you want another shape).

Do not move the polymer clay from the baking paper after you have done the flattening. It will loose the shape if you try to remove it.

You want the earrings to match so try making them the
same size. 

5. Pick a patterned fabric or lace and put it on the top of your polymer clay shape. Tap the fabric gently and evenly (to keep the shape as much as possible). Repeat the pattern on both earrings.

You can check what part of the pattern you want to
 use by modelling it on top of the polymer clay like this.

Tap gently and evenly.

You can tell the pattern is good when the smaller strings look
like they're going inside the  polymer clay.

Remove the lace gently.
Make the other earring match the first one.

Ready for the oven! 

6. Bake your earrings as said in your polymer clay package. 

7. Cut the jewelry pin (leave on about 1cm in length to make a spot for attaching the polymer clay shape to your earring hook)-
8. Make a loop out of the jewelry pin that is left in your earring. Attach it to the earring hook. READY! :)

TIPS AND TRICKS

Try pressing your fabric on the polymer clay to figure out  how much pressure you need to get the best pattern.

It is also possible to paint the polymer clay after baking. It's a good idea to use darker colors on the deep pressing marks and lighter colors on the top of the pattern to create a 3D feeling.

Keep washing your hands to keep the clay clean from dust and other dirt. You can also wear gloves if you want.

If your pattern isn't as good as you would like you can just roll the clay to a ball and go again. :)


Thank you for reading!

Cute animal necklaces and brooches by Nellin Shoppi

I have made a new design for cute animal necklaces and brooches. I have been working on them for about a week now. It all started when I began drawing them in my notebook and realized they would make very cute  products. Today I had my first photo shoot about them!

These will go with me to the next fair Korukarnevaalit on 27th.

Me and my rescue

I love my dog!

Meet Kaveri, our mixbreed rescue dog. 

He came to us from Russia. Someone had abandoned him and luckily he was found by some nice russian people who took care of him. A few months later he came to us trough a friend who works as a volunteer with rescue dogs. He was approximately 9 months old when we got him, so a playful little puppy!

This is Galina who rescued him and brought him to us. Thank you Galina :)

He was so small and big eared :D

He has been my dog now for 1,5 years. During that time I have come to realize how many unwanted dogs there are in the world. I have started following Koiran Elämää in Facebook and the amount of dog pictures just tear a hole in my heart. They're all so cute and deserve a home. Often the organisations have money issues (because they run on donated money) and they need help to feed the dogs. I have donated food a few times already and tomorrow I will donate Nellin Shoppi items for lottery winnings to a organisation Kodittomien koirien ystävät ry. I think this kind of helping is small, but in the end it is what keeps the organisations running. 

Winter clothing :)

So cute!

He was running free when we went to our summer holiday. Such a happy little doggy :)

If you would like to donate to some of these organisations, here's a few links. Even a small amount of money, or a bag of dog food helps! 

Rekku rescue

Espanjankoirat

Kulkurit

Kodittomien koirien ystävät ry.

And the rescue dogs thank you :) 

Some new photos

I have been taking new photographs for my Etsy shop. I bought a Canon 660D about a month ago and today I had some time to try it out with my new macro lense. It's been lots of fun to take pictures!

Here's something I've managed so far:

Making polymer clay buttons

Today I have been making polymer clay buttons with textures from lace. They turned out pretty great!

As some of you might know, I am taking part in a sales happening in Gloria called Korukarnevaali. So these buttons will be on sale there! Also, I am making some new earrings and whatnot else I can come up with for the sale. I love polymer clay because it is so versatile!

Here are the buttons! I am still thinking of painting some of them... These buttons would be great accessory for any jacket ( or hats, bags, hairbands... etc. )