Handmade Holiday Design Challenge

Five whimsical winter themed brooches with holiday greeting

The final Art Elements theme challenge for the year is “Handmade Christmas” which gives us a chance to catch up on holiday projects during what is usually a busy time of year for many.  To make it even easier on us participants, we can enter any gifts we make, even baked goods. Baked goods for an art challenge, you say? Well, why not?  Have you never heard of the culinary arts?

While I am not a student of the culinary arts, I do own more than a few cake decorating tools.  Most of them happen to be used in my polymer clay studio rather than for production of food. As it happens, polymer clay has a working consistency similar enough to fondant that many of the tools and techniques developed for creating masterpiece cakes work equally well for polymer clay sculpting.

I didn’t create any cake masterpieces, but I did use some cookie cutters to create a selection of whimsical winter brooches featuring snow- and gingerbread people and trees from polymer clay.  I made enough of the snow- and gingerbread people to give as gifts with a few to spare for my shop on etsy. The snowpeople brooches helped me reach an etsy milestone of my 200th sale, thanks to my aunt who bought one for her and one for my uncle.  

Polymer clay brooches shaped as gingerbread man and snow people.
Some of my polymer clay snowpeople brooches had hats and scarves to keep them warm, but a few got overheated and turned into puddles.  The gingerbread people are decorated with clay “frosting” and “gumdrops.” I used red and green glitter clays for the scarves and gumdrops …and then had to perform a very thorough cleaning of my tools and work surface to get rid of all the stray glitter. I’m sure a few stray glitter bits will turn up unwanted in future projects, as is the way of glitter.

A few of the faux petoskey stone and petrified wood cabs I created for last month’s fossil theme challenge got faux pewter settings. I them to make sea turtle brooches.  I was initially aiming for as close to real metal as one can get with polymer clay and then changed plans and embraced the faux. I’m not terribly happy with the “tab setting” on the smallest turtle and if it were actual metal I could scrap it and start over.  Unfortunately, cured clay doesn’t come apart like that. There may be a way to salvage it, by adding more clay. I just haven’t decided what “more” to add.

Three sea turtle brooches made with polymer clay.
Of these three experimental faux pewter brooches, I liked the one with the stylized stamped and carved details best. So that’s the one I gifted to a friend.

I had grand plans to make about a dozen embroidered ornaments for gifting.  There’s no tragic story about life getting in the way of my plans. Unless you consider taking time to bury your nose in a few books tragic.  So, I only completed a total of five ornaments. If I don’t forget, misplace them, or otherwise get distracted, I can hope to have the others done for next year’s gifting.  What are the odds that will happen?

Set of four embroidered ornaments surrounded by winter greenery
These folksy ornaments are buffalo plaid fabric in small (3-inch) hoops with embroidered woodland critters. The critters are based on clip art images. I modified the designs somewhat because I wasn’t able to stitch the teeniest details at this scale. I finished the backs by blanket stitching some red felt circles. There were supposed to be four more, on black/white plaid, stitched in red. Maybe next year.
Black cat face embroidered ornament
This black cat face ornament, in a little 3-inch hoop, was embroidered for a friend whose furbaby is a black manx. I wasn’t expecting my black floss to be such an exact match for the black fabric that the little heart-shaped nose would practically disappear. If i had had dark gray thread, that would have been preferable for that detail. But it’s the thought that counts, right?

Finally, there were some baked goods gifted to my co-workers.  I made a batch of cupcakes based on a White Russian cocktail. I added Kahlua to a ‘basic’ vanilla cake batter, infused a white chocolate ganache filling with vodka, and topped them off with Kahlua buttercream frosting.  I’ve never tried the cocktail, but a co-worker who told me it was her drink of choice in college approved of the cupcake version. 

White Russian cupcakes with bottles of vodka and coffee liqueur
White Russian cupcakes posing with their key ingredients, vodka and Kahlua liqueur.  I only needed a few ounces each of vodka and liqueur for the cupcakes but the local liquor store wouldn’t sell me “a cup of booze” so I had to buy full-sized bottles. They’ll be in the pantry keeping company with the tequila, whiskey, rum, and other liqueurs purchased for other adult cupcakes I’ve tried.

That’s it for my handmade holiday this year.  The remainder of the gifts I gave were in the form of things made by other artists and donations to charitable organizations in the names of the recipients.  Oh, and of course, my cats got some new catnip toys and cozy beds. They were, as always, very good boys. I hope your holiday was merry and cozy too.  

This design challenge is also a blog hop.  Please visit the other participating artists to see all the wonderfully creative gifts they made. Maybe you’ll get some ideas for your own handmade holiday next year. It’s never too early to start. Ask me how I know. 😉

AE team:   Lindsay Jenny  Sue  Karen  Claire  Niky  Cathy

Guests:   Sarajo  Kathy  Mary  Hope  Tammy (<– That’s me.)  Evie and Beth  Divya  Merja  Sarah

21 thoughts on “Handmade Holiday Design Challenge”

  1. Kathy Lindemer

    I love the white stitching on the buffalo plaid. Festive looking keepsakes! I use to drink white Russians so I know how this must taste, Yum and have a happy 2020.

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Kathy. I had plans to make white plaid ornaments too but didn’t get around to those.

  2. Mary Harding

    Love the red plaid ornaments!! They are so winter like and make me think of a cozy rustic cabin !! I am sure they stand out on a fir tree. Your white Russian cup cakes are mouthwatering!! Looks like you had a great holiday!! Happy New Year!!

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Mary. When I saw the plaid fabric I knew I needed to make rustic ornaments with it.

  3. CraftyHope

    Those ornaments!! I love that they look so much like cookies. I suppose that has something to do with using the cookie cutter, but your decorations on them help too. Those cupcakes sound amazingly yummy. You just can’t go wrong with kahlua!! Here’s wishing you a really amazing new year!

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Hope. I contemplated trying to imitate actual frosted cookies with the clay – I know there are people who make very realistic food with it. I decided I would leave that level of realism to those people. LOL.

  4. Alysen

    Tammy, I love all of your Handmade Xmas crafts! And the cat face is so cute! Never tried a white russian cocktail, but kahlua added to anything adds a good taste (in moderation 🙂 . Congrats on your 200+ (by now?) sales, those brooches must have sold well!

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Alysen. I had never tried Kahlua before making these cupcakes. I’m not a fan of coffee, but admit the frosting was dang yummy.

  5. Cathy Mendola

    OH my! I honestly thought the polymer brooches were cookies at first glance. They are fabulous. I didn’t participate last month so I missed blog hopping altogether. Those petosky stones and petrified wood are look amazingly real. Those ornaments on the red/black check fabric are a great idea. Hopefully you won’t stick these aside and forget them next year (I am famous for doing that-LOL) That cat face ornament is the best!! Love that one. And the adult cupcakes have my mouth drooling.

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Cathy. There were some mishaps making the petoskey stone and petrified wood for last month, but the cabs told me to make them into turtles. I hope I don’t lose track of the ornaments-in-progress between now and next year. I have a tendency to put things in places I can’t find them when I go on a tidy-up spree. Probably why I don’t tidy up often. LOL

  6. Evie and Beth

    Wow – amazing as usual!
    I love how those snowman and ginger-man brooches turned out (especially the melted one)!
    The embroidered ornaments are so cool! Mom loves the rec/black check fabric – she is on a kick of wearing that color.
    The cupcakes look amazing – I used to drink white Russians when I was stationed at Fort Riley. That was my drink of choice when we would go out. So, I am really drooling looking at your cupcake picture 🙂

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Beth. In my college days, I had a blue buffalo plaid flannel shirt I wore so often it turned to rags. Love buffalo plaid.

  7. Niky Sayers

    What a lovely collection of makes Tammy! Your fimo as always is beautiful and I really love your little stitched embroidered ornaments, I was gifted some fancy embroidery hoops and thread for Christmas so sewing is on my to do list this coming year!

  8. Cat

    Such gorgeous makes! I love the snow and gingerbread people, and the ornaments on the plaid are adorable!
    As a person being owned by two black kitties I simply have to love that ornment best, though! <3

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Cat. I like how the cat turned out, except for the nose. I really want to try a do-over for that, either with different black fabric or with dark gray thread.

      1. Cat

        I came back to have another look at it. I would probably leave the nose out completely, but that may be just me. Sometimes I think black cats don’t even have noses in the dark 😛

  9. Karen Totten

    I love your ornaments – but especially the stitched ones. They have a warm nostalgic feel that that says “Holidays” to me. I hope you have a Wonderful New Year.

    1. Tammy Adams Post author

      Thanks so much, Susan. Maybe I should have made the brooches as ornaments. There’s always next year.

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