Simple Crafts

A craft for everything & everything in a craft.

Halloween Fimo Cat Tutorial.

October 6, 2013 by Merry Leave a Comment

It’s been such a long time since I did any polymer clay work that all my talent seemed to have deserted me when I sat down to make a start on this little chap. In fact it took nearly a week and endless prototypes before I started to feel like I was finding my fingers with it again. In the end though, I’m rather pleased with this little chap. He’s a great Halloween Cat and easy to make with some patience too.

fimo clay halloween cat

I started with the orange one (who I think I probably like the character of the best really) and made the brown one to photograph a tutorial. We had a lot of fun together and hopefully these fairly brief photo instructions will help you too.

As usual, all my Fimo came from our shop CraftMerrily. We are always very pleased to welcome new customers and grateful for their purchases!

fimo cat instructions

1. First, whizz up your chosen colours into a blend that feel furry to you and divide into balls for head, body, neck, legs and tail. I made my leg balls roughly twice the size I needed them here, so scale back a bit there!

2. Make the body a bit egg shaped and then put a flattened neck ball on top. I added a flat disk of cream to his tummy for a splash of colour.

3. Mould the ear points out a bit (and they need to go through a hat so make them slightly too large. I use a pointy tool to make ear dimples; if you fancy it you can fill them with a small pear drop shape of a different colour. Push your thumbs into the sides to make eye sockets and then press a round tool in to those sockets to make the eye ball hole.

(Note: at this point the head can get a bit flat; you get a better cat face if you pause to round it up again a little, especially under the nose. My tutorial attempt went a bit flat and teddy like.)

4. Two flat pancakes of colour go into the eye sockets. I like translucent Fimo for this. I use a knitting need to make hole in that and then push two beads in for pupils.

5. Create the small pieces shown in the middle right picture and attach them to the face. How these are placed gives character and expression, so experiment.

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6. I use a knitting needle to give furry blending detail now. Blend the eye lids, soften the ears, add fur to his face and blend the triple nose piece to the face. Add whisker dots to the cream and nostrils to the black nose.

7. Attach him to his neck and blend those 3 pieces together. I know cats don’t have very obvious necks but it just lengthens his figure a bit. Add furry detail across the body front, especially blending the tummy patch if you’ve made one.

8. Getting the arms and legs right is tricky. Remember to give elbows (no one has joint free limbs, it just looks wrong) and experiment with paws. Chunky is good, delicate gives a different look (more female). Add three dents to the paws for claws/footpads.

9. With the back legs, a change in angle helps the feet look real. Model the shape in the bottom right picture and add a detail by scoring a line around the ‘ankle’ and then pressing the leg and foot together again. It makes it look more defined. Add creases at the next joint. Make the side attaching to the body flat and the outer side more rounded. You can see this better in the top picture below.

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10. Attach the limbs and position to give the attitude you like. Once the look and feel right, blend the hips and shoulders on to the main body so the join isn’t obvious. Don’t blend too far down or he will look as if his legs are stuck to his body in a weird body lock spell. Add furry detail to his limbs and his back.

11. Mould a tail in a shape that suits him. Make one end thick and flat and then sit him on it and blend as before. Looks better than being stuck to the back and is stronger too.

12. His wizard hat is just moulded from a ball of black Fimo. It needs two holes in the brim for his ears but otherwise can be a floppy or perky as you like. This one has a beaten up hat but I think he’s a fairly old wizard cat ๐Ÿ™‚

As usual, I created a Pinterest board to inspire me. You might like some of these Cat Crafts too.

Filed Under: Animals, Cats, Difficulty 4/5, Halloween, Polymer Clay Tagged With: fimo, fimo cat tutorial, halloween craft from fimo, make a clay cat, make a fimo cat, polymer clay

Easter Pom Pom Creatures

March 25, 2013 by Merry Leave a Comment

Maddy twizzled up a window display in pom poms and foam sheets this week to cheer up the frankly unimpressive winter weather and make it feel a little more spring like at home.

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Our trusty pom pom makers (coming soon to a brand new online craft shop near here ๐Ÿ˜‰ are favourites with us and the rabbit and chick are made from the 2 medium large sizes. Any dk yarn will work – Sirdar and Robin do cheap ones. Some big googly eyes glued on, with the head and body also glued together (PVA works well) and ears, feet and beak cut out of foam sheets complete the look. Maddy finished the scene off with foam grass banks and pom poms made in several green, yellow and brown shades to make bushes.

I rather liked the nest – its just the end of a ball of brown wool fluffed out underneath that Easter chick. I have to say the rabbit looks a little nervous, but that is a VERY. BIG. CHICK.

Filed Under: Animals, Easter, Pom Poms Tagged With: easter bunny craft, easter chick craft, easter craft, Easter pom pom animals, pom pom chick, pom pom rabbit, pompoms, spring craft, spring window display

Crafty Bottle Cat

October 11, 2012 by Merry Leave a Comment

 

This gorgeous creature was made by Maddy after she was inspired by the shape of a beer bottle left on the side one morning. He reminds me of Carwash from Willow the Wisp, but Maddy didn’t know the character so I think it is co-incidence.

This cat would make a great Halloween cat, though you might want to make him black in that case, and was lovely and easy to do.

First Maddy balanced a polystyrene ball on top of the beer bottle and glued it down on the neck. Once that was dry, she used PVA glue to stick pieces of red tissue to cover the bottle and the ball until all of it was covered. Then it was left to dry for a day or two, with a covering of PVA glue painted on top of all the paper bits to give it a glossy finish.

Maddy made some body parts from polymer clay; a nose, tail, paws, front legs and ears. Once the main body was dry, these were glued on to him with tacky glue and his features added with permanent black marker.

I think he’s purrrrrrrr….fect! ๐Ÿ˜‰

 

Filed Under: Animals, Cats, Difficulty 3/5, Halloween, Maddy Makes, Paper & Pen, Polymer Clay Tagged With: bottle crafts, cat craft, fimo, Halloween, halloween cat craft, recycled crafts

Needle Felted Squirrel

October 3, 2012 by Merry 45 Comments

If you don’t fall instantly in love with this little creature, then I don’t know what to do for you! This is Maddy’s needle felted squirrel and I think he’s just divine. As usual, she had a picture in her head and far exceeded what I imagined she would do with the idea. This squirrel pretty much ties up the autumn themed crafts for this year too and what a way to finish!

Our felting box contains plenty of scraps of colours and this is made from what is left of a ball of brown and some flesh beige fleece. My favourite shops for buying felting supplies are World of Wool and Sara’s Texture Crafts. You can pick up a bargain on ebay too by looking for felting supplies. You’ll need some needle felting needles too and a sponge or foam pad (unless you don’t value your knees much).

At some point we’ll feel well qualified enough to do a tutorial; until then, read this ๐Ÿ™‚

As you can see, the squirrel is constructed in a series of discs and when flat and solid enough, they are attached to each other with more needling.

Little paws, feet and ears are added with small shaped pieces of felting.

Once all his bits and bobs had been attached, he just needed detail adding with some back stitching in black (or dark brown) embroidery thread. The stitching and the button eyes really made him I think . Maddy Makes amazing craft projects, don’t you agree? (She’s very proud of him and only 12, so I think she would love some likes and comments to tell her he’s great ๐Ÿ˜‰ )

Filed Under: Animals, Autumn, Difficulty 4/5, Felting, Maddy Makes Tagged With: Autumn Crafts, needle felted craft project, needle felted squirrel, needle felting, red squirrel craft, squirrel craft

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