Birthday Stuff Reviews :D

June 8, 2016November 12, 2018 | Allison

I finally finished this birthday haul post a month after my birthday. XD It’s not really a birthday haul post, actually. It’s more just reviews of some of the things I got for my birthday. Get ready for a really long post!

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Mysterious Benedict Society Series:

Click here to see the Amazon listing

(The link is for the hardcover collection which I have. You can also get a paperback collection on Amazon.)

I absolutely LOVE this series by Trenton Lee Stewart. It’s probably my favorite series! “The Mysterious Benedict Society” is a group of extraordinary children who are sent on several extraordinary missions. The characters are so fun to read about – there’s Reynie, Sticky (you’ll understand his name when you read the books), Kate, and Constance. Once you pick up these books, it’s hard to put them down! They’re filled with exciting action, surprising plot twists, hilarious anecdotes, and riddles and puzzles that will stretch your brain.

Notes: The synopses are not actual back-of-the-book summaries, I just wrote them myself. Also, the pictures of each book are from their Amazon listing. If you click on the “via” links, it will take you to the listing. Some of the covers on the books below are a little different than mine, but mainly the same.

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The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

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Pages: 470

This book is a prequel to the series although you don’t necessarily have to read it first. (I didn’t.) Like in the rest of the series, the plot twists, clues, and riddles throughout the book keep your brain whirling. There are a bunch of mysteries in this book, and some of their conclusions may surprise you. It’s exciting to read how Nicholas uses his genius mind to solve problems and outsmart the Spiders and other fearsome foes. Nicholas also has a condition called narcolepsy (which is real by the way), which means he falls asleep at random times.

Synopsis: This story covers about a year in the childhood of Nicholas Benedict, the man behind The Mysterious Benedict Society. Nicholas moves to a new orphanage filled with surprises – from a huge library to a secret overlook, tough bullies to loyal friends, and maybe even a treasure! Nicholas will need all of his talents and genius to unpack the mysteries surrounding him – and to do so before it’s too late.

The Mysterious Benedict Society

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Pages: 485

This is probably my favorite book in the series. I especially love the beginning when everything is so mysterious and there are gobs of strange riddles and puzzles that bend your brain. The book is exciting and clever, and some of the plot twists just blow you away. At the end you learn something totally unexpected and funny about Constance. You HAVE to read this, guys!

Synopsis: An advertisement in the newspaper starts it all: “Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?” Join Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance on the adventure of their lives. After passing a series of mind-bending tests, they are sent on a very important mission: to save the world from an evil genius with a terrifying plan to control the world – and the minds of everyone in it. They will have to work as a team and put all of their extraordinary gifts to use after arriving at a strange institute. What is Mr. Curtain’s evil plan? Who is Milligan really? What is the Whisperer? These are just a few of the puzzling questions the Mysterious Benedict Society has to answer.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey

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Pages: 440

This isn’t my favorite book of the series, but it’s still great. I love that you learn something new about Constance in this book. Her newly discovered talent really adds to her personality. You also meet some new characters like Cannonball and the Bullfrogs. The duskwort plot thread is really interesting and exciting too. (See synopsis.) Here is a quote I like from this book: (Cannonball is comforting Constance, who is quite short, by the way.)

” ‘You know what I like about buttons?… They’re very small things that hold bigger things together. Awfully important, buttons – little but strong.’ ” – page 154

Isn’t that sweet? “Little but strong.” 😀

Synopsis: After a year apart the Mysterious Benedict Society reconvenes. They have been anticipating a surprise Mr. Benedict planned for them when they find out that someone has unpleasantly surprised him. Their beloved Mr. Benedict is in danger! Will the scavenger hunt lead them to their heart’s desire, or into a trap? In the meantime, Constance discovers a new talent, and a plant named duskwort is of imminent importance. If the duskwort falls into the wrong hands, everyone is doomed.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma

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Pages: 391

The Prisoner’s Dilemma is the last book in the series. (Except for the puzzle book, but that doesn’t really count.) I really like it! It’s fun and suspenseful to follow the clues with the Mysterious Benedict Society gang, but not everything is as simple as it seems. You might be surprised – actually you probably will be! The end is quite satisfactory. 😀

Synopsis:

The Mysterious Benedict Society is bored, bored, bored. They have been cooped up together in Mr. Benedict’s house for months because it’s not safe to leave: Mr. Curtain will do anything to get back his precious Whisperer, including snatching up certain children in his way. But when Constance disappears after an appointment with the Whisperer, boredom is flung to the winds. Reynie, Sticky, and Kate are on a race against time to find their grumpy companion before the Ten Men do. They must decode secret messages and follow curiously easy clues… that lead them to an unexpected place. This adventure includes two brave girls and two smart boys, a Salamander, a missing friend, sneaky clues, a couple of “S” pies, a red bucket, and a few daring leaps.

The Mysterious Benedict Society – Mr. Benedict’s Book of Perplexing Puzzles, Elusive Enigmas, and Curious Conundrums

Whew! Why do the titles have to be so long? XD I’ll just abbreviate it “Perplexing Puzzles.” Perplexing Puzzles is a really fun book filled with… well, riddles and puzzles. It is a gorgeous book – it’s printed on glossy pages and the whole book is in color instead of black and white. Most of the puzzles are quite hard, but a few of them are easy. (There are hints in the back of the book to help you along. If you need another hint, I might be able to help you too! 😀 ) Scattered throughout the book are quotes from the series, illustrations and profiles, and other “archival materials” as it says. I love the a riddle at the very end that requires you to use letters and numbers from previous puzzles to reveal a last secret message.

Here is one of the riddles: (your answer has to fit in the blanks)

Umm… I can’t really do a synopsis of this one. XD

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Pros and cons: The covers all have delightful illustrations on them, and the books are all beautiful and well-made. Like I said, the Perplexing Puzzles book is particularly gorgeous. The box that they come in is really nice too! The inside looks like it has been plastered with newspaper clippings from the first puzzle in Perplexing Puzzles. Umm… there aren’t many cons. 😀 Of course I liked some books better than others, but I enjoyed them all. The one problem is that it’s a little hard to pry a book out of the case, but that’s okay. 🙂 I highly recommend both this series and this hardcover collection.

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Premo Polymer Clay

Click here to see the Amazon listing

(I’m pretty sure you can find a pack like this for cheaper if you shop around Amazon or stores like Michael’s or Hobby Lobby, but this is the listing I found.)

Premo brand polymer clay is a very good quality clay. (At least in my opinion and from what I’ve read.) You can see lots of things I made with it here.

Let me compare and contrast it with Sculpey III, a popular brand of clay made by the same company. Premo is more of a professional clay, while Sculpey III is more of a recreational, hobby-type clay, not meant to be super durable. Premo is much stronger when baked than Sculpey III, and not as gooey and hard to work with as Sculpey III can be. (But see “Pros and cons.”) Although I do think Sculpey III has more colors available. They are both good for different reasons, but I prefer Premo to Sculpey III.

Pros and cons: Usually I love this brand of polymer clay, but the pack I got this time was a lot softer than normal. That is really helpful for conditioning and mixing clay, but not so good for sculpting. Normally though, it’s a really great clay – not too hard, not too soft – and this sampler pack comes with some really neat options, such as translucent clay (which looks transparent-ish when you brush a gloss over it), and faux rock clay which really looks like rock! The sampler pack lasts a long time if you make small things, like I do, but I found it helpful to get an extra pack of white Premo clay because I use white a lot. Even though the changeable pliability is annoying, I would still recommend this product.

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Artist’s Pastels

Click here to see the Amazon listing

I requested these to use on polymer clay. They’re kind of like chalk. First you scrape them on paper to obtain colored powder, then you use a paintbrush to paint the powder onto baked or unbaked clay for more realistic shading effects. It’s kind of like paint, only more subtle. Pastels work very well for shading miniature food. The cookie on the left is not shaded with artist’s pastels, and the one on the right is. (Sorry, it’s not a very good picture, but trust me, some clay artists can do amazing things with artist’s pastels! Like Tracey, for instance.)

Pros and cons: Certain shades of brown are missing that would be helpful, but at least you can mix colors. I haven’t had much experience with artist’s pastels, but these work quite well for my purposes! I would recommend this product.

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“Gelly Roll” White Gel Pens:

Click here to see the Amazon listing

These pens are really nice! Not to mention there are three of them, so they should last me a while. 🙂 They have a fairly fine tip and write smoothly as long as you don’t write too fast. You can use them to mark highlights on your drawings, for things such as hair and eyes:

The ink is almost marker-resistant – you can see on the left of her hair one of the squiggles is slightly more muted. That’s where I drew over it with marker and the gel pen still showed through. When you draw on top of marker, the marker ink bleeds a tiny bit with the gel pen ink, so it’s usually not quite completely white. (In the picture above, the ink turned a little grayish.)

The white ink looks stunning on black paper! Here is an ATC I made with one of the gel pens:

Pros and cons: The pens write quite smoothly unless you write fast; then they’re a little scratchy. The optimum background seems to be black paper. The ink will smudge if you’re not careful, but it’s not super smudge-prone. I would recommend this product.

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PicMonkey Royale

I was really excited about getting this, because I use PicMonkey a lot. (Royale gives you access to lots more features – extra effects, overlays, collage options, and more. But you do have to pay for Royale. 😉 ) Three of my favorite things about PicMonkey Royale are the “Custom Effect” feature, Clone feature, and the Royale collage options. You make a custom effect by adding different effects to a photo like usual, then saving all the things you did as one effect that you can use over and over again.

Here is a photo I edited with Royale: (More kitten pictures coming soon! 😀 )

-Allison(kitten, baby bird) 006 (1280x960) — Before

I used clone to “wipe off” some dirt, Miniature Effect, Eye Brighten, and then several other non-Royale effects and features. So cute!

Pros and cons: It’s definitely nice to be able to use features like clone, Custom Effect, extra Overlays and Collage layouts, and more. Pretty much the only con is the price. If you don’t use PicMonkey a lot, or don’t use it much besides the basic touch-ups which are free, you probably won’t need this. However, if you love photo-editing or PicMonkey or both, I recommend this feature!

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Of course I got a bunch more things for my birthday, but it would take a few more months to review them all at this rate. XD I hope you enjoyed this! Which was your favorite item? Do you have any of these things?

***Allison**

Tree Stump Fairy House DIY

June 6, 2016 | Allison

I love making fairy houses! They’re so cute and add a whimsical pop wherever you put them. This time I made a fairy house in an old stump in my grandparents’ woods. I bought the toadstool table set and ladder from Hobby Lobby, and the rest of the things I had on hand. But the great thing about fairy houses is you can make them however you like – with lots of store bought goodies or with none at all! It’s really fun to make a fairy house out of only natural things, such as twigs, moss, bark, nutshells, and rocks.

You definitely don’t have to make your fairy house in a stump – you can even make one in a pretty pot for inside. I’ll walk you through how I made this fairy house to give you some inspiration, then you can change things up however you like.

Step 1: Find a hollow stump.

Step 2: Fill with rubbish (leaves, dirt, sticks, rocks) on bottom, and top off with nice pretty dirt. Don’t fill the stump all the way to the top. Make sure the dirt is tamped down well, or else when it rains the dirt will compress.

Step 3: Carpet your fairy house with a layer of moss. Moss is probably my favorite ingredient to use in fairy houses. 🙂

Step 4: Furnish the fairies’ home! This is how I furnished mine:

A note about the pond: the flower pond actually used to be a birdfeeder, but since it had broken off its pole, we stopped up the drainage holes with hot glue and used it as a pond. 🙂

Now for the ladder and bedroom parts:

I used this tiny wooden ladder to provide the fairies with a way to enter their house – in case their wings are sore. 😉 If your ladder isn’t long enough, you may have to set a stone under it. I also happened to find a perfectly arched twig, so I used that as an entryway arch.

For the bedroom, I wedged some twigs in a narrow passageway to make another ladder from the top floor to the bedroom. The furnishings are a little sparse down there. 😛

Step 5: Water any plants or moss you planted, and fill any ponds with water.

Ta-daa! You’re finished!

Have you ever made a fairy house? What was your favorite part of this one?

***Allison***

Art Lab, Episode #6: White on Black

May 27, 2016November 12, 2018 | Allison

Welcome back, my friends! I’ve been having lots of fun with white gel pens and black paper. Do you want to see? Okey-dokey. 😀 But first, here’s the official prompt:

Technique: White gel pen on black paper

Here are four ATCs I made using this technique. (Sorry about the smudges. 😦 That’s one thing you have to be careful of when using gel pens.)

art lab (1) (800x600) — “Glow-in-the-Dark Fish” (It doesn’t really glow in the dark. 😛 )

Isn’t that technique neat? It works especially well with sharp, straight lines. Which is your favorite ATC? Mine is probably the “Moonlit Night” one.

Ta-ta!

***Allison***

Art Lab, Episode #6: Dandelion Days

May 13, 2016November 12, 2018 | Allison

Wow, it’s already the sixth episode of Art Lab! Hayley and I have been writing a weekly series called The Art Lab to shower you with fun and pretty art ideas and to inspire you to create your own amazing art! Today I made a sunny, breezy, dandelion envelope.

I used these two pieces of art as inspiration. Aren’t they so pretty? Unfortunately, the links to the original websites didn’t work (or in the case of the last one, it was an Etsy piece that had already been sold.) 😦 Argh! It’s so annoying when that happens. Anyway…

For my envelope I first drew the dandelion in pencil, then watercolored around it. I blended a few different shades and colors of paint, then splattered some blue and purple paint on for fun. (I covered up the dandelion with a piece of paper so it didn’t get splattered.) Then I traced over the penciled in dandelion and flyaway seeds with Sharpie. I also added a few splatters and “wish” on the envelope flap in front. Ta-daa! 😀

006 (1024x769) — It got a little bit wrinkled. Oops! I almost wrote “I got a little bit wrinkled.” XD

This is a great spring or summer envelope you can make to pretty up your next handwritten letter – or you can make this same art on a canvas, ATC, etc.

Have fun and do art! 😀

***Allison***

Tutorial: Cardboard Roll Organizer + BIBPC # 4

April 30, 2016April 30, 2016 | Allison

Today I have a little crafty tutorial for you, my friends. Bring out your scrapbook paper and that huge stash of cardboard rolls you have tucked away in the closet, and… um, read this tutorial! XD

We are going to make this handy-dandy organizer. It’s perfect for organizing those stray but important knickknacks, or showing off a collection.

What you’ll need:

Toilet paper rolls or similar cardboard rolls
Pretty scrapbook paper
Cutting tools: an X-acto knife and scissors
Glue stick
Hot glue gun (with hot glue, of course 😉 ), or super glue might also work
Pencil

Cut the cardboard rolls into even lengths. It is quite tiring to measure each tube, so I found a much easier and faster way! First, make a template. You will have to measure this one: make marks all the way around the tube using a pencil and ruler, then connect the dots. 😀 I made my template roll about 2 inches long. The longer the knickknacks, the longer the template should be. (As you can see, most of my knickknacks are small, so a shallow organizer worked perfectly.) Use an X-acto knife (and scissors if need be) to cut around the line. Trim the top rough edge with a scissors, and cut a slit all the way down one side, like so:Ta-daa! You have made a template. Now slip it on to the tubes you want to cut, and simply trace around the top with a pencil. No measuring needed! I cut 10 lengths for my organizer, which used about 5 tubes (not counting the template tube).
Cut strips of paper to cover the rolls. Choose a pretty pattern or color of scrapbook paper to decorate your organizer. Cut the strips as wide as your tubes are – if your tube lengths are 2 inches, cut 2-inch wide paper strips. (Yes, you’ll have to measure this time. 😦 ) Glue a strip around each tube and neatly cut off the excess if your strip is too long.
Hot glue your paper-covered tubes into a pyramid shape. Arrange the tubes so the paper seams don’t show on the outside, and hot glue them. I think it works best to glue one row at a time – glue the bottom row of four tubes together first, etc., then glue the rows to each other. Also, don’t glue them vertically on top of each other like it shows here. 😉 You can stand it up like this after you’re done.
Use it! You are done! Give yourself a pat on the back, then go put the organizer to good use. Congratulations on a craft well done!

By the way, the little critters and food in the organizer are polymer clay miniatures made by my sister Megan and me. I made all of the miniatures except some in the last picture, where Megan added some of hers to help fill it up. Which knickknack is your favorite? Of mine I might like the peacock best, and of Megan’s I think I like the cute little crab. 🙂

I hope you enjoyed crafting along with me!

Oh, oops! I almost forgot the BIBPC photo. BIBPC is fun photo contest that my sister Megan is doing. (Read about it here.)The prompt this time was “Funny.” Here’s my entry!

Story behind the picture: This is a hilarious photo of Diamond, my little sister’s rabbit. We sometimes bring our rabbits in the house for a bit, and here Diamond is just hangin’ out like a cool dude with sunglasses. XD You can see more funny bunny pictures in this post.

***Allison***

P. S. I made the white background of some of the photos with FotoFuze. It’s a really neat program! I made the poster with PicMonkey, which I also LOVE. 😀

Art Lab, Episode #4: Rainbow Puzzles

April 29, 2016November 12, 2018 | Allison

*Announcer’s voice* Hello, and welcome to the fourth episode of Art Lab! XD

If you recall (and even if you don’t), Hayley and I are doing a collaborative series called The Art Lab wherein we hope to inspire you to make fun and beautiful art. 😉 Click on Hayley’s name up there to visit her blog and see her beautiful entries and other lovely posts!

Recently I’ve been having fun arranging simple rainbow patterns in interesting ways. This is pretty much no-fail art. As long as you can wield a marker and a pair of scissors without dying yourself blue or hacking off a finger, you’re in good shape. XD

Word Prompt: Rainbow

Rainbow is kind of boring, and unoriginal, right? Wrong! Here is how to spruce up a plain rainbow drawing (or any drawing, really):

Start by covering your paper in rainbow stripes, splotches, swirls, or pretty much any pattern you can think of. Here is a pattern I drew: (Note: Your pattern can be super simple – plain rainbow stripes work wonderfully.)

004 (1280x960) (2) — The colors were brighter in real life. 😦 Bad camera! (Or maybe just bad photographer. XD)

Now, cut it up! (Although if you really like your art so far, you should save it and make another piece to cut up.) You may cut it up into nice even strips, but it’s much more fun to go wild. Cut it up into big pieces and small pieces, jagged and smooth, circles and stripes. Now place your “puzzle pieces” on a paper, but leave spaces between each of them. This is what makes it neat. The white space distorts your picture while still letting the pretty design show through. Like so…

For this one I cut a circle from the above design, then hacked it to pieces and re-glued it onto an ATC with spaces between each of the jigsaw pieces. The circle spread into a sort of Easter-eggish shape.

This one started as a simple rainbow-striped square. You can see how all of the pieces fit back together.

The background of the next one came from a marker-testing swatch. 😀 It makes things more interesting if you cut out shapes, like I did with the circle here. Just make sure that the inner circle is small enough to be glued on with space to spare.

Oh, and I almost forgot: rainbow stripes make bright and fun envelope art too, especially if you have several different shades of each color:

So there you are! A simple way to make beautiful art. Now break out those rainbow markers, colored pencils, or watercolors, and get drawing!

***Allison***

Art Lab, Episode #2: Dewdrops

April 15, 2016November 12, 2018 | Allison

I’m back with another episode of ArtLab!

If you recall, Hayley and I just recently started a collab series called Art Lab, where we post art inspiration and our art. (Read our first post here.) It’s my turn to post today, so I present… Episode 2: Dewdrops!

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I have both a word prompt and a photo prompt for today’s inspiration. Bonus point! XD

Prompts:

The word prompt is *drum roll please* dewdrops! I love dewdrops!

The photo prompt is a picture I took recently of grass bedecked with dew drops. Ahh…. 😀 (See more dew pictures in this post.)

Art:

This card I made looks sort of like the photo prompt, only I didn’t see the words “Happy Birthday” floating in the grass photo. XD

Here are a few tips for making the card:

Hang a dewdrop from any curved part of a letter, and if you really want to sprinkled them on, add some to a horizontal line as well (like on the cross of the “H”).
Once you’ve colored the grass with different green colored pencils, you may need to trace over some of the grass blades again with a pencil to sharpen their outlines.
To make the grass in the front look closer to you, make the dewdrops sharper and darker, and make the ones hanging from the back grass more faded.

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I also drew this snail-on-a-leaf ATC which uses the word prompt.

A few tips for drawing this:

I drew this using different “levels” of pencils. I used a 5B pencil for some of the darker parts, like the shading of the dewdrops and the leaf stem. The higher up you go in B pencils, the softer and darker they will draw, and the higher up you go in H pencils, the harder and lighter they will draw. (For instance, a 6B pencil has a really soft lead that draws a fuzzy, dark line. A 9H pencil has a really hard lead that draws a sharp, faint line. Normal pencils are usually somewhere in the middle of the two.)
Play around with the design inside of the snail’s shell.
You don’t have to do this in pencil! Try using markers, watercolors, or colored pencils.

Thanks for joining me! I hope you were inspired to go make some art!

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***Allison***

Introducing… The Art Lab!

April 11, 2016November 12, 2018 | Allison

Guess what, guys? Hayley and I are starting an art collab series! It’s called The Art Lab, and we’ll post some new art inspiration every week along with some art we made (usually ATCs or envelopes). The inspiration will be from either art (like today), a photo, or a word. Usually we’ll take turns posting, but today we’re doing an introductory post together. We hope our posts will inspire you to artistic adventures of your own!

*Update: We have created an official Art Lab blog where we archive all of the Art Lab posts.*

This is the lovely inspiration Hayley picked for us:

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I made this ATC called “Hedgie’s Birthday” using the above inspiration. (If you don’t know what ATCs are, go here.) Isn’t the lil’ guy so cute? 😀 I love hedgehogs. ♥ I was inspired by the pretty banner and fun confetti to make a party-themed card. I made this ATC using watercolor crayons, water, and a black pen.

Click here to see Hayley’s beautiful envelope she made! (Her post is much more interesting, I have to say. XD )

Are you excited to see more ArtLab posts? I’m excited to make them!

***Allison***

Clay Doughnut Tutorial/Our Clay “Studio”

March 3, 2016March 6, 2016 | Allison

As you might already know, I l♥ve making things out of polymer clay. I especially like making miniatures, whether it be a little snowy owlet or miniature doughnuts like I’m going to show you today! (The links will take you to my Etsy shop listings.) I’m also going to give you a tour of my clay “studio” that I share with my sister.

First, the doughnuts. The basic doughnut is super simple to make, and then, of course, you get to embellish it – yay! 🙂

Mix it. Unless you already have the perfect doughnut colored clay, you’re going to need to mix up a batch of doughnut batter. I think I used white, dark brown, light brown, orange, and red clay for my mix.
Cut it. If you are making more than one doughnut, you’ll want them all to be the same size. I first rolled my “batter” through a pasta machine on the thickest setting, then folded that sheet in half to make it even thicker. I used a mini-Sharpie lid to cut circles out of the dough. Don’t worry about making the circles pretty – we’ll work on that in the next step.
Shape it. This step is easy. Roll the circles into smooth balls and press down lightly with your finger to make nice rounded cakes.
Hole it. I cut a hole in the middle of my doughnuts with a straw, although if your doughnuts are a different size, you may need to use something else. Make sure the hole is in the middle, or the doughnut will look lopsided… kind of like the doughnut below. 😀
Decorate it! Yay, the fun part! You can add glaze, sprinkles, chocolate covered sardines, whatever you want. (Although if you offered me the last kind, I think I would pass. XD) Here some of the 36 doughnuts that I made. Yes I made every single sprinkle on those doughnuts by hand. And yes, it took a while. I glazed some most of the icing with a gloss glaze that makes it look much more realistic. XD Go here to see my Etsy listing of these doughnuts with a picture of each flavor.

And now the clay studio! I set up a table in our school room, covered part of it with tinfoil, and arranged all of our clay stuff neatly on top. It’s really nice to have a designated place to work with clay. (Click here to see my sister’s version of this tour.) The anatomy of a clay table: