CharmMe Studio

Adorabugs – A journey

Posted on April 1, 2021 by Niki

What a journey I have been on over the last few months! While in lockdown and home-schooling I noticed one of my daughters was struggling with sitting in front of her computer for the live lessons. She is only 9 and has autism and found having to sit still and having to deal with the sensory issues of sitting in front of a screen for a half hour (or longer) live lesson was a struggle.

As many of us do now I took to YouTube to see if there was anything I could make for her that would help her sensory needs but being discreet enough that no one on the other side of the screen needed to know she had something if she didn’t want the too. I found the amazing bubble bug pattern by A Crafty Concept and though that would be amazing for her and I had some lovely chenille wool to have a go.

Bubble Bugs

I did make a few changes to the pattern to help with my daughters sensory needs and was so pleased as it really helped her and she was able to sit through her lessons a lot easier with her fiddle under the table but of course it didn’t stay out of sight for very long. All too soon she was showing it to the rest of the class over teams and I started getting enquires to making some for her class mates.

I soon started looking into the legal requirements for selling them as I knew that any toys had to be CE (or now UKCA) tested to be able to sell them in the UK or to Europe. I found a fantastic, helpful group on Facebook and began my journey to testing my Adorabugs.

I am very pleased to say that my Adorabugs passed all of the testing and are now available from my Etsy shop in 2 sizes. They are so soft and squishy and perfect for anyone to relieve stress, anxiety or as a fiddle toy to help with sensory needs.

Here is a link to my Etsy shop if you wanted to check them out: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/CharmMeStudios

I would love to hear your comments, have you had any experience with stress, anxiety? What has helped you? Do you like the Adorabug, what is your favourite colour?

Thank you for reading,

Niki x

Simple things

Posted on February 3, 2021 by Niki

For me 2021 is all about the simple things that we can do to keep our minds happy and active in what is a stressful and challenging time. While we all have difficulties to face in these challenging times I believe it is important to try and find some time to do something that makes us happy, even if it is just for a few minutes a day.

For me this has been done in a few ways, one very simple way was that I bought myself some 8 to a page labels (I know this does not sound fun at all but bare with me). I like to keep a journal of the things that I make so that I can look back over it and see how I made something and keep track of what did or didn’t work. This is great for me however I decided that I wanted to add pictures in with my work as well. I started by printing pictures on plain paper and sticking them in, but this didn’t really give me the feel I wanted for my journal. I have made a template on the computer to match my label sizes and now I can print out the pictures and just peel, cut if needed and stick them in. This has made keeping a log of what I do a lot easier and lot more interesting with the addition of the photos.

An extract from my journal with settings that I used for a project.

Yes I am old school and like to write things down rather than make an electronic journal. I know that some people will think this is silly but it is amazing how one little thing can brighten up your day, so maybe try doing something for yourself.

I also decided to make some new cards for my work, although I don’t sell anything at the moment I am hoping to one day.

I went for a simple design as I prefer the way it enhances the items that are made and shows the handmade nature of my items. Here is a simple resin puzzle piece charm with silver foil to show what the cards will look like with one of my items. The cards can be used for many different items including jewellery, keychains and charms.

In my next post I will be sharing some of the items that I have made and some pre-views to items that I am working on for the future.

Thank you for reading,

Niki x

Happy New Year

Posted on January 2, 2021 by Niki

Life got very hectic at the end if 2020 with schools going back and Uni work taking on a new meaning of stressful. Unfortunately this meant that crafting and my blogs had to take a backseat.

I am hoping to try and get some crafting time this year but lets be honest the second year of a Uni degree plus a GCSE (along with working and 2 primary aged children) leaves little time for much else. What I will do though is keep posting any time I get a chance to make anything and share posts from other good crafters to keep the inspiration flowing.

I want to wish all a very happy 2021 and hope to post some bits soon, if only for my own sanity.

Take care and I look forward to seeing you along this 2021 journey.

Thank you for reading

Niki x

Craft time

Posted on September 15, 2020 by Niki

Oh I wish there was more craft time in my life! So apparently full time uni degree, evening college GCSE, 3 days a week volunteering for my degree placement, 2 primary aged children and lots of pets (including the girls pony) isn’t enough for me and today I started a role as a lunchtime supervisor at a school. Part of me is screaming ‘what was I thinking’ but I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I absolutely love working with children (my degree is a learning and teaching degree as I am wanting be a primary school teacher) and even though I am a mature student I am actually really enjoying my degree and GCSE course as well.

The only things that I worry about with everything is if I am giving my girls enough time and also I have very little time for my own crafting. What this does mean is that any time I do have I really treasure, with both the girls and crafting. I did manage to get a few minutes to craft earlier in the week and had a play with some polymer clay.

These are the colours that I used: Citrine, Rose quartz and Peppermint

I started out wanting to make some swirly beads and then decided to have a go at making some swirl lentil beads, I ended up using 2 tutorials and as both of them have some really good tips. The tutorials that I used are as follows: TurtleSoup Beads https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HM-u_8lGb8&t=43s and Polymer clay tutor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3xzjScyjSw and both are worth a watch.

I love the way the beads came out and because I wanted to make one a little more interesting for a focal bead I decided to add a little flower. I still need to put some holes in and then hopefully I will make them into a necklace.

I hope you like them and thank you for reading, I would love to hear what you think of them.

Niki x

Family crafting time

Posted on September 2, 2020 by Niki

The girls and I managed to get in some crafting before the girls went back to school last week, we decided had a play with polymer clay. Youngest D (8 yrs old) and myself had a go at making some swirl cane following a tutorial by TurtleSoup Beads. I absolutely love Susans tutorials as she takes a very laid back approach and shows tips and tricks along the way. I always feel like it doesn’t matter how it goes I will end up with something awesome at the end even though I am a beginner and make mistakes. You can find the swirl cane tutorial here: https://youtu.be/oUdSo_DUm5I

Our colour choices, mine on the left and Youngest Ds on the right.

Youngest D is into Marvel (Ironman mainly) and this was a factor in her colour choice while I went for a more random colour choice. We used a clay cutter to get the pieces the same size to start with and then cut them down depending on how much of each colour we wanted in the finished blend. We then shaped the piece into tear drops as we were only using small amounts of clay and stacked them together to put the pasta machine and get the colour gradient happening. If you haven’t done blends before TurtleSoup beads has a brilliant tutorial on the process here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwUClASdMOY&t=88s

Colour blends, or skinner blends as they are called, are still new to me and I am happy with the results that we got from these pieces. I should add that we are using a cheap set of clay that I bought off the internet. I do have Fimo but for this experiment we decided to use some of the this clay.

We then followed the rest of the tutorial for how to roll the clay and Youngest D wanted to add some silver foil to the outside of the cane as she loves a bit of sparkle.

We were both really pleased with the finished canes and I loved the different colours that we managed to create using the same technique but different colours. We ended up with 2 very different canes and now we are planning what we are going to use the canes for.

Have you tried skinner blends or canes? what are your go to colours? We would love to hear your comments on our canes or comments about the blog so far.

Thank you for reading

Niki x

Shakers, shakers and more shakers!

Posted on August 23, 2020 by Niki

I don’t know about you but one of the things that got me into wanting to try resin was the fun, often sparkly, gorgeous shakers that I had seen all over the crafting sites. They look like so much fun to make and you can add whatever colours and floaty bits that you like. They can be made for all occasions from everyday to Halloween and Christmas. The possibilities are endless!!

The thing with me is that I love starting things however I am very bad at finishing them!! One of the things with shakers is that you need patience as they need to made in stages. I made the shakers below using 2 part epoxy resin which takes around 12-24 hours to set.

When I took these pieces out of the mould I fell in love with them instantly! The sparkle is beautiful and they are semi-translucent when held up to the light to give a subtle colour blend. I then tried some more using more opaque, single colours and glitter to see the contrast.

The other pieces are going to be made into jewellery sets and the large rectangle with the crystal will be a keychain I think. At this point I am just experimenting with effects and what looks nice together so I don’t have an exact plan for all the pieces I make. I am just going with the flow a little and seeing what I think they will good as when they are done.

After the main shaker is done the next step is to pick the floaty pieces to put inside. This again is very much experimental at the moment and I am looking at if more is less for me and what combinations work together. I love experimenting with different colours, shapes, sizes and textures to see what effect they give to the piece. The next step is to pop some acetate or clear film over the top to keep the items from falling out. I do stick this on using a little bit of UV resin and a UV light to seal it. The piece is then domed using the epoxy resin to finish it and reinforce the clear top layer. This will make it more durable and give it a lovely clear finish. Some people fill the shaker with oil or water (the bits fall faster in water and are more suspended in the oil) before doing the top layer, I am currently trying both ways to see what works best for me but you can do either fill it before or after doming.

Finished shaker full of glitter and sparkle!

Once the shaker is filled with the chosen liquid the hole is sealed using UV resin. A finding can be added to finish off the shaker if it is to be used for a keychain or necklace. For this one I wanted to make it into a keychain so a hook was added to the top. I decided to keep the keychain plain for this one but charms, pompoms or beads can be added if a fuller look is wanted.

Thank you for reading and I would love to hear if you enjoyed this blog or if you have made some resin pieces, do you get impatient while waiting for it to set?

Niki x

Some pieces so far!

Posted on August 17, 2020 by Niki

Having outlined what I am hoping to achieve with this blog I thought I should actually get on with the fun part of sharing a few of the pieces that I have made so far.

The above paperweights were made for my girls after I had created a tutorial on how to seal paper stickers for use in resin. The girls chose the stickers that they wanted and the colour themes along with embellishments. The fox is filled with glitter and sparkle, including sparkly butterflies, while the birds have some additional polymer clay leaves in.

I absolutely loves these pieces! My Eldest daughter and I made these cute little Dinos (mine is the green one) following a tutorial from the very talented Creative Rachy.

Link to tutorial: https://youtu.be/WFfzjh2bVpQ

My youngest daughter made the awesome dragon using a picture she found on google, I am sorry I don’t know who the artist is so can’t give credit. But both girls did an amazing job and added their own flare into the designs.

I will be adding more of our makes and more detailed information on new makes as we do them. I hope you like our projects and I will be back soon with more.

Niki x

What is to follow….

Posted on August 17, 2020August 17, 2020 by Niki

Family owl frame made for a very special family using polymer clay.

Credit: Owls were made following a tutorial by Just Handmade and can be found here: https://youtu.be/0A5IlLrXdVc

When I first picked the name for this site I had planned to make charms using resin and polymer clay. That idea has already started evolving and I have lots of ideas of items I wish to make and share. The idea for this blog is to share my passion for crafting and to keep a record of my journey along with any hints or tips of what I have learnt along the way.

I will update my blog as often as I am able however I am sure you can appreciate that with 2 children and studying for a degree and GCSE I don’t get time to make every day. I will however endeavour to update every time I get the opportunity to have a play.

I am hoping to cover all sorts of crafts and mediums and also include some of my children’s crafting adventures as well. What better way to motivate them and have a record of how far they have come than getting the see it on the intern. I do alway ask permission from my girls before posting anything about them on social media.

I am not a professional and I do not believe that there is only one way to do anything. I will be sharing what I have done and if it has worked or not for me. We all find our own ways of doing things and as long it is safe and we enjoy it everything is good.

I hope you enjoy our adventures and I look forward to sharing our journey with you. Please comment with any positive ideas or suggests or anything you would like us to try.

Thank you for reading.

Niki x