Holiday How-to Christmas: Snowman Wreath Ornament

With the hustle and bustle of Christmas we didn’t get around to share our 2017 Sculpey & Swirly Holiday how-to project.
Our festive Snowman wreath ornament is telling you to hang in there and enjoy the holidays with your love ones. A fun project to make for your a holiday swap, gives as a gift or just hang on your tree.
You can find this project here.
Merry Christmas!

This project is for personal, non-commercial use ONLY.

Holiday How-to Summer: BEACH sign

This project is for personal, non-commercial use ONLY. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Ahhhhhh summer! Create this sea glass beach sign to display at your home this summer!

Learn how to here !

This project is for personal, non-commercial use ONLY.

St. Patrick's Day SALE

Purchase Leprechaun sculpture here

Purchase Pot O' Gold sculpture here

Going back to the beginning....

Like many, January is the time to reflect on the past year and plan new business goals for the coming year.  In order to do that we spend the days after Christmas cleaning and organizing the studio. As we were collecting our ornament sketches and gathering our many sketchbooks we realized we have so many wonderful holiday ideas that might not translate well as ornaments, but could possibly work in other areas.  

So one of our goals for 2016 is to make more art.  Paul channeled his old illustration skills and spent a few days creating some small mixed media pieces using a limited color palette and these are the results: 

He had a blast getting back to this form of expression. Can't wait to see what comes next!

Happy New Year!  -- Lianne

Holiday How-to Christmas: Cardinal Yule Log

This project is for personal, non-commercial use ONLY.

 Tis the season to be making… this Yule log Cardinal ornament is a perfect project to make as a gift, embellish a present, or hang on your festive tree. 

Learn how to here

Holiday How-to Easter: Petite Bunny Basket

This project is for personal, non-commercial use ONLY.

We are so Egg~cited to share our New Polyform Easter how-to:
Create and celebrate Easter with these sweet petite Bunny Baskets. These mulit-purpose designs can be used as décor pieces, to adore your Easter tree or placecard favors for your guests. Designed by Lianne and Paul Stoddard of Swirly Designs - Handmade Polymer Clay ornaments - these baskets are easy and adorable! You can find the project here.

The Swirly Easter Bunny is coming tomorrow....

A Peek Inside Our Swirly Studio

Do you want to know the best way to clean your studio or craft room?
Have it profiled in magazine about Studios! As excited as we were to have our studio in the pages of the new winter 2011 issue of Cloth Paper scissors studios magazine our mood went from cheers to fear really quick! How on earth were we ever going to clean and organize our studio plus photograph it right in the middle of designing our fall collection. It's still a big blur but we did it and the story came out great.

In the article, we share how we transformed one of our rooms in our 150 year old house, into a winter wonderland workshop where we create our Swirly Designs all year long. Also how we work together in the space and some of our favorite storage pieces we have for our materials.

Be sure to check out the issue next time you are out and about at your bookstore or craft store.


click image to see larger






*** What didn't make it into the issue is how we reworked our studio closet from just a place to store boxes of materials, to creating almost an extra room where everything has it's place now. We had a local builder come in and help us design a closet that works for our needs. He did a great job listening to what we wanted and the craftsmanship is top notch!

click image to see larger

Our Christmas Collection Close Up

We take lots of photos of our designs when we are ready to launch any new collection and usually we'll post some beauty shots of our designs on the blog so you can really see the detail in our ornaments that you might not normally see on the website.

Because of the quick selling of this years collection, we didn't get a chance to post these images, but they are just too nice not to share. So here is some eye candy for you...

Swirly in the Sweet Life

Looking for some sweet holiday inspiration? Then be sure to visit Simply the Sweet Life and check out their FREE online 2011 Holiday magazine .
It's full of wonderful holiday ideas and delicious recipes and Swirly:)
Yes our new mini woodland winter set graces the pages (page 32_33) of this whimsical issue .


Image above is from Simply the Sweet Life Magazine Holiday issue



Image above is from Simply the Sweet Life Magazine Holiday issue

Check out the eZine and tell them Swirly said hi!
Below area few more close up shots we took of this
7 piece Woodland Winter set.

Mushroom, Little Owl and snowy pine cone


snowflake and candy cane

glittery star and starry night

There is still a few of these sets available so be sure to pick up yours today.
Have a Sweet and Swirly Holiday! SORRY SOLD OUT!

Gobble these up before they are gone

Thanks for all the nice feedback we are getting for the Turkey greeting holder we created for Polyform. We are so happy people are enjoying the how-to projects we are making.
Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays to decorate, even if it's only up for a few weeks.

We couldn't help ourselves and went a little over board making the samples so we thought we would offer a limited number of these little turkeys to you. Perfect for a hostess gift or to display family photos (see below) along your table. The Turkeys are all SOLD OUT!

Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Crafting on a BUCK!

Only three days left till Halloween! Oh Boy! Hard to believe that we woke up to snow today here in Massachusetts! Yikes! We are hoping it will warm up a bit before Monday or else it's will be a very chilly trick or treating stroll!

We've noticed recently a lot of these big stores (Target and Michael's) having dollar sections areas in their stores that are very popular. Having two kids we are always on the lookout for simple and easy craft projects that they can enjoy during the Holidays. Even with all the supplies we have here at the studio sometimes these quick crafts are a no brainer and a huge time saver.
He are a few that we picked up:


Do you remember doing these neat light catchers as a kid? You got all these little beads and tried to fill them in the metal frame without having them spill into the other colors. Well for a buck you can spill away! Our 6 yr old really enjoyed making his own version of these faux stained glass pieces and then watching the beads melt into the colors in the oven. These were at Micheal's for only a $1 and occupied him for an hour!


Also at Micheal's were these wood pumpkins. Perfect size to hang in your window. Our little artists had fun painting them and seeing them hung up with pride.


We not only found crafts but decor too. These Halloween themed balloons were a HUGE hit. They've been played with so much that a few had popped or got a tear in them. But we didn't mind going back to the store and picking up a few more!


And lastly, your drink will ALWAYS taste better when sipped through a skeleton straw!


Have a fun and safe Halloween everyone!