Our 2016 Halloween Swirly Collection

 We are happy to introduce you to our New 2016 Swirly Halloween Design Collection.

You can view the collection here if you dare!

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process shot that we share on our Instagram account.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Didn't make the cut!

Sometimes not every sketch in our sketchbook translates well into clay. These aren't terrible but they might just need a little more tweaking and rethinking. Most of the time our collection launch deadline doesn't allow us to go back and forth to make it just right, so we’ll pass on them and maybe revisit them for our nex collection.   

Here are a few examples from our recent Valentine's collection faux pas that for some reason or another didn't work.

Our sketch of this Swirly Love bird delivering a sweet Valentine looked so cute with the bird holding the Valentine letter and the heart wings, but something just didn't click. Maybe it was the shape of the eyes or the size of the beak? Hmm. We even added color to see if it would pop or something.
Nope. Nada. Didn't quite work out.

 

So the few mock-ups of these love birds we did produce are displayed on our little tree in our entryway.

Hearts come in all shapes and sizes and coming up with new versions each year quite a challenge. These hearts just didn't work. The sweetheart design was just too big and bulky; the be mine heart color wasn't doing it; and the crepe paper on the love heart had way too many layers. Oh well.

 
Even this little guy went through a few changes before landing into our Winter Love set.

 

The original sketch had him wearing a snow cap ....nah.

  

How about a party hat and a flower? Super cute, but just not the right fit for the collection set.
There is really never any mistakes when we are creating, and we feel it's is all part of the creative process.

Crafts n' Things Magazine

 Here is a fun holiday how-to project we created for the December 2012 issue of Crafts n' things magazine. We supplied them the step-by-step text and the finished snowmen magnet pieces so the magazine could photograph them.  Here is how the how-to looked in the issue.

These pictures below are shots that we took ourselves to submit the how-to project for consideration in the holiday issue.  The idea behind this project came to us when our son would keep ripping out pictures and writing down all the new toys he wanted for Christmas and sticking them all over the house. With these wish list magnets it could help us organize all his requests in one spot. 

Happy Holidays!

A Sweet + Swirly collaboration

 

These cookies will last forever!

We have been meaning to post this exciting news on the blog here for months but everything happened so fast this season, that we just kept getting side tracked.

But if you are following us on Facebook or

visited us at our craft shows this season you most likely already know. 

But for the few who may not know here is a quick run down. 

 

Dani Fiori, founder of SweetDaniB.com, is a cookie decorating expert. Her clients include Martha Stewart, Ralph Lauren as well as many other party and event hosts who agree with her mantra that "Life is Sweet!". Her holiday cookies have been featured in several top publications such as 

Martha Stewart Living, Good Housekeeping and Real Simple. 

When Dani was looking for a way to preserve her cookie designs, she found us through social media earlier this year and thought what a great way to have her cookies last forever for her customers!  After a few chats through email we knew this was such a nice fit for both of us.  Dani has such beautiful cookie designs that we all felt feel and look of what we create here at Swirly Designs.  We are always looking for something new to offer each year and from the responses we received, everyone one felt the same way. A Sweet + Swirly collaboration was born! 

 

The two cookie designs we decided to try for this Christmas season was a Santa and a Snowglobe.

What we found challenging but also fun about creating these cookies is trying to replicate in clay the texture and color of gingerbread, making the clay resemble her white sprinkles for Santa's beard and searching for just the right seed beads for the snow in the Snowglobe. All the while making sure these designs represents Dani's cookies but also have that Swirly twist to them.

 

 

Comparing the faux with the real deal.

  These Snowglobe cookies are waiting for some sparkly glitter and paper snowflakes.

We were thrilled of how cute these Santas came out with their faux sprinkles beard, candy cherry nose and glittery suit.

 

As we were finishing up the final touches to these designs, Dani happened to be in the area in late October doing a show in Rhode Island; so she and her husband made a little detour after the show and stopped by to meet us, see the studio and the work in progress of the ornaments. 

You can check out her thoughts here.

 

What makes these limited edition ornaments extra sweet, is that they are all signed with love by Dani & Swirly Designs on the back and come packed similar to how Dani packages her real cookies!

If you missed out on getting your own Sweet + Swirly limited faux Santa or Snowglobe designs.  I believe we might have less then a hand full left. Pick one up now for next year or stay tuned to see if something else comes out of this yummy collaboration. ;-) 

Lianne, Dani, and Paul in the Swirly Studio.

Sweet + Swirly

Dani also treated our little ones with some of her really sweet cookies and these pictures say it all.   

Have a Sweet + Swirly Christmas!

What we are working on today

Fall Fall Fall.... That's what is on our brains today and pretty much all summer long and yet looking at our calendar we are still behind.  How does that happen??

Even though this years Halloween/Autumn collection deadline is quickly approaching we just couldn't wait. So lets take a little peak inside our studio to see what we have been working on. This year we are going all out with fall theme designs. Over the years we been getting more requests for fall theme designs so I think you will be very happy with this years collection.

  

These little apple ornaments are just too cute. How will they be incorporated into this years collection..... well we are still working on that.

 Who wants some corn? These little guys are waiting for their husk wrappers. 

and of course we can't forget about our favorite swirly ghost! These guys are drying form their recent glitter bath.

We'll share more of our new Fall collection in the coming weeks. Who is excited for Fall?

For more Fall and other holiday inspiration be sure to follow Swirly on Pinterest.

Swirly Made the Cover!

We're sure you must have seen this issue at your supermarket or local bookstores already, it has been out for months now.

Well, if you look closely (you might even have to squint a bit) you might notice 4 of our swirly handmade ornaments adorning the tree in the photo. Hey we'll take that! Imagine, our little handmade ornaments on a cover of a big national magazine. Hooray for us!

We got a call back in June from the editor asking us if we could create cookie-like clay ornaments for this creative how-to Christmas Ideas magazine. We haven't designed cookie ornaments before, but were up for the challenge.

We submitted 25 different designs (above) which we created over a weekend. We photographed them and emailed them to the editor. They choose 4 designs they liked best for use in the issue. We shipped them the ornaments along with the step-by-step instructions.

And this is what graced the pages the story is titled Small Spaces that Sparkle.









All photos above are from BHG Christmas Ideas Magazine 2011

We had so much fun creating these clay cookie designs for Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Ideas publication that we picked out four of our favorite designs to be include into this years Swirly Designs 2011 ornament collection.

They came out so sweet we just wanted to eat them up!