Monday 18 February 2013

Valentine's, Vikings and Bison's Birthday.

Welcome back intrepid Blog viewers!
 
Since your last visit I have been rather busy, why not make yourself a cup of tea, relax and I'll walk you through it all...
 
First up, Valentine's Day.
 
As some of you (all of you) may know, Valentine's Day has just passed, and for this year I wanted to make something special again, but after making the Bison soft toy this task has been somewhat complicated...
 
Holly is trying to diet at the moment, so in keeping with her plan I set about making her a tasty treat that fits into her dieting... and so, I decided to make a personalised choclate bar.
 
Dark chocolate is her chocolate of choice, and for filling I chose dried cranberries and various nuts and seeds that she enjoys.
 
My plan was to make each chocolate about 30 calories, but this made them rather small, so I increased this to 100 calories per piece.
 
I started by making a 3D model of what I wanted the bar to look like from Fimo clay, I then attempted to create a cast of this from Fimo Bake & Bend clay which resulted in a sticky lumpy blue mess... and so, I decided to make an inverted version of the chocolate bar from scratch... this is the result:
 
 
Above is my prototype, and below is my inverted mould... covered in chocolate...
 
 
You may notice that I inverted the cat face in the second one, and yes, this was deliberate...
 
What was not deliberate however was the apocalyptic drama which followed.
 
Somehow, with only some baking paper, some dark chocolate and a microwave, rather than creating a tasty treat... I created fire.
 
 Upon this revelation I behaved in a similar way to Neanderthal Man discovering said element, and after the smoking heap made it's way out of my window and an extensive flat ventilation I tried again...
 
The second attempt was more friutful, giving me these:
 
 
I then scoured the shops and interwebs for a container, but after 2 weeks found nothing suitable, and so I decided to make a container too...
 
 
It's a very sturdy 300g cardboard box lined with layers to keep it rigid and cover all of the glued joints.

 
Inside it has 4 dividers that keep the chocolate from touching the box which can be re-used again and again.

 
And to finish, Lazy Red herself is on the lid along with a heart.
 
I think I may be more proud of this than my Viking ship...
 
Speaking of which, I finally finished all of the decorations, aka the word "VIKINGS" and some birds and clouds...
 
 
And, being the genius that I am remembered (after only a few short weeks) to take a photo of the ship in-store.
 
So, without further hesitation, here it is...
 
 
Ta Da.
 
And of course, last but not least...
 
Bison's Birthday.
 
As it is Valentine's Day, or rather it was, that means that Bison is another year older... at the ripe old age of three his fur is matted, he looks constantly surprised, but he is healthy and well.
 
We celebrated his Birthday with an epic amount of sleeping, fatty food and strawberries covered in white chocolate, and of course, Bison got a cake...
 
 
As an added bonus, here's a photo of him in December on our Anniversary (Holly and I, not Bison)...
 
 
He's still the same Bison, he's just lost his baby fluffiness...
 
I haven't yet finished any of my other little projects yet, so until next time, cheerio.