Tired of Gumpaste Yet?

     Yesterday was hectic. And cold. Woke up, got my girl breakfast, took care of cat business, and got the hubby off to school. Then his mom called and reminded us that night was the concert her center was putting on as a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation (which we were supposed to be helping with). So as soon as class got out, we headed down there and helped get things prepared. It was fun, but it took me a few hours to regain a normal core temperature; I'm not good at retaining body heat.

     Anyway, as soon as we got home, I put in an hour of paid work and headed to bed. Cue the neighborhood idiot, who I am inclined to call much meaner names. No sooner did I fall asleep than he and his pals decided to hop on their dirtbikes and do laps up and down the street in front of my house.    
     I get mad when people wake me up.
     I get mean when they wake my baby up, and I have to deal with all her crying and not wanting to go back to bed. So, by the time all was peaceful and sleep was an option again, it was 1:30 instead of 10:00. And we all had to be up at the crack of dawn this morning for commitments that had been made weeks in advance...


In other news, we have leaves!

I know, revolutionary, right?

The real news is, I made many, many copies of those two leaves, in gumpaste.

Those are just a few of them. There were dozens! They weren't difficult. I just rolled the gumpaste out pretty thin (a millimeter or two?), placed the leaves, rolled over them once more press the veins into the gumpaste, and traced around them with an X-acto knife. I poked in the wires (hold the leaf firmly with your fingers on the top and bottom so you're pushing the wire between your fingers), and dried them over spoons and whatnot to give them more lifelike shapes.

Then I got some of this:

It's pearl dust. I got green on Thursday, and today I'm getting Gold, so I can do some nice Autumn-ish leaves. The balance is a little heavy on sparkle and light on color for my taste, but it'll work.

I do like the way the pearl dust emphasizes the veins in the leaves, and I'm especially fond of that little curlicue.

I also made eight little acorns. They don't have caps yet, but I feel clever because I devised a way to make them hollow, to cut down on drying time and make them more stable. See?

I just rolled the gumpaste into little balls (same size chunks as the pinched flowers), started a hole most of the way through, just like the flowers, and then widened it with the handle of my X-acto knife.  I may use real acorn caps, I may try and make some. I haven't decided yet. Either way, I'll probably glue them together.

The lilacs are assembled now:

I've added some petals to the gardenias (I know they're not all that realistic, but they're easy and pretty):

And with that, you're all caught up on my doings from the last few days! I'm getting the itch to crochet, and I've been plotting what kinds of things would be most marketable right now (for my Etsy shop), so you may be getting photos of that next time. We shall see!

Until then, behave yourselves. Don't do things that are foolish and rude. It's not nice.