So in a recent attempt to stay busy over the summer and make my dorm room a bit nerdier, I made this "Pac Man Perpetual Calendar":



It's basically a bent 12" by 18" piece of sheet metal spray-painted black; the dots that Pac Man eats are little pieces of craft foam glued to magnets, and the characters are made from Sculpey.

Close-up shot:


I used this instructables guide to make it: http://www.instructables.com/id/Pacman-Perpetual-Calendar/?images#images

Sorry if the pictures are a bit blurry; my camera got stolen so I've been using my mom's decade-old hp ^__^'

Hope you like it!

So I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips?

I've tried making icing a few times, using fairly simple recipes that are pretty much milk, butter, and confectioner's sugar; and every time it turns out a little grainy, like the sugar isn't blended--the sugar actually manages to have a grittier texture than when it stared--I mean it's confectioner's sugar, that stuff is pretty smooth--and it starts melting pretty quickly whenever it's out of the refrigerator. And I've tried mixing both by hand and with an electric mixer, with pretty much the same results.

Are there any rookie mistakes that I might be making? If anyone could give me advice I would really appreciate it ^__^

So it seems to me that in honor of the final Harry Potter movie being released next month, a swap held in its honor would be rather fitting... I've never done a swap before so I'm definitely not eligible to organize one myself, but, I still wanted to put the idea out there