Charm

I am participating in a monthly charm swap on CCSwaps. I of course jumped in with both feet again, having no idea what to make.

I have never made jewelry nor have I done any amount of beading, so it was a challenge to come up with an idea. I scrounged through my stash and decided to use a Clearsnap style stone as the base. I covered the stone in alcohol ink,  applied an image from moonlightjourney.com then covered it with varnish. I then cut out a small butterfly image and attached a piece of wire with seed beads to simulate the antenna. I attached this to the bottom of the style stone, then covered it with Rangers glossy accents to make it more dimensional.

I then added a bead which is from a bunch that I bought in Scotland several years ago, and have found it hard to part with it because they are quite unique. But why save them???

Unfortunately the image is a bit blurry, as I used my Mac to upload it and am not as familiar with the program as I am with the one on my Hubby's PC.

Mini Memory for Tracey

Tracey is the recipient of the DCI mini-memory for December and her colour choice was cream, gold and brown; no larger than 5" and any shape. Like some of the previous ones it went through some transformations.


I initially started out by making a clay rose and placing it on a coaster that was painted brown, embossed and stamped into with gold pigment ink while hot. I added some hearts and the clay flower. Attached this to a piece of cream paper with stamping and the heads of push pins around it. Not entirely happy with that and was concerned about it making it's way to Australia in one piece.


So I went back to the "drawing board" and started all over again. I kept the coaster and added some gold seed beads to it for more dimension. I then stamped and embossed a butterfly on 130 LB cardstock with gold embossing powder and coloured the open areas with a brown marker; added Crystal Lacquer to the coloured parts. I have a bunch of chipboard frames in my stash, so I took one of the white ones and painted it with cream acrylic paint and stamped a script stamp over it with Memories Artprint brown ink and attached it to the CD.

I printed a freebie image of a little girl from Elizabeth's blog and attached it to some cardstock to make it sturdier, then put it inside the frame. I attached the butterfly with some double-sided thick foam tape at the bottom, then glued one of the hearts over it with a bail underneath. I cut another bail in half and attached it to either side of the picture frame.

Mini Memory for Carol

I am on a roll with these Mini Memories and am thoroughly enjoying the creative process so much.

Carol A. chose the theme of birds/birdhouses and the colours mint green, white and pale mauve (with a condition that we could use pale pink in lieu of the mauve).

I started by painting gesso on a 3x3 chipboard square. I then added mint green pigment ink and embossed with mint pearl embossing powder. I stamped a background stamp into while hot using Old Rose pigment ink.

I recently picked up some small wooden house pieces at my little dollar store and thought they would be perfect for a bird house. My hubby drilled a hole for the entry and the perch. I painted the house with gesso, then white paint, then pink paint on the roof. I added some sequins for the tiles which Annie sent me a while back. To finish off the roof I added a piece of white german scrap paper which my friend Mel sent me.

I added a piece of the stick from a Q-tip as the perch. I took a washer and coloured it with pearlescent turquoise Lumiere` paint and put this over the entry. I stamped a leafy type Magenta stamp on the body but felt it needed more dimension so I took some Glossy Accents and added some green seed beads (which looked more mint green in the bottle). Felt it needed a bit more so when the green beads dried a bit I added some pink seed beads to give it a bit of a floral effect.

The little bird is the one that was originally on Trizzy's Mini Memory and I attached it to the roof to make it look like it was coming in to the bird house. The final touch was to add the word home with some little alphabet beads.

I hope Carol does not mind my taking artistic license with the colour combo, as I tried to stay as close as possible to her colour choice with the supplies I had on hand.

Friendly Plastic

Over on CC Swaps one of the current swaps was to create something with friendly plastic. I have never really played with this medium so thought I would give it a try.

I started by cutting 3 different pieces of friendly plastic and placed them together on a craft sheet and heated them, then ran an old comb through them.

I took a small piece of chipboard and embossed it with pearl embossing powders and added texture with a stamp. I then glued the friendly plastic to it. I attached a piece from an old earring to the top, then added some seed beads.

I cut out a woman's face and attached it to a flattened pop bottle cap. I added a coloured page pebble, and then realized it was actually a tag shape so had to cover the hole somehow, so I put some crystal laquer on it and added more seed beads.

The final touch was to attach an old earring from which I removed the back.

This will be making it's way to Sweetpea in the next few days.