Unity for cardmakers, scrapbookers and jewelry designers!

One of the things I love so much about the Unity Stamp images are they are so visually appealing! There is something for everyone! When looking through the images, what I like to see is versatility. Not just for paper crafts, but to see if I can extend it to anything else. There are so many images that are perfect for jewelry design, and I am so excited to share this project with you.

The picture below has the basic supplies; polymer clay, rolling pin, cookie cutters, embossing powders and inks. The rolling pin and cutters were all in the cake decorating dept. at Michaels, as they are used for fondant. But the roller comes with attachments on the end to allow you an even thickness and the cutters are sized right for what I have needed so far. PLUS they were all super cheap! After standing and staring at the polymer clay accessories thinking there had to be something cheaper……..I walked to the other side of the store!

You will roll out your clay and then cut in the desired shape, place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake 15 minutes at 275. EASY!!!!

To stamp and emboss an image on the clay you need to use either a craft ink, versamark OR brilliance graphite ink. The brilliance is a thicker ink and holds onto the embossing powder the same as the craft or sticky versamark.

I used the round shaped tree from Tiny Trinity for this pendant:

Using your heat gun on this is similar to on paper, you want to watch the EP “change” and get glossy to know it is done. Then you can color it in! YEP, copic markers work on polymer clay! They have much more texture and look like painting, but I really like the effect.

I started with a pale olive, then added olive to it. You can see that it starts to look like stained glass, with the different colors peeking through.

I wanted to add even more texture, so I used some lace stickles on the tips of the leaves and poured microbeads onto it.

I have these punched metal tins from Making Memories that I love to use in jewerly. You can stamp on them, do photo transfers…..just ton’s of fun stuff. The sad thing is that they are discontinued and I have had to do lots of ebaying to keep up a good supply. I adhered the clay to the metal base with resin.

To finish the piece, I added half back pearls, some jewelry findings and platinum stickles around the pendant.

The great thing about using your stamps for jewelry is that you can make it as simple or detailed as you want. You don’t need the metal base, or coloring. Simply stamping and embossing then giving a sealant in resin would look fabulous.

I hope I have inspired you to look at your stamps a little differently. Take a look at your stamps, notice how the design looks on a smaller scale by stamping it and then punching out a small circle. The possibilities of stamping with clay are pretty big and I’m excited to share even more of those with you throughout the month!

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you try this! I would love to see your creation!

Hip-Hop Accessories

When I received Melanies new set “Hip hop accessories” in the mail I was blown away, I mean 50 stamps is a LOT to take in! Then I started looking at the mini images and when I see mini images my mind goes to resin. So I decided to make a few accessories with the hips and hops!

I used one of the altoid tins that Gina sells and started with the top using the frame from Melanies set “Whats in your tin?” #1 and stamped the mini crown in versamark, the title in purely pom ink and then the butterfly from “Just so Hoppy” in lilac. Then I adhered the label and glued two brads on the sides and covered the top in clear baubles from Michaels. The edge was wrapped in pink ribbon and then on the bottom of the tin I alternated more baubles. I wanted it to look like a sparkly jewel, perfect for a little girl. I also lined the inside with ribbon and a bottom layer of paper on the tin.

Inside the tin are two hair clips and a bracelet with a charm. I cut out and colored the crown and embedded it into clear resin with a layer of glitter and then pink resin.

Isn’t it so cute? I made this for a special little girl who is celebrating a BIG victory soon, I am holding onto it until it’s time to celebrate. I thought for a little girl the crowns, sparkles and hair clips would have made me so happy as a little girl. Well obviously, they STILL make me happy, lol!

And I have a little peek of another piece I’ve been working on that I’ll show more tomorrow. The recipient of the treasure box has a little sister and I don’t want to send something without her getting anything. So here’s a peek at a little kangaroo pendant I’m finishing up.

Sean is on vacation this week and next and tomorrow is MY day! So after I meet my trainer and go to physical therapy (my darn ribs have moved…….she’s gently trying to push them back in place,lol) then I get to come home and STAMP, STAMP, STAMP!!!!!  I have lots to do and lots to show so hold on tight, there’s a lot to look at this week!

 Happy hump day!

My bangle came out!

Hoooray! My resin set and my very first bangle bracelet came out looking lovely!

It has just the perfect shine and the swirls of color and pearl and oh so pretty!

I also made another soldered pendant, but I just dont feel like posting the picture. Without a handheld sanding tool and buffing tool it’s not going to look much better. Im going to research that now.

And now for something different

This is the point where I’m going to get emails telling me to stop doing so many different things. That I should stick to one thing and do it well. And then I’ll have to confess my self diagnosed, rare form of crafting ADD. I CANT stop learning new techniques. I get bored easily. I want to learn as much as I can! I have to know how to do something! Im curious!

Anyway……..

My Mom told me the other day that she wanted me to make her a new purse pull thingie. You know the danglie charm that hangs off your purse zipper? So I decided I wanted to make her a glass soldered charm. And I’ve made 4 today. You see I’ve only made about 8 and it’s SO FREAKING HARD!!!!!!! But fun.

And my Mom is a perfectionist and likes things “just so”. So I am NERVOUS to give her anything less than perfect. Needless to say this wont be given to her. She didnt saw WHEN she wanted it. So I will continue to perfect, or at least better my glass soldering techniques.

The glass is a 1 inch square, and I stamped the open work flower from the new SU! set “A beautiful thing”. Here it is in all it’s unperfect glory:

Working with HOT molten silver is exciting, challenging and extremely difficult. I bought a TON of glass a couple months ago expecting myself to needs lots and lots of practice. Unfortunately it’s been months since I’ve done it, Christmas has interrupted my learning. But now I’m making a point of playing again.

And I also have a new bangle bracelet in the works. Because it doesnt take a lot of effort to mix and pour:

It’s black with a gold swirl. If it sets it will be beautiful. Lets hope it does!

Happy Monday everybody!

More hair pretties!

So here are a few more finished hair pretties! I also made some kite, umbrella and mice for Ava which are in her hair and Im not able to photograph them! She fell in LOVE with them! She’s been on a “Ratatoullie” kick the past 3 days and when she saw the mice she screamed “It’s ratatoullie!”.

My favorite are the piggies and the princess! They are actually supposed to be a ‘queen’ according to stampin up, but I think most little girls will see them are princesses.

Enjoy!

Just in time for Christmas!

I have to tell you that when I saw the SU! catalog back in August there was a set that JUMPED out at me and screamed resin! I didnt order it until a couple weeks ago and I was so excited to finally put it to use yesterday! I started out making the resin the good ol’ fashion way that I always do and I picked 4 images to start with; apple, rainbow, pig and owl. The only one I havent got a picture of yet are the sweet little piggies! They’re still drying with adhesive on the clips….so you’ll see those soon! I also plan to pop some more into the molds now that I know how much I LOVE them!

Anyway, I used the ‘ABC images’ set from SU! which has the CUTEST little images and I’m going to be making cupcake, kite, boat and a few other pretties soon! But for now here are the finished product!

Are these not so cute?!?!?! And to make it even better they are totally customizable! I can change the background colors or the colors of the images! The diameter of the main images are 1/2 inch and these are on 2 inch long professional strength hair pins. (Thanks goodness I keep my liscence updated!) I can also put these on smaller hair pins as well for smaller heads, but I really made these for big girls. And to be honest, Ava and Audrey have so much hair that they can handle a bigger clip!

And as for the name, we call hair clips pretties. It started out when Ava was a wee baby and we needed to tame her hair. She was born with a mullet! It’s just stuck over the years.

I should have LOTS more ‘pretties’ over the weekend, so look out for them! Next I’ll show you my long put off recipe books using my long neglected bind it all!

Sweet like chocolate drops

This little set came as a last minute decision and I’m so glad I made that choice! Yesterday when I made the resin gems for my frame I had one spot left and decided to make a pendant with the large chocolate chip from the “how sweet it is” set, and I’m just so excited how it turned out! The whole thing is just so stinkin’ cute and I LOVE it! Im not the only one who loves it either. Ava say it and said “Ava needs to wear a chocolate chip necklace!” , so of course I let her.

Anyway, here’s a few pictures of the set!!!!

The top of the box:

A side shot showing the stuffing coming out of the box:

And then the closed box and necklace:

Instructions:

1. I painted the plain 60 cent box from Michaels in light ivory, then sponged chocolate paint onto the mini chips stamp and stamped around the bottom.
2. I adhered the ribbon around the lid with red tacky tape and tied the ends together in the back. They look like tuxedo tails.
3. Then I used the giga scallop punch with chocolate chip CS. I punched 3 circles and overlapped them to cover more area on the top of the box.
4. Next I cut out a large circle in Ivory CS and stamped the sentiment in chocolate chip ink. Then I stamped the large chocolate chips in palette noir ink and colored them with my copics. And then I sponged the edges before adhering it to the top.
5. I then ran some scraps of chocolate chip CS through my paper crimper, then cut them in small strips for the stuffing in the box.
6. And I made the resin pendant the night before. You can read how to do that HERE.

Again, this was really quick and simple to put together besides the resin. And I just love how cute it all is. That chocolate chip is one of my favorite images in a long, long time.

Thanks for checking in with me today! I hope you are having a great Saturday. Tonight I hope to do some soldering and maybe make something that works for the inspiration challenge on SCS.

Hi Allison!

A little love

Yesterday I posted some pictures of my resin project and today I can finally show you what I’ve been up to! Hooray!!! I know you’ve all been so excited.

First let me tell you quickly about my date night last night. We went to Michaels and got my supplies as well as a super cool paper ornament kit from K&Co. While we were there Sean said to me, “This is a SWEET date!”. He was kidding of course. Then we had some dinner and went to the MAC counter at Nordstrom, again a sweet date for him. But finally we ended up seeing “30 days of night”. It was the most intense vampire movie I’ve ever seen. I havent read the novel it was based on so I cant compare but it was a great scary movie. It was definately worth the cost of the tickets.

Ok, so my frame. I realized as I was making this that it looked like Beate’s weekend sketch, so I’m throwing it in there too. I originally made it for the celebrate MFT day on MFT’s forum on SCS. This also happens to work for the wood challenge from a few days ago, so it’s a triple threat! LOL!!!

General instructions and details:

1. I started by getting a $1 frame from Michaels, paint and ribbon. I simply took some paper scraps of pale plum and perfect plum to match the acryllic paint. The paint I matched to the ribbon I found since they didnt have a huge selection of satin chocolate ribbon.
2. I painted the frame in the pale plum color and the picture mat (it came with a piece of glass which is set aside for soldering into jewlery) was painted the chocolate brown.
3. Once the pale plum color was dry I sponged the large open flower stamp with the perfect plum paint and stamped it onto the bottom 2 corners.
4. I used a rub-on transfer for the word “Love” as the sentiments from the set were just too small for the large frame.
5. I adhered 2 of my resin gems that I made yesterday to the centers of the flowers.
6. Then I stamped the small heart in stazon brown at the end of the word ‘Love’.
7. I stamped the open large heart in perfect plum classic ink onto pale plum CS and cut around it.
8. To adhere the ribbon I used red sticky tape and wrapped a small piece around the outside of the frame, then wrapped a second piece around the chocolate mat.
9. Then I adhered the cut out heart to the mat with more red tape.
10. Finally I made a bow and adhered it to the left hand side of the frame and held it in place with glue dots.

If you were to make this without the resin it would be a pretty quick project, about 90 minutes since the paint dried so quickly. And if you would like to learn more about resin I have a complete tutorial on it with a permanent link on my sidebar. You can also click HERE if you want.

Hi Allison!

Next I’ll show you the fun gift set and necklace I made!

What’s brewing in my craft room?

Tomorrow on the MFT forums on SCS is Celebrate MFT day! So in honor of the first one I decided to make something extra special. And part of that is some resin! I hopped down there quickly this morning to stamp, trim and set my goodies into clear resin. It’s really rainy and cold today so I have the lamp on them to speed up the setting.

I also have a sweet little choclatey-chippity piece in there too! I think there might be two projects tomorrow! Tonight Sean and I are going out to the movies and then when I get home I’ll need to put the color layer on top.

Buzza, buzza, buzza

I’ve been buzzing like a busy little bee today! Making several pieces of jewelry, cards and general Mommy-ness and the other zillion things a stay at home Momma does!

But here are my jewelry pieces, first my milky pink resin…..so yummy!

Next, a GORGEOUS vintage cardinal cameo set in a reproduction of a 1900’s pendant in brass with patina finish:

I LOVE the bird……wishing it was for me!

And then a matching pair, a necklace and ring made from vintage carved lucite cameos set again in the reproduction brass pieces:

Isnt all so lovely? I think so, and if you do to then hop on over to my etsy store and take a peek!

Be swept away here to my etsy store~