Necklace

Made this necklace for one of my friends. She donated some beautiful jet beads late last year. Plan was to return the beads made up into different items, update the look. She already has a memory wire necklace and matching earing set that i made her for Christmas.

Today made this one, the centre bead is one i made last year when learnt how to use Tyvek at Paddys Stamping Place in Prestwich, Manchester. Bead making was just one small part of the workshop. Thought it might be fun to incorporate the Tyvek with glass crackle, bugle, seed beads and the jet beads. Have put a metallic clasp on as they are so much easier to fasten and not too expensive.

See T!m Holtz blog for all news about the new Alterations range and the new Sizzix die cutting machine, loving this design. Think it will be a definite purchase. Have until July to save up!

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Spent today updating where possible this blog. What a frustrating time. wanted to put a number of pictures in the same post but they look terrible if you upload and say you want them to the left or right etc. Need help with this so if anyone can help it would be appreciated, thank you.

Since the new year had an awful head cold and gout plus the snow. I've quite enjoyed my forced stay indoors as been able to take more pictures of items i've made. Today will show only 1 picture of the grungeboard bracelets i made for xmas pressies, sorry they are a tad dark in this photo. Really enjoyed making them. My friend Dizzy told me that the Purple Cow rotary cutter can cut grungeboard, was a tad sceptical but yes it can, thanks Dizzy for the heads up.

Also made some bookmarks which were very easy to do. Loving the smell of grungeboard/paper, it is very distinctive and reminds people of leather. Hope you like and thanks for stopping by :-)

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! Hope you all had a memorable and fun Christmas. I had a very quiet time and made many presents. Made some jewellery, some grungeboard bracelets and bookmarks for my closest friends. Took me a lot longer than had anticipated due to playing with colour and paint techniques for most of the time. Some of the Christmas presents are still in my hallway as wasn't too well over the holidays and wasn't up to delivering anything. My friends have been very understanding and will receive their stash as soon as possible this year.

Today was quite an exciting day for me as bought my own Domain name, will find out more of how to go ahead with this when attend College tomorrow evening. Mind you at this rate I won't be going anywhere as the ice on the roads is very treacherous and who wants to drive under these circumstances.....not me!

Getting a Domain name was quite easy but my reason for doing so is because this time I have learnt more about Dreamweaver than ever before. I did the work this time not the tutor. Need to make changes to the site tomorrow, couple of grammatical corrections and see if I can turn one of my backgrounds into a watercolour background using Photoshop. Lets see if this is possible with my very limited knowledge.

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Ranger Melt Pot

Today i've mostly been playing with my Melt Pot... Made about 20 different tags and shapes. Wanting to try and make some of them into jewellery and the rest are for embellishments. Also learned that you have to apply Perfect Pearls onto the shape when it is still warm as if the shape goes cold the powder can't melt and shine. Suze Weinberg is right to say the more you buff the colour the more shine you will get, i am amazed at how my shapes have turned out, especially the central shape with the grungeboard butterfly and large gem stone attached to the middle with Pinflair glue.

Today i used mother of pearl, starry nights, moonstone lustre and clear. Used the UTTEE Flex crystals to make them more durable/suitable for jewellery.

Basic instructions for making the brooches:

1) Take a cardboard packing box and cut into size required to fit your die

2) Pick a large die from the Big Shot range, i chose the large flowers die cut. Cut out as many shapes as you need

3) Put the shapes through a Cuttlebug folder of your choice

4) Melt your chosen colour/colours of embossing powders, add UTTEE Flex and apply to the shapes

5) Leave to cool then cover the rear side of the shape with the same colour or if you prefer another colour, depends on how you want to finish your brooch

6) While still warm apply Perfect Pearls or Cosmic Shimmer to any areas of interest you wish to stand out

7) Use a Cropodile to put any holes you require if adding any beads to your project

8) Attach beads of choice

9) Apply pin to rear of brooch

You have now completed your enameled brooches.

Off to watch X Factor Final and then Sports Personality of the Year as hoping Jenson Button will get the award.

Have a lovely weekend and thank you for visiting my blog :-)

Tidying Up.....

Spent the last few days moving craft items around so as to make more room for the things I use everyday to be within easy reach. Continued to print off the T!m Holtz 12 tags of xmas instructions so can make into a book; also going to include my version of the tags within the book/journal.

Finally got the two stamp plates from Sheena Douglass yesterday, the Ivy and the Birds, both are lovely and was going to cut out and u mount them until I saw what Suze Weinberg does with hers before she cuts them up, go to her blog for more information. Ended up with a couple of Melt Pot originals and lots of other items. Instructions to follow. Used Perfect Pearls and Cosmic Shimmer powders to give some definition, quite pleased with the results.

Off to make a wedding card and two more xmas cards, all are for arty people, no pressure then but will do my creative best which isn't up to much today as foggy brain back again.