Kitty Charms

Today I totally copied a pinterest pin.  

Don't tell anyone.

Diana

Brooches From Oopsies

This post is about making something usable from your craft mistakes, which we all know we make from time to time.   Sooo, today's theme is brooches.

 What do you do if you mix up too much resin?  Pull out a mold and fill up the cavities until you run out of resin.  These resin hearts were allowed to harden and then I slapped some scrap book paper on the backs with some modpodge.  

 Once the modpodge dries, gorilla glue a pin on the back.

 This crocheted flower was the beginning of a pot holder that, at last, never came to be.

 Some felt and another pin and I now have an adorable daisy for a dress.

 Still more resin filled molds?  Before the resin sets up add some fish aquarium pebbles (that I forget to put in my Pocket Aquarium).  Once the resin has set up, paint the backs and attached more pins

See, with just a little extra work, some of your oopsies can become useful too!

Diana

Packaging Handmade Jewelry

My granddaughter Abby and I picked up some jewelry for her mother at a local craft fair this past weekend.  The pieces were made from vintage bits and were beautiful BUT the vendor just tossed the necklace and ring in a paper bag......no tissue paper or nothing!  That didn't feel very special.  And we could hardly just hand over the bag to my daughter and say "here's your gift."

So Abby and I went into the craft closet and started crafting!  We took a page from an old book and glued it to some cardstock.   We inked the edges and punch holes for the necklace to drape from.  We cut a slot for the ring to slide into.  Doesn't it look impressive?  We thought so.

Next we attacked the paper bag.  More book pages, some craft paper ran through the crimper, a vintage bird image and more ink and we were done.  Much nicer and now the presentation looks as good as the jewelry!

Diana

Lighted Snowman Pins

Want an easy and inexpensive craft for the holidays?  Try these snowman pins you create on your embroidery machine from Embroidery Garden.

They are quick to stitch up and the nose lights up because you use a tea light as the base.

Think Christmas sweater in a smaller format......... Diana

Skeleton Cameo

Would you wear this brooch?  Or are you a scaredy cat.

 Made of polymer clay and ribbon, this cameo will cause others to take a second look.

I got the mold from an etsy store.  I am not sure if this exact one is still available but there are others!

~After seeing mom's creation, I knew I had to make one, too!  I did mine in sparkly silver and black.  Love it as a brooch, but I also added a hair clip to the back so I could send Abby to school with it. ~Jennifer

Be Calm...It's Only a Spider

I needed to make this pendant.  The past two weeks have been so busy and I have a habit of getting really hyper when there is a lot going on.  Laid back?  Not so much.   

 I found one inch glass tiles that I decoupaged computer printed images on the backs of. 

 I just googled hanging spider to find this cute guy. 

6000 glue holds the pendant loop on.  No limits to what you could put on these!  Diana

Gothic Ring

When I saw these adorable Gothic scrapbook embellishments, I knew I had to have them.  There were twelve in the package!  And the first thing I made with them is this super cool ring!

Adjustable ring blank and a bit of 6000 glue......that's it.

And it cost pennies.  Seriously, just pennies.  Diana

Storybook Pendants

This is a very easy project.  A few charm frames. plastic inserts, and miniature book pages......plus some modge podge.  Lots of modge podge.  I modge podge the images on both sides of the inserts.  One side is a vintage picture from a book and on the other side is some text.  I found the crow at The Graphics Fairy and the Little Red Robin Hood at Vintage Catnip. 

The Raven pages were given a little brown ink to age them.  I am thinking this will be great for Halloween.  Love Halloween.  A lot.  Diana

Class Photos Bracelet

What to do with all those class photos your kids exchange........make a charm bracelet using Shrinkadink! This was an easy, fast and FUN project that costs very little too! For privacy issues (my daughters explained to me that you don't put pictures of other people's children on your blog without permission) I used V-E-R-Y old class photos from the 40's.

I liked the effect that these black and white photo give. Of course you could print them in color for a completely different look. My photos were each printed at about 1 3/4 x 2 1/2 inches on the dull side of a sheet of Shrinkadink. Using a 1 3/4 circle punch, I centered each face and punch it out.

Then I punched a small hole (office size or 1/4 inch) near the top.

Now comes the magic! Holding the disk with a pair of craft tweezers, I blasted it with a heat gun! This is sooooo much faster than putting it in the oven. The disk will quickly shrivel up and then flatten out again. I had a metal spatula handy to press on the disk while it was still warm to get it really flat.

As you can see the shrunk charms are much smaller than the originals!

Once I had all the pictures shrunk, I attached them to a charm bracelet I picked up at the craft store. I used the gun metal finish to match the old time feel of the charms. Now your child can wear photos of their friends and add to them over the years. Or you could make a completely new bracelet each school year! And what about making one for their teacher as a special thank you at school's end! So many options and so little time...... Diana

Pretty Bracelet

Got to love chunky jewelry! This bracelet went together in a flash! And it was inexpensive too! My kind of project for sure. For less than $15 and 5 minutes time I have a lovely piece that really makes a statement.

I have had these key charms forever and added them to the beads to make it my own. It was all threaded on a magnetic clasp wire bracelet. Seriously, this is so easy! Diana

Owl Pendant

Do you love owls like I do? Then you are going to love these cute little pendants made from a clip art from The Graphics Fairy Just a few jewelry findings, paper and dimensional epoxy and I have two little owls to wear and brighten my day.

The owl watching the bird is a little creepy! Diana

Fimo Jewelry

Jenn and Abby spent part of the weekend making cute fimo jewelry. And how cute is this cherry pie necklace. It even comes in it's own pie tin!

See how small this blueberry pie is!

A mug of milk and a chocolate chip cookie.....delicious.

Pink pig charm.

Abby made these! A bee pendant and an M&M charm in honor of her grandfather who loves the candy!

And for her brother Eli, Abby's mom made this stick of dynamite.....go figure. Diana

Summer Necklace

When I saw my mom's new necklace from a local department store, I knew I needed one like it. So off we went to Hobby Lobby to pick out some beads and chains.

It was surprisingly easy to make! Two types of chain, two types of beads, and a few odds and ends later and this is what we came up with. The rosette is a pin that I attached at where the beads all come together. Now I can change it out to a different color or add another if I feel like it.

Perfect for the summer uniform of jean shorts and a white tee.

~Jennifer

Peonies

I have a dear friend in South Korea whose American name is Peona. Before meeting her, I never knew anything about peonies. But since then I discovered I have a few in my yard and really love them. So when I saw a fimo mold in the shape of a peony, I snapped it up. To give them a little patina, I washed a bit of mustard colored paint over them.

I made a ring and pendant. These are the exact color of the flowers in my yard too! Diana

Acorn Pendant

Fimo acorn in epoxy pendant. Lots of bubbles too, but I am telling myself it makes it look more hand crafted. This guy is large too. About 1 1/2 by 1 inch. And it's irregular shape (due to a heat gun incident) does appeal to me! Looks a little like artisan glass! I have paid extra for bubbles in glass you know! Diana

Bunnies Under Glass

How funny is this!!! After putting a monkey brad on a necklace in an earlier post here, I started looking for other fun brads in the scrapbook section of the craft store. I found cute little bunnies and knew I could do something with them. Using a two part epoxy and mold, I embedded the brads (after snipping off the prongs) in the plastic and allowed to dry. The instructions on the epoxy explains how to do this very clearly but I still had trouble getting all the bubbles out. It said to use a blow dryer to bring them to the surface. I thought I could use the heat gun instead......on a plastic mold.......think about it for a minute. So now I have a slightly deformed mold in a few places........and still have bubbles.

But, even with the bubbles, I love these little guys. I glued bails onto the backs and now I have the sweetest little pendants for spring. Diana

Monkey Pendant

Just a funny little bit of jewelry I put together a few days ago. I just needed the choker which I pick up this morning! And wait til you hear how easy it was! First of all, the monkey is really a brad from the scrap booking dept of the craft store! He is made out of metal and soooo funny with his wiggly eyes. I snapped off the prongs and glued it to the pendant blank with 6000 glue. Then I applied Mod Podge dimensional epoxy over the monkey, not the blank. It looks so much more substantial now.

Silly little necklace but I get a kick out of it all the same. Diana

Fimo Charms

Today's posts is all about cookies......fimo cookies! I seriously love these little guys! A chocolate creme filled sandwich cookie and a crisp little fortune cookie with a bit of the paper fortune peeking out. And these are tiny,

I even put a little creme frosting (fimo) in between the cookies! I found the molds on esty and they were only a fes bucks each. Fimo is so much fun and using these molds make it oh so easy too. Diana

Little Fimo Treasures

I have never played with fimo before but, when I found out you could make cute jewelry with it, I had to try it! I ordered some teeny tiny molds from an Etsy seller and loaded up on different colors (I did forget to get basic white and black though). After a few rejects, I got the hang of a few of the shapes. Check them out! These cute little roses have a lot of detail. You bake them in the mold so they don't lose their crisp edges.

These little Scottie charms have to be cooked out of the mold because I had to put a hole in the top for the metal hook to fit in. I really would like to do a few in black but that will have to wait til I get to the craft store.

Chocolate candies! Love, love, love these!

Here is a view of the sides. You can see how tiny these are in comparison to the ear ring backs.

Ice cream cones. The white soft serve is too translucent so next time I will use solid white. I also need smaller posts cuz these are sooooo small. These were a lot of fun to make. I did have to wear magnifying glasses to see what I was doing! On top of my regular glasses! Cute......... Diana