Seaglass Necklace

Are you fond of sea glass?  I love the look and enjoy the thrill of finding it.  It's difficult to obtain these days because many crafters are beachcombing for it.  Also, I don't have the time or patience to drill beach glass for jewelry making.  Now at HouseMart Ben Franklin Crafts you can find a treasure chest of faux sea glass in lovely colors, shapes and sizes.  Although it's not the same as finding your own, I think you will be pleased with the realistic feel and look of these sea glass beads.  Sorry the photo above is not the best but I had difficulty getting the colors and shine true.  The teardrop amethyst looks black but actually it is a very pretty purple top drilled faceted bead.  A fancy sterling head pin is strung through an odd shaped pearl and looped onto the triangle ring.

The photo below shows only a few of the many styles of sea glass beads available at BFC. I think both jewelers and other crafters will find that the selection of sea glass beads at BFC will inspire many new projects.  Imagine sea glass and shells dangling from your craft work.  Spectacular!  Go take a look.  I know you'll love them.  Hurry, they are really flying out of the store!

Easter Earring Holder? Memo Holder?

Because I've been admiring Yvonne's  lacy photo canvases ( her blog is Do More With Less) for awhile, I decided to try one but in my style and with the purpose of making an earring holder.  I started by covering a canvas purchase at Ben Franklin Crafts.  I simply glued the lace (from my ancient stash) over the edges of the canvas.  I let some of the lace hang over the bottom edge because I liked the scalloped effect.  The whole scene started because I had leftover die cut eggs and a chocolate bunny that I really appealed to me. (See previous posts to learn the info on the products used.)  To further fill out the scene I used a die cut dress form, thread spool and button which were made using a Tim Holtz die.  I used Tim Holtz crackle paint to distress the dress form and spool.  I further embellished the die cut cardboard pieces with Viva cream paints. The printed paper dress forms were cut from a 12x12  Bo Bunny card stock.

Ribbon and flowers were added to a corner of the lace covered canvas. After trying  out the earring holder, I decided that the space left for the earrings was too small to hold many earrings and the result was too busy anyway.  Next I thought maybe this decorated canvas could be used to hold memos or photos.  I purposely did not glue down the diagonal edge of the striped paper and the top edges of the dress forms so that I could stick papers behind them.  I also made some butterfly stick pins to aid in securing memorabilia.

However, after adding some papers into the pocket and behing the dress forms I still felt the whole piece was again too busy and would be even worse with photos.  I really like the overall look of the original lacy canvas but now I need another purpose for it. 

Did you get the humor of an hour-glass dress form with the hollow chocolate sentiment? That makes me smile because I love chocolate in any form but I really don't have the figure to freely indulge in it very much these days.

I love the TH crackle distress paint.  It comes in many colors and I try to use it as much as I can.  I'm just a vintage, Victorian girl in spirit but not age!

I find lots of uses for these paper flowers I purchased from Lupicia (a tea store in Ala Moana Center).  I'm always on the prowl for pretty things.  You just never know where you'll find your next favorite thing.

This photo shows the pretty blue lacy ribbon I purchased from Ben Franklin Crafts.  There were lots of pretty choices in the Easter section.  This ribbon really dresses up the sides of the canvas.

I'm sorry that I do not have a completed project to show you.  I have imagined another use for this decorated canvas.  I'm going to try to turn it into a clock!  First, I will have to stabilize the back of the canvas to support a small battery  powered clock. Then, I will need to purchase a suitable clock.  Eventually, I will finish this project and if successful, I promise to show it to blogland.  To be continued...........

Happy Easter!

I made this Easter card special because it is for all of you in blogland.  I started with a panel of watercolor paper, a cloud template and some Reeves water soluble wax pastels (all purchased at Ben Franklin Crafts). I discovered that the wax pastels are a very soft, blendable medium.  With a little spritz of water, I was able to smudge the color to impart a pleasing crayon/watercolor look.  For the gigantic marbled egg I cut a scrap of wrapping  paper (purchased at Celebrations in Mapunapuna, next to BFC) using the Spellbinders egg die (featured in a previous post).

To make the stamped Art Impression bunny suited kids even cuter, I applied some Martha Stewart sparkly flocking. The grass was punched out with another MS product. The 'Got Eggs' sign was stamped with an AI stamp and made more realistic with a small barbecue stick piece.  Finally, to add pearly dimension, I used  Pearl Pens I discovered in the fabric printing section of Ben Franklin Crafts.  There were lots of lovely pen colors so I got lots of them.

Inside the card I used the Dandelion Design sentiment and Stampendous Easter basket cling stamp.  I hope all of you who have sweetly supported my blog with your encouraging comments will have a wonderful Easter holiday.   I'm sending  'a basket full of Easter wishes' from me to you, my blogland friends!

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Purse Pull and Cell Phone Charm

Did I fool you?  I hope that you thought I was going bonkers and making  real candy into charms, but don't try to eat these candies.....they're made from Padico Mermaid clay (a Hearty like clay that  is waterproof). I purchased the chocolate and caramel colored clay in Japan but I recently discovered that the Padico clay company has an online site where you can order the clay. 

The fake Reese's Peanut Butter cups were shaped in plastic molds.  The larger mold came from Ben Franklin Crafts and the smaller one is a Padico product.  All the bead and findings were purchased from BFC .

Now you must be wondering: WHY did I make Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for my phone and purse charms? Well, my niece admired a cookie cell phone charm that I had plugged into my phone so I offered to make her one, too.  She asked if I could make a Peanut Butter Cup charm so I said I would try. (I made the bigger charm first but it was too big for a cell phone charm so I turned it into a purse pull and fashioned a smaller one for my niece's cell phone.)  I think I was pretty successful in making them look real.  My niece's favorite color is purple.  Can you tell?

I know that crafters are making fake sweets using the Hearty clay, but the items will melt if exposed to water so I recommend getting some of the waterproof Mermaid Padico Clay. You could of course spray the Hearty Clay sweets with a clear lacquer to make them waterproof but they tend to take on  a plastic-like sheen.  Anyway, I enjoyed making this gift for my niece and it will be nice to give her a 'sweet' gift that has no calories!

Easter Egg Tags

After cutting the eggs for the card in the previous post, I just couldn't stop cranking out eggs.  I decided that the largest size egg die would make terrific tags with just the addition of a ribbon through a punched hole.

I had an extra chocolate rabbit (read last post for how-to instructions) and eggs for the tag and combined it with a funny sentiment stamp I purchased from Viva Las Vegas Stamps.

For the vintage Peter Rabbit-like tag, I used a Rubber Baby Buggy Bumper stamp.  The image was stamped with brown waterproof ink on newsprint-like paper and colored with watercolor pencils.
The egg edge was distressed with TH tea dye ink.

I enjoyed making these egg tags because they were quick and easy.  Although the tags both used the same paper for the base, they have a totally different look because of the images and ribbons. I know that I'll be making more egg tags in the future using some of my other Easter images.  Hope you are having as much crafting fun as I am......I love the cuteness of Easter!

Easter Matchbox Tag or Gift Holder

I love little boxes, so when I found this Tim Holtz matchbox die at HouseMart Ben Franklin Crafts, it was a given that I would buy it.  I have another die that makes larger matchboxes, but this one is just perfect for housing a little gift or note.  I put a ribbon loop on the bunny girl matchbox because I plan to use it as a gift tag for an Easter gift.  I like that these matchboxes as only small pieces of card stock are required so I was able to again make use of my scraps...yay!

The TH die is a very clever one because the two die cut pieces fold so nicely and form a snug fit.  Although not absolutely necessary (except on the outside seam), I did put a few pieces of Merikan double stick tape here and there to form a more secure box.

As you can see from the photos I threaded the ribbon through a hole that I punched and secured the loop with a knot and a bit of 3 in 1 Beacon glue.  The bunny girl is actually a Darice sticker from BFC which I just stuck on the box because it was cute and perfect right out of the package.  Lots of sweet Easter stickers in the inexpensive set.

The rabbit waiter matchbox started with some card stock that had a vintage look so I decided to ink up an old Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers stamp.  The stamp image was too large for the box top so I inked up the words and image separately and stamped them to fit on the rectangle of  rough newsprint-like paper.  Then I used Derwent watercolor pencils (from BFC) to color the image and background.  I like working with watercolor pencils to achieve a retro look because I can keep adding color until I am satisfied. Once the panel was dry, I adhered it to the box with Merikan tape.

The bunnies in this photo were added for interest and color.  Aren't they adorable?  They are bottom weighted stuffed animals (seen in my last post) that I purchased from Ben Franklin Crafts. I think they would make adorable table decorations for an Easter luncheon.  Actually, decorated matchboxes would look great on the table as party favors/place cards.  I hope this post has provided you with some inspiration for your holiday festivities.  I would love it if you could spare the time to leave a comment about your Easter crafting plans.  Have a  Happy Easter!

Chocolate Rabbit Easter Card

I've waited a whole year to use the Tim Holtz rabbit die.  It was purchased last year after Easter along with the Spellbinders six eggs die.  I started this card with a lavender card base from a Paper Accent pack (sold at Ben Franklin Crafts).  No, actually I started the card by die cutting eggs....yay! using more scraps!  Next I die cut the rabbit from cardboard (thin chipboard) and covered it with chocolate glaze (a non-edible product from Padico, purchased in Japan)  You may be able to find the company online and purchase some from them or you can coat a brown rabbit with Crystal lacquer to achieve a similar effect.  The chocolate rabbit's ribbon was cut from sparkle paper with the die included in the TH set.  For more dimension, I rubbed Distress ink (in dauber top bottle) on the edges of the eggs.  There are numerous colors of ink to choose from so most papers can be matched.  The doily was stamped with the Dandelion Design words and affixed to the card with Merikan tape.  The green leaf sprigs were cut with the Tim Holtz die (from BFC) and adhered with  flowers and sticky back pearls cut in strips from a sheet I found in the BFC wedding aisle.

The two bottom-weighted bunnies were also found at Ben Franklin Crafts at an unbelievable low price.  They are in front of the TH cutting tray which I forgot to mention must be used with the repositionable magnetic rabbit die.  The photo below shows how the  adorable chick memo holder (from BFC) can be used to hold your special handmade Easter cards.  I hope you won't be like me and take you a whole year to use your Easter supplies, but if you do acquire a few at the end of the spring season just think of how much planning you can do before next Easter.  LOL!