These little fun Christmas gifts were made for my nieces using flattened bottle caps with Japanese Chiyogami yuzen paper inside then glazed with Diamond glaze. I added a couple of golden clear beads and Cloisonné beads. The little gift boxes are made using folded vellum.
I made a pendant using a domino stained with brown and an image from riandesign. The image is an anatomical image of a woman which I think Erin will like as she is studying nursing and is interested in midwifery. The bail is antique bronze and the ball chain is an antique brown colour which matches the ink. I enlarged the same image for the card and I painted a little papier mache box with similar colours to the background patterned paper. The flower and leaves on the box look similar to the ones in the image.
Card:
Card: white, green card, brown paper punched, Prima – Annalee collection ‘sonnet’ card
Ink: Stazon Timber brown on edges
Other: tiny brown pearls, Anna Griffin Fleur de Lis punch, Diamond glaze
Domino:
Card: thick paper
Ink: Stazon Timber brown
Other: Antique bronze bail, Tim Holtz ball chain Antique brown, folk art acrylic sealer, Lime green stickles in the dots on the back, old domino
Gift box:
Paint: Dylusions acrylic Rose, Pink, white, Lime and mustard
Other: Mod podge to seal, leaves and flower embellishment
I hope everyone enjoyed the festivities over Christmas time and didn’t indulge too much with all that Christmas spirit and goodies. It is almost back to ‘normal’ in our household so I should have more time for some crafting. The snow has almost gone along with the freezing temperatures which means my craft room will be at a more comfortable temperature to work in.
Here are a few things I made as little extra Christmas gifts (colours all look a bit odd on the photos):
You can find great tutorials at billies craft room on you tube for these.
Inks: Black stazon, Lumiere metallic acrylic paint Halo violet gold
Card: grungeboard, grunge paper,
Stamps: crafty individuals cracked paint stamp, dragonflies (unknown)
Other: glitter pen, Diamond glaze, black peewee glitter, Tim Holtz hitch fastener
The pendant alongside the bracelet is just made using patterned paper (to match the bracelet) glued into a bezel. Glitter to highlight areas then glaze to finish.
My first attempt at faux dichroic glass! In the Craft stamper magazine (Feb 2009) there is a fabulous tutorial for this technique by Sid which I more or less followed. I don’t have a melt pot (yet) so I had to improvise with a craft iron turned upside down and a small Teflon coated dish from an old Raclette machine. It worked up-to-a-point but I also needed a heat gun to completely melt the UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel). I only had one piece of sea washed glass from the local beach and it wasn’t totally flat but it made a good practice piece.
Materials used:
sea washed glass
UTEE clear and also coloured with raspberry alcohol ink
Tonertex foil swirly multicoloured
silver foiling flakes
chain and aanraku bail
raspberry alcohol ink
I made this brooch for Carolyn’s tactile textile challenge and it was quite a challenge for me. I thought it would be fairly easy to just sew a few layers of fabric then sew a few embellishments to it, but I changed the layers so many times and I just couldn’t make up my mind where to add the bits and bobs so it has taken me ages to finish. The coins are actually quite fragile so the bit with the hole in it is easily snapped off.
Materials used:
Fabric pieces, black nylon mesh, cloisonné beads, sequins, seed beads, fibres, small piece of chain, 3 coin embellishments, brooch back, black thread
It is Tegan’s birthday today so I made her a bamboo tile pendant. It is two bamboo tiles inked and stamped with a paper concertina inside with the Happy Birthday greeting.
The closure is just a piece of elastic cord sewn together, which slides on and off, with an embellishment to hide the join. The leather thong has sliding knots so she can adjust it to the perfect size. It also means it can be dismantled easily if she wants to use the component parts for something else.
Inks: alcohol inks red pepper and yellow, gold accent pen and Krylon pilot pen, black Stazon
Stamp: parts off Michael Strong’s Cloisonné vase
Other: black Cloisonné beads, red bead and gold coloured spacer beads, black leather thong, black elastic cord, gold embellishment, mod podge to seal.