Keepsake Crafts - Sharing the Love of Creativity

Peacock Pearl Necklace-Jewelry Design Tutorial

Sep 252018

Have you ever looked at unusually shaped beads and wondered what in the world you could do with them?

Today I have a project that combines several intriguing bead shapes.

This necklace uses daggers, triangles and a trapezoid pendant, plus several other beads to make a unique statement necklace.

The stringing is simple but the beads chosen and the way they are used give this piece of jewelry a singular look.

Tools & Materials:

I used a 22 x 24mm Czech Glass pendant, but can’t find a link to the exact same one.

These are all the same size and shape:

Here are the rest of the tools and materials shown in the video:

12mm Czech Glass Table-Cut – Opaque Blue and Purple with Travertine
14mm Czech Glass Striped Triangle-Crystal and Blue
4mm Pewter Spacer-Antique Brass
15.5 x 5mm Glass Dagger Bead-Iris Blue
3mm Czech Glass Fire Polish-Crystal Gold Lined
3mm Czech Glass Fire Polish-Blue Turquoise Nebulous Luster
3mm Czech Glass Fire Polish-Northern Lights
Bead stringing wire
Crimps
Crimp covers
Wire protectors
Chain
Clasp
One Step Crimper
Crimping pliers
Wire cutters
Chain nose pliers
Crimp cover closer (I personally don’t love these, but you might find them useful.)

Enjoy the video and happy creating!

Watch the Peacock Pearl Necklace-Jewelry Design Tutorial video at YouTube.

Why You Should Use Leverback Earring Findings-Friday Findings

Aug 172018

Do you ever find yourself realizing that a tool or supply you’ve ignored for years is actually one of the best things ever?

I don’t know if it’s as true for you, but I tend to scan past unfamiliar jewelry findings way too quickly.

I’ll see them, not understand what they are for and thus not pay any further attention to them.

Silly me, right?

But lately I’ve discovered a supply that has been around for years and I’m so happy I did!

In today’s video I’ll show you what I’ve learned about leverback earrings findings, why I think I prefer them to fishhook or French wire style earrings and give a couple tips for using them in your designs.

Many thanks to BeebeeCraft.com for sending along the earring findings:

Here are links to a few of the other things shown in the video:

Gold Filled leverbacks with heart, from Artbeads.com
Tutorial for beaded earrings, from Linda’s Crafty Inspirations
The tutorials for the Fairy Flower and Gypsy Chic dangle earrings are available to my patrons. Check out Patreon.com for more information.

Enjoy the video and happy creating!

Watch the Why You Should Use Leverback Earring Findings-Friday Findings video at YouTube.

How to Create Inlay Polymer Clay Veneers with Silk Screens & Transfer Paper

Aug 142018

Most of us love creating with the many cool polymer clay products available these days.

But, once we’ve spent good money, we want to make the most of our purchases!

This technique opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for using silk screens and image transfers (and likely many more things I haven’t thought of yet.)

There are two methods for doing the inlay:

One is careful and precise and results in custom pieces with lots of detail
The other is quick and easy, but results in less detail and precision

Choose whichever you are most in the mood for!

I recently shared how to do this type of inlay in the Polymer Clay Universe magazine. One of my patrons, Ramona, requested I make it into a video to help those who prefer learning with that style of tutorial.

Your wish is my command, Ramona!

Here are the tools and materials I used in the video:

What types of products come to YOUR mind for this technique?

Enjoy the video and happy creating!

Watch the How to Create Inlay Polymer Clay Veneers with Silk Screens & Transfer Paper video at YouTube.

A Dozen Ways to Fill A Bezel-12 Creative Ideas for Using Bezels in Jewelry-Friday Findings

Aug 102018

I always find bezels intriguing.

It must be the endless possibilities for filling that they present.

Which explains why my imagination when into overdrive when Beebeecraft sent me all of these bezels to review.

In fact, I quickly came up with over a dozen different ways you can use bezels in jewelry and home decorations!

Here’s an overview of my list. Watch the video for more details:

Photos
Paper collages
Scraps of special garments
A lock of hair
Seed beads
Mini mosaics
Faux druzies
Create a pave
Flat back crystals
Polymer clay veneers
Make Christmas ornaments
Polymer clay sculpting

Watch the video for a 13th, bonus idea!

Clicking any of the photos will bring you to the product page at BeeBeeCraft.

Here are several of my videos that use bezels:

By the way, I briefly mentioned this rhinestone pickup tool, it worked great for sorting out those teeny nail art crystals.

Enjoy the video and happy creating!

Watch the A Dozen Ways to Fill A Bezel-12 Creative Ideas for Using Bezels in Jewelry-Friday Findings video at YouTube.

Use This Coupon Code For All The Polymer Clay Fairy Garden Tutorials You Want!

Jul 132018

I may have mentioned it once or twice before, but I had several polymer clay fairy garden tutorials published in Polymer Café magazine.

Including having my sweet little birdbath on the cover a couple years ago.

In total, there were seven fairy garden accessory tutorials and the vines and flowers pens tut. (Still one of the most popular!)

Then, sadly, the magazine ceased publication.

Which is why this cute little acorn mailbox tutorial never made it out into the world…

…Until now.

Although Polymer Café is no more, which is sad, I miss it, the good news is you can now find all nine of these tutorials in downloadable PDF format in my Etsy shop, Keepsake Crafts Create.

Just last week I finished editing and updating the final one, this darling, glow-in-the-dark fairy lamppost.

All of the tutorials have essentially the same information as in the magazine, but most have been updated with more or clearer photos, more detailed steps and more information.

As a special offer to my subscribers, I’m offering 20% off your entire order of tutorials through Monday, July 16th.

Use coupon code FAIRY20 for 20% off any and all of the tutorials you want to try.

Downloadable PDFs mean you can make your purchase now, and have the tutorial in your hot little hands right away! You’ll be ready to create whenever you want.

I hope you’ll enjoy the tutorials and the discount.

Happy creating!

Wire Jewelry Masterclass By Abby Hook-Book Review-Friday Findings

Jun 292018

Have you ever come across a book that perfectly suited your learning style, skill level and your taste?

This book, Wire Jewelry Masterclass by Abby Hook, has been that kind of experience for me.

If you are someone who enjoys learning from books, especially if you like going through them step-by-step, one page at a time, one project at a time, then you are going to love developing your wire wrapping skills with Abby.

In today’s video I will not only give you a taste of what is in the book and my opinions, I will also show you all of the jewelry that I have made using her tutorials.

It’s quite the pile. Even I was surprised once I gathered it all together.

Here are some earrings back when they were freshly made and still shiny. And a ring, which I didn’t like and took apart.

Here are a some of my favorite tools and materials to use in wire wrapping:

Have you tried wire wrapped jewelry? Is is something you want to learn?

Enjoy the video and happy creating!

P.S. I’ll be taking the month of July off from tutorials on my YouTube channel. Don’t picture me lying on a beach for the month, though! I’ve rapidly filled up my schedule with all the things I’ve been putting off because I can’t seem to get to them in a regular week, lol.

Watch the Wire Jewelry Masterclass By Abby Hook-Book Review-Friday Findings video at YouTube.

Glow Pebbles Hollow Beads or Necklace Pendants, Glow-In-The-Dark Polymer Clay Jewelry Tutorial

Jun 262018

If you enjoy my designs, then perhaps, like me, you love creating distinctive and unusual pieces to wear.

Today’s project combines a beautiful fanciful design with an unexpected element: It glows in the dark!

My first thought was to make these into necklace pendants, but then I walked into a dark room and saw them glowing on the table and thought they’d be so cute:

Tucked here and there in a fairy garden
Placed in pretty bowls about the house
Positioned on a night table for a soft comforting glow (for a child, or anyone who needs a little gentle light in the night)

This is the chart provided by PolyClayPlay on their glow powders:

Color:	Brightness:	Endurance:	Particle Size:
Green	10	14+ Hour	Dust
Aqua	9	12+ Hour	Fine
Blue	7	8+ Hour	Fine
Purple	5	6+ Hour	Fine

In my pieces I didn’t find that even the green glowed much longer than an hour. However, I did NOT carefully measure my powders or my clay. So it’s likely that if you add them in the correct ratios, you’ll get better results.

I’ll have to try doing that sometime, lol.

Let me know what ways you can think for making use of these sweet little glow pebbles. I just love having them around, they’re pretty and fascinating to look at.

These would also be fun to try lighting up from the inside with LED lights. That may be a topic for an upcoming Friday Findings video.

Here’s the article I mentioned by Ginger Davis Allman on conditioning Pardo Translucent clay.

Tools and Materials:

Pardo translucent clay
Glow-in-the-dark powders from PolyClayPlay (The only ones I’ve tested that I like are Green and Aqua. I do NOT recommend Sculpey Glow-In-The-Dark clay for this technique.)
Paint or ink to lightly color your clay (I used Pearlescent Emerald from this set of Lumiere paints. If you use alcohol ink, I suggest using Pinata inks and using a small amount to create a light shade.)
Black polymer clay
Silver or White Gold Glitter polymer clay
Clear liquid clay
Small paintbrush
Acrylic block
Clay blade
Straight edge razor blade
Needle tool
Texture sheet (I used Klimt’s Carpet by Barbara McGuire)

Enjoy the video. Happy creating!

Watch the Glow Pebbles Hollow Beads or Necklace Pendants, Glow-In-The-Dark Polymer Clay Jewelry Tutorial video at YouTube.

Make Your Polymer Clay GLOW with Glow-In-The-Dark Powders-Friday Findings

Jun 222018

Making things that glow in the dark is always a fun prospect.

It kind of brings you back to your childhood.

A couple years ago I got the idea to make these cute little fairy lamp posts with the flower lights that glow in the dark.

However, I was disappointed in the glow capabilities of the Sculpey glow-in-the-dark clay.

Since I’m rewriting the tutorial for the lamp posts I decided to investigate other ways to make polymer clay glow.

In today’s video I will show you how glow-in-the-dark powders from PolyClayPlay compare with the Sculpey glow-in-the-dark polymer clay kit.

Here are a few of the things I show in the video:

Sculpey glow-in-the-dark clay set
Pardo translucent clay
Glow-in-the-dark powders from PolyClayPlay (the colors I used were all Daytime White: Aqua, Green & Purple)
Mini scoops

Although I don’t have the lamp post tutorial re-written yet, I do have several other fairy garden accessory tutorials available as downloadable PDF’s in my Etsy shop.

If you haven’t already, sign up to receive email notifications whenever I publish a new tutorial.

Enjoy the video and happy creating!

Watch the Make Your Polymer Clay GLOW with Glow-In-The-Dark Powders-Friday Findings video at YouTube.

Which Adhesive is Strongest For Polymer Clay? Polybonder, Super Glue or TLS? Friday Findings

Jun 152018

This week several orders of glue came in and it got me to thinking about the different types of glue we use in different applications: jewelry making, beading, polymer clay and other crafty things.

In fact, there are so many adhesives out just for jewelry making that Fire Mountain Gems made a chart of all of them.

I was especially thinking of Polybonder versus Super Glue, as I was out of Polybonder for a while and missed using it in my projects (silly me didn’t put the cap back on tightly.)

Polybonder is a glue formulated for use with polymer clay by Lisa Pavelka, who is a big name in the polymer clay world. It sets instantly, like Super Glue, but it’s made to withstand baking up to 300° F.

I’ve been given to understand that Super Glue gets brittle after being subjected to those temperatures.

For some reason I was in the mood to test it out. So I grabbed a few samples and did a not-entirely-scientific test.

No worries Ginger Davis Allman, I will NOT be taking over your work anytime soon! I don’t have the patience or desire to do all the careful controls and samples that you include in your testing.

While I was at it, I decided to test Translucent Liquid Sculpey, too.

Watch the video to see the results.

Here are links to a few things from the video:

Happy creating!

Watch the Which Adhesive is Strongest For Polymer Clay? Polybonder, Super Glue or TLS? Friday Findings video at YouTube.

Silk Ribbon Jewelry-How To Create Darling Embroidery Pendants, Tutorial Pt 2 of 2

Jun 122018

In part one of this series I showed how to design and create cute little scenes using silk ribbon, beads and simple embroidery stitches.

This is such a relaxing and fun pastime, I hope you give it a try.

In today’s video I will show how to take your embroidered scene and fit it into a bezel so you can wear it as a necklace or other jewelry.

We’ll cover:

How to deal with round forms
How to create an easy miter for a clean finish on square or rectangular shapes
How I dealt with an usual style bezel frame.
**As a bonus I’ll show you my very first piece of silk ribbon embroidery! (Be prepared to wince.)

In case you missed it, you’ll find part one here:

Silk Ribbon Jewelry-It’s Easier Than You Think! Simple Embroidery, Pretty Pendants, Tutorial Pt 1 of 2

Tools and Materials: