Keepsake Crafts - Sharing the Love of Creativity

WOYWW – Making a Memory Quilt

Apr 082014

Happy What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday all! This week I’m working on something different, it’s a memory quilt for a friend’s son who will be graduating this year.

It’s more than just a t-shirt quilt, although there are plenty of those included. His mom also wanted a number of photos, pieces of special blankets, baby outfits and even a bitty backpack! I’m not sure how I’ll include the super hero cape his grandma made him, but we’ll figure it out. 🙂

On the workdesk you see some of the photos already printed onto fabric. Since the quilt squares will be 14 x 14 inches and I can only print the photos on 8.5 x 11 inch sheets, the blocks will have to be pieced together. I’ll also be hand appliqueing a few photos across the seams. The photo blocks will end up looking like scrapbook pages.

That pile in the upper right is a bunch of scraps from t-shirts I’ve already cut up. Thankfully it’s all starting to come together.

Btw, if you’ve ever thought of putting together a t-shirt/memory quilt, I wrote a post a while back with several Tips For Making T-Shirt Quilts.

Happy creating!

WOYWW – Tim Holtz Tag of March 2014 – Dogwood Flowers

Apr 012014

Happy Wednesday! Here’s what you came for, my slightly messy desk today. (Click on the pics for a closer look.)

As usual, it amazes me how many products are needed to make one little tag. Also, I’m pretty sure a few things had been put away before I remembered to take this photo.

I’d kinda put off working on Tim’s March tag because I really liked his stamp set with the bird’s nest & the feather and was hoping to find it locally.

Instead I used Hero Arts’ & Sizzix’s Butterflies & Flowers Stamp & Die set. The flowers were stamped in Worn Lipstick distress ink. I used Broken China and Peeled Paint inks to stamp the butterflies. Tim’s idea for a technique was to smudge the ink right after stamping, but I didn’t think it made that much of a difference.

What really DID make a difference, and is my favorite new (ish) technique, is going over the stamps with distress markers and then a waterbrush to blend. For the distress markers I used Spun Sugar, Crushed Olive and Mustard Seed for the flowers, and added a bit of Broken China to the butterfly.

It would have been fun to play with the Distress Marker Spritzer, but that’s another tool I haven’t been able to find locally. It’s on my Amazon wishlist, though! Have any of you had a chance to try it out?

Are you thinking that the pretty spring time flowers are all well and good, but wondering why I shared a photo of my piled up desk? It’s because it’s What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday. A bunch of us share, take a peek, have fun and are often quite inspired. Join us over at Julia’s if you want to see what the fuss is about.

Happy creating!

Braided Wire Bracelet – Make It In March Day 21

Mar 312014

Well, phew, I made it! And here it is, the final project of March.

It’s a cuff bracelet braided and woven of 20 gauge jeweler’s bronze wire.

(Click on any of the pics for a closer look.)

Woven in are a floral finding and a few 4mm Swarovski crystals.

Those wire coils on the end loops were first coiled on the Coiling Gizmo, then slid onto the wires when needed. This is a much faster, easier and neater way of doing it rather then trying to wrap each individual coil onto the loops.

I love the way a hard material like wire can have such an organic and flowing look.

My newer readers may not realize what I’ve been doing this past month. At the beginning of March I challenged myself to take the time to do something creative and blog about it every weekday in March.

So, what did I learn from this challenge?

There IS time to do the things you set your mind to do. (Just gotta get off the stinkin’ computer more, lol.)
Making a commitment to others is great incentive for FINDING that time.
Blogging about it makes a project take many times longer than just the creating of it.
You never know whether a project is going to be a success until you dive in and try.
Often the failures are the roots of future successes.

None of this was stuff I didn’t know already, but what I’d hoped would happen did. I get into the habit of breaking free of the inertia that kept me reading about, watching about & planning about new projects and got to WORKING on them.

Was the challenge worthwhile? Absolutely. Am I going to continue it into April? Sorry, but no, it was too time consuming. Hopefully, though, as a result of getting my butt into gear, you’ll be seeing lots more productivity in the coming months. 🙂

What challenges do you face in the work you do? What have you found to be ways to overcome them?

Making Beads With Polymer Clay Canes – Make It In March Day 20

Mar 292014

I promise I did do a creative project yesterday, there just wasn’t time to bake it and take photos. Sorry that the penultimate Make It In March post is a day late.

First off, yesterday Robin asked what I do with the test clay color samples that I mix up. As you can see above, each sample is made into a bead and baked. Them I string them onto some twine, write what colors were used on each end, write the proportions of color on each bead and save it to use as a reference tool.

This strand goes from Sunshine Yellow to Fluorescent Pink. The large middle bead is a 50/50 mix of each color. The bead next to the middle, going towards the pink, is 1/4 Sunshine Yellow, the next is 1/8 yellow, 1/16 yellow and so on. These are fantastic tools if you ever want to replicate a color, as not only do you know exactly what proportions to use, but you know how the colors look once baked.

(You can learn how to make these color gradations in Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio’s book, Polymer Clay Color Inspirations.)

Btw, those greasy looking splotches on the paper are the plasticizer that comes out of clay when it sits on paper for any amount of time. This helps stiffen up soft clays.

I spent a LONG time yesterday working on a pink cane for a flower, and was rather disappointed in the results. It wasn’t entirely the fault of my white clay being too squishy, although that was part of it.

Although this pink flower isn’t horrible, it certainly isn’t what I pictured the end result to be.

Since I had to take frequent breaks to put the pink cane in the fridge to firm up, I decided to play with this kaleidoscope cane I made a while back.

I put two slices of the cane together around some scrap clay to make a bead, then changed the shape and added flowers to both sides.

Here’s the other side of that bead and a ruler to give you some idea of size.

I’m not really thrilled with anything, it all felt sorta futile. But, some days are just like that. I’d rather a bad day creating than a good day working in a cubicle. 🙂

I’ll see you Monday for the last day of my personal challenge.

Happy creating!

Going Fluorescent – Make It In March Day 19

Mar 272014

It’s hard to believe I’m nearly at the end of my month-long challenge to do something creative every weekday in March and blog about it. It’s been quite fruitful and productive. I’ll share some of what I’ve learned and my observations next week.

callie painted coral flowers

But on to today’s project. It had been my plan to make a flower cane, based on a this photo from a seed catalog. It’s called calibrachoa, and I thought the shading and patterning would be a fun challenge to replicate.

The first step, though, was to find a way to mix that deep, saturated fuchsia. So I pulled out my fluorescent colors and made a few mixes. (Using fluorescents to get very saturated colors was recommended by Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio in their excellent book, Polymer Clay Color Inspirations.)

This row is fuchsia to fluorescent yellow.

Here we have sunshine yellow to fluorescent pink.

This is fuchsia to fluorescent pink. I know it’s hard to capture with the camera, but that one on the right end is the most screamingest of pinks. Like eye watering. Yikes.

But it’s actually quite lovely when mixed with equal parts fuchsia and then with white.

I started my white/pink blend, but had to stop because the white was way too squidgy to deal with. You can see the beginnings of the blend here, I think it’s going to be gorgeous. The clay is sitting on white paper because the paper will leach out some of the excess plasticizer, making the clay more firm and easier to deal with.

So, the flower cane will be tomorrow’s project. 🙂

Have you ever set yourself a creative challenge? What did you do and how did it go? I’m sure many of us creative types would be interested in hearing new ideas for motivation and creativity.

In the meantime, Happy Creating!

Chunky Leaf Bracelet Video Tutorial – Make It In March Day 18

Mar 262014

Would you believe this bracelet design began with the chain? It’s funny how I was sure that would be the star player (or at least a large supporting role) but then the design evolved.

While digging through my stash I found this leaf pendant I had made while working through Christi Friesen’s book, Flourish.

It’s made by shaping Sculpey Ultra Light Polymer Clay into a leaf shape, baking, and then carving off chips with a blade (a messy, messy process, with static-y bits of foam sticking everywhere.) It was then painted with Christi’s Swelligant copper paint and green patina.

I made three of these back several months ago, and just chucked ’em into my experiments bin, not being really impressed. But now, I kinda love it. Funny how that goes. 🙂

Anyhow, this is a fun sort of project for you to dig around in your stash, maybe rediscover some old treasures, and make something fun with them!

You can watch the Chunky Leaf Bracelet Video Tutorial over at YouTube.

Happy Creating!

Materials:

1 large focal bead or connector piece
6 inches (or so) chain
toggle clasp
approximately 1-inch diameter decorative ring
assorted beads to match/compliment focal, chain, ring and clasp
waxed linen twine

General Instructions (watch video for more details):

Arrange jewelry elements in pattern that is pleasing to you.

My order is: toggle bar of clasp, 6mm bicone bead, 8mm bicone bead, leaf focal piece, 8mm bicone bead, decorative ring, 12mm bead, double length of chain, ring section of clasp.

String a 10-12-inch lengths of waxed linen twine through one end of your focal and meet ends together. Tie an overhand knot next to your focal, treating both strands as one. Slide your next bead onto one strand of twine and tie another overhand knot. Repeat to add all beads you want, then slide toggle bar of clasp onto one strand, tie strands in a square knot (right over left, then left over right.) Trim off ends.

Repeat in a similar manner to add remaining beads, decorative ring, chain and ring of clasp, check fit after adding chain and trimming down chain as needed.

WOYWW – Floral Beaded Kumihimo Bracelet – Make it In March Day 17

Mar 252014

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Click on any of the photos for a closer look.

Today’s desk shows I’m still working on kumihimo braiding. Yesterday I finished a necklace which I’m quite happy with.

The next project is a bracelet based on directions from the February 2014 issue of Bead and Button Magazine, the Flowercup Bracelet and Necklace set.

The flower shaped beads add a lot of interest…

…but what a pain it was to keep the tension even.

And yes, I MADE those little beaded end caps. Ack. It makes me truly admire the folks who make massive sculpted pieces out of teeny-tiny beads.

Like this amazing piece by Anna Master. No thank you. I did my time with itty-bitty units years ago during my cross stitching phase. 🙂

(If you like the above kind of work this link will take you to a page with loads of similar stunning seed bead pieces.)

Tension problems aside, this is a rather pretty piece. It just needs another three inches in length to make it a bracelet… or maybe I’ll make it the center piece of a necklace. Haven’t decided yet.

So, why did I post a pic of my messy desk along with the jewelry pics? It’s What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, doncha know? Join us, if you like, in this weekly worldwide blog hop where we take a peek at the creative spaces of creative folks from all over.

Check back tomorrow for day 18 of my Make It In March challenge. I promise I will be doing something other than kumihimo or itty-bitty seed beading. 🙂

Kumihimo Braiding With Beads – Make It In March Day 16

Mar 242014

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. We had one springish day and one wintry day AND we’re supposed to be getting snow tomorrow night. Bleck.

But, I’m happy to be inside and creating. Today’s project is a continuation of what I started last week, kumihimo braiding, but now with beads.

(Click on any of the pics for a closer look.)

I was given this gorgeous lampwork heart ages ago, but never found just the right way to string it.

What do you think, does this combination of blue, green and gold work with the bead?

I made the bail by twisting two pieces of 20 gauge wire together and then wrapping them around a 10mm mandrel. Two wraps made the bail and one wrap made the large jump ring.

Kumihimo is definitely an interesting process, and while I think it’s just “meh” with cording alone, I love it with beads. However, it’s very time consuming. The 16-inches I made for this necklace took about three hours. It’s a great project to work on while a TV show or movie is playing.

Have you tried kumihimo? Would you? If you’re interested, here’s a YouTube video introduction to doing kumihimo and this video shows how to add beads to your braiding.

Check back tomorrow for day 17 of my Make It In March challenge.

Kumihimo Braiding & Beading – Make It In March Day 15

Mar 222014

Hi all! Sorry I didn’t get this post up yesterday, it was a busy one with errands and such. I did start a project yesterday, but just didn’t have time to take pics and blog about it.

In my shopping travels I picked up this crazy looking thing.

It’s a kumihimo braiding disk.

I’ve been aware of the kumihimo trend over the past few years, but was never impressed enough with the look to get on board.

(This link will bring you to a page with many photo examples of what kumihimo braiding looks like.)

To me it’s just ok, but… if you add beading to your strands, well, then you get quite a different thing. I’ve been fascinated by the use of unusually shaped beads or an interesting variety of beads, and so got an IDEA.

If you’d like to see what I mean, this Etsy shop has some great examples of kumihimo with beading.

Thus, the purchase of said braiding disk and my first attempt at braiding using yarns I had on hand pictured above. (I really, really wanted to jump right into using beads, but knew it would be wiser to start simple.) 🙂

I like the way the ripply white yarn kinda looks like beads as it stands proud of the rest of the cord.

Here’s an example from the February 2014 issue of Bead and Button Magazine. Love the use of flower shaped beads!

By the way, this is a great bring-it-along-with-you kind of project, perfect for doing in the doctor’s office or while watching something you don’t need to pay strict attention to. It’s quite simple and nearly mindless.

My next attempt will be to make a cord for this pendant a friend bought for me years ago. I think these green, gold & blue beads will compliment it nicely.

If that works out, then I’ll move on to my IDEA.In the meantime, Happy Creating!

P. S. Here’s a YouTube video an introduction to doing kumihimo and this video shows how to add beads to your braiding.

Polymer Clay Eyes – Faux Glass Eyes – Make It In March Day 14

Mar 202014

Today’s project is one I’ve been wanting to try since before Christmas when my December 2013 issue of Polymer Cafe arrived.

polymer cafe december 2013

Now, I don’t know about you, but that Santa is WAY too creepy for me. But I always read through all the step-by-step tutorials anyways, even if I’m not interested in the project, because you can learn something from everything, right?

Wow, was I glad I did, because as I was wondering where Kellie got those great glass eyes, I realized she’d not only made them out of polymer clay , but she’d shared with us how to do it.

Woot!

The first step is to make a tool consisting of a 1/8-inch (that’s 3mm for you smart folks who use metric) doughnut shape on a stick. Sheesh, that’s one teeny-tiny doughnut.

This gets pressed into clay balls to make the shape of the iris and makes the pupil stand proud of the colored part of the eye. Since I’ve been into dragons and reptiles & such, I made one with an elongated hole for cat and reptile eyes. Once again I’m SO thankful for my magnifying lamp for doing such itty-bitty work.

I’d love to tell you more about the process, but it wouldn’t be right for me to share Kellie Mowat’s entire tutorial. You can pick up a back issue of the magazine if that’s something that interests you.

Wow, I am thrilled with how these came out, especially the bright colors of the reptile eyes. I think it’s time to make a dragon to fit. Now, should it have green eyes or yellow eyes?

Btw, the tutorial calls for using Fimo Liquid Gel (I think she meant Fimo Deco Gel?) and I did that on half the eyes I made and baked them. I want to try using Lisa Pavelka’s Magic Glos on the rest, but since the sun has gone down here, that will have to wait until tomorrow. Check back then, I promise to update!

Meanwhile, happy creating!

****** Update 3/21/2014 ******

Here are the results after using the Magic Glos on three other pairs of eyes. The upper row was done with Deco Gel and the lower row I did this morning with Magic Glos resin. It’s cured in UV light, so I stuck the eyes to a piece of cardstock, applied the resin and put them out in the sunshine for 20 minutes.

My findings comparing the two:

Magic Glos:

Pros –

no need for another oven baking step
resin is perfectly crystal clear

Cons –

you need a $30 UV light or a sunny day to cure it
you need to be especially careful of bubbles

Fimo Deco Gel:

Pros –

can be cured in any weather, without any additional equipment
is slightly less expensive than Magic Glos

Cons –

not crystal clear (it can be cleared up a bit with a heat gun after baking, but it will never be as clear as resin)
doesn’t dome as much as the resin

So I would use the Deco Gel in a pinch, if I absolutely had to get something done at night and crystal clarity wasn’t an issue. Otherwise I definitely prefer the Magic Glos.

Ok, I’m off today to buy some more black and white polymer clay (and probably some other colors, too.) 🙂

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