Vitamin C... A Daily Dose of Creativity: dimensional magic

Showing posts with label dimensional magic. Show all posts

Faux Enamel Flowers

by Kim

I love retro enamel flower jewelry. The bright color and bold design appeal to me, not to mention the shine. My own crafting style tends toward all three of those things, and I am a jewelry designer, so....perfect fit! Nice metal, retro flowers are not easy to find, nor are they inexpensive. So, what does a smart crafter do? She makes her own faux version of them, of course!

A little sidebar: I enjoy combining materials and techniques because I have such a varied past as a crafter/teacher. So, my projects almost always involve combinations of painting, jewelry making, papercrafting, stitching, and whatever else is on my mind at the time. Here is a charm bracelet made with a simple 1" round punch. It is never boring!

Making your own faux enamel flowers is quite easy. And fun! Here is what you need:

heavy paper: I used both 90 lb. watercolor paper and posterboard. They worked equally well.
cardstock: solid brights
Fiskars punches: I used a 1" circle lever punch, a heart squeeze punch, 2 sizes of oopsie daisy squeeze punches, and a large scalloped circle squeeze punch
Plaid's Dimensional Magic in clear
Mod Podge for paper, or your favorite paper adhesive that will hold with moisture
white acrylic paint (optional)
small flat paintbrush (for Mod Podge)
buttons or gems for flower centers
hot glue gun and glue sticks
wire cutters (if you have shank buttons)

Try this:

1. Punch shapes. For every watercolor paper shape you punch, punch two color shapes the same.

2. Using Mod Podge as glue, sandwich a white piece between two color pieces. Brush on a light coat that completely covers the shape.

3. Make dots or stripes on layered pieces with acrylic paint if you wish. I used the end of the brush handle on the heart and a pencil point on the daisy. Let the paint dry before the next step.

4. Lay all shapes on a flat, level surface. Cover each with a coat of Dimensional Magic. Apply straight from the bottle, no brushing is necessary. Let the coat dry 6 hours or so.

5. Assemble flowers by glueing pieces together. You can roll petals up or down before you apply Dimensional Magic.... or now, after one coat. Gently manipulate the paper for dimension.

Apply a second coat of Dimensional Magic on the front. Let dry. Also apply a coat to the backside of the flower. This makes the flower very sturdy.

6. Glue gems or buttons in the centers of the flowers. I used some gorgeous Blumenthal Lansing buttons. Snip the shanks off with a pair of wire cutters before glueing them down.

Build your flowers in layers. Here are some suggestions. One large daisy, two small daisies and a round gem.

One large scalloped round, five 1" circles, a rhinestone button.

Eight hearts, one large daisy, a gold button.

At this point, your flowers are complete and fabulous. Glue on pinbacks, magnets, or add them to a necklace.

To complete a necklace like mine, you will also need:

silver wire
embroidery floss
scissors
a chain necklace

Cut a 2" piece of wire. Fold in half. Glue to back of flower.

Using a piece of floss, knot the flower wire to the chain. Repeat with all flowers you want on your necklace.

No doubt, it makes a statement! How fabulous for spring and summer?

P.S. Clicking on the photos will enlarge them and give you a close up view.

Use your Vitamin C to make yourself a garden of flowers!

Paper Punch Charm Bracelet

by Kim

You might remember that I have had a long play date with jewelry made of paper. I have always used paper (usually torn) and paint, so today, I am using only paper for a creative change.

If you have never made paper jewelry, consider:

it is very lightweight
the jingles from dangling pieces bumping together is very soft, so not annoying if you don't like that sound
it is inexpensive
available paper designs are probably better than most of us can paint
it is unusual and fun!

This is what you need to make a paper charm bracelet:

chain link charm bracelet
140 lb. watercolor paper
scrapbook paper of your choice (I went with a citrus color palette, loving the warm colors)
Mod Podge for paper with flat paintbrush, or paper adhesive of your choice
Dimensional Magic: clear
Fiskars 1" round punch
Fiskars 1/8" round hole punch
3 yards 1/8" satin ribbon: color to match your paper, mine is orange
10mm round beads to match: mine are hot pink
scissors
ruler

This is a great project to use up leftover scraps!

Start with a chain charm bracelet. Buy one or make one with chain and a toggle clasp. If you are making your own, wire wrap the toggles on or use two oval jump rings on each toggle piece.

Punch 30 1" watercolor paper circles. Punch 60 1" scrapbook paper circles. My bracelet has 30 paper charms. Of course, add or subtract as you wish.

Mod Podge a scrapbook paper circle on each side of each watercolor paper circle. Punch a hanging hole in each one.

Apply Dimensional Magic to one side of each charm. Let dry overnight. Repeat on the other side.

Look what I did with the hole pieces I punched out! Just set them in the wet Dimensional Magic.

Pin or tape bracelet to work surface. Making the chain immobile, makes the assembly process way easier. I use a fabric covered piece of foam, and it works perfectly.