The Perfect Tool

by Kim

I am a proponent of using tools that are right for the task and that make the task easier. 

This horrible looking thing is a tool I made myself. You can see that it is well used.
I use it all the time for fabric painting, and jewelry making. Yes, weird combo, but it works. Great. 

When I lay the fabric on it to paint, the padding allows me to press the brush or sponge into the fibers of the fabric. And I can pin jewelry pieces to the foam. It works a lot better than trying to tape something to the table top to hold it still.

When it gets too bad looking, I change the cover or just lay another piece of fabric over the top while I am working.

 It is just a piece of upholstery foam 12" x 16" and 2" thick. 


I taped a piece of muslin around it, with a 12" x 16" canvas board on the back. You can make it any size. I have been thinking I would like a mini version for jewelry making on the road. It is not fancy, pretty, or expensive, and it does the trick. Best few pennies I ever spent.


Do you have any homemade tools that you can't live without?
Have you used your Tool Vitamin C?

Posted by Kim at 5:04 PM 2 creative thoughts
Labels:

Daisy Canvas Collage Tutorial

by Kim

I find it important to make time to create, just for fun...or therapy...or creative exercise. It's good for me and good for you too! So, last night, I had nothing pressing, a gentle rain was falling, the windows were open, and I sat at my table to create. It was relaxing.

You know I really like to collage. It combines some of the things that I love about designing and crafting: color, painting, layering, doodling, and tearing paper. 

Here is what you need to make this project. But, you know you should substitute materials and colors if you want, to make it your own.
  • four 6"x6" canvases
  • acrylic paint: sky blue, turquoise blue, turquoise green, white, lime green
  • seasponge
  • Fiskars punches: XL oopsie daisy, XL cloud
  • Fiskars deckle Tear edger
  • Scrapbook paper: assorted green prints, 2 deep pink prints, brown print, aqua print
  • small piece of bubble wrap, about 4" x 6"
  • Mod Podge for paper
  • paintbrushes: large flat, small round
  • scraps of 140 lb watercolor paper
  • 6 Pop Dots
  • white craft glue
  • small buttons: 6 turquoise, 1 lime green
  • fine point marker: black
  • tape
  • palette


I started with my favorite color palette, 3 shades of turquoise. Pour out a little puddle of each. Dip the flat brush into 2 or 3 colors at once.


Brush on to the canvas. Try to just apply the paint, not brush back and forth on it. This will give you visible striations of color.

Do all four canvases and let them dry. Arrange them in the way you want them to be in your design.


I love layered backgrounds on my collage. Clouds will be one layer. Using the cloud punch, make two strips of punched out clouds. Tape them together. Use this as a stencil. Save the punched out clouds for another project.


On your palette, pour out white and sky blue. I did not want the clouds to stand out too much, so I added blue to the white. Dip your damp (not wet) sponge into both colors. Dab on the palette to mix the colors on the sponge. 

Dap the sponge over the stencil to print clouds wherever you want them. 



Tear strips of green paper about 1" wide. I had three greens. Tear the strips into 1" square pieces.


Brush Mod Podge on canvas at bottom, Place paper squares over wet glue. Smooth with fingers.

Draw a vase shape on the back of brown paper. Cut out and Mod Podge on lower right canvas.

Brush turquoise blue paint on bubbles of bubble wrap.


Print randomly on left and right sides of canvases. The dots are another layer.


Also tear one 12" x 1" strip of aqua paper. Cut it in half and Mod Podge it to the left sides of canvases....about an inch from the left edge.

Put a dot of lime green paint where you want to build your three flowers. Brush lime green paint on the very edge of the tearing tool. Print a starburst of 12 spokes. 


Make a starburst around each dot.


Using the daisy punch, punch out a total of 11 daisies, using both pink papers.

Wrap each petal around the skinny end of round brush. This makes the daisies dimensional.


Assemble daisies in vase with pop dots between layers. Use white glue to attach buttons as centers. Use the round bush and lime green paint to make stems on daisies that go down into the vase.


Mod Podge 5 remaining punched daisies on strip of aqua paper on left side. Glue on button centers.


Use marker to doodle a bit on your canvases. Small spirals at ends of starbursts.....


...squiggly lines around clouds, paper strips, daisies, up the daisy stems, the vase...wherever you want to add accents.

If you use the thick canvases like I did, they can sit on a shelf or hang on the wall.

Find some time for a creative night to yourself. It is relaxing and fulfilling.
Take your Vitamin C!
Skip To My LouTip Junkie handmade projectsHookingupwithHoH

Posted by Kim at 2:06 PM 17 creative thoughts
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Christmas in March

by Kim

This is the life of a designer in the craft industry. Christmas is never over. 


It has been unseasonably warm here in MIchigan, quite weirdly so. To get in the Christmas mood, I worked in the basement where it was cool enough to need a sweatshirt, and watched a couple ABCFamily Christmas movies. I had a great time and the projects turned out cute.


I know that nobody else is thinking about Christmas right now, but maybe it will inspire you to start collecting buttons for a similar project....around November.  Go to my friends at Blumenthal Lansing to find the buttons I used here. And later on in the year when this gets published, we will talk about how to turn them into a cute tree.


Fun to use your Vitamin C when it seems craziest!

Posted by Kim at 4:16 PM 0 creative thoughts
Labels: , ,

Trend: Colorblocking

by Kim


Colorblocking is one of the current fashion trends for spring and summer. It speaks for itself, I think. Here is a little bit about colorblocking, anyway.



 I always wonder how fashion trends translate to jewelry trends...if they do at all. And, in researching, I found that colorblocking is a natural for jewelry, especially the enamelling trend that is also current.




Seems like colorblocking can be subtle or bold. 


Will you be using colorblocking as inspiration for your own projects this spring and summer?


Take your Vitamin C and colorblock!

Posted by Kim at 11:00 PM 1 creative thoughts
Labels: , , ,

Vintage Bead Necklace

by Kim

Admittedly, I don't know much about vintage beads...except that I like them.  My friend, "She Who Owns The Best Vintage Beads" sometimes gives me a broken strand to play with. She owns beads handed down from her Mother and Mother-in-law. I remake the beads into new pieces for her daughters and herself. Great idea, right?


 This grouping of beads is left from a double strand, as I recall. Some time ago, I used the bulk of them, and these are what is left. She requested I string them with some silver. I tried to keep the flavor of the stringing while adding a more contemporary, trendy twist.


 There are two kinds of beads here, not counting the silver I added. The striated, transparent beads are acrylic with an AB coating. Very cool in person. 


The solid beads are foiled and are so lightweight, that I think they are some kind of paper.  They are in really great shape if they are paper.


Anyone know something about this type of vintage bead? I don't know for sure, but according to what they looked like before I took them apart, I would say maybe the are from the early 50s.


Vintage beads...fun way to use your Vitamin C!

Posted by Kim at 10:16 PM 1 creative thoughts
Labels: , , , ,

Too Short Toggle Bar

by Kim

 Have you ever had this problem? The bar piece of the toggle is too short. You can tell by looking that it can slip right out of the toggle circle (or teardrop in this case). This will for sure cause you to lose your jewelry. When you are not paying attention. It will slip out, the bracelet will fall off and you will not notice. Bah!


I used to restring the bracelet with a new toggle when this happened. It has happened to me with toggles I bought and added to my own jewelry. It has happened to me with pre-made jewelry that I purchased. It is maddening.


But, today, I decided that I was not restringing, and would find a better fix. And I did.


 I used a 6" piece of silver wire, 22 gauge. I strung one end through the little toggle loop. And wrapped the long end of the wire around the base of the toggle five times. To finish, I twisted the ends of the wire together...tightly...on the side(ish) of the toggle, so it wouldn't scratch my wrist during wearing.  And then I trimmed the wires as short as I could without having to worry that it would untwist.


Tada! It worked. No more worries about losing a bracelet that I really like.


Anybody have a different remedy for this problem?


I love using my Vitamin C to creatively fix a problem! 

Posted by Kim at 5:31 PM 1 creative thoughts
Labels: , , ,

Wavy Disc Beads

by Kim

I have been having Fun With Wavy Discs. Love these earrings, (I am going to show you how to make them, keep reading....)

...and these sweet little pink bell flowers. They are in this month's issue of  Bead Design Studio Magazine...both a lesson on how to make the wavy disc/bell flower beads, and how to make the necklace they are in. Find my column: First Glass. And if you are not a lampworker and the lesson on how to make the beads is lost on you, you can buzz over to my Etsy shop and buy some already made.

 Back to the earrings! You need two wavy disc beads...also available in my Etsy shop in different sizes and colors. 


 1. Cut a 5" length of silver 20 gauge wire. Wrap a small loop in one end. 


2. Gather up some small beads you like. I have seed beads in two sizes and some 4mm crystals. String them on silver head pins. Make 3-5 headpins with beads.


 3. Attach the headpins to the wire loop by wrapping loops.


 4. Put the wire with the dangles into the front of the wavy disc bead.


5. Turn it over. Bend the wire at a 90 degree angle.
6. Wire wrap the earring piece to an earring finding. Repeat for the second earring.


I had planned on taking these earrings apart and putting the beads in the Etsy shop, but changed my mind! If you want to buy a set of these purple and red beads, just post or email and I will make you some.


Take your Vitamin C and tell me what else you might do with wavy disc beads.

Skip To My LouTip Junkie handmade projects

Posted by Kim at 6:27 PM 1 creative thoughts
Labels: , , ,

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Visitors

Contact Me:

kballor@aol.com