Valentine pendants

It is now a tradition to give my kids homemade valentine t-shirts every year, and though I will surely make them again this year, I also tried these shell bead pendants for the occasion. Pretty cute. Super fun and easy.

I started with these plain shell beads:


1) I applied collage pauge (same stuff as mod podge) to one side of the bead, and then stuck some things on that sealant that I had cut from pretty paper.
2)I then coated the top of the paper with more of the sealant.
3) When the sealant dried, I applied the paper glaze. Like I said in my last entry, the glaze has great surface tension and creates a nice dome without pouring over the edge of the pendant. Here is a picture of me doing this using a button as a pendant blank (which also works great):



It took a few days to dry but the result were really nice. I think the kids will love them. I intend to shower the love on all my darlings. I know it's a Hallmark holiday and all, but I do love it.

pretty penny

I recently tried my hand at resin jewelry, thinking I would make some things for holiday gifts. The results were mixed, but mostly because I was so excited to try it out that I didn't spend much time on the art I was covering. Resin is an epoxy and it needs to be done in a well ventilated place. That alone makes me want to not do it again, but when done right, really pretty things can happen.

So this week, I gave Aileen's Paper Glaze a try, as the bottle claimed to "create a hard, non-tacky glass-like finish". Well, since that's what resin does, and this is non-toxic and requires no mixing, it is very attractive. Instead of buying the pretty blanks off ETSY again (a little pricey, blah, blah, blah)I tried a few other things as the pendant blank- a shiny penny, a shell bead, and some buttons. The only one that is done is the penny and it is GORGEOUS! Ava has already decided that it is the craft for her 11th birthday (which is in August)and I made a couple Valentine themed shell beads that I will share when they are ready. I simply cut a piece of pretty paper and sealed it with, not mod podge, but this other stuff I'm testing out called Collage Pauge (also by Aileen's). When that dried I applied the Paper Glaze. It has a pointy tip and the glaze is very viscous so a nice dome formed without pouring over the edge. I bought some bails at the craft store and super glued them to the back. Here's the back: