Embossing with Jewelry!

Hello everyone! Oh my gosh am I exhausted. I just got back from our Stampin' Up! Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, and what a blast! But I am also so very tired! One of the many times I love having summers off!
So I made several goodies for Convention, embossed jewelry just being one. So I will have several posts tonight, each highlighting something different!
My first is Embossed Jewelry. Sounds hard? Well it's not!!!! Just takes patience!

 So these first two pictures show my Hope Bracelet, featuring the Hope and Strength stamp set, and my Shamrock ring, featuring the Every Little Bit set.  These were the easiest! Just be careful because the metal can get hot! I used tweezers to hold the ring.

So I purchased the ring and bracelet at a craft store. Just blank, and plain. They are made to be adorned with jewels and such from the jewelry area. I then pressed the flat part into a Versamark pad, covered in our Stampin' Up! silver embossing powder, then heated with the heat tool until melted. It will only take a second to cool for this first layer. Use those tweezers or something else for the ring! The metal gets hot.  Then press into the Versamark again, cover with powder, and heat with the heat gun. This time you will need to let it cool a bit, as the melted powder will be soft. Once cool, press again into the Versamark, cover with powder, and heat with the heat gun. This time, quickly take your stamp and press into the melted powder. Lift carefully, and let cool! If you mess up - no fear! Simply use the heat gun to melt it again. You can always add another layer of embossing powder! Then I just added a little bling with some of our Basic Rhinestones!

The earrings are a bit different. You can purchase flat discs in the same jewelry department, however, I wanted to try something different. I wanted to use as much Stampin' Up! materials as possible. So I used a 1" circle punch, and punched out two circles of Basic Grey cardstock. I then covered one side of each with Crystal Effects, then let dry. Once dry, it gave the circles a nice plastic toughness. Then proceeded with the cardstock side, as I did above, with 3 layers of embossing, then pressing the shamrock stamp into the melted embossing powder. Once cool, I added a Basic Rhinestone, and used the 1/16th hole punch to put a small hole in the top. I used rings and earring posts from the jewelry store to finish them up! The Crystal Effects on the back really helps to make these earrings a bit sturdier, but yet they are light as a feather!

Hope you enjoy!
Craft on!
Jean

Shamrock Lariat Necklace

Here is a great Shamrock Lariat necklace that I created for the talented Stampin' Up! demonstrators of Shamrock Stampers! Erin, Anne, Wendy, and I are going to Convention soon!!!!  So I created these for us! You can also download here.. Download Shamrock Lariat Necklace Pattern

Shamrock Lariat Necklace 

Hooks – H (for Shamrocks)

                F (for chain)

Yarn – Lily Cotton Sugar’n Cream

                  Yarn A - Hot Green (shamrocks)

                  Yarn B - Dark Pine (chain)

ch – chain

sl st – slip stitch                trc – treble crochet

dc – double crochet            sc – single crochet

For Shamrocks (Make 6)

With hook H and Yarn A

Ch 3, join with sl st to first chain. This makes a ring.

*Ch 3, trc, dc, trc, ch 3, sl st in ring*. – repeat from * 2 more times, total of 3

Ch 5, sc in 2^nd chain from hook, sl st in remaining 3 chains. Fasten off.

For necklace

With hook F and Yarn B

*Sl st into top 4 stitches of middle petal of 1^st shamrock

Ch 15

Sl st into top 4 stitches of middle petal of 2^nd shamrock

Ch 15

Sl st into top 4 stitches of middle petal of 3^rd shamrock*

Ch 140

Repeat from * to * for remaining 3 shamrocks.

Fasten Off. Weave in end.

Craft On!!

Jean

Mmmm Edible Stamping???

You read that right. Edible stamping. I also made my very first video! I did a post awhile back about edible stamping and  now I have perfected the technique! Plus I made a very short video demonstrating how to do it!

Hope you enjoy!

Craft on!
Jean

Happy Birthday Cupcake!

Here is a super cute card I created for a workshop that I did today for my friend Nickie. Have  I mentioned I love cupcakes?

The colors I used for this card are Whisper White, and all the new In Colors, Wisteria Wonder (the purple), Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Pool Party (the light bluish), and Calypso Coral. I love these colors! I also used a bit of our Red Glimmer paper which I am happy happy to say has made it into our new Catty! To make the shape of the card, I cut a 5x10 card, folded it in half, and placed it on the Clear Scalloped Square die for the Big Shot. But when I placed it on the die, I did not put the fold over the edge of the square, instead I sort of had it right underneath where it would cut, that way when I put it through the Big Shot, it only cut on the 3 sides, leaving the fold!  The whisper white piece on the inside and the outside is the same size, 3 3/4 x 3 3/4. I then use my Build a Cupcake punch and cut out one cupcake from each of the 5 In Colors. Then just mix and match pieces, gluing them onto the white piece.  I had some hang off, some sideways, get creative! I used Calypso Coral ink and our Swirls and Curls Summer Mini Hostess Stamp set to stamp Happy Birthday at the bottom. I trimmed off all the cupcakes that were hanging off the white piece. Then I ran it through the Big Shot with the polka dot embossing folder, with the dots popping up. I glued a small washer underneath the embossed cupcake/white piece before I glued it to the card. Then I used Lucky Limeade and the larger scallop circle punch, layerd that with Island Indigo and the 1 3/8 circle punch. I think punched out two more cupcakes for the cupcake in the middle on the circle and scallop circle. I glued a magnet on the back of the middle cupcake piece so that it comes off and is a cute magnet! Thats why it is popping off of the card!

Let me know if you have questions, hope you enjoy!
Craft on!!
Jean

Bookmarks you will love to use!

I am a very avid reader. My mind often goes toward books, so when I needed a quick project for a Summer House Party gathering, I immediately thought of bookmarks! If you haven't been to one of these House Party gatherings, they are so much fun! My friend Rachelle had one and invited me to bring my Stampin' Up! stuff! These gatherings are huge because the hostess has people from a variety of direct selling companies come at one time. So I was there with Mary Kay, Thirty One, Premier Jewelry, Tupperware, and several others. I even behaved myself! I knew our new catalog was coming soon so I didn't want to spend all my money!  Here are some pics of the bookmarks I had for people to make. I love punch art but did not have the time to figure these up on my own, not completely, so I did a search on our demonstrator site and found some by Becky Robinson, that were so cute! I used hers as an inspiration. I think some might be exact, but others I had to switch out punches to match what I have.

Let me know if you have any questions as to which punches to use! Most are easy to figure out if you have that punch.

Here are all but the cupcake and flower ones. The owls, cupcake, and flower ones are just one punch, the Owl punch, the Build a Cupcake punch, and the new 3 step Flower Punch, just used different paper to put it together.

I designed the Koala myself, for my friend Nikki, who is a huge Koala lover!

Hope you enjoy!

Craft On!
Jean

Edible Rubber Stamping!!!

Long time no blog! I have many things I want to share since I have been in "summer hibernation" mode since school ended. Usually for 1-2 weeks after school lets out and I start my summer break I hibernate in the house and don't go anywhere! I catch up on reading, crafting, whatever I WANT! lol.

Every year I do a Luau with friends right before the end of school. I wanted to do something different, so I decided to mix my love of rubber stamping with cupcakes!  

 Since I did this sort of last minute - I didn't get the edible markers that you can use to write on cakes. I think that if I had those it would have made a cleaner image - but as soon as I try it out - I will share!!!
I started off with a white sugar sheet (designed for the Cricut Cake, but they make several types now). Fondant or gumpaste will work too!  Then I took food color spray and sprayed it on a paper plate. Then I stamped my stamp into the color, coating it well, then stamped it onto the sugar sheet just like you would with normal ink and paper!  I tried liquid food coloring, but it is just too liquidy and does not stick to the stamp well. Thats why I think the markers might work well. But if not, the spray worked great! I let it dry for a minute, then cut out all my pieces.

I know some people who use stamps to press into fondant and they use those stamps only for food to keep them food safe. I had only used one of these previously and I sterilized it well before using it. Since this was a personal project, cleaning it seemed fine to me. But if you will be using your creations for commercial use or for any other non personal use, I would recommend only using the stamps for food - keeping them separate from your actual crafting stamps.

I will blog more soon!! I have some cute crochet items I have made and some adorable bookmarks!

Craft On!!!

Jean

Fathers, Hope, and some Bling!

 I know its about time right! I posted these on Stampin Connection awhile ago and just haven't gotten to posting them here! I created these for my May 28th camp. Wow was it crazy! There were 11 fabulous ladies! We had tons of fun but it was quite hectic.

So our first card is for Fathers Day! I used Versamark, the splotch stamp from French Foliage (but others used just a Versamark  marker to make dots and splotches by hand) and black embossing powder, then used the heat gun to emboss. The colors I used were Not Quite Navy and Basic Gray I used aluminum foil, the big shot, and the diamond Impression Plate to make the one side of the swing card, then crumbled up a piece of Basic Gray and sponged it a little with matching ink for the other side.

 I got my swing card instructions from splitcoaststampers.com.

For my Hope card I used Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla and Pink Pirouette. I used the Mother of Pearl technique for the butterfly, H Hope, and side Vanilla piece. It is so easy! You just scrunch up some plastic wrap, dab it in some Frost White Shimmer paint, then dab onto the paper!  I then used some Pink Pirouette ink and sponged it on the butterfly, but its kind of hard to see in the picture. I also roughed up the edges of the middle vanilla piece, but those are hard to see has well.

Our last project was fun and the younger girls loved it! I don't currently have a Crop a dile, so I had to purchase bottle caps with holes already punched in. But you can do these with any bottle caps! I then used the 1 inch punch to punch out some DSP, used a little Crystal effects to stick it to the bottle cap, then covered the inside well with the Crystal effects. I put a pinch of glitter, then gently put a rhinestone on top. I let it dry overnight. Don't put the Crystal Effects too thick or else it won't dry clearly. Then used some seam binding ribbon as the necklace part!

I will be posting some cute bookmarks soon so stay tuned!

Craft on!!
Jean