The Quirky Crafter

So I took a break from my Sculpey today to make a few bracelets.

The first one I made for a co-worker of mine who is heading to Australia for school. Her last shift is tomorrow [way to leave it to the last minute, I know] and I happen to be working as well. We're both closing so I'm going to give it to her at the end of our shift.

Green good luck bracelet

I used a double strand of chain for this bracelet, connecting the two chains with a new link every 5 links. I added green wire wrapped beads [not wrapped by myself, that's next on my list] and light green beads in a flat diamond shape in between the wire wrapped ones. I had bought 3/4" head pins to use but my god the wire is thick on those and hard to work with. I had to make a trip out for more of my trusty 2" head pins and they worked like a charm. I also added a small shamrock to the clasp and glued a green 3mm flat back crystal in the center of it for extra sparkle.

To glue on the flat back, I used Beadalon Bead Fix glue [it's the second one down from the top]. I find it's a lot like crazy glue, but provides a better hold when you're working with metal [as I was here].

The next bracelet I made to send down to the states. I'm in a makeup group on Facebook and one of the girls was kind enough to send me a free sample of a foiling medium [for eye shadows] so I decided to make her a little something to thank her.



Light topaz and amber bracelet

I asked her what her favourite colour was prior to making this and she said orange, however I found that to be an impossible colour to find at my store. Normally I would order from my usual supplier online but, since I needed to send this out in the next couple days, I was unable to. I decided to go with these two colours instead because they were as close as I could get. I do like how it turned out though.

I used a completely different chain for this one since the first one I used was a little too plain for what I wanted to achieve. I also added a flower charm to which I glued a 3mm light topaz flat back crystal.

The last bracelet I also made because of someone in my makeup group. One of the girls posted that her friend was having a hard time and we have a system where we send random things to each other as surprises, so she wanted to add her friend's name to the list.



Simple 'pick-me-up' bracelet

I was told that this girl liked simple jewelry and her favourite colour is green. I used the same chain as in the topaz bracelet and the same beads as in the good luck bracelet. This one is actually my favourite and I wanted to keep it for myself. I actually have enough materials to re-create it, so this is probably what I'll do.

I created all these bracelets "on the fly", I didn't plan them out. I had in mind the chains I had at home and walked around the jewelry section looking for beads that caught my eye. I find I make the best looking pieces when I'm not thinking too hard about what I'm doing. I just lose myself in the project and then suddenly it's done!

I'd like to leave you guys with a link to my favourite jewelry supplier. I use them exclusively for Swarovski beads and flat backs [except in the case of the previous bracelets where I was strapped for time]. Their shipping is fast [they state it may take up to 6 weeks but it only ever takes 2 to reach me], their invoices are easy to read, and their product is packaged extremely well. Highly recommend!

Happy Crafting~

PS: to my friend Tricky- I finally figured out hyperlinking! That was a really durrr moment, thanks for pointing it out to me!

Just a quick post while I'm waiting for some glaze to dry!

A lot of the time, I can't find what I need where I work [I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I work in Michaels] so I have to go online to search. A couple weeks ago, I was on a quest to find violet and green 12 gauge floral wire, which of course we don't sell. I mean, we have 12 gauge hot pink beading wire, but no purple?

Anyway, I took my search online and found this site:

http://www.widgetsupply.com/

After some quick searching on Wigit Supply, I found EXACTLY what I was looking for:

http://www.widgetsupply.com/page/WS/CTGY/craft-wire-12-gauge

I totally recommend this site if you're a florist or a beader [or anyone who uses wire in their crafting]. It's SUPER cheap [shipping costs next to nothing, and I was shipping to Canada] and it came within 2 weeks.

Lately I've been having a harder time finding the supplies I need so I'm thining online shopping is going to be the way I have to go from now on. I'm always a little weary shopping with a company I don't recognize which is why from time to time I'll put up recommendations like this :D

Happy Crafting~

NOTE: for some reason, inserting links has never worked for me on Blogger, so you'll have to just copy and paste, I'm afraid.

So my camera is being a bit of a jerk tonight and I couldn't take pictures of my Scupley collection, but I went ahead and started my project anyway!

Took me a good two hours to make the head of one of the characters I'm sculpting.. I'm fairly new to polymer clay and I've only made two things before. I was told by a friend that you could do a project piece by piece, basically only baking one section at a time [letting the section you've previously baked cool thoroughly before adding on]. This would be useful if you're making something that has different parts at a variety of thicknesses as the amount of time you bake the clay depends on it's thickness. I imagine this process would take damn near forever so I took a risk and just made the head in full with all parts attached, then I only baked it once. Everything turned out perfectly! I was especially worried about the teeth as they are tiny and thin and the head was a good 12mm thick. With Sculpey you bake 15 min at 275 degrees [Fahrenheit] for every 6mm, so I threw it in for 30 minutes.

Right now I'm waiting for it to cool so I can glaze it. I'll be using the Sculpey brand glaze, there's others you can use to get the same effect that are cheaper but since I was just starting out I didn't want to take a chance on ruining my project during the final step.

I also used the Sculpey clay softener for the first time. It was EXTREMELY helpful, especially since there were a couple colours I had to create by mixing 2 different clays together. You can do this without the softener but it takes a ton of kneading and patience. The clay softener can also be used to eliminate fingerprint marks from your project and I was told that rubbing alcohol will do the same thing. I didn't try that but after using the softener I'm having a hard time seeing how the rubbing alcohol would work the same way. Rubbing alcohol tends to evaporate pretty quickly and I would imagine it would disappear from the surface of the clay too fast for you to rub the prints away. The Sculpey softener is a but thicker and feels slippery to the touch, it remains on the surface of the clay long enough for you to achieve a nice, smooth surface. I totally recommend picking some of the softener up, especially if you're just starting out.. makes your job a lot easier.

I'll give that rubbing alcohol thing a shot and let you know how it goes.

Alright, I'm pretty sure the head is cooled down enough now so I'm off to glaze!

Happy Crafting~

Ok, last Xmas related post, I swear ;)

As promised [1 day late], I'll post the pics of the wreaths I made this year. Originally I was only going to make one for my Nana but after I made it my mom wanted one as well.

My Nana lives a couple hours away and was coming over for Thanksgiving weekend so I got all my supplies early to makes hers. The good thing about making a seasonal arrangement early is you get your pick of everything since it JUST came in.. the bad thing is nothing is on sale so your wallet cries at the checkout.

Red and white rose Christmas wreath.

When I saw the pictures I thought to myself I should've just used all red roses with that white bow, but at the time I thought the variety would be better? My Nana still loved it.. she's funny, she took it inside when she came over to our house for Christmas because she said it was the prettiest one on her floor [she lives in an apartment building] and she was afraid someone would steal it.

Her wreath cost me a good $80 to create [see what I mean about wallets crying? I think I was crying a little internally as well..] but it was worth it.

Now, the wreath I made for my mum, which was MUCH cheaper..



Red pointsetta Christmas wreath.

This one cost me around $30 because I made it in Novemeber and the sales on Christmas decor had started already. I'm not a huge fan of pointsettas but my mom really likes the more traditional Christmas plants/foliage and colours. If it were up to me, the wreath would've been blue and silver and done with magnolias.. probably as FAR from traditional as you can get and still call it a Christmas wreath.

For both wreaths I just used a plain 14" wreath and I used a glue gun to glue everything on. I used a high temp one with my mom's wreath because there are glass ornament balls on it [high temp guns are best to use when it comes to gluing glass]. You'll notice my Nana's wreath also has glass ornaments on it but they were actually Christmas picks and were already glued to a small base of evergreen foliage and a floral pick, so the low temp gun worked fine on them since I wasn't gluing directly onto the glass.

Whew.. and that's it for Christmas [until next year, of course ;)]!

Tomorrow I'm going to get started on my top secret sculpey/wood masterpiece.. I'll take a couple pictures of my sculpey collection and how I store it and give some quick tips I've learned when it comes to baking/shaping the clay.

Until then!

Happy Crafting~

Time for a LATE xmas-related post!

I've been crazy busy but here's a couple projects I did during my holidays:

The week after Christmas I visited my great aunt and uncle in London [Ontario]. My aunty had a stroke a few years back, she's actually the person who taught me to crochet but since her stroke she has been unable to do it herself. I usually crochet her things as gifts, but I was walking around at work and spotted the cutest ornament kit. They were little felt reindeer with bells :)

Excuse the shadow, my camera skills are.. not so hot.



One of the little guys on his own.

I like to refer to them as my "emo reindeer" because of the way the "hair" turned out. I got the kit for this on sale for I believe $7.99 [from $11.99]. I was impressed with it, I would buy it again for sure. I have a kit by the same company for a metal star ornament wrapped with wire and green beads that I haven't attempted yet. From the looks of it, there doesn't seem to be enough wire to complete the three stars. It wouldn't surprise me because the only complaint I had with the reindeer kit was that there was not enough brown floss to complete them. Luckily I do a lot of cross stitching so I have a box of floss lying about.

My aunt and uncle loved these reindeer, they were so happy when they saw them. I'm wishing I had bought a second pack.. if they bring them out again next year I will. Then I can attach them to gifts :)

My second project is a floral arrangement I did for my boyfriend's family.



Christmas centerpiece with magnolias.




A better picture.. with flash! [I always forget about the flash button]

This is my first attempt at a centerpiece, I've only ever made wreaths before this. I'll post those in a seperate entry tomorrow night so this doesn't turn into a photo dump.

The two florists I've worked with through my job taught me everything I know about floral arranging. I will never be able to come close to their talent, but I'm pretty dang good at making loopy bows now ;)

I used a charger plate for the base and one of the Christmas label hurricane vases for the candle holder. I chopped up a bush that had gold pointsettas on it to get the pine boughs [I had to also chop the boughs in half since they were WAY too long] and used a few magnolia stems. I used a high temp hot glue gun to glue the stems into a small piece of floral foam. We were out of Christmas scented candles at the time so I used one that smelled like baked cookies :)

Alright! That's enough of the Christmas stuff for now! More to come tomorrow!

I'm also working on a top-secret project [top-secret because this blog is linked to my Facebook and I'm not sure if the person I'm making it for reads this or not-- don't want to ruin the surprise ;)]. It won't be until mid February when I can reveal it, but I promise it will be awesome! And it will involve a LOT of Sculpey clay.. and wood. No other clues.

That's all for tonight folks!

Happy Crafting~


EDIT: I'm not sure why that one picture is turned sideways and I can't seem to fix it? I'm going to assume my comp is just having an anneurism.