Birthday Gifts

Yesterday, Emily went to a birthday party for several children and I had a chance to play with some more jewelry designs – this time for six-year-old girls.

I wish I had taken photos of the gifts I made (I think they turned out really cute), but since I wasn’t feeling well, I didn’t have a chance.

But…I did make a similar necklace for Emily as a ‘test run’ – and I did manage to take a photo of it:

To make these, I started with a small piece of patterned paper.  I tried to use whatever colors Emily told me were their favorites.  I then added a rub-on initial for each girl for the front of the charm – "e" for Emily… ;) 

I also stamped a birthday sentiment on the back for the birthday girls (Emily’s just has a flower).  Then I sandwiched the paper between two small pieces of beveled glass (1X1) then taped and soldered the edges.  I added a jump ring to the top and used a ball chain to hang the pendant.  I also added a little dangle with some matching crystals…and voila!  A sweet little necklace perfect for a six-year-old!

Gifts for Dance Teachers

While I was waiting to go to the doctor’s office the other day, I had about 20 minutes to waste and I was really close to The Scrapbook Station in Voorhees, NJ. I haven’t been there in a very long time, and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The store used to mainly focus on stickers and die cuts, but they have vastly improved their stamping supplies.

In fact, I was drawn to a display for scratch-art clay stamp board pieces – and I just had to try them out! I bought a little sample pack and had a chance to play with it the other night.

I used them to make more ornaments – this time, for Emily’s dance teachers. Here’s how they turned out:

This stuff is SO cool to play with! I stippled the background with different color inks then stamped the dancer image (En Pointe from Stampin’ Up!) with black StazOn ink. Then – and here is the cool part – I used a sharp tool to scratch out highlights on the image. The highlights show up white against the background – so fun!

After I finished with the highlights, I added some chalk shading then coated the surface with VersaMark ink and embossed the whole thing with clear embossing powder.

I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch two holes in the top and added jump rings for a piece of thin leather cord. I also added some gem dangles from the left jump ring – turquoise, jasper and also some amber. I can’t wait to try some more techniques with stamp board!

More Ornament Gifts

Okay, so I was on a roll making little ornaments for gifts this year…then Mike asked me to make some for his office.  He needed about 25 in all – yikes!  So I decided to keep them VERY simple:

I took a piece of Stampin’ Up!’s Holiday Harmony paper and stamped a sentiment from the Star-Studded Season stamp set using Purely Pomegranate ink.  I also stamped a little star above and below the sentiment and embossed it with silver embossing powder (as seen on the right above).  The other side of the paper I left plain (as seen on the left – that’s the back of the ornament).

I sandwiched the paper between microscope slides, taped and soldered the edges and added two jump rings – one to the top and the other to the bottom.  I tied a hanging ribbon to the top and strung some fresh water pearls (pomegranate and green) and a crystal from the bottom. 

It’s like a Christmas card you can hang on your tree!

Teacher Gifts

Remember a while ago that I posted about finding great little vintage advertising cards with the children on them?  I found a use for them – I’m using them to make teacher’s gifts!

One card says, "Head of the class" and has a cute little girl in a red dress – the other says "Foot of the class" and has a sad little boy image.  I color copied the cards at my local copy store, put them back-to-back and used them to make Christmas ornaments (on each ornament, one side has the girl and the other side has the boy):

I added some glitter to the red parts of the images and sandwiched them between two pieces of beveled glass then taped and soldered the edges.  I added a few jump rings to hold a hanging chain and some red crystal drops.  I also added some "black magic" finish to the solder to get an antiqued look.

I made several more – on one, I tried using a copper patina finish instead of the black magic, used beads instead of the crystal drop, and used a ribbon hanger.  On the other one, I reduced the image to fit it between two microscope slides instead of the beveled glass (I had to cut off the words and add them over the image):

I love how these turned out – I hope the teachers like them too!

Ornament Exchange

Last week, we held our first (annual?) ornament exchange.  I thought it was FANTASTIC!  The talent was amazing and all of the ornaments were unique and gorgeous! 

We had eleven participants in all (that means we exchanged 11 different ornaments!) – here is a photo of everyone (taken very reluctantly, I might add):

And here are our ornaments:

Thanks to everyone who participated!

I’ve Been Gone for a While…

These last weeks have just been crazy around here – getting ready for the holidays, job interviews…and I’ve also had a few health issues (including a trip to the E/R last Thursday). I’ll report more on my condition after my next doctor’s appointment on Thursday.  But let’s just say that I’ve been in an extreme amount of pain the last few weeks – so much so, that I haven’t really been able to focus on anything else.

Except that life goes on and I’m trying to keep up with things as best I can.  So it’s back to reality – pain or no pain.

One of the other things that kept me from posting was the fact that our computer died an untimely death a few weeks ago.  Fortunately, I didn’t lose any files, but I had to wait for our new computer to arrive and for Mike to set everything up.  He did a great job, but it’s still not the same.  It’s taking some time to get used to all the new stuff – I’m such a creature of habit!  I’m going to make a few quick posts to catch you up on some of the things I’ve been up to…