EMBOSSED METAL

Those plastic embossing folders are not just for paper. I had a package of metal patina squares from Fire Mountain Gems that are perfect for the embossing folders. I put the square in the folder and ran it through my Big Shot machine. I then sanded the embossed butterfly which took the color off and let the gold colored metal show through. I finished the piece by squirting on some Diamond Glaze and spreading it over the front with my finger. I attached the finished embossed square to a metal filigree round with a jump ring and strung the pendant with coordinating beads.

DRAGONFLY PENDANT

I made this necklace as a thank you gift for a friend. I melted clear and gold UTEE in the melting pot and then added flex. When the flex was melted I stirred the pot and sprinkled on some black UTEE. Poured the UTEE into the dragonfly mold that my friend had made and given me. Popped the hardened piece out of the mold and applied green Rub n Buff to the dragonfly. Sealed the piece with Diamond Glaze. Glued it to an round antique gold metal piece with E6000 glue. Made a dangle with a green fire polished bead and head pin and attached to the bottom of the piece and a jumpring to the top. Picked out the beads I wanted to use and strung the necklace. Cut a piece of chain 2 inches shorter than my finished necklace and attached it directly to the 2 pieces of the toggle clasp. Made three sets of dangles and attached them to the chain. Made earrings to match.

SNOWMAN TAG

Don't know if any of you follow Tim Holtz's 12 Days of Christmas Tags every year, but if not, you should take a look at them. Every year Tim creates the most fantastic tags. This was my take on his snowman tag. I didn't have the supplies he used so I improvised.

I started with a 5 1/4 x 2 5/8 white tag. Using the direct to paper method I applied Adirondack cloudy blue and stonewashed blue dye ink pads. The large background snowflake (Posh) was stamped with white pigment ink. The pinecones (Christmas Posh cube stamp by Judikins) were stamped with clear embossing ink on brown cardstock and embossed with brown powder and cut out and glued to the top of the tag. The pine branches were punched out of green cardstock with a Martha Stewart punch and glued over the pine cones. Rock Candy Distress Stickles was applied to the branch and pinecones.

The snowman was cut out with my Slice Machine with I think the Fa La La cartridge. Ranger Crackle Accents was applied to the snowman and allowed to thoroughly dry. Once it was dry and cracked, Pool Adirondack Acrylic Dabber was rubbed over the entire snowman and then rubbed off with a tissue so the color remained only in the cracks. A scarf of sheer 3/8 in. ribbon was tied around the neck. A small bit of white plumage was cut from a feather and glued to the hat and a band of bling was added. D E C typeset stickers were put vertically along the left side.

A grouping of buttons was glued on the bottom left. Rock Candy Distress Stickles and crystal glitter glue was applied around the buttons and the bottom of the snowman. A large jewel snowflake was glued to the bottom ball of the snowman and two other snowflake jewels were glued to the top and middle of the tag.

Sheer white ribbon and specialty yarn were tied through the tag hole to finish it.

PEWTER FLORAL NECKLACE

After an October of my son's wedding, a freak snowstorm and cleanup and allergies from hell, I've finally had a chance to drag out my melting pot again. I'm supposed to be making gifts, but this set went straight into my jewelry box.

While in Arizona for my son's wedding, I stopped at a bead store and found some wonderful lucite flowers in all different styles and sizes. I used my trusty mold n pour to make molds of some of them. All the flowers on the necklace and earrings are UTEE. I used platinum UTEE and silver rub n buff to get the pewter effect. The flowers were then glued to silver filigree pieces I had and blinged up. Instead of stringing a beaded necklace, I went the chain route. The hardest thing about making necklaces with UTEE pieces is attempting to part with them.

ANOTHER FLOURITE NECKLACE

I have a huge collection of molded UTEE pieces that are just waiting to be made into something. Everytime I use my melting pot I always mold extra pieces. Dug through my stash on Friday and came up with this necklace. The focal leaf and two flowers are UTEE and the chips are real rainbow flourite.

INCHIE NECKLACE

Ever wonder what to do with an inchie, those little one inch square works of art that people are talking about? You could incorporate them into your cardmaking or scrapbooking but you all know how crazed I am about jewelry so it's only natural that I would turn an inchie into a necklace. For this project you will need:

1 18 inch silver chain with toggle clasp

1 1 x 1 memory frame with loops (Ranger Memory Frames)

2 1 x 1 pieces of memory glass (Ranger)

1 1 1/4 inch silver head pin

1 silver jump ring

2 small round silver beads

1 blue glass bead

round nose pliers

chain nose pliers

1 inchie (My inchie was made by Judi from Judi-Kins)

Remove the split rings from the memory frame.

Take your inchie and sandwich it between the two pieces of memory glass and insert into memory frame.

Attach the jump ring to the top loop of the frame and attach frame to the center of the chain.

Place a small silver bead, the blue glass bead and the other silver bead on the head pin. Make a loop and attach to the bottom loop of the memory frame.

Your necklace is finished.

Pot Luck Pendant

Most of the time when playing with my melting pot, the results are just dumb luck. Such as the case with this pendant. The look I was trying to achieve just wasn't happening. I kept throwing embossing powders in and the mess in the pot was just looking uglier and uglier. I poured a couple of pendants anyway and after awhile the ugly colors started to grow on me. I even managed to find some beads that would match and now I actually like the finished necklace. Moral of the story, no matter how crappy you think the stuff in your melting pot looks, you can always throw in a few more colors and still get something salvagable.