Hurrican Irene

Although my house came through Irene intact and not too wet, a lot a places in Cranford are now under water. Here's some of the flooding within walking distance of my house.

UTEE PENDANT

It's always fun trying to mix embossing powders to match beads. Even if everything looks good in the melting pot, you can't guarantee that it's going to pour out nice. I lucked out with this pendant. It was a perfect match for the beads.

QUICK CARD

Need to make a card in a hurry? Don't have time to color in a stamped image? Go with black and one color to make an elegant card. I used a purple base card. Using an embossing ink pad, I stamped a large floral background stamp on black card stock and embossed with purple embossing powder. Next I cut a scalloped circle out of purple card stock with a Spellbinder's die and stamped the Chinese design with black ink. Punched the base card and floral panel with a corner punch and adhered a purple ribbons across the center of the floral panel and then stuck everything together. Took all of 15 minutes, if that long.

BEACH STONE PENDANT

Happiness is a vacation in Maine. I love the sea air on the coast and the pine and cedar smell of the inland forests. Last week on a trip to Maine, I picked up some flat stones on the beach. I didn't go in the water though because 55 degrees is a little too chilly for me.

To make the pendant, I washed off one of the stones and let it dry. I stamped the image with gold pigment ink and embossed in gold. I added some color with Twinkling H2O's. Stuck on a few jewels and a necklace bail. Sealed the whole pendant with Diamond Glaze. Found some matching beads and strung the necklace.

UTEE SHELL PENDANT

Played with my melting pot yesterday and poured a lot of stuff in gold. One of my favorite molds is of a shell that I made using a real shell. After popping the shell out of the mold, I brushed it with gold Perfect Pearls, attached a self stick strip of pearls and rhinestones diagonally across the front and then sealed it with Diamond Glaze. Attached a large gold bail to the back. Ran three wires through the bail and then strung about three inces of white pearls, gold potato pearls and clear and silver lined clear size 6 seed bead on each wire. After the three inches I put all three wires through a gold metal bead and repeated those steps two more times. Ended the necklace by putting all three wires through 12 alternating gold metal beads and silver lined 6 seed beads. Pulled the wires tight before attaching the clasp and crimping.

CARNAGATE

This crazy mad crafting scientist has been cackling over her melting pot tossing in radom embossing powders to see what she comes up with. No gold or silver or precious metals, but I did come up with a cool color that's a cross between carnelian and red agate, so I'm calling it carnagate. I don't even remember what I tossed in the mix, but I know I started with clear and red UTEE and some orange To Dye For. Sprinkled in some white, pearl, black and copper UTEE and some brown regular embossing powder. Some pieces came out a really scary color and got tossed back in the pot. These pieces came out the best, the rose being my favorite. Well, it's back to the lab, er I mean kitchen, to see what other gemstones I can invent.

Stamped Polymer Clay Necklace

I had to make six necklaces for a jewelry swap and this is what I came up with. I started with black polymer clay and rolled it out to about a 1/8 inch thickness. I used a cookie cutter to cut out heart shapes and a round straw stirrer to cut out holes on either side on the top of the heart. I stamped the hearts on the left side with a Posh Asian floral stamp and Stampin' Up white pigment ink. I then baked the hearts in my melting pot. After cooling I added self stick diamond jewels on the right side of the heart and self stick pearls to the branch on the image. I squirted on some Diamond Glaze and spread it around with my fingers over the entire front of the heart including the bling. The sides and back of the heart with brushed with clear nail polish. I used white tube beads, clear silverlined #6 seed beads, gray pearls and black chips to bead the necklace and finished it with a teapot and spoon toggle clasp.