DIY Shadow Box/Frame

I used scrap-booking paper that had a pattern on both sides to make this one to house a little brass Buddha.

I made this one from card stock to frame an ATC.

Here is how I made the frame for the ATC: 

I cut a piece of card stock down to 5" x 6"

I make 4 score lines, 1/4" apart on each side. On the long side I cut the edges flush with the innermost scored line of the short sides. As for the short sides: the innermost 1/4" gets cut flush with the score line of the long side; the next 1/4" gets cut at an angle; the next two 1/4" sections get cut up from the angle, taking 1/4" off. 

This is what you end up with! Have fun and feel free to contact me with any questions!

Sharing a Polymer Clay Technique: Shimmering Watercolor

I was playing around with image transfer techniques and finally found a printer that spit out copies that I could lay onto raw clay, burnish well, leave sit for about 10 minutes, pull off and done! Yes, done, didn't have to bake it or use any kinda medium or special paper. Of course that printer is at my old job. Now what am I going to do?
Anyway, I made these

This one is on white clay, doesn't the mica in the pearl clay make all the difference?

Step one:

 Find image (or draw a pattern and scan)  and print out on regular computer paper with a black and white laser printer, then make a copy of that on a copy machine. 

*I try to use as many different printers and copiers as I can (whenever I get the chance I print out images) to increase the odds that I'll have at least one that makes a successful transfer. It's so disappointing to sit down to my clay only to find that the image is no good- it happened while I was taking pics for this tutorial! *It helps to increase the contrast, make the lines of the image as dark as possible. The more ink the machine lays down the more for the clay to pick up.  *I googled "free clip art paisley" and got this, you want just a line drawing 

Step two:

Roll pearl clay into a sheet, whatever thickness you want, lay your image on the clay and burnish well. Leave it to sit, burnishing again, leave sit, burnish again...- between 5 and 10 minutes total. 

*This is really going to depend on your image, the toner, the paper. So keep your eye on it, lift up the corner and see where you're at. Leave it too long and the clay will come up instead of the ink going down (which would be etching not image transferring!). 

Step three:

Reveal your image transfer! (These are on white not pearl clay, sorry).

Step four:

Cut, form, shape your clay into whatever and pop it in the oven.

Step five:

once it's cool, color in your image! 

*I use Blick studio markers, Copic or Pantone markers to color in the image because I want it to be like water color and have the shimmer of the mica in the pearl clay come through. on the white pieces I use a tiny paint brush and acrylic paint sometimes for opaque color. 

Step six:

pop it back in the oven for a few minutes to set the ink then seal 

*I like Future Floor Wax which I also heat set

That's it! Please feel free to ask me any questions. 

Making Your Own Ball Tipped Silver Headpins

It's as simple as taking your silver wire and sticking the tip in the blue part of the flame of your torch until it melts into a ball the size you want then quench in cool water. But I kept getting lopsided balls, the wire always curled up to one side or another. Maybe I'm the only one who didn't know this but in case I'm not... So, use fine silver wire, .999 not sterling silver, .925.

the sterling silver balls up to the side, not to mention you still have to pickle and tumble them to get off the firescale and restore the shine

fine silver balls up nice and even and you don't have to take any additional steps, it stays nice and shiny!

What to do with all those holiday cards? Make a secret keepsake box!

This project isn't my creation. I came across it years ago and I don't know who gets credit for it. I thought this would be a good project to share this time of year and I was intending to share a link to a tutorial for it with you but cant find one. So, I'm showing you  how I made mine. 

Materials: 10-20 cards in envelope

exact knife

glue

decorative paper

index card or other scratch paper to make a template

This is what we are making! 

this stack of cards disguises a little treasure or keepsake box!

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the top card is a lid that covers the cavity inside!

step one: decide what dimensions you want the cavity to have then make a template for the size of the box.

step two: use the template to draw rectangles on each card, make sure to do some at an angle to add interest and make the stack more believable. Use an exacto knife to cut the rectangle out of each card.  

step three: stack the cards up, aligning them by the rectangular cut out and glue them to each other. I used about 15 cards, I stuffed a folded piece of paper in a few to make them thicker. You want to use as many cards as you need to make the box the depth you want.

Step four: line the inside of the cavity with decorative paper.

Step five: making the lid. Decide which card is going on the top.

You want to create a hinge from a piece of card stock so you can flip the lid open. I cut a slit into the top of the lid card and slid half of the hinge in it. The other half I tucked under the top of the box card.

does this help?

This is what you end up with!

I added a ribbon to look like it's holding the stack of cards together.

Please feel free to ask any questions if something isn't clear.