Finished onthe 15th, Fave Crafts Blog hop

Today is the Fave Crafts Blog Hop Finished on the 15th. It is about recycled products.

Click on the blog hop button above to go there and see all of the recycled crafts. Or cut and paste below

http://www.favecraftsblog.com/november-blog-hop-recycling-crafts-giveaway/

It is a contest again if you feel like voting.

 

 

I have been busy with life and finding less and less time as we are getting towards all of the holidays. There are so many things to do when your granddaughter is almost 3. Santa pictures, play, Christmas crafts, play, play, play, play, and more play. She is in to role playing now and I have been all of her friends, her stuffed animals, TV friends, swiper, and Uniqua (TV characters). It is fun, so I am behind.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone and may someone like my grand daughter light your life up and show you how to remember how to play and imagine!!

 

 

Here is my latest tin can project “Tin Can Taco box”.

Just add food.

The instructions to cover the box are from the last Blog hop and here.

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/10/finished-on-15th-tin-can-pumpkin-box.html 

You could even make a pumpkin with out the face for thanksgiving treats.

Have a great Holiday.

 

Finished on the 15th Tin can pumpkin box part 2- DIY

This is my post for the Fave Crafts Blog hop, Finished on the 15th.

http://www.favecraftsblog.com/october-blog-hop-halloween-crafts-anniversary-giveaway/

It is a themed Blog hop for Halloween and I have the chance to win 50$ worth of craft products if you vote for me. Could you please check it out. I would love to win. You have to go to the fave craft  page (click on link of above) and like my post there.

Look for this picture.

You can click on this pumpkin to to go there.

Thank you so much if you do.

I did not get much done because I was getting ready for the San Diego polymer clay Guild’s annual Sandy Camp. You can see the witches here

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/10/1st-day-of-sandy-camp.html

A good time was had by all.

This is continued from part one here

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/10/tin-can-pumpkin-box-part-1-diy.html

I thought you would like to see how I make the can boxes.

Never throw another can away again.

LOL!!

You will need:

4 ounce Ortega chili can (You can use any can size but the cutters I am using are for the 4 ounce size can) to find the right circle cutters, put a cutter inside the lid top to see which cutter will work and then use the nest size up for lid top.

Cernit Clay in

Orange

Light Green

Gold

Caramel

Opaque white

Black

Poppy red

Yellow

Large block of Biscuit

1/2″ Oval Kemper cutter

3/16″ round Kemper cutter

1 1/8″ round cutter

2″ round cutter

2 1/2″ round cutter

2 3/4″ round cutter

Clay slicing blade

Knitting needle or bic stic pen

I mix all of my colors equally with the same amount of biscuit.

Condition to one color.

Condition some of the light green Cernit and roll out on the thickest setting in your clay machine.

The mix some of the gold Cernit with the light Green 1:1 and roll it out on the thickest setting.

I used a maple leaf cutter and cut out one leaf in each color.

Cut out the stem of the leaf.

Please disregard the piece of clay on the blade ;-D

Cut a “V” at the base of the leaf.

With a knitting needle make marks in the leaves you cut out for veins.

Like so.

From the back of the leaf pinch down the center vein just a little.

Place on the lid of the can. I make the leaves were the “V” is cut go up the stem a little and scrunch up the leaves to make them look real.

Take a 1/2″ ball of the light green Cernit and roll out in to an elongated cone about 3″ long.

Place the thick end in the dip of the stem and curl up.

Like so.

Roll out some black Cernit on the thickest setting in the clay machine and fold a part of it in half.

Using the 1/2″ oval cutter, cut out 3 ovals.

Stack together. You can wrap these with another piece of very thin black clay if you wish, but I leave them like this.

I roll them gently on the work surface to tack together.

Make 4 sets of these black stacked ovals and place at four corner on the bottom of the can.

Turn the can over and place on the feet and press gently to flatten feet a little.

Cut out 4 more double thick ovals for bat bodies.

Cut out 4 single thickness rounds with the 1 1/4″ cutter.

Cut those single thick circles in half.

Using the point of the 1/2″ heart cutter starting on the out side of the half circles cut 3 points across the cut halves of each set.

Like this. Do that with all of the sets. They will look like wings now.

Using the 1 1/4″ cutter mark partial arcs from the points  to the top of the wing.

Like this.

Place a set of wings over each foot like so.

Roll the little body balls of clay in to stubby pear shapes. Place the smaller end up and place the body over the wing tips and the feet

Roll out some of the red Cernit on the 6th thickest setting and with the 3/16″ round cutter cut out 4 sets of two each for the eyes on the bat.

Cut out a single thickness of black Cernit with the 3/16″ cutter and roll into a short little coil and place over the red eyes. Mark in the center with your knitting needle. Do this on each bat.

Roll another little coil of black and cut off tiny slices and roll into a balls for the pupils in the eyes and place like above.

Make a mark for a mouth by moving the knitting needle. Do this on each bat.

Bats done, now for the face of the pumpkin.

Cut a 1/2″ strip of single thickness black.

Cut the strip so you have 3 triangles for the eyes and nose.

Place the eyes and nose on your pumpkin.

Press gently on.

Using the 2″ cutter, cut out a round and then cut a thin moon shape.

Using the square 1/2″ cutter cut out a tooth on the bottom.

Like this.

Roll out some more of the red on the 6th thickest setting and cut out 3/16″ rounds and place on the triangles for the eyes.

Sometimes you can place the cutter with the red clay on the triangle and pull back quickly and the clay with stay on the triangle.

Roll out a tiny coil of yellow and cut little sections for pupils and place on the cut out rounds of red.

Like this.

Bake like this on a piece of cardboard shipping box in a pre-heated 275 degree oven for 1/2 hour, shut off oven and let cool.

When the piece is cool you can antique it with brown Ne-Opaque. Brush on the color over the whole piece and wipe off with a damp not wet old piece of towel. It will look like the picture at the top.

Tah-dah!

Happy Halloween.

Thank you for dropping by!

Finished on the 15th- the Fave Crafts Blog Hop

Welcome all you Fave Craft Blog hoppers. My name is Marie Segal and I am a craftaholic, no no I am a polymerholic, no, I am just a holic.

I love working with my hands and this is my brain is on crafts and arts. I can not help my self, I must play with Clay, beads, wire, paper, paint, pearl-ex, air dry clay, clay, clay, and clay, card stock, gel mediums (all of them), glass, recycled goods, found objects, cameras, computers, punches, stamps, gold leaf, foils, eyelets and brads, scissors, paper cutters, words, gardening, food, cakes, fondant, book making, scrap books, albums, canvas, score pads… I think you are probably starting to get the idea.

Nothing is off-limits and everything is fair game and fodder for my mind, my heart and hands.

I have been doing this craziness for 45+ years now as much as I can and as long as I can and with as many products as I can.

I do love clay though and it is probably the thing I do most often and the longest. You will find much of that and all of the above and even the stuff I forgot in this space, with little tales from my life, opinions, and pictures, with circles and arrows ;-D.

So get your self some refreshments, and stay for a spell while I incite a riot in your mind. After all I need some company in this journey. ;-P

We will laugh and cry, but mostly laugh. I mean it couldn’t hurt, right? It is just about the only thing I trust in this day and age and it does help me stay out of trouble… mostly.

This thing I do has brought me through so many trying times and it has also helped me find solutions in life and friends along the way. It keeps me sane when I am stressed (well.. it keeps me out of trouble, mostly).

I am on a life long process of building skills.

You can click on the blog hop button above and go back to Fave Crafts blog to see other artists and their things that they have finished this month.

Here are some of the things I have finished from the last 15 to this 15th.

Last 15th I did a tutorial on making Millefiori canes influenced by Atomic age designs.

Here is the last one

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/08/fave-crafts-blog-hop-black-and-white.html

I finished this with all of those canes I made.

The tutorial for it is here

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/08/atomic-age-influence-votive-holder.html

I made a book.

Here is another book

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/08/my-coptic-bound-book.html

And here is the one above

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/08/ok-it-is-official.html

I made this tiny book

You can find it here

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/09/hi-immmmmmmmmmmmm-back.html

I made this book with clay covers.

I made this skeleton key. It is in my Etsy store

www.mariesegal.etsy.com

I made this Coptic bound photo Album for a wedding.

You can see all of those items above here

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/09/monday-updates-091211.html

And lastly but not leastly.

I made this Tin Can Box from a recycled 4 ounce Ortega green chili can

You can see it here

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/09/tin-can-box.html

Thank you for stopping by and spending some of your precious time with me. I am so honored to have you here.

Come back again.

Be well!

Finished on the 15th- Fave Crafts Blog Hop- a little hope

Well, another 15th of the month and a Fave Crafts Blog hop is here. Welcome to all of you new to my blog, I hope you enjoy your visit and come back again sometime.

To all of you that visit here regular like, HI!!  

Can you believe that it is the 15th of June? The year is half way over and the second half will be here soon.

http://www.favecraftsblog.com/finished-on-the-fifteenth-favecrafts-blog-hop-for-june/

Is it that my life is so full of stuff, that things are moving so fast?
How about you? Do you feel as if time is whizzing by?

Just a reminder for all of you that make your Christmas presents, START NOW!

Well, the thing that I got finished this month is a flower cane with and with out background and the instructions on how to make a Bottle of Hope.

Here are the links, there are 4 parts to this:

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/06/flower-cane-and-bottle-of-hope-part-1.html

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/06/flower-cane-and-bottle-of-hope-part-2.html

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/06/flower-cane-and-bottle-of-hope-part-3.html

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/06/flower-cane-and-bottle-of-hope-part-4.html

Bottles of Hope http://www.bottlesofhope.org/ were thought up by a wonderful woman name Diane Gregoire who was going through breast cancer treatments in the late ’90′s.

She would take the bottles used in hers and others treatments and place polymer clay around them, then she would return for more treatments and pass them out to the people who were there for treatments too.

I met Diane in 1999 and fell in love with her attitude and lust for life and thriving through one of the most horrific diagnoses one can receive in life. Her large lovely grace gifted my life and I went out and taught about the program and talked to others about Diane and her bottles. I was travelling all over the world at the time and it was fun to spread the word.

Little did I know how much it would mean to me later in life when my mother and Sister in law were diagnosed with this dreaded disease.

I made 300+ bottles for my sister-in-law while she was going through treatments and before she died. I would get a call every week when I sent them, from her saying “oh I am keeping this one” or “I have a special person to give this one too”. I loved it. It gave me some thing to do. I felt like I was helping somehow.

My guild and I have been making bottles of hope ever since and have been closely affiliated with Moore’s cancer center and Dr. Casden over the years, we even have Bottles of Hope Clay Days. Yay Team!

It has been most rewarding and fulfilling  even in the tragedy of it.

Isn’t that what life is about, finding something of value and light in the dark parts?

It is for me!!

Go out and find some light!!!

Go out and make the light!!!

Go out and spread some light!!!

Go out and be the light!!!

Fave Crafts Blog Hop-Finished on the 15th, May

May already?

Seems like I have been saying that every month when the 15th of the month rolls around.

Ready or not here it is!

Welcome all to the Fave Crafts Blog Hop, Finished on the 15th, May!

Hop on over to the Fave Crafts or click on the blog hop button!

http://www.favecraftsblog.com/finished-on-the-fifteenth-favecrafts-blog-hop-for-may/

I am excited to share this technique. I have been playing with it for a couple of years and love what I get out of it.

See that textured burgundy shiny stuff in the middle of this brooch?

It is aluminum foil. I used Pinata Ink to color it.

I have tons of tools and I like to find other uses for them besides just for clay.

You will need:

Clay machine

Makin’s Texture plates

Sheet wrap foam for packaging (it is very thin, not bubble wrap)

Aluminum foil

Golden Gel Medium heavy gel

Popsicle stick

Pinata Ink 6015 Sangria

3/4′ or 1/2″ flat soft brush

This background is the textured foil on a board. Covers like paper, nice!

I have used Lumiere Copper metallic paint on this textured foil to color it.

Here is what I use for the brooch. Once that foil “paper” is dry it can be cut with scissors.

And then it can be colored with Pinatas or Alcohol ink.

I use a piece of felt to apply the ink to the texture foil.

I blanked out the label because I have ancient bottles of the inks and that label has changed. It is good to know that as long as that cap is tight, they will last a very long time, years!

These are different textures that I have made. Some of the plates work better than others.

Here is the back of the foil, the dull part. You can use both sides of the foil and the dull one might be nice for some projects.

Another example.

Cut the foam to the width of your clay machine or a little smaller.

Place the foil over it.

Place the texture sheet on top.

How you place the foil in depends on how the texture turns out too.

Shiny side close to the foam will give me a great beehive print when I press the texture plate in to the dull side.

For this texture plate I ran it through the machine on the 3rd thickest setting. Each texture plate demands a different setting on the clay machine. You want to put it through tightly with out breaking or smashing the design in the texture plate.

This is a better shot so you can see the texture plate.

This is run through the clay machine.

I turned the foil over to the dull side and I gently brush on some of the gel medium. I am generous with the gel medium. Go slow and gently, you can take out the design if you are too aggressive. 

Let that dry over night.

I make several sheets and dry them over night.

Then when it is dry, you pile up some gel medium on one side of the sheet and gently use the Popsicle stick to squeegee it over the surface again, like spreading grout or cheese ;-D.

Do all of the sheets and let them dry over night.

Till dry.

You can attach this to boxes, paper mache, cardboard, raw polymer clay, frames, and shrines, and I bet a ton more things too, with a coat of gel medium on the surface of the object you are covering.

I really love this one, the texture and the color, I used Baja Blue Pinata.

Fave Crafts Blog Hop- April 15thAfrican Trade beads and giveaways

Welcome all Fave Craft Blog Hoppers. This is the April Blog Hop and you are all so welcome to my blog.

And a Hey Ho to my regulars. I hope spring will bring me springing out to the world with bells on my toes!!

I hope you all are doing well and enjoying spring or fall depending where you are.

This month and part of last I was working on African Trade Bead tutorials. I have 8 of them so far and they include the canes, or primary patterns, for the beads and then how to make the beads also. I also have several giveaways going on, see below.

The first flower cane

I am really late today! ;-D

Slept the day away yesterday.

YAY! I feel like I have a hangover today, maybe too much sleep?

You can find the giveaways here.

Here is the 1st give away,

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/04/african-trade-beads-part-9-giveaway.html

Here is the 2nd giveaway,

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/04/african-trade-beads-part-9a-second.html

Here is the 3rd giveaway,

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/04/african-trade-beads-part-9b-third.html

Here is the 4th giveaway,

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/04/african-trade-beads-part-9c-fourth.html

Here is the 5th giveaway

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/04/african-trade-beads-part-9d-fifth.html

You still have time on the first one, it closes today at 6 pm Pacific Daylight Time.

The 2nd Flower cane

Here are all the tutorials for this series.

you can see part 1 here,

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/03/african-trade-beads-part-1.html

you can see part 2 here,

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/03/african-trade-beads-part-2.html

you can see part 3 here,

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/03/african-trade-beads-part-3.html

you can see part 4 here,

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/03/african-trade-beads-part-4.html

you can see part 5 here,

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/03/african-trade-beads-part-5.html
you can see part 6 here,

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/03/african-trade-beads-part-6.html

you can see part 7 here,

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/03/african-trade-beads-part-7-continued.html

you can see part 8 here,

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/04/african-trade-beads-part-8.html

The 3rd Flower cane

I hope you enjoy these tutorials, they are from the bottom and top of my heart.

Have Easy, Joyful, and Glorious Weekend.

The 4th flower cane

 

This one is coming soon!

 

 

The 5th cane, coming soon!

 

Fave Crafts Blog Hop- March 15th, National Craft Month

Spring is here in Southern California, birds are singing, the sun is shining, the sky is a lovely blue and the breeze is breezy.A lovely month for crafts.

Welcome to my piece of the craft world, I hope you like your visit and will consider coming back here again.

Be sure and click on the favecrafts logo above to take you to see all of the other wonderful crafters that hang out with Fave Crafts.com or here http://www.favecraftsblog.com/finished-on-the-fifteenth-favecrafts-blog-hop-for-march/

This month I started a series of how to articles based on the African trade beads that are made out of glass.

 

“Trade beads are usually associated with West Africa where they are usually found, but they were originally created in Venice, Bohemia, and Holland. The history of trade beads dates back to the end of the fifteenth century when Portuguese trading ships arrived on the coast of West Africa to exploit its many resources, including gold, slaves, ivory, and palm oil. In those days, beads were a major component of the currency exchanged for people and products. Over the four centuries that followed, millions of beads were traded to Africa, and by the nineteenth century, European bead makers were producing a wide variety of designs specifically for the African trade, such as millefiori, chevrons, striped melons, feather, and eye beads.” Full article at Beadopedia,

http://www.bostonbeadcompany.com/beadopedia/beads/trade-beads.htm

You can find the first installment of the series here http://www.favecraftsblog.com/finished-on-the-fifteenth-favecrafts-blog-hop-for-march/

You can find the second installment here http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/03/african-trade-beads-part-2.html

I plan on having several more canes and posts to go with these so you might want to check back when you have a little time.

Thank you for coming by this month.

Your time is much appreciated here.

Fave Crafts Blog Hop- February 15th , already???

Finished on the 15th, Fave Crafts Blog hop happens on the 15th of every month. Like clock work.

Click to go to all the other Hoppers.

I was not prepared for it all to happen on the 15th of this month, I mean everything that is happening is happening on this day!! LOL.

Not quite, but it seems like it to me right now.

So I have really finished nothing this month.

SO……….. I decided to show you a quick acrylic paint wash easy background for a collage.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great time crafting.

Clean canvas- I used a stretch canvas

Lumiere gold-true gold #550

Ne-Opaque Brown-#592

flat soft 1/2″ brush

Cotton printable paper

Silk printable paper

Flowable extender- just ask Howard for it, we have it.

This was for a friend for Christmas. It is my friend Jodi’s hubby, he is something of a wild west fan and historian.

He tells great stories and studies profusely.

I had the chance to blow this every step of the way (finding the wrong information or pictures) and I am making this on the 23rd of December.

I look for trivia and anything I could find on Wyatt Earp and Nelson Story two of his favorites in old west history.

Now this was fun and I took a chance with the stuff I used it could have all big propaganda and lies, but I went with it and I loved reading about these guys the myth, legend, and the lies. I wasn’t there, it is all propaganda to me. I know how stories get twisted in families. Everybody does it.

I printed the pictures I was going to use on the cotton paper. It is sheet of paper with fabric attached to it so you can run it through your Ink Jet Printer (I am having so much fun with this stuff).

I printed the dates and words on a sheet of the silk paper. I used the silk for this because when I used the flowable extender the silk tends to fade away and the words are just left. This works with encaustic collage too!

I do these first to give the ink a chance to dry before I use it. Otherwise it gets on my hands and comes off in my brush too!

Flowable extender is a gel medium and if you want a thicker one you can use the Jacquard Silk screen flowable extender. The one for the Lumiere and the Ne-opaque is thinner and is nice for thinning the Ne-opaque and Lumiere and for using as a standalone product too. I like this as a thinner more than water, even though water does work also.

I took the canvas and thinned the Brown Ne-opaque with the flowable extender and slapped it haphazardly on to the canvas. That means quickly and with no deliberation, Just do it.

Roughly looks best and you can scrub it on in places and add it on like painting a coat of paint too.

I even painted the sides of the canvas too!

That way they can be hung right away while looking for the perfect frames.

Some one should really clean up my area. LOL!

While the brown was still wet and workable and added the Gold Lumiere. In patches according to taste. I did not want the whole thing goldy, but for it to have highlights of gold in different light.

I took these pictures about midnight. Sorry for the bad lighting. You kind of see the gold in there. It is really yummy though.

Can you see it yet?

How about now?

I messed around with the placement of the pictures before I started “gluing” them on with the flowable extender. 

Here is another look at it.

You can see he was a very good-looking man. I am getting a pretty good idea of what I want to go where now.

I had some scraps of the fabric paper left over so I thought I would use a fine point Tee-juice pen and see if I could draw on the paper fairly well and you can and I am probably going to pursue this one later on.

Just think Zentangle quilts, wall hangings, or fabric collage!!! I am thinking too I could draw my own stuff, heat set it, and then use it in the encaustic. yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

It was so easy because of the paper backing and the tee-juice pen is juicy and keeps on flowing, I loved that. It was just like drawing on a piece of paper. Sorry, side tracked. Pretty, shiny thing.

First thing you want to do when starting to use the paper is get the backing off of the fabric.

I use my scissors for this and stick the end under the fabric and pull it back from the paper. Sorry for the black nails ;-D

I lift it up around it and then get a big piece of it and pull away! If your scissors are really sharp be careful of cutting yourself and the fabric. 

I paint the back and the front of the fabric with flowable extender and then paint the canvas where I want my fabric to go. I then lay the fabric picture on the canvas. I then brush more extender on and brush out any air bubbles underneath the fabric picture.

Add more pictures overlapping them, this same way.

I don’t have the finished piece pictures I will have to get you one next time I am up at Jodi’s. I did a good job on these and when I gave them to her husband I found out that I didn’t do too bad in my choice of pictures.

I added the dates of his birth and death and Wyatt’s name in a great font and also added some more scrolly painting and highlighting with the gold paint, I have to admit I really like them and may even do some more of these.

I can also see how some of the techniques I used here could carry over in to other aspects of my art play.

Thanks for visiting.

Have a great blog hop!

My friend Anne at El Milagro studios has just done a bang up series in Gel mediums and I think you would really enjoy them you can find them here.

1. http://elmilagrostudio.blogspot.com/2011/02/gel-mediums-secret-desire-of-artists-or.html

2. http://elmilagrostudio.blogspot.com/2011/02/are-you-gellin-uuuuuuuggghhhh.html

3. http://elmilagrostudio.blogspot.com/2011/02/shiny-happy-gelling-with-my-apologies.html

4. http://elmilagrostudio.blogspot.com/2011/02/more-art-making-on-distant-shores.html

5. http://elmilagrostudio.blogspot.com/2011/02/one-last-splash-of-glitter.html

6. http://elmilagrostudio.blogspot.com/2011/02/divas-and-their-stories.html

7. http://elmilagrostudio.blogspot.com/2011/02/valentine-unlike-convential-hearts.html

For January’s Fave Crafts Blog Hop: video’s with complete tutorial for Cernit polymer clay hearts 

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/01/fave-crafts-blog-hop-i-heart-you.html

For December’s Fave Crafts Blog Hop: there are some great links here if you are interested and a complete tutorial.

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/12/fave-crafts-blog-hop-today-december.html

Finished Hearts from yesterdays tutorial

I wrote the I heart you tutorial yesterday for the Fave Crafts Blog hop and these are the finished hearts.

I like the one with the love stamped in to it.

I went to our San Diego Polymer Clay Guild Clay Day and hung out with some awesome people and made more hearts, I am having a heart art attack.

Have a wonderful day every one!!

Fave Crafts Blog Hop-I heart you!!!

Click on the blog hop button above to take you there.

Fave Crafts has their “Finished on the 15th” blog hop every month and this is the one for the 15th of December to 15th of January.

I had a lot of stuff going on in December, making gifts and holiday cooking, so I didn’t get much posted on my blog as far as what I finished, so I am posting my only how to project right in this post.

Welcome Fave Crafts people and thank you so much for coming!!

And for my regular followers, thank you so much for being here for me.

I heart you all!!!

Textured hearts with a rose and leaves

You will need:

Poppy Red Cernit

Black Cernit

Pink Cernit

Mint Cernit

Ne-opaque white

Lumiere Gold

Lumiere Metallic Olive

Knitting needle

Clay slicing blade

3/8″ teardrop cutter APC3T

Piece of cotton lace

Piece of window screen

Letter stamps-instructions for these here

Large 16 gauge jump rings out of Artistic wire- instructions for these here

Stencil brush 1/2″ round

old piece of towel

1/4″ flat brush

Sorry some of the pics are a little iffy, I am trying something new.

Also please pretend that I never use my hands and they are perfectly manicured and do not look as crappy as they do! ;-D

Make jump rings first.

For each heart you will need 1/8 block of Poppy red Cernit.

Condition the 1/8 and roll it in to a ball and then roll it in to a teardrop.

Flatten the thick end of the teardrop until it is about 3/8″ in thickness.

Like this.

Hold the middle lower part of the point end of the heart and rock the point of your knitting needle down in the middle of the thick end of the flattened teardrop to make the indentation for the lobes of the heart.

I rock it back and forth to make the indent and then I shape a little with my fingers and then use the knitting needle again.

i proceed like this until I get the shape I want and it is smooth and pretty.

Like this.

I hold the heart by the middle to the point again and then slice into the top middle of the lobes.

Rock the blade a little in the opposite direction that the cut to open the cut.

Like this.

Take one of the jump rings you have made and stick the part of the jump ring where the two wires meet in to the slit.

Press the slit together over the jump ring.

Work the slit closed gently from one end to the other.

With  the point of the knitting needle roll it over the cut and seal the edges together and then smooth them with the knitting needle until closed

 and finished.

Shape back with fingers.

Lay the heart on the lace in the place where you want the pattern to appear on your heart.

Place the other part of the

lace over the heart on top where you want the pattern to be on your heart,

Press down with the center of your palm with out smashing or destroying and then work the lace down on the dies or the heart.

With the screen you lay down the heart. This is fabric like screen, not metal.

Place the other half of the lace over the top of the heart and press gently with the palm and then press the screen down on the sides. take your time and make sure the screen is pressed all the way around.

Here is the front and you can see the rounded edges and the pattern. Click the pic for a little better view.

And here is the back.

Here I use the letter stamps to stamp in the word “Love” The link for making these stamps is above in the “you will need” paragraph.

I used the screened heart for this.

I will put a pic of this one when I finish them, maybe Sunday!

I am going to arc the word a little and start with the letter “L”.

And the “O”, you get the drill, right?

And done, you can leave the heart just like this and it will look good, but I am going to add a pair of leaves and a rose to each heart.

Roll 4- 1/4″ balls of the mint or a green you like in to balls and then in to teardrops.

Place them on to each heart, like this.

Mark the center vein with the back of the blade, please do be careful. 

Use the teardrop cutter to make the side vein marks by placing the point of the tear drop into the center vein and pushing it in a little.

Roll a small 3/16″ ball of pink into a teardrop and flatten with your finger.

Roll the teardrop from the thicker end to the pointed end.

AHGGGGGGGGGGG! look at the lovely manicured hands. No, no don’t look!

Make 3 more 3/16″ balls of pink and flatten one with your finger and thumb.

Press against the coiled center at the bottom only.

Flatten the next ball, most of the time they stick to my thumb and I press the flatten round against the bottom only of the coiled center.

Do it again with the last pink ball.

Like this.

Then I pinch the little ends of the petals a little.

Place in to the center of the leaf set. 

You are done with this one!

Now make another rose, I used turquoise Cernit for this one.

Start the same way.

Here it is finished.

Tah-dah!!

Bake both hearts in your preheated 275F degree home oven on a piece of box top corrugated cardboard for 30 minutes, shut off the oven and let cool.

When completely cool using the stencil brush, punch in some of the white Ne-opaque until the whole heart is covered. Let dry a little and then wet a small area of the old towel and squeeze out the excess, rub off the white paint.

With the 1/4″ flat brush paint the leaves with a tiny amount of the olive green Lumiere.

With your finger blush the top of the rose with gold Lumiere.

You are done.