Found Items Note Card

I got inspired this morning by a bag of paper birch bark that I'd pulled from a log while staying in the White Mountains of NH a few years ago. The card below is a product of my (rather fertile) imagination this morning. Here's what I did to make it.

1. Cut beige cardstock to size.

2. hand-rubbed Ranger Distress Ink in the color Vintage Photousing a cotton pad and large swirling motions. You don't want the rubbing to look splotchy.

3. I then added a layer of Adirondack Dye Ink in Butterscotch

4. Keeping the cardstock flat, with the edge just barely over my table (make sure your table is protected or that you don't care if it gets marred, because this technique will mar your table!) and used a Diamond-Coated Lapidary Needle File in an upward motion to distress the edges of the cardstock. This can be tricky - you need to apply pressure, but not enough to tear the card - you want to sort of "soften and shred" the edges.

5. I then took my ink pad in Vintage Photo and inked all the way around the distressed edge of the cardstock.

6. I used a scribe to score the area of the card where I was going to place the birch bark "frame" and then using a glue gun, glued the birch bark on top of the scored area.

7. The picture that is framed by the birch bark is a stamping that I hand-colored using Prismacolor Colored Pencils.

8. After coloring the stamping, I used a Tape Runner on the back of the stamping and affixed it to the cardstock in the center of the birchbark frame. You can use any kind of tape-runner, but I've found that you get what you pay for. If you buy a good tape runner, your stuff will stay stuck. If you don't, it'll fall apart. :)

9. I had some 30 ga copper sheet that I'd embossed for a project about a year ago and never used, so I cut it down (it's easily cut with scissors) and just used a glue gun to attach it to the card stock.

I still need to trim the birch bark, which I'll do with nail scissors, but this card is gorgeous in person. The photo, I think, makes it look a bit messy, but up close, holding it in your hand, it's (if I do say so myself) truly a one-of-a-kind and very pretty! Here's the "almost finished" image:

More Note Cards, Less Cold

The cold abated for a bit and my eyes aren't streaming from allergies so I attempted something simple. I totally screwed it up, and any "professional" stamper will see where. (snort!) But It's actually quite pretty, simple, and the design could be altered to be blank note cards. I used a set of acrylic stamps, and Colorbox inks on this one. For the bottom edge, I used Martha Stewart's doily hole punch which takes a bit of getting used to. Once I figured out how to use it it was simple, though.

Got a cold!

More coming folks, once I get over this daggoned cold! Right now I'm drained of energy; I'm sniffling and sneezing so that even my cats don't want to be around me, my sofa has a permanent impression of my hindquarters and my dvd remote control "play" button is wearing thin. It's part cold, part allergies, part driving myself too hard, so I'm taking a bit of a break. Be back in a couple of days!

Maureen aka ArgentSol.

:)

I did, however, manage to create one thing today. I made a note card. It's not quite finished because the center piece needs a border and I'm thinking of adding some thin velvet ribbon.

I used Colorbox inks for the stamping, distressed the edges of it after cutting it out, heavily inked the distressed edges, glued it on, punched a 1//16th" hole at the top for the little filigree butterfly (which had a bend-over top - it's a vintage jewelry finding) and then inked the edges of the card. It's actually a dark burgundy - not the "purple" it appears on my monitor. Here it is:

Free Tutorials (vs Those you Have to Pay for!)

If you look to the right of this post you'll see a list of links to free tutorials. I've been scouring the web for what I consider the best tutorials for all types of things. So far this list is for wire-wrapping, but I'll be adding more tutorials for lots of things as time progresses.

Bookmark or follow this blog so that you'll always be updated when I post a new tutorial.

I've been noticing that people are selling their tutorials now. Well, I can't blame them. It's a rotten economy, but my feeling is that unless the tutorial contains a brand-new technique that they've developed and have patented, then they're not providing anything you can't find for free elsewhere. I'm not buying a tutorial when there are so many on the web that are free.

The tutorials I provide in the link list are usually going to be written ones, with photos. Video tutorials will almost always be posted in the body of my blog.

The link list are links to other people's sites, and I've hand-picked them for you as the best I've seen thus far. They range in skill-level from beginner to advanced. Take a look. Enjoy!

Dreamcatcher Pendant or Suncatcher

I've made similar items before, but only used the designs in my suncatchers. This is a very good tutorial for beginners - and she's got a very good method for closing the gap of the circle of wire you start with. Unless you're willing to solder it shut, her method is excellent. I make mine completely from wire. I make my circle, and I solder it closed and then I wrap the entire circle with wire. She used ribbon, which is a very cost-effective way of making a pretty pendant or suncatcher, depending upon size.

When I make my dreamcatcher suncatchers, I use all kinds of beads, mostly Swarovski, because, after all, they ARE suncatchers. Here's a picture of one that I made recently, and please be aware - when you click on the photo it doesn't open in a new window, you'll have to click the back arrow on your browser to get back here. If you do click the photo, you can then click it again and it will enlarge.

It's not a very good photo, as it was taken as an afterthought and the item is now hanging in the gift shop a block over, for sale. I didn't do a tight weave through the center of the circle at all, I simply did whatever the wire wanted to do. I didn't worry about keeping mine a perfect circle - I rather liked the asymmetrical look, but this is what I mean by taking the basic techniques and applying them in your own way. :)

Have fun and again, please post photos of anything you make.

Here's the vid:

Wire Wrapping A Cabochon - Viking Basket Weave Design

I found this tutorial on You Tube and it's a good one. Given the price of silver these days, I'd say practice first with copper or brass or craft wire, but it's an easy wrap to do, and one that shouldn't take you much time to master at all. It lends a beautiful accent to your cabs without obscuring the beauty of the stone.

It's also a technique upon which you can build with your own creativity as you become more comfortable using it. Thanks to CamilleSharon for posting this tutorial on You Tube. I'm going to share a few more of her tutorials here in the coming days.



Hope you enjoy the tutorial and if you try the technique, upload a photo here so I can see what you've done!

I'm not sure why there's so much space between this post and the one below it but I can't seem to make it go away. Hmmmm.....

Everything's an Embellishment

I started collecting vintage jewelry when I was in my early 20's. By the time I hit my early 40's, I was selling it online. I have tons of it. Don't throw any of it away. Clasps, settings, components - almost all parts of vintage jewelry, particularly if it's ornate, can be used elsewhere. You can do a lot with it to make it new and different. I took a floral component from an old broken vintage necklace, cut the attachment ends off either end - I used a jeweler's saw, because this is soft base metal, but you can use a rotary tool, and sometimes, if it's soft enough, just use your snips.

I filed the edges smooth - I did it by hand, using jeweler's files and sandpaper, but if you have a rotary tool, you could do it in a jiffy by simply grinding the rough edges until they are flush with the piece and then using a finer abrasive to smooth and polish.

Then the fun began! I changed the color of it using Alcohol Ink. The inks I choose to use are Tim Holtz's Adirondack Alcohol Inks and for purposes of simply showing you what it can do, I chose Cranberry, since it would show the complete difference in look.

Below is what the piece originally looked like:

And this is what it looks like after applying Adirondack Alcohol Ink in Cranberry. I just swabbed it on using a felted stamp applicator. It needs another coat and I'll have to use a small wrapped toothpick (or you can wrap the end of a file in felt) to get to the inside edges. This is simply for demonstration purposes, so it's not as neat and tidy as I'd normally do it:

It took about 30 seconds. It's dry, and it's permanent. I'll probably spray it with some Krylon Make it Last! just to give it a nice scratch-proof finish and to seal it, just in case.

Easy peasy. You can do this on any of your metal findings - change the color if you don't like it. If you need something to match beads, or a scrapbook entry, or something pretty for a notecard, recycle! Use found objects, broken jewelry, or anything you might just toss in the trash.

I'll post some more of my color-changes later today.