Cards

So, through my job, I get to see a lot of craft magazines. Two that really intrigued me were Paper Crafts and Paper Craft Inspirations. Both have non-scrapbooking papercrafts, like gift boxes and cards. So, I decided that since I had most of the materials (patterened cardstock for origami, markers from school, etc.) that I could just put together cards pretty easily for my Mother’s Day and my mom’s birthday.

It was not as easy as it seemed from some of the picture in the magazine. It went against most of my design instincts, like de-cluttering and only adding things that have purpose. The way you make cards seems to be “add things until it looks pretty”.

You know, like graphic designers. (I kid, I kid!)

Anyway, here is the first card for Mother’s Day:

The card is patterned cardstock on a card blank, and a die-cut frame from one of my cardstock packs. I colored in the leaves on the cardstock with a green glitter pen. The flowers were stacked and attached with yellow brads.

This is the second card, for my mom’s birthday:

The base is a pink card blank. I used a die-cut tag and die-cut letters on the front, along with a pre-made cupcake sticker. The bow is sticky ribbon that was scrunched with gold thread. The inside is another die-cut tag with die-cut letters.

Butterfly Necklace

As an exercise, I’m creating a product line of antique/Victorian jewelery, complete with graphics and packaging. I’m thinking of going with the name Melancholia (after the pseudo-disorder of the 19th century), because I want my jewelry line to sort of capture a sense of sadness and longing.

For the packaging, I found an small  inexpensive wooden chest which I have stained with spray-on stain. (I’m still working on it) The jewelry itself will be tucked inside a small lace handkerchief. I might include a paper with a snippet of why the jewelry fits in the line, like part of a letter or newspaper clipping.

One of my necklaces is almost done. I still need to change the key so that it’s gold, get smaller jump rings, and get a gold barrel clasp.

In case you were wondering, the gloves were my grandmother’s, the rose in the top right is silk,and the background is printed scrapbooking paper.

Geraniums

So, I’ve decided to make more little plants to see how it works out. I’m still processing the pictures, but they’ll be up soon.

I first made the little pot by rolling out a piece of terra-cotta Sculpy, then forming it into the bowl shape. I made a small platform for the water catcher, then made a snake and made the piping on the pot and the catcher.

The geraniums were made by rolling little balls of red Sculpy then squishing them into the shape of petals, then adding petals until the final flower shape was achieved. I rolled a little ball of yellow for the middle, then squished it onto the petals.

The leaves were made the same way as the petals (just in green), then added to the back of the flowers.

I then rolled a ball of the same green I used for the petals, then arranged the flowers onto it, camoflaging the ball.

The flower ball and the pot were baked, then black/brown Sculpy was added as dirt in the pot, then the flower ball was placed on top. This was baked again.

Here is the finished product:

(I forgot to add scale in the other two Sculpy plants, but they are all about the same size.)

Little Plants

This is a little example of some of my stuff in Sculpy.

The short “leaf” used to be long like the others, but it broke off somehow, but it turned out alright because a leaf on the actual plant also broke off somehow.

Pocket Watch

So, I received this pocket watch from my grandmother. It was a little dirty, but I cleaned it up and was surprised to find that not only did it still run, but that, being a wind up watch, it never needed batteries. It seemed like a much better watch for dressier functions than my cheap Wal-mart watch or my purple digital watch.

I got a chain for the watch, but since the watch needed a key to both set and wind it, I needed something to keep the key on. So I made a chain for both keys (I needed another one because the original key had worn down) using sterling silver chain and a lobster clasp so I could remove it.