Spring Charm Swap

Anyone for Su Doku?

No, not me, I don't like number games,

scrabble and other words games yes, but nothing with numbers!

 

When I saw this set of Su Doku in a charity shop

a few years ago, I had no intention of ever playing a game with them,

but just knew they'd come in handy one day.

 

Cue - The Altered Dominos & Other Altered Game Pieces

group on Flickr.

The current swap on there is to 

" Create up to ten charms and receive ten. They have to be made using a game piece

 and have something on it that makes you think of Spring"

 

I wanted to use wire and the 'gizmo' wire coiling tool

to create some flowers with a gemstone in their centre. 

 

 

Although it's an easy tool to use (in theory!),

I think I need more practice.  However I was reasonably

pleased with how the flowers turned out.

 

 

First though, I painted one side of the Su Doku counters

white (to hide the numbers)

 and then attached book text with Liquitex.

 

   

The flowers (or maybe butterflies!) were then

stuck onto the counters with E6000 adhesive.

 

 

The gemstones I used are Carnelian,

except the blue one in the middle of the photo

which is Blue Chalcedony

 (no, I'd never heard of them before either!)

 

 

  

Flower or butterfly?

You decide!

 

Can't wait to see what charms I get back in return now!

 

Thanks for looking and I promise to try and get

round to see some of my blogging friends' blogs soon!    

More Charms - Valentine

The current charm swap on Kim's PDA group is 'Valentine Heart Shape'.

I bought some chunky wooden hearts which measure an inch and a half across - inked them, stuck on some old book text, then distressed them quite heavily with an emery board. 

On the back of them there is just one line of text.  I attached some metal charms to finish them off. 

Now I just need to negotiate the snow on the ground and try to make it to the Post Office in one piece!

'Things With Wings' Charm Swap

I was invited by Michelle of 'Faerie Dust Dreams' to take part in her 4th Charm Swap - how could I say no!

I'm fairly new to making charms and so far this year been in charm swaps where I used Mah jongg pieces, scrabble tiles and jigsaw pieces. For Michelle's swap there are 25 participants (yes 25 - I do love a challenge!) and I struggled at first to decide what to use to make the charms with. Eventually I settled on some crystal chandelier droplets - I acquired these about 15 years ago when my parents moved into their current home and the previous owners left behind a very dusty crystal chandelier in the hallway. Unfortunatly they aren't real crystals, but do have a lovely reflective cut glass quality about them. I saved them from going in the dustbin - so what a good girl I am for recycling some of them all these years on - lol!

The theme of this swap is 'Things With Wings' and the images I used came from either used postage stamps or magazines. They are mainly butterflies but there are also a couple of dragonflies, birds and even an angel! My favourite image though is a bumble bee which I cut out from an old cardboard tissue box.

I adhered the images onto the back of the crystals with Glossy Accents. Once dry, I wet the back and rubbed off most of the backing papers which left an image transfer kind of effect. It worked better on some than others. I tidied up the backs by rubbing a little Perfect Pearls over and sealed the whole thing with some more Glossy Accents.

I'm pleased with how they've turned out and although they may seem a little bit on the large size (one and half inches long approximately) I think this will be ok as Michelle said ' there is no size limit as many will not put these on a bracelet, but instead make wall art, necklaces and other adornments'

I can't wait to see what charms I get back although I'll have to as the swap doesn't end until 20th June!

There is a Flickr group 'Things with Wings Charm Swap, 2009' for participants to post pictures of their charms once done.

Lucky Charm Swap

I recently joined a new site called Paper Digital Art and Images by Kim just because there was a charm swap going on and this is something I've been wanting to have a go at for some time now.

The idea is to create 10 charms and receive 10 back. The charms can be made of any material, to any theme, colour and size - so there was a lot of scope there!

I used some Mah Jongg tiles for my charms as I recently bought a box in a charity shop for 50p - bargain! Seeing as I was using these tiles I decided to go with an oriental theme so used two different backgrounds and a few different Geisha images. Once the holes were drilled in the tiles (thanks to my OH!) I adhered the images (inkjet) with Mod Podge and lightly sanded and inked around all sides. Once thoroughly dry, I coated them with some Anita's 3-D Clear Gloss Finish and finished them off with some wire, various beads and jump rings.

How charming they all look together - lol! Can't wait to get all the various charms back (they should all be posted by 1st March, so not too long to wait) and I'll post a picture of them when I get them - and once I've decided what to do with them all!