Altered Charm Swap

I haven't done any crafting lately but when I saw an altered charm swap on

Ink Stained Roni's blog

 recently, it was just what I needed to kick start me back into action!

The charms had to be altered, so I used some childrens' thin wooden

 dominos cut in half with my craft knife.

I painted over them with black acrylic on the patterned side,

and once dry rubber stamped some sewing related images with

Dew Drop Brilliance Ink (Moonlight White).

The stamps I used were -

 PaperArtsy (MN20)

Technique Tuesday (Borderline:Notions)

Stampers Anonymous (Pattern Pieces CMS012)

Creative Expressions (Vintage Sewing)

Here's a couple of close ups

For the other side of the dominos (which were plain without any pattern on),

I painted with tan coloured acrylic and once dry, adhered some

old dressmaking tissue paper patterns (with Liquitex Matte Medium).

Once that was dry, I cut out some faces (photocopies) from old dressmaking patterns and adhered them over the top.

Both sides were sealed with a layer of

Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic Coating.

I love the little metal charms - the Singer Sewing machine

and the Scissors - both of which were from

The Ribbon Girl.

Once the charms were finished, I needed something to mount them on.

What better than a little mannequin, courtesy of

Sizzix/Alterations 'Sewing Room' Bigz die.

 I used old cereal box card and covered it with paper

from the old dressmaking patterns

- then aged it around the edges with Distress Ink (Black Soot).

Voila!

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

but I'll have to as the swap doesn't end until

August!

Thanks for looking x

Simply Charming!

These are the fabulous charms I received today from Kim in Canada for the 'Romance' charm swap I took part in on her site Paper Digital Art & Images By Kim. 

I love them all, they're all so different and unique but my favourite (if I'm allowed to have a favourite) is from Lydia Hildebrandt aka Kenning Stone and includes a tiny little canvas covered book called 'A Love Story' which even has actual pages with a story on them - how cute is that!  I wish I had the patience to come up with that kind of attention to detail. 

Kim's next charm swap is for Christmas and I've already sent my charms off to her - so it's official now - I'm addicted to charms (as well as everything else - lol)

Christmas Charms

I altered some childrens' wooden dominos into Christmas charms.

1.  Using some kitchen roll paper and Brusho powders I made the backgrounds for the charms and adhered them to the dominos with Liquitex matte medium. First painting the dominos white to cover the colourful animal pictures.

2.  I printed out some images from art-e-zine.  I chose images of two vintage children both of whom are wearing cute costumes with pointy hats to celebrate the season.  I decorated both sides of the dominos so there is one image on each side, again adhered with Liquitex.

3.  Once dry, I coated each side with UTEE using the melting pot, and needed to smooth out some of them, so finished off with the heat gun.  I sprinkled a bit of gold glitter here and there. 

4.  They were finished off with some little bells at the bottom and ribbon at the top.

I'm hoping to send the charms off to Canada, but I haven't yet received back charms for the previous (romance themed) swap I joined - so fingers crossed they will arrive soon.

'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.

Look What I Got!!!

Yesterday I received, all the way from Canada a packet of 10 assorted charms for the 'Lucky Charm' swap organised by Kim on her group Paper Digital Art and Imagesbykim.

Within our packets Kim included some extra goodies including some old sheet music, book text and beautiful vintage images.

All the charms are different - and so lovely! If you look closely at the picture or click on it you may be able to spot them all.

Kim maybe organising some more swaps in the future - I do hope so as I enjoyed making my charms (altered mah jongg tiles) but more to the point receiving all the returns!

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!