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.
