Crystals too

 My polymer earrings for this week are made from a pair of Squish Beads.  I only had a few of this color combo and at the time, I did not like them as much as the other colors I had used.  I put them aside in the "not bad, but not what I was looking for" bin (totally different than the "what the heck was I thinking!" bin).  I had not even shined they up with LPC.  

After I made these, I found I was out of headpins. So, I  had to visit my local bead store for more head pins.  Ya, I could make them myself but was too lazy. Of course, as most of you know, visiting a bead store is dangerous.  Got distracted by shiny stuff.  I found these  hammered circles and had to get them.  Paired them with a red crystal.  I tried to find a PC bead that would work in my stash, but all of them were too big.

I also found these lovely crystals that work perfectly with the bails.  These are a lot smaller than I normally wear but the color was so wonderful, that I could not resist them.  I also made a pair of pink ones, along with a larger crystal for a necklace, as a gift.

A few days ago, I happened across a blog that had  a tut about a  free on line photo modification site (http://pixlr.com/editor/). So I used it to add the surrounding halo and remove the scratches from the window sill I shot the picture on.  Good effect.  Now I just have to figure out how to get rid of the white "frame" that automatically appears when I save my writing.

Be my Valentine Earrings Week 6

With Valentines day falling in week 6 of the 52 earring project, it was not hard at all to come up with the theme.

I started out the week working with translucent clay, so made a few translucent hearts. I tried adding a red glitter to the clay, and red ink to the clay.  The red washed out.  Not too bad, but didn't ring my chimes.

I then thought I might try for a faux ceramic heart look.  My thought was to make a kinda banner across the heart.  My first try, the banner is too thick for my liking. Back to the pasta machine... this one I like better. With the first heart I used Watermelon ink to color the LPC.  The color was not red enough without putting on several layers.  It lost it's ceramic look.  So the next time, I used Pepper Red ink thinking it would be darker. Surprising, it was lighter than the watermelon. I only used one layer of colored LPC to keep it more ceramic.

Used a waterproof pen to highlight the stamped letters.

These I liked enough to make into earrings. But I was on a roll and did not stop here.  I was not happy being unable to get a good red color using ink, so I thought I would try using the PanPastel Chalk red - it is really vibrant.







I made a basic heart shape and used a needle tool to outline the stamped letters to make the banner. I then colored the bead with chalks and baked.  After baking, I used LPC colored with black ink to antique.  With the first pair, I did not realize that I was making marks that would look like a strawberry when colored in.  Opps... so the second pair, when they come out of the oven, looked a bit like wood. To keep this theme, I antiqued with dark paint and used a satin sealer.

Shortcake anyone?

 I added a little bling to spark these up.

I am really enjoying this challenge. Coming up with a new idea every week AND blogging about it. Keeps my creative juices flowing.

Another Twist on the Squish

The latest twist in my Squish beads is the addition of another color band.  I mixed a little cad red into transluscent clay and added a a bit of sparkle using an embossing powder.  Instead of the chicklet bead shape I have been semi-fixated on lately, I used my bead roller to make a more typical shape. 

This is the same coin roll but two different extrusions.  One had more black clay after the white and the other red after the white.   This is also the same combo that I used for the chicklet beads from my previous post.  So much fun learning what different combinations look like.