When 2 crafts collide

My silversmithing class returned after the Christmas break and I realised I have not show you what I made during the autumn term. The brief set by our tutor was to make something with a hinge. I have made hinged boxes in the past so she suggested that I made a hinged "card" pendant, as she knows my papercraft addiction.

That set me off with lots of ideas. I had a copper metal clay heart which I made some time ago and thought I could use it as a "focal" just as I do on my cards. I wanted to have some writing on my "card".The only way I could do this without engraving, which we don't have the tools for, was to use alphabet punches. I designed the front of the card to show "love" and the inside would reveal the rest of the words.....

 I cut 2 matching pieces of silver sheet and filed the edges. I wrote the words on paper and stuck them to the silver sheet. Using the punches and a hammer I struck the words...it took a lot of patience to get the letters spaced and in a line.

 I also soldered the heart to the front of my "card"

 The hinge was made with thin silver tubing,  measured into thirds and partially sawn through. The middle third blanked out with rouge so that it did not solder and remained "free".

 Once in place I carefully sawed out that middle section

and this piece was them soldered to the front. This was a complex procedure.
It all got so fiddly and there are no more photo but a piece of silver wire was threaded through and then riveted off to make the hinge. Then I had lots of filing and adjustments to made the "card" close.
I added a loop and a jump ring to make it into a pendant. Then there was a week or 2 or filing and polishing.

So do you want to how it turned out.......here we go....if you  think photographing cards is tricky sterling silver is just ridiculous!

Hinge side view

The front

Opening the hinge to reveal the inside words 

Another front view

and to give an idea of scale here is my card pendant on an 18" chain.

It's much prettier and shiny in the flesh and I really love wearing it...it combines my silversmithing with my card making, infact I am wearing it as I type this.

So having combined silversmithing with card making my busy creative brain thought...why not combine card making with silversmithing! I seriously had been playing with foil techniques before Tim brought out his January tag challenge. I made a faux riveted card using snippets of foil and lots of tools including staples.

I added some black acrylic paint and then gave it a good rub with sandpaper to give a real grungy rusted feel.

 I added a lovely red embossed heart

 and a Dymo sentiment for a retro look. I put this card in my Etsy shop and it sold in 2 days! I plan to made another version soon.

*******EDIT: 12.1.16....A new version is available via the link here***********

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

WOW embossing challenge anything goes my heart is heat embossed with red embossing powder,
Anything but cute Ring out the old...bring in the new this is a new style male card for me and my first outing of Wendy Vecchi's gorgeous red geranium embossing powder
Crafty calendar something new   this is a new style male card for me and my first outing of Wendy Vecchi's gorgeous embossing powder
Rubber Dance Black white and one other colour....mine is black white and red.
Simon says stamp Wednesday something new this is a new style male card for me and my first outing of Wendy Vecchi's gorgeous embossing powder.
Love to create anything creative/mixed media #27
Crafty friends something new this is a new concept piece for me combining silversmithing with card making.
Simon says stamp Monday something new this the first time I have combined card making with my silversmithing
Art with heart  Favourite things Combining my crafts is one of them!

I love how all my crafts....silversmithing, card making, art journaling, mixed media Moments, knitting, crochet and cake decorating all share some similar elements. It keeps me endlessly occupied and with so many ideas that if I live until I was 100 I would never exhaust them. I actually keep a notebook of light bulb moments so that I don't forget them.

Thanks for visiting me today. Have a lovely weekend and hopefully you will get some time to get creative. I hope to get some creative time on Sunday....and yes my brain is already ticking away with ideas.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x