Monday 3 April 2017

Face It...a very special bag charm

Good morning friends. First of all please can I thank everyone, both here on my blog and on the Visible Image Facebook page, for all your kind birthday wishes you left me on Saturday. I had such a lovely weekend...and the sun shone too. 😊

It's another marvellous Monday and I'm here with my latest DT inspiration for Visible Image. Although most of my time is spent making paper crafts many of you are aware that another of my hobbies is silversmithing and jewellery making. I attend a weekly class and I have just finished a new pendant (which I will share with you soon). I was recently commissioned to make some more of my bag charms. Here are a couple of examples of what I have made..and yes over the years I have made just about every theme you can imagine...cat lovers, artists, chocolate lovers, musicians..the list is pretty endless!

My most recent were for; a knitter

 some very girlie ones
and one American lady wanted something very "English" so I made an Alice in Wonderland bag charm...with tea themed charms. 

I use artisan one of a kind handmade glass lampwork beads in my bag charms, made by my talented friends and attach metal charms.

For my inspiration today I wondered how I could incorporate Visible Image stamps into a special bag charm. Whilst spring cleaning my garden studio ready for my summer crafting I found a packet of Shrink Plastic..with one last snippet left inside...which got me thinking....👀

Grab a cuppa and I will share my step by step....

I used my Face It Stamps available here
and the Bold and Beautiful sentiment from the Own It set here. These stamps are now all back in stock, having sold out several times recently. Visible Image will also be at Ally Pally at the weekend...and I will be there on Sunday.

I found that black Ranger Archival ink worked best on my shrink plastic but I did also use a red for the lips.





I die cut out all my "charms" but you can cut the plastic with scissors. I used blue pencil to colour the eyes and added some purple to the lid for eyeshdow.














Try to keep a firm steady pressure when stamping. It's very easy to slip on the plastic. I used an acryllic block rather than my MISTI as I felt I had better control over the slippery plastic surface.




Once die cut I made a hole in the top of each piece.




To give an idea of scale pre heating I have used a £1 coin. I haven't seen the new £1 coins yet..have you? To shrink the plastic I used a heat gun but you can bake it too.










There is no way I could take photos whilst heating the plastic, it does have a mind of its own. One tip I can give is, "Be Brave and don't Panic!" The plastic will crinkle up and appear to stick..just flip it over and gently tease it with a pokey tool. When it finishes shrinking immediately place an acrylic block on top to flatten it out while it cools down.







Here's the after photo....look at those diddy charms... you can see that the eyes are about the size of the £1 coin now.

I thought they looked too plain left white so I had a play with some methods of colouring.









I found that the best method for me was to use Sharpie pens, a lot of other mediums just wipe off.
















I even coloured the edges and the backs















So then it was time to wire wrap some gorgeous artisan lampwork glass beads from my stash.












add some jump rings to my shrink plastic charms



and put together my Bold and Beautiful Visible Image bag charm....

and a couple of close ups to show the details



I would like to enter my bag charm into the following challenges;

Pixies's snippets playground week 275/6 I now need to buy some more shrink plastic as I have none left! It just shows how useful our snippets are and why us crafters keep all those little bits and pieces...you never know when you might need them ;0)

Love to create 1/2 #7anything creative/mixed media

Stamping sensations 1/3 anything goes

Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes


I hope that you might be inspired to use your stamps to make some charms to use...not just for jewellery but to use in your card making too. It really is great fun playing with shrink plastic ...enjoy 😆 and don't panic when heating it! If you have any questions do email me...my email address is on the right hand side bar of my blog. I'm always happy to help.

Thanks for visiting me today and for the kind comments you take the time to leave.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x











17 comments:

  1. This is amazing jane, the charms are so cool!

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  2. A really unique creation Jane and I imagine the lady loved it, thank you so much for sharing with us at Stamping Sensations challenge.

    B x

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  3. Glad you had a fabulous birthday weekend. Love your charms with the special beads and how cleverly you incorporated the stamps into one. Have a great week. xxx

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  4. Really lovely charm, love the colours. Glad you had a nice birthday.
    Thank you for sharing with us at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge x

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  5. Wow Jane - how fabulous! Love all your handbag charms of course but it's fascinating that you used shrink plastic for the snippets entry. I've done that once or twice for charms on cards and it's so long ago I'd forgotten all about it. Super way to use up your snippet of shrink plastic! Clever sausage.

    Thanks for coming to play in the Snippets Playground!

    Hugs

    Di xx

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  6. Squeal! I just checked back through my blog and it's over six years since I posted this: http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/honey-i-shrunk-gorjuss.html

    Hugs

    Di xx

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  7. Hello dear Jane,

    So very wonderful new charms, and wow! that Visibe Image-one is really special! You just get the best ideas. My memories of that shrink plastic date back to 1980s when we tried to make some Smurffs key rings ;) Those shrink plastics certainly have come a long way, and are for creating pieces of art these days!

    Sunny and creative week!

    Yours,
    Mia

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  8. What a clever idea and they turned out expertly too but I suppose that's because you knew exactly what you were doing!! I have tried shrink plastic in the past, not always with success I might add! :) I do love your bags charms (I do have a few lol).
    Enjoy your week my dear, we had a day at the seaside today as D was off....lets just say it was bracing!!
    V x

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  9. I am very lucky to own one of your gorgeous bag charms Jane, I keep it on my craft desk and reach for it regularly, as I love the textures and it's great at inspiring me on a regular basis. Love what you've done here and you've used the VI stamps too, I hope whoever receives this one will appreciate and love it as much as I do mine xx

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  10. These are brilliant Jane, I love shrink plastic, and how you've used it here xx

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  11. Hope you had a great weekend. You are very artistic and these are so great!

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  12. Your lamp work beads are nice and so are the charms. I still have mine that I won, still on my purse. Do you make your lamp work beads or purchase them? Lovely art work! Keep it up!

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  13. Wow, these are all fantastic Jane!! I suppose I am partial to the pink girlie ones, but they are all amazing! What a great idea to use some stamps in one of your designs, brilliant!! Hope you have great weather today, sending hugs :)

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  14. I adore your bag charms. I enjoyed looking at the new ones and am sure their new owners will love them. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  15. What lovely bag charms Jane. Thanks for sharing.
    Hugs, Sarn xxx

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  16. What a fun handbag charm Jane.
    Julie x

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  17. These are amazing and so professional looking! Great work!

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Jane x