Mel Designs

Polymer Clay Rosette Earrings

I love rosettes. They add instant softness and femininity to anything and everything. Whether worn as jewelry or on clothing or used to adorn home decor pieces, rosettes add that certain trendiness that we all like. It was with this in mind that I decided to create polymer clay rosettes using Cernit Clay by Jacquard Products.

Jacquard Products is the exclusive North American distributor of, non-toxic phthalate-free Cernit polymer clay. Manufactured in Belgium, Cernit clay has long been recognized for its excellent quality, durability and porcelain-like finishes. Highly in demand by professional artists and hobby crafters, Cernit is perfect for making both sophisticated and whimsical arts and crafts projects, including: miniatures, dolls, buttons, beads, jewelry, and for adding sculptural elements to any project.

I used white cernit clay to create my rosettes. After I ran the clay through a pasta machine several times, I flattened the conditioned clay to a very thin setting on my machine (1/32").

I used a metal clay knife to cut the piece to approximately 3" x 7."

I cut thin strips with the knife measuring 1/4" wide.

I twisted the clay using my fingers gently from one end of the strip.

Starting at one end, I rolled the twisted clay inward to create a realistic rosette.

If you plan to make charms from your rosettes, its important to remember to pierce a hole at one edge before baking. I added some leaves created from a press mold.

After baking and cooling, I painted them with sparkly lumiere in crimson and citrine.

When the paint has dried, use Neopaque in black and a toothpick to hightlight areas of the leaves and lumiere in metallic silver to enhance the rose. The silver paint will really call attention to the texture of the rose when dry brushed over it.

I glued tiny Swarovski crystals to the center with Liquid Fusion, glued the leave to the back of the rose with the glue and attached an ear wire to create earrings.

My Favorite part of this project is the presentation. What a great little gift these would make!

I started with plain shipping tags and sewed the edges about 1/4" from the edge to create a border.

I painted the tags Citrene Green. After letting them dry front and back, I layered various stamped images over them and added a french sentiment suitable for my rose theme.

Then I added embellishments such as fabric tape and rhinestones.

 

These embellished tags make the earrings all the more special. Tell us what you think- go to Jacquard Products Facebook page and like us. We have frequent give aways and fun tips that you will receive as our fan.

Live Life Creatively,

 

Painted Canvas Christmas Ornaments

How do you get yourself in the Christmas spirit when its beginning to look a lot like Christmas but its still 75 degrees outside here in South Georgia? By making some "cool" canvas ornaments! Painted and sewn canvas has tons of possibilities.

I started with a canvas fabric sheet and burlap circles by Canvas Corp. These items are available from Scrapbook.com.

I cut two 3" circles and two 1 1/2" circles from the canvas sheet. Using Lumiere and Neopaque by Jacquard products, I painted swatches of color on both large circles, letting colors dry in between.

I used Pearlescent Blue, Metallic Silver in Lumiere and White Neopaque for the snowman ornament.

I painted the smaller circles white to resemble the head of a snowman.

Once the paint was dry, I layered the snowman on top of the burlap circle and sewn the edges with a straight stitch. I layered this piece on top of one of the larger painted circles and sewed in place. To create a stuffed ornament, layer circles together and sew, leaving a small opening to insert stuffing. Then sew together.

I used cernit clay by Jacquard products to create a nose. I used Canvas Corp's fluted 12 x 12 paper to create the tag.

Experiment with different themes, like I did with this heart themed canvas ornament.

Jacquard Lumiere and Neopaque can be purchased from Dick Blick Art Materials. 

Live Life Creatively,

 

Snowman Votives for the Holidays

Looking for a quick last minute gift for neighbors, co-workers, friends and those unexpected drop by guests. These snowman votives are easy to make in batches, inexpensive and fun!

Purchase a .50 glass votive in a style that has a slight curve for the top. For the bottom, a recycled glass jar works perfectly. I used a pimento jar. Wrap the pieces in self adhesive decorative scrap booking tape such as Tim Holtz's Tidings Tissue tape which can be purchased at Scrapbook.com. Simply tear small (1"-3") pieces of the tape off the roll and layer as needed to cover all the glass.

When both pieces have been covered, decorative the face by gluing pebble beads for eyes and creating a carrot shaped nose with sculpey.

Use a strong adhesive to hold the facial features in place such as Aleene's Liquid Fusion.I chose to bling up the top edge of my snowman with self adhesive gem stones such as these by Creative Imaginations that can be purchased from Scrapbook.com as well.

With all in place, glue the jar top and bottom together using the Liquid Fusion. If you are using a pimento jar, this should be fairly easy since it has a flat bottom. To add a cute scarf, wrap some pretty seam binding or organza ribbon around the middle and add a starburst brad, such as these by Karen Foster.

So gather up all your supplies and start working on these adorable snowman votives for the holidays.

Live Life Creatively,

Polymer Clay Vintage Ruler Bookmarks

 
 
When I scored these fun old rulers at a recent thrift shop going out of business sale, I left with so many ideas of how to use them. With the holidays around the corner, I want to plan ahead and start organizing my gift giving for people such as teachers, co-workers, clients I would like to thank and friends, sans a big budget. I think these bookmarks will be perfect for the ladies on my list, as the materials are easy to come by (even the old rulers) and fairly quick to make in multiples. I will have to think about a man version- ideas welcome!

Choosing the Right Paints

Enter my favorite paints, Lumiere by Jacquard Products. These paints produce beautiful sparkly effects and really work well for producing antique results. The colors I chose for base coating and dry brushing are some of my favorites, Pewter, Crimson, Halo Violet Gold (fast becoming my fav even taking the place of my beloved Citrine) and Metallic Silver. Throw in some Neopaque colors like White and Magenta and you have the beauty that will make these bookmarks really stand out!  

So now the clay roses. Jacquard not only makes beautiful paints but they also carry a high quality polymer paint, Cernit clay, which is perfect for making both sophisticated and whimsical arts and crafts projects, including: miniatures, dolls, buttons, beads, jewelry, and for adding sculptural elements to any project, including bookmarks. 

Tips on Using Clay Molds and Conditioning Clay

The molds are from Mad About Molds, which carries high quality polymer clay bisque molds in so many themes and shapes it will make your head spin. I recently discovered their site and was unable to get away without $50.00 bucks worth of molds in my shopping cart. Delivery was professional, prompt and the molds more than lived up to my expectations. Surprisingly easy to use, they benefit from a light coat of cornstarch before placing the conditioned clay inside the mold. If you have never conditioned clay before, it entails working it with your fingers until it is soft and pliable. Clay that has been under-conditioned will result in cracks while baking. There are some tried and true tricks for quicker conditioning, including placing a small amount (about 1/4 of a block) into your pocket or even your bra. Regarding this last idea, I have been surprised more than once at the end of the day when I undressed and discovered a wad or two of clay on the floor, somehow forgotten about over the course of a busy day.

Once I molded and baked my roses, I gave them a couple-three coats of the Lumiere and Neopaque paint. Then I chose contrating colors of white and metallic silver to give the molded roses interest and depth. Dont forget the back! You want your rose to have that professional touch to them.

Cutting the Rulers to Bookmark Size 
"Vintage" (i.e. old advertisng rulers that can be found in some delightful colors) rulers are easy to find in almost any antique, flea or thrift shop. I used the no so colored ones since I did not want to compete with the beautiful molded roses.

Cutting the rulers is easy, you just need a hand saw (you may also want to wear safety gloves) and a cutting surface to protect your working surface from the obvious. I cut my rulers to 6" in lenth, which gives you two per 12" ruler (really?) or more from yard stick lengths (you do the math).

Assembling the Vintage Rulers 
Gluing the roses to the rulers is rather easy, the roses have a flat back. I also added these cute beaded scrapbooking embellishments by Recollections that I just love!

For a final vintage touch, dry brush the edges of the rulers with Neopaque in black.

 
A pretty gift a bookish friend will adore. They look great when paired with old torn books.

How to order the Materials or BookMarks

If you are interested in cernit clay, neopaque or lumiere, visit Dick Blick. For the truely time-strapped, I am offering these in my etsy shop. If you don't have time to put these these together, go to my etsy shop and order them!

Want to see another cool project using these products? Hop on over to my tutorial creating unique shadow box napkin rings.

Thanks for letting me share- remember...

Live Life Creatively,

 
 
 
 
 

  
 
 

 

 
 
 
 

Pretty Clay Pendants and Giveaway

This is a project that is so easy, you will be turning out pendants left and right for gift giving now and into the holidays.

You will need the supplies pictured here in addition to some jewelry findings of your choice such as a chain or rope necklace with a clasp, in addition to some jump rings that are 16mm or larger and a headpin and bead. You will also need the appropriate jewelry tools such as wire nips, chain and round nose pliers.

Start by painting the 1 1/2 wood circle with Jacquard's Neopaque paints in black. Paint both sides a couple of coats.  

 
While the paint is drying, punch 1" circles from the pages of a vintage book such as this dictionary my Mom snagged for me at a yard sale for $.50.

Use a paper adhesive to glue the punches to the center of the circle on one side only.

Use some heavy duty tacky glue to adhere gem stone trim to the edges of the circle. It can be hard not to get excess tacky glue inside the edges of the trimming. Use a toothpick or q tip to remove the excesss glue.

Now it's time to play with clay. I used Jacquard's Cernit Clay in white to make a zinnia from a hand made clay mold. This hand made mold was a gift from my good friend, Niki Meiners.Cernit clay is a phthalate-free (non-toxic) polymer clay. Manufactured in Belgium, Cernit clay has long been recognized for its excellent quality, durability and porcelain-like finishes. It was perfect to make my little zinnia.

I pinched off a dime sized piece and conditioned by hand. (Hint: if the weather is as hot and humid where you are as I am- go outside- it makes conditioning a lot faster). Then I rolled it into a ball before pushing it into the clay mold.

Push the clay out of the mold and you have this adorable little zinnia.

Now bake in the oven at 265 degrees on a clay dedicated baking sheet for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Now choose some bright prretty colors of Jacquard's Lumiere and paint the zinnias. I dry brushed the top of them with Lumiere also.

Once the zinnias are dry, glue them to the center of the circles.

 
I drilled two holes at the top and bottom of my circles for insertion of a jump ring to hold the necklace and a droplet on the bottom.

 

If you liked this post, here is another jewelry pendant post using recycled furniture casters.

Now- details on the Giveaway- leave me a comment by July 31st, 2011 at 12 PM Central and I will send TWO of you one of these pendants (zinnia clay) in color of choice shown (US residents only please). Leave as many comments as you would like, I will one person at random and announce the winner on my blog on August 1st. Good Luck!  

Live Life Creatively,

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Repurposed Furniture Caster Pendant

We recently moved a large sectional sofa from our den to our upstairs media room. Since it was originally on hardwood floors, my hub had placed furniture casters under the legs. My little pup chewed up a few, but I managed to save a few since I thought they would be perfect for creating such things as napkin rings, ornaments and pendants.

If you don't have some to repurpose, you can buy some pretty inexpensively from home improvement stores such as Lowes.

I used my Neopaque paints from Jacquard to paint the caster black. I painted a 1 1/2 circle black, waxed it, and then painted it white, using a sanding block to remove some of the white paint for a distressed look.

I then used this sweet swallow mold from a super cool supplier of molds: mad about molds.  

I used cernit clay to create my swallow. If you are unsure how to use these bisque type of molds, mad about molds has a really quick video demo you can view by clicking here.If you are unfamilar with Cernit Clay, it is distributed by Jacquard products and perfect for making both sophisticated and whimsical arts and crafts projects, including: miniatures, dolls, buttons, beads, jewelry, and for adding sculptural elements to any project.

I used an acrylic block to make sure the clay was pushed all the way into the mold. Then I used a plain craft knife to cut away portions of the clay.

Bake in an oven on a clay dedicated sheet at 275 degrees, about 15 minutes for every 1/4" of thickness.

I accidentally baked mine at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and got a burned, puffed up swallow. I ended up liking the effect so I used the piece anyway.

To finish the pendant, I drilled holes at the top and the bottom of the caster, inserted really large (like 18mm) silver jump rings and glued the circle and bird to the center.

I stamped sing in black Staz on and added a few beads and gem stones. I cannot wait to make a set of napkin rings with these!  I sure am glad we moved that sofa!

Live Life Creatively,

 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 


 
 
 
  
 

A Bucket Full of Garden Treats

 

It's time to get your garden on... if you have a friend with a green thumb, take a look at this crafty idea using petal pots from Create and Treasures Ready to Go Blank Board collection.

 
Who doesn't love Amy Butler fabric? I used some of her funky fabric to cover this pot, working petal by petal, and using decoupage medium for fabric. I created a template by tracing one of the petals onto a scrap piece of cardstock. I then used that as a template to trace on the wrong side of the fabric.

 
I created polymer clay flowers using clay push molds and Sculpey III and dry brushed them with pearl ex pigment powders, mixed with varnish.

 
I added a sweet and fitting stamp sentiment and filled the pot with soaps, lotion and seed packets.

 
I hope you are enjoying Spring! Enjoy it even more and create this bucket full of garden treats!

Live Life Creatively,

 

Scraponizer Shadow Boxes

 
I love shadow boxes, I really do. When I received these darling scraponizer minis my mind went wild with all the possible uses for these. Originally designed for organizing small arts and crafts odds and ends, they make sweet little party favors as well as shadow box ornaments.

I decided to showcase some small polymer clay creations made from Sculpy III.

 
I gave them several coats of varnish to make them really shine with DecoArt's Duraclear Varnish.

 
In order to cover them with some pretty recycled encyclopedia paper, I measured and cut the sides and backs I wanted to cover and used a paper trimmer to get those measurements.

 
I used Beacons Zip Dry paper glue to adhere the pieces to the plastic, because it will stick to anything just as long as one of the items are paper-related!

 
 
Here is my bird, sitting atop of tuft of grass....

I wanted to add a sentiment, to make these an alternative to sending a greeting card. I stamped one on some paper and punched it out with a scalloped punch by Marvy Uchida.

 
For the hanger, I decided to use artistic wire by punching tiny holes at the top of the plastic and inserted the hanger.

 
But first I threaded it with pearls....

 
Fun and fascinating, you have to try making your own Scraponizer Shadow Boxes...

Live Life Creatively,

 

Fancy Clay Floral Napkin Rings

 
Your table guests will love peering through the glass to see the little clay flower inside these shadow box napkin rings that are easier to create than they look. Follow along with me here and I will show you how to create these fancy clay floral napkin rings, just in time for Spring....

 
I painted a wood napkin ring with Jacquard's Lumiere paint in Citrine Green. I painted a 2" wood square Metallic Gold. Both of these wood products can be purchased at most craft stores in the wood working and turnings section.

 
Next, condition some of Jacquard's Cernit clay in porcelain white. Pinch off a dime sized piece and press into a clay push mold, like the one used here from Makins Clay. Pinch off a pea sized piece of clay and press into a leaf shaped mold.Repeat to make a second leaf.

 
Now bake these pieces according the directions on the package. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool a little.

 
I chose to paint my leaves Citrine Green and my flower Metallic Bronze Lumiere paints. I used Aleenes Original Tacky Glue to glue them to the painted wood square, along with a small wire scrap which serves as a stem. This will be the frame backing.

 
To create the shadow box frame, trace a 2" glass slide onto a piece of Elmer's Foam Core Board. Center a 1 1/2" glass slide (or a piece of card stock cut to those measurements) in the center of the 2" square.

 
Use an X-acto knife to carefully cut around the traced lines. Try to stay on the line as much as possible and make several passes through the foam core instead of trying to cut it all the way through in one pass. If you get uneven edges, use a nail file to sand even.

 
 
Using scalloped edged scissors, cut an 8" long piece of self adhesive scrapbooking tape. It does not matter which print or color you use as long as it has a white backing since this is the part that will show through the window.

 
Cut the 8" strip into four 2" pieces and peel off the backing. Place the pieces, overlapping if needed, onto the frame.

 
Now when you flip it over, you have the side that the fancy clay floral will be peeking through.

 
Using the tacky glue, glue the foam core frame to the wood square.

 
Next, glue the glass slide, sticker side down, to the foam core by placing a little tacky glue to the sides of the foam core.

 
Now finish your fancy clay floral napkin ring by dry brushing the glass slide with Silver Pearl Ex (mixed with varnish in a 1:1 ratio) and add a little rub on to the bottom.

 
Glue your napkin ring to the back of the shadow box to finish! I glued a small strip of rhinestone trim to the sides of the shadow box to hide any rough edges. For more variations on this project click here and here.

Live Life Creatively,

 

Garden Themed Shadow Boxes

 

There is something so magical about shadow boxes. To me, its like getting a little peek into an alternate universe. I have created many versions of shadow boxes using these blank board boxes from C and T Publishing.

 
I am also a huge fan of moulds for clay and recently stumbled across this wonderful web site, Mad About Molds. If you like using moulds for polymer clay, you have to check this site out! I found this sweet little shabby rose mould on their site.

 
I used a similar mould to create the flowers here in one of the shadow boxes. I used Sculpey III and dry brushed the flowers with metallic paint to add some depth.

 
I love these rub on sentiments from Royal and Langnickel. I used them all around the sides of the boxes for a mixed media look.

 
 
A beaded thread hooked to the bottom of the box adds the perfect finishing touch!

Live Life Creatively,