The Crafting Frenzy . . .

Most of the week has been spent making jewelry for Crafty Wonderland on Sunday . . .


Like these memory jewelry pendants with bird collages . . . I still need to add beads on some of them.


And these recycled rubber bicycle inner tube bracelets . . . a few of them are printed with my own designs like an octopus . . . and another with a tree . . . I've been doing some of my own drawings and getting rubber stamps made of them. I'm also using a few stamps from angel companies - those that allow you to hand-stamp items using their images and sell them. I think a few of these may need some metal studs to finish them out.

I'm excited to see what kind of response I get - it's been a long time since I've done a big craft show! Cross your fingers for me!

Making Memory Jewelry . . .

I got the chance last week to teach not one, but two Memory Jewelry classes! One of them was my regularly scheduled one, and another was a custom one for a friend of mine . . . It's a great class to teach this time of year because everyone's working on gifts . . . making ornaments with pictures of their dogs and jewelry for their relatives . . . most of which I didn't photograph! But I did get a few great shots to share with you . . .

DEMO! Memory Magnets

I love making the memory magnets . . . and finally, here is a picture-by-picture demo of how to make them. You saw me talk about making them on AM Northwest a few months ago, but I think this is a little easier to follow . . . Get Crafty!

You'll need: large clear flat glass pebbles (at least 1" in diameter) or flat glass marbles, a cutting implement, Diamond Glaze glue, heavy duty ceramic magnets, and either E6000 or Goop glue. If you're local to Portland, you can get all these goodies at Collage. If you're not, JudiKins makes Diamond Glaze and you can get a free sample here. One good on-line resource for the glass pebbles is Stampington. They also carry Diamond Glaze. Most of the ones you get in the floral supply sections of craft stores are glazed or cloudy: some bubbles are to be expected, and add to the effect, but try to find the clearest ones you can!

1. Make color photocopies of your favorite family photos.
Ink jet prints don't work well, as the glue can make them bleed. I also don't recommend using originals - photocopies will protect your originals, and allow you to reduce the images to a variety of sizes.

2. Position the pebble so you can get the best composition, and position any flaws or bubbles in the pebble away from faces!
This is part of why it's nice to have reductions in a variety of sizes.

3. Then trace the outline of the pebble and cut the image out.

I find that it works well to trace around the pebble on the image, and then cut it out slightly inside the trace line. Keep in mind that the edges of the image won't show up under the glass because of the magnifying quality of the glass. I like to have the paper image just a bit smaller than the glass. Sometimes, I'll also just use my craft knife to trace and cut at the same time.

4. Assuming an image that's 1" to 2" in diameter, squeeze a dime-sized dollop of Diamond Glaze brand glue onto the image.

Diamond Glaze is the glue of choice because it dries really hard and clear.

5. Place the glass pebble over the image. Press the image into the glass, starting with your thumbs at the center. The glue will start to spread!

You want to end up with a very thin coating of glue completely covering the space between the paper and the glass. Press from the center to the edges, spreading the glue evenly between the glass and the image. Use your thumbs to smooth out bubbles and make sure that the glue is covering everything. It's like a sandwich, and the glue is like the mustard or the mayo. Wipe away any excess glue that oozes out - and trust me, glue will ooze out!

6. Once the image has started to dry, you can clean any gluey fingerprints off of the glass with rubbing alcohol. It gets harder to do after 24 hours.

7. Let the glass-glue-image sandwich dry for about 15 or 20 minutes. Then squeeze a blob of Goop or E6000 glue onto the back of the sandwich.

8. Press a heavy duty ceramic magnet into the glue, and let it dry. And it's done! Using a slightly heavier paper is a good choice, as with very thin paper, the E6000 or Goop can bleed through the paper leaving a little bit of a dark shadow on the front of the image.

This is just a taste of the techniques I cover in my memory jewelry class . . . intrigued? There's another class starting in February . . . Until then, make merry with the magnets! And I love to get photos of what people make with the DEMOS!

And, as with all the DEMOS! feel free to use these instructions yourself or link to them, but please don't reprint, republish, or distribute without permission. Thanks!

I made this!

5 of My 15 Minutes - Gone!

So, I used up 5 of my 15 minutes of fame this morning - and it was a lot of fun! If you want to see me in all of my plump-a-licious craft-o-ramic glory - and learn the bare bones basics of Memory Jewelry, check out this link to the video on the KATU "Seen on AM Nortwest" section of their web site . . . Driving home, I was imagining all the possibilities: My own regular segment . . . or maybe a guest appearance on DIY TV . . . or even my own TV show: The Craft-A-Zons, where me and my friends Linda and Kristin and Gretchin get all dressed up in super-hero costumes and save the day with our mega crafty moves! Or maybe we're under-cover crafty spies, sneaking into corporate headquarters around the globe, inspiring people to stitch sock monsters during meetings, thereby releasing tension and increasing humor and creativity in workplaces worldwide! Or maybe we go in to moderate the Middle East crisis by sitting Israel and Palestine down to a good old-fashioned craft-off . . . Ok, a girl can dream, can't she?

I want to make monsters!

So, I'm supposed to go on AM Northwest - a local morning talk show - tomorrow (today?) morning and give a presentation on basic Memory Jewelry techniques - and really all I want to do is make glove monsters! Can't you see these shifted slightly into really cool pincushions?! Sadly, I don't know if I'll be able to make it to Church of Craft on Sunday, October 14th or not - there's a class on surface treatments and fiber transfers at the Contemporary Craft Museum that weekend. Yup, it's fall - there's so many cool classes and arty-crafty goodness going on . . . YUM! The Portland Tribune did a special section today on the Arts in Portland - and some of the artists interviewed wished that Portland would turn its seriousness up a notch. Frankly, I'm glad that Portland has its sense of humor around the arts turned up to 11.