MAGIC CLAY IN SILICONE MOLDS

MAGIC CLAY IN SILICONE MOLDS

I found my air dry Magic (paper) clay the other day.  Truthfully, it wasn't exactly lost, just put aside for 3 or 4 years....I don't really know why, as  I went through a phase of stamping into it and making topper buttons for cards with quite pleasing results..."been there done that syndrome" perhaps? Anyway, when I saw these Martha Stewart molds, I thought it was time to get the clay out again.
Unfortunately the years of neglect meant that the clay was a bit dried out.  Surprisingly as long as there was some moisture left, it still seemed to work OK, but clearly needed using up ASAP......hence all these little card-sized bits and pieces - great results for little effort.  Just push the clay into the silicone mold, then carefully remove it and leave overnight to dry.

WAXED PAPER DIE-CUT BACKGROUND

WAXED DIE-CUT BACKGROUND

Making the scrumpled waxed paper background the other week, made me think....

I've been using waxed lunchwrap with my doiley dies because it reduces the amount of paper left in the die, but this means that I'm left with a lot of waxed paper die-cut doileys.... I have actually used a few on some of my cards but mostly they end up in the bin.

This time I ironed the cut-out, waxed side down onto plain coloured card.  The result was a clear (clearer than this photo would suggest) albeit subtle impression.  The die-cut doiley still ended up in the bin, but at least I got a second use from it.

Remember to use a fairly cool iron on a dry setting.

PAPER BEADS

PAPER BEADS

CLOSE UP

I made these a little while ago and have in fact worn them to work a couple of times (after all if you can't wear paper beads in a craft shop where can you wear them? )

One sheet of 12 x 12 paper will be enough to make all of these grey beads, as long as you end each in a point which becomes the edge of the wide end of the next bead.

I've just used a glue stick to add a bit of body as I wound them up and then coated the finished beads with Mod Podge to glue them properly and provide a protective finish.

After a bit of experimenting, the easiest way to do this seems to be to wind the elongated diamond shaped pieces of paper around a bamboo skewer  (you can make several on the one skewer).  After that if you rest the ends of the skewers across a shoe box or plastic container, you can brush the sealer over all the beads at once, and they will turn as you brush so all sides are done at once, and you can just leave them in place to dry.

For this necklace I've used white shell beads as a spacers.  I think the extra weight helps it hang better.

WOODEN BOX WITH PAPER FEATURES

AUTUMN LEAF BOX

Marvin has been making some more boxes.  This one has a patterned paper (Autumn leaves) inset on the top, which was varnished afterwards.  A hole was made in the side of the box with a Forstener drill bit and the same paper was glued underneath a glass cabochon as a feature.
My contribution (and hence why I include it on my blog even if it is cheating a bit....well a lot) was to line the box with suede paper.
To my mind paper and wood are natural companions so I'll be exploring the combination more this year.