Day 16- 31 Days of Halloween: Black Death Necklace

Ok, you will have to bear with me for this post... I am extremely exhausted right now so I may start rambling at any given moment. Plus I was not able to get any really good photos of my project because I didn't have someone else to hold the camera. So I hope you'll be able to see it well.

Before we go any further, I just want to let you know that there is a pack of werewolves that have been spotted running ramped through blog land, and they may have taken refuge on one of the wicked blogs. If you happen to see sign of them hiding anywhere, don't approach them, just please email me. Those of you who spot them will be put into a drawing for the Smeared Ink Hungry Wolf and Transforming Wolf digi images! I will announce the winner tomorrow afternoon.

Now on to my project for day 16. There is minimal, and I mean minimal, stamping technique on this. But, I thought it would be cool to show you how you can incorporate stamping in a neat way into your jewelry. I don't know if you've seen these things in the beading section at your local craft store, but I saw them today and completely broke my no-buying-anything rule for 31 Days. Sorry folks, I had to have them! But, in my defense, this necklace will be given as a Christmas present so technically even though it's a Halloween project, it came out of my Christmas budget and is not "for" 31 Days. Yes, I'm still trying to justify. Oh well, I digress...

The things I am talking about are these little latched/hinged frames. Not the ones that are for memory glass...no, these bad boys are cut from a different cloth! You'll see what I mean in the pics (I hope). But basically they are frames with glass in them that you can add your own picture to. The neat thing about them is the little latches that hold them shut, and the fact that some of them are hinged to open, like the round one that I used.

Anyways, I basically made a necklace from scratch. I really love the look of wonky, super big and bold jewelry, so although this necklace may not be to some of your liking, I would wear it in a heartbeat!

*click for larger views








Like I said, the pictures kinda suck, but you can see my little frame things. I was inspired by Alison and rather than filling the frames with full-blown colored images, I simply stamped on transparency, trimmed to size, and inserted the images. It gives a really cool clear effect that I love on the necklace! My large frame holds a skull from As Death and the small square frames hold spiderwebs from Lonely Boy and Puff (both from Smeared Ink).

So, I hope you like it, and even though the stamping is very easy, it still took me several hours to make with all the beading. Now I know why I don't make jewelry very often! Ha ha! Have fun hopping through the Wicked Blogs today. See you tomorrow!

Simply Skulls Jewelry Set- Twisted Tuesday Materials Challenge

No one got into the groove of painting last week, so hopefully I'll have more takers on this week's challenge. Let's get right to it! Twisted Tuesday works like this:

* Every Tuesday I will post a new challenge. The challenge will be to use a specific material on your project. The material may be a store bought supply, an item you can find around the house, or a repurposed or recycled object. I will post a sample to go along with the challenge.

*You can make a card, scrapbook page, altered item...pretty much anything you want as long as it is stamped somewhere on it and uses the specific material.

*You will have until Sunday night to comment on my post with a link to your entry.

*I will choose the winner and announce on the following Tuesday. The winner will receive a material that they can use in a future challenge!


Here's the challenge for this week...

My Sample:

My sample this week is a jewelry set of earrings and a necklace. They feature a tiny skull and crossbones stamp from Bombshell's "Homeward Bound" set. I used chipboard for my base, and lock washers to frame my images, and as my dangle on the necklace.

*click pics for larger views*



The Challenge:
Use a piece of real hardware (from the hardware store, not the scrapbooking store) somewhere on your project.




The Prize:
Since nobody won last week, I'm offering up the same collection pack of assorted vintage buttons.

You have until Sunday night to participate in this Twisted Tuesday, so when you're done with your project, leave a link to it in a comment under this post. Don't forget, since this falls during 31 Days of Halloween, you get 5 Blog Candy entries for participating! Have fun raiding your tool box or local hardware store!

Bleeding Heart Domino Earrings

I felt a little creepy today and decided I needed a pair of really creepy earrings to go along with my mood. So, I brought out my dominos and a really awesome stamp from Third Coast that features a skeleton surrounded by roses. I plan on using the whole stamp later this month, but for now the face of the skeleton will do.

I started by drilling my hole into my domino using my dremel tool. Then I added gray and a little bit of red background using alcohol inks, and some silver accents with a paint pen. The image was stamped with stazon.

After letting it set for a bit, I added some red for the roses and a jeweled brad for the heart. I then finished it with a very thin coat of diamond glaze and some silver paint pen on the sides and back. I debated on adding microbeads to them, but in the end opted for more of the grungy, scuffed-up look.





I can't wait to get a new, much better camera, as these pictures really don't do the earrings any justice. The colors are much deeper than what is shown. I'll try to get some better pics if the sun comes out later.

After I go back to the store and buy some ultra fine tipped paint pens, I think I will try to make some more domino jewelry; it's really fun to do and super easy. As far as these earrings are concerned, I love them and will probably be wearing them long after Halloween passes!

Twisted Tuesday Materials Challenge: Faces of Me Bracelet

For this week's Twisted Tuesday, I wanted to make something other than a card, and since I missed Altered Monday this week I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. This will be my last Twisted Tuesday Challenge for September, and hopefully there will be some more players. I'd love to see some other ideas for using the chosen material, so please feel free to participate! I am also debating on whether to keep this challenge going, so if it interests you please let me know by sharing your own project.

So, on to the rules; here's how Twisted Tuesday works:

* I will post a new challenge each week. The challenge will be to use a specific material on your project. The material may be a store bought supply, an item you can find around the house, or a repurposed or recycled object. I will post a sample to go along with the challenge.

*You can make a card, scrapbook page, altered item...pretty much anything you want as long as it is stamped somewhere on it and uses the specific material.

*You will have until Sunday night to comment on my post with a link to your entry.

*I will choose the winner and announce on the following Tuesday. The winner will receive a material that they can use in a future challenge!


Here's the challenge for this week...

My Sample:

*click pics for larger views*

The Challenge:
Use bottle caps on your project.






My "Faces Of Me" Bracelet features stamp images from Invoke Arts

The Prize:
A 1 oz. baggie of Clear Mini Micro Beads
(sorry, no pic, but you can see them used on my Faces of Me bracelet!)


Can't wait to see what you all can come up with using your bottlecaps!

Funky Friday- Queen of Hearts Necklace

When I started this blog way back when, one of the first posts featured a necklace called "Queen of Arts". Well, for today's Funky Friday, I decided to make her sister, "Queen of Hearts". I started the same way as last time, with a scrapbooking frame and some broken jewelry pieces that I've saved. The image is from Kimberly Crick at The Enchanted Gallery.

This necklace was fairly quick and simple to make, and I am debating on whether to add more details to it, like dangly details off the chain, but I think for now it's a nice change from the usually VERY elaborate stuff that I do. Here's my Queen:

I've decided to finish my queen line of jewelry, so be on the lookout for more queenies coming soon. In the meantime, tomorrow is Sassy Saturday and I'll be featuring a blog from one of my comment contributors! Now I'm off to finish watching carpet installers...

Queen of Arts

After a full blown day of stamping cards for an assortment box, I thought I'd do a little something different. I've been holding on to these fabulous deep red and black beads since, oh I don't know, a year and a half ago. I didn't really have a plan for them and then yesterday it hit me! I broke a very pretty green necklace that I had not too long ago and why not make a new one using pieces and parts!?! I've been feeling a little diva red lately...

I have some divine stamps that I ordered from The Enchanted Gallery, see the left side bar for a link, and one image is a gorgeous regal lady with a pimped out collar. Just the right size to fit in one of those rectangular metal frames used for scrapbooking. Soooooo, using my leftover beads, my awesome image, and this frame, I created a brand new stylin' necklace!

I attached the frame and beads using plain metal jewelry pins from Walmart and reused the jump rings and chain from the old necklace. I stamped the image on white cardstock, colored it using markers, watercolor crayons, and my white gel pen, and then attached it to the back of the frame facing out. Of course I had to add some bling to her crown and my word, then covered the whole piece with Crystal Effects, front and back.

Can't wait to show off my new Queen of Arts!