ILoveToCreate Teen Crafts: Sparkle and Shimmy Earrings

ILoveToCreate Teen Crafts: Sparkle and Shimmy Earrings
Margot Potter for ILoveToCreate
“Mom crafted, kid approved.”

Avalon just got her ears pierced this year, so it will be a while before she can wear anything that swings and dangles.  Still she’s been observing my jewelry box with a glint in her eye. Teens love bold jewelry and these earrings fit the bill.

These feature the new Katiedids™ components my friend Katie Hacker created for Beadalon. They have empty chambers that can be filled with a variety of items. I don’t know why I thought wired tinsel when I saw these, but Aleene’s Platinum Bond Glass and Bead adhesive made quick work of this project. You can whip these puppies up in twenty minutes or less, which is the perfect project if you’re an impatient crafter like me! Try filling the chamber with fibers, crystal chain, regular chain, gemstone chips...just be sure you thread the head pin through so you can turn them into fun jewelry components.

Materials
Aleene’s Platinum Bond Glass and Bead Adhesive
4 Katiedids™ 1” open center circles
2 10mm black faux pearls
2 10mm acid green moonglow Lucite rounds
Wire sparkly tinsel
2 silver plated or sterling ear wires
4 thin gauge silver plated or sterling head pins

Tools
Wire cutters
Round nose pliers
Chain nose pliers

1. Cut tinsel to fit half of chamber. Repeat four times.

2. Thread the wire through the holes in the edge of the components and the center bead and back through.
For the green beads, you need to leave equal amounts of wire exposed on both sides, for the black beads bring the head pin flush to the bottom of the component.

3. Place a thread of glue into one of the components. Gently place tinsel into glue, compressing into chamber on either side of center head pin, repeat with second piece of tinsel. Repeat for all four components. Allow glue to dry.

4. Use round nose pliers to create loops at the top and bottom of both green bead components. Bend wire flush to component at a 90 degree angle, grasp wire end with round nose pliers and form a loop. Cut off excess wire with wire cutters.

5. Use round nose pliers to create wrapped loops at the top of the two pearl components. See my YouTube Channel for a video on how to do this.

6. Attach pearl components to the bottom of each green component. Attach the ear wires. Adjust loops so earrings hang properly.

ILoveToCreate Teen Crafts: Pretty in Peeps Pendant

ILoveToCreate Teen Crafts: Pretty in Peeps Pendant
Mixed Media Jewelry Project
Margot Potter
“Mom crafted, kid approved.”
Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved

I loves me some Marshmallow Peeps candies! How about you? Last year I bought a huge pile of them just to stack them up and stare at the fabulous colors. They’re so happy and fun filled. My daughter Avalon loves Peeps too. She loves them so much I can’t buy too many or she’ll turn into a Peep.

No, seriously.

I spent the better part of Easter season last year contemplating how to turn a Peeps candy into a bead. I thought about leaving one to sit for a few months and get nice and hard and then spraying it with a sealant...and heck that might work if you didn’t live in a 130 year old school house with a small mold problem. Methinks a moldy Peep bead would lack some appeal.

I finally settled on Sculpey Ultra Light polymer clay embellished with Crafty Chica paints and glitter and Tulip Glam It Up Studs. This could become a pin or a pendant or you could make a whole bunch of these on dowels and do a fun Peeps flower pot centerpiece like my edible bouquet from last year. I decided to make mine into a necklace and just added a bunch of springy Vintage and new Lucite and wood beads for a super cute necklace. If you really want to go to town, try making some Sculpey egg beads to coordinate...or add some polka dots and squiggles to large wooden beads...or do a collar of several Peeps that circle the neckline. I am not exaggerating in the least when I tell you that making these is so much fun, you’re going to look for reasons to make more!

Materials
Sculpey Ultra Light
Crafty Chica Little Chica Paints Red and White
3 Tulip Glam-It-Up Iron-On Studs Black
Crafty Chica Glitter Sunset Pink
Aleene’s Jewel-It Glue
Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Spray
Aleene’s Matte Finish Spray Sealant

Tools
Paint Brush
Polymer Clay Dedicated Toaster Oven
Sheet of Brown Kraft Paper

(To Make the Necklace:
Various Coordinated Beads in a Pattern That Makes a 16” or Longer Finished Length (I got the clear Lucite with green filament beads in NYC but here’s a source online and Beadin’ Path has a plethora of great vintage and new Lucite beads), 49 Strand .018 (or thicker) Beadalon Wire (always fill the holes of your beads with the wire), Beadalon EZ-Crimp Fancy Sterling Toggle Clasp, Mighty Crimp Tool and Wire Cutters)

1. Soften clay in your hands or by running it through a clay dedicated pasta machine until it is malleable. Use a real Peep as your guide to create a clay version. I bought some for research so I could get the size right...that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

2. Use a sharp pointed object to create a hole in the middle of your rabbit’s head. This hole is threaded side to side so you can string the pendant on a necklace. Skip this step if you’re not making a bead.

3. Place rabbit on a sheet of Kraft paper on the baking tray and into a pre-heated 275 degree Toaster Oven. Watch the clay to be sure it doesn’t burn...it shouldn’t take very long to set. Mine took about 7 minutes...after I burned the first one. Oops.

4. Allow rabbit to cool. Mix red and white Crafty Chica paints to get a nice shade of pink. Paint rabbit. Allow to dry.

5. Place rabbit on a sheet of kraft or scrap paper. Spray with Aleene’s Tacky Spray. Pour a generous helping of pink glitter all over rabbit front and sides. Tap off excess and pour back into jar. Allow to dry.

6. Spray rabbit with Aleene’s Matte Finish Spray Sealant. Allow to dry.

7. Adhere the three Glam It Up studs to the face of your rabbit with the Jewel-It Glue. You’ll need to have a good dollop of glue so it fits into the recess on the stud. Use the handle of your paintbrush or a toothpick to remove any excess glue. Allow to dry.

Design Note: Do not eat this Peep.  It won't taste very good.  Trust me.

Margot Potter for ILoveToCreate: Newsworthy Bracelet

iLoveToCreate 
Newsworthy Bracelet
Teen Crafts
Margot Potter a.k.a. The Impatient Crafter™
"Mom crafted, kid approved."

Clear lucite is the hot trend this spring in fashion jewelry, but why not have a little fun with it?  These inexpensive clear plastic beads are just begging for a little embellishment.  Collage Pauge is the perfect medium to make quick work of upcycled magazine page beads.  Teens will love this idea and they can take it in so many directions.  Why not use magazine pics of their favorite celebs or printed out pics of their friends?  Use a flat surface like a microscope slide or acrylic tile, try this with glass, use old chandelier components, do this on larger clear acrylic sheets for collages you can frame...use clear plastic game chips...can you see where I'm going with this? 

Materials
Recycled Magazine Pages (text and/or images)
Collage Pauge Instant Decoupage™
Faceted transparent plastic (or transparent crystal/glass) beads 
22 gauge silver plated rose Artistic Wire
6mm sp jump rings
Sp lobster clasp

Tools
Paint brush
2 pairs chain nose pliers
Round nose pliers
Wire cutters

1.  Select beads and background text or images, since the beads will flip when worn, try to use paper with text and image on both sides.  Using a bead with a somewhat flat surface on each side works best.

2.  Paint a coat of Collage Pauge on the back of your bead.

3.  Stick bead into paper and mold paper around bead.  Tear to release from page.

4.  Paint a coat of Collage Pauge on the back of the paper and allow to dry.

5.  Use your fingers to remove the excess paper from around the edges of the bead, there should be a large section of paper left on bead, seal the edges with Collage Pauge.  Allow to dry.

6.  Thread the bead on the wire, keeping the wire on the spool.  Leave a .5" tail coming out of one end of your bead.

7.  Create a wrapped loop.  Cut off excess wire.  Create a wrapped loop on the opposite side, but DON'T cut the wire.

8.  Wrap the wire around the bead two times and then around the coiled section on the opposite side of the bead twice to secure.  Cut off excess, removing wire from spool.  Tuck tail into coil.

9.  Use round nose pliers to gently bend the wires, working along each one to create tension front and back.  Take your time so you don't nick the wire. 

10.  Connect the wired beads to create a bracelet using jump rings.  The number of beads needed depends on your wrist size.  Attach a clasp to one end and a jump ring to the other.

(If you don't know how you can learn how to open and close jump rings and wrap wires on my YouTube Channel in our Crafty Quickies videos.)

iLoveToCreate 'I Heart U' Valentine's Pin Card for Moms and Grandmoms

iLoveToCreate I Heart U Valentine’s Day Pin Card
Margot Potter for iLoveToCreate Teen Crafts
“Mom crafted, kid approved.”

Moms and Grandmoms really love getting handcrafted gifts and what better way to say, “I heart u” than these retrofabulous foam heart pins. These are quick and easy to make and you can opt to use photos instead of vintage images if you prefer. Attach them to a card and it’s a two for one combo that will make them smile every time they wear these adorable pins. Yup, I’ve got you covered...so let’s get crafty!

Materials
Romantic Vintage Post Card Images (or photos)
3 Open Center Foam Hearts and Smaller Foam Accent Hearts (I each of pink, red and white) (I got mine at WalMart)
3 Small Vintage or New Buttons (1 each of pink, red and white)
Coordinating Scrapbook Paper (I used K&Company Carolyn Gavin Designer Paper)
Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black
Stampendous Foliage Quad Cube TC51
Hero Arts Italian Poetry Background Stamp S1832
Aleene’s Foamtastic Glue
Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue
Pen or Pencil for tracing and marking
(Optional Collage Pauge Matte to seal images before framing)


Tools
Scissors
Bone Folder
Crop-A-Dile Big Bite

1. Select images to use inside of your foam heart frames. Here is a sheet of permission free images you may print for use with this project, these are not intended for resale. I am sharing cards from my personal ephemera collection.

2. Print image sheet.

3. Stamp heart frames with writing stamp and archival ink. Stamp small hearts with foliage stamp and archival ink. Allow ink to dry.

4. Mark the window placement. Trace around edges of heart, cut a straight edge heart using scissors inside of the scalloped edge you just traced. (If you want, you can seal the images with Collage Pauge at this step before cutting them out so they’re water resistant.)

5. Stick images inside of frames and use a plain scalloped edge heart to sandwich the image, take time to make sure the scallop edges line up.

6. Adhere small heart and buttons to edge of each frame with Foamtastic Glue. Allow to dry.

7. Fold a sheet of patterned scrapbook paper over to make a wide card. The sheet I used was 7.5”x8.5”.

Use a bone folder to make a sharp creased edge.

8. Cut a coordinating decorative strip and adhere it to the bottom edge of the card with Aleene’s Fast Grab Glue, add a thin dotted ribbon accent to top edge of strip using Fast Grab Glue. Allow to dry.

9. Mark placement of pins on card, one in the center and one on either side towards the edge.

10. Use Crop-A-Dile Big Bite to punch small holes at marked spots on card.

11. Attach the pins to the holes.

iLoveToCreate Teen Romantic Wristlet Ribbon Corsage

Romantic Wristlet Copyright 2010 Margot Potter for iLoveToCreate

(Click on images to view details)

iLoveToCreate Romantic Wristlet
Mixed Media Ribbon Corsage
Margot Potter
Teen Crafts
"Mom crafted, kid approved."

I have a deep and abiding love of all things vintage and romantic. When I saw this lovely wired damask ribbon I simply had to have it because I knew it would make the most charming ribbon flowers that would be delightful for Valentine's Day. A little sewing, a little Liquid Fusion, a little Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky glue and you’ve got a lovely ribbon corsage or hair clip, pin, card embellishment... Make a whole bouquet of these on hard wire stems and give them to a sweetheart or glue a variety of these around the edges of a frame. The thinner the ribbon, the flatter your flowers will be. I doubled up two flowers to make a ribbon rose and added some vintage button accents and attached it to a ribbon wristlet for a simply stunning corsage. This would be perfect for a Valentine’s Day dance.

If your teen is a girlie girl, she’ll adore these flowers and they’re so fun and easy to make I guarantee you’ll be searching for ribbon to make more! These aren’t just for teens, they’d be perfect for bridesmaids too!  Heck I'd sport this wristlet myself.  I can't wait to surprise Avalon with this on her birthday this Thursday! 

Materials
Ribbon (I used 2.5” thick damask print ribbon with wired edges)
Vintage buttons
Thread
Magnetic purse snap
Liquid Fusion Glue
Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue

Tools
Chain nose pliers
Sewing needle
Scissors

1. Cut an 11” length of red damask ribbon. Fold the edge on one end.

2. Use a simple basting stitch to sew the bottom edge of the ribbon.

3. Gently remove wire from top of ribbon.

4. When you get almost to the end of the ribbon, fold the end and sew the two ends together.

5. Gently pull the thread to create a flower.

6. Sew the edges together and finish. Cut off excess thread. Fold top edge over to create the first layer your rose.

7. Repeat making a 9” flower.

8. Sew the two flowers together, nesting the smaller flower in the center of the larger flower. Fold edge over as before.

9. Glue a smaller white button into the center of a larger red button. While still wet, glue these to the center of the smaller flower. Use thread to tack the buttons down. Cut off excess thread. Allow glue to dry.

10. Fold a 5.5” section of black and white damask ribbon over itself to create one half of a bow shape. You should have a 2.75” bow end. Repeat on the other side, leaving the ribbon end attached to the spool.

11. Wrap the ribbon around itself and gently tug to create a bow. The bow should be 5.5” wide. Cut off excess ribbon.

12. Use the thread to secure your ribbon together and sew it to the bottom of your ribbon rose.

13. Measure and cut a length of ribbon to fit your wrist, leaving a 1” overlap on each end. Remove wire from both sides of ribbon.  Fold end over 1/2" thick, mark center placement of magnetic snap.

14. Cut slits for snap to thread into, thread snap into ribbon and bracket and fold over ends with chain nose pliers.

15. Tack a button over the exposed snap end on one side with thread, secure with Liquid Fusion glue and allow to dry.

16. Tack flower to center of wristlet with thread and secure with Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue. Allow to dry. You can remove your ribbon flower and attach to a hair clip when the wristlet gets dirty.

iLoveToCreate As Time Goes By Mixed Media New Year's Necklace

"You must remember this,

A kiss is just a kiss,
A sigh is just a sigh.
The fundamental things apply,
As time goes by."
As Time Goes By by Herman Hupfeld

I couldn't resist another silhouette project for New Year's Eve after I recalled this lovely Dover books image. This delightful necklace is a small momento of an evening that will pass far too quickly. We spend New Year's with our family noshing on tasty appetizers and playing games. This seemed like the perfect something extra to give Avalon on New Year's this year. Shhh...don't tell it's a surprise!

The image is permission free and available from Dover Books. The text is easy to print out on your computer, use an ink jet if you want to create an image transfer with Collage Pauge. The Tulip crystal accents add some sparkle and the gun metal chain carries through the Victorian feel.

As Time Goes By
Mixed Media Necklace
iLoveToCreate Teen Crafts
Copyright 2009 Margot Potter
"Mom crafted, kid approved."


Materials
1.5" gun metal finish pocket watch locket (or other round metal frame with glass will work)
Dover silhouette sized to fit inside of the locket/frame
10 4mm clear AB CRYSTALLIZED-Swarovski Elements bicones
Printed "Happy New Year 2010" in French Script MT 22 pt.
1.5" clear acrylic Tim Holtz idea-ology Fragments oval
Tim Holtz idea-ology gun metal link chain
Traci Bautista's Collage Pauge Glossy
Aleene's Glass and Bead Slick Surfaces Adhesive
Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue
Aleene's Stop Fraying
Tulip Glam It Up clear crystals
20 gauge annealed iron wire

Tools
Pen or pencil
Scissors
2 pairs chain nose pliers
Round nose pliers
Memory wire shears
Electric Drill with 1/6" bit

1. Size image to fit your frame. Print image and adhere to inside of frame with a thin layer of Collage Pauge. Allow to dry. While drying adhere a crystal accent using Tacky Glue. Before you close the frame, if you are using a locket style, add the crystal bicones.



2. Mark and drill a hole in the bottom center of your acrylic tile.

3. Print text. Trace around text using acrylic shape as a guide. Cut out and adhere text to back of shape with Collage Pauge. Spread a thin layer of Collage Pauge on the back. Allow to dry but not completely, so for about five minutes or so. When still a little wet GENTLY remove upper layers of paper from back of tile. I left paper in the center under the text because I liked the cloudy, vintage look it created. If you want to remove all of the paper, allow the paper to dry completely, wet your finger and gently remove paper by rubbing it off in thin layers. This creates an image transfer, but be aware that you may lose some of your text if you remove all of your paper.

4. Glue crystals to right front edge of your acrylic tile with Slick Surfaces adhesive. Allow to dry. (A toothpick with bee's wax or the Quicker Poker Picker Upper Tool will help you transfer the crystals from the glue to the tile.)

5. Cut a 2" section of annealed iron wire with Memory Wire shears. Bend the center of the wire over your index finger to create a hook shape. Use pliers to bend one hook end into a larger loop that will fit into the drilled hole of your acrylic tile and one into a loop small enough to fit inside of your chain link using your round nose pliers to assist you. See photo for reference. (I have detailed tutorials with pictures for this in my books if you need further instruction.)

6. Create 10mm annealed iron jump rings by wrapping the wire around a 10mm dowel and using the Memory Wire shears to clip the coil you've removed from the dowel into rings. (I have detailed tutorials with pictures for this in my books.)

7. Attach the hook to the bottom of your acrylic tile using chain nose pliers to secure hook closed.

8. Attach the chain to the top of your acrylic tile using a jump ring. Attach a jump ring to the top of your locket and slide this on the chain.

9. Finish by tying a small bow around the jump ring at the top of your acrylic tile. Seal the ribbon ends with Aleene's Stop Fraying.