Make a photo pendant with us this weekend!

Bring a 32x28mm photo to Ornamentea this weekend and you can make a sweet photo pendant necklace for just $5. We'll have the resin, and the assistance, you need to create a wonderful keepsake for Mom, Grandma or anyone.

Click here to download a photo template good for all our bezels.

Pendant necklace making will be available
Friday 12-8
Saturday 10-5
Sunday 12-5

Here's a video showing you how to make one of these pendants:

New Tutorial - Tiny Lights

This tutorial uses some lovely Cavalini papers and a bit of our safe craft resin to create tiny, sparkly lights. Aren't they sweet? The talented Jane Mormino created them, and wrote the directions, just for you.

See the full tutorial here.

Penny for your thoughts...a great charm project

This sweet penny pendant project is from Cathe Holden's Just Something I Made blog. Cathe creates lovely craft projects and the most amazing free printable labels, stickers and other goodies. If you don't already subscribe to her blog, you should do so.

This project uses a penny and one of my favorite quick-craft ingredients; Amazing Glaze.
You can punch holes in the penny with any kind of metal punch...and I love Cathe's great idea for a 'riser' to lift the penny up while baking it.

Check out the project directions here.

New Tutorial - Butterfly Lacquer Necklace

This new project features some pretty papers from Cavalini and uses resin to make the paper perfect for jewelry. I've got a video (right there below) you can watch and if you click here you can download the free instruction sheet.

I know this project uses resin instead of lacquer, like the title implies, but don't you think 'lacquer' is a great word? that nice 'q' in the middle...so much fun to write. 



Don't miss any of our tutorials, subscribe to the Ornamentea Dispatch and I'll email them right to you!

Which craft resin should I use for jewelry?

Check out our newest how-to video with our three favorite resin products...
see the video here.

Adding inclusions to ecopoxycraftresin©

New Silhouettes Template

We have some really, really pretty silhouettes now available on the website. They are perfect for our bezels and cab settings, or you could put them in lockets. I love the classic look of a silhouette. I remember as a child sitting on a stool, trying so hard to be still, as a light was aimed at my profile and an artist traced my image onto paper. I'm pretty sure I wiggled a good bit, but I do remember that my profile looked perfect when it had been cut out of black paper. I think my hair had even been tidied up a tad.

In addition to the silhouettes we also have a video showing you how to use ecopoxycraftresin to affix images and sparkly crystals to bezels and settings...click the picture above to see it all!

Thanks to Alison for creating these sweet silhouettes...

Tinting ecopoxycraftresin©

for more information click here

Mixing ecopoxycraftresin©

for more information click here

Really, really cool new tool...

 

I'm excited about the new riveting and eyelet setting tool that we received from Crafted Finding this last week. The folks there have been trying to get me to try the tool for a while but honestly, the super-slick YouTube video makes it look too good to be true. 

Well, for the first time in a while maybe we CAN trust a YouTube video! 

This tool is, to quote our fabulous Chantal 'da bomb!' It sets rivets like nothing else and makes eyelets so perfect you can't tell which side was the good side. I made the five samples right here in about five minutes (yes, not my best design work but I was riveting anything that didn't move!) That red lucite flower? I widened the hole with the hole-punching side and then riveted it right in. The flower did not break. We've got the tool set up at the demo counter in the store right now and you can stop in and try it out. If you want to make a project with it join Sarah and everyone else on Thursday night for Technique Thursday. She created a necklace with a very sweet nickle-silver disk pendant with a flower riveted right in the center. Come make the project for just $8.

See the tool and the video here.

See the lucite flowers here.

See more about Technique Thursday here. 

and that red leaf filigree and pink rosette filigree that you see on the pendant is just this and this sprayed with a bit of red or pink spray paint!

A Diamond Glaze how to video for you

check out the tutorial here on our YouTube channel, OrnamenteaFineCrafts. Yes, you can subscribe.

This no-mix resin is great for using with teens-it cleans up easily and they can make really lovely projects so quickly. Oh, I like it a lot too, and I am about 20+ years away from teen-hood!

ecopoxycraftresin- the safer, cleaner craft resin!

This is the new product I have been so excited about...it's a soy-based resin that is odorless and has a fabulously flexible mix ratio. What's that mean? Well, you can use it in your home and not want to move out because of the smell AND you can make a teeny mistake when mixing and it will still set up. Those things both make me really happy!

Check out more info here...the website is up but not totally finished. We are taking orders now and will start shipping on November 1st. Do you have a store? We can send you a case! This will replace all the 2-part resins you are already using...safer, cleaner, clearer, easier...

I'll be posting projects, directions, videos and more over the next few weeks.

Fancy the Tarot?

These teeny tarot cards are back. The company we had been purchasing them from ran out-it seems the stock had been sitting on the shelf for decades when we fell in love with them and we ran through them without knowing they were vintage. These are new, but have the same comic-book color saturation and detailed imagery in a tiny package. For when you just want to know a little bit about the future, or for tiny crafty details. Designers have sealed them under resin, placed them in lockets and even used them in bezels. What will you do with yours?
See the cards here.

Amazing Glaze penny pendant project

Wow, that was hard to type! Click on over to the very addictive blog Just Something I Made for Cathe's penny pendant project. It is lovely and very summery...

Here's the link. Enjoy!

Oh, and she didn't mention it but do be sure NOT to bake your pendant on a cookie sheet you'll cook on. This is a perfect use for aluminum foil or you can save foil take out containers and reuse them for baking dishes. Amazing Glaze is safe to craft with, but not safe to eat! We also have a template for use with images and resin right here.

Hey, Cathe and her hubby are celebrating 20 years of marriage this month, so if you visit her blog be sure to post some congrats!

(Thanks to Cathe for the lovely picture up above, it's from the blog post...)

New Template for you!

We have added a new template for all our bezel and cab settings to the site. It is a PDF so you can download it and print it out on any paper you choose. Click here to get the template and happy cutting!

This was an idea suggested to us by Carolyn C., a crafty customer who just wanted to make her cutting a little easier. We loved the idea so much we had to do it. Thanks, Carolyn!

How to paint naked brass...

While I love the warm shimmer of naked brass sometimes you need a bit more color in your designs. The upcoming Valentine's Day holiday allows me to indulge in my love of all things red and I wanted to celebrate with a some red hearts.

To prepare your metal make sure to wipe the charms down with alcohol. Often stamped brass will have a very thin layer of machine oil on it that you can't see. Wipe this off to make sure your paint sticks.

For these hearts I wanted to create an enamelled look that was almost like cloisonne. When I am creating smooth paint surfaces and not mixing colors I like to use spray-on oil-based enamel paints. Brands like Krylon or Rustoleum are available at your local hardware or paint store. Avoid 'decorator' paints that are not oil-based as they won't give you a smooth, shiny finish.

After you have cleaned your charms place them in a single layer on a sheet of paper or cardboard. Using quick short strokes apply the paint in a thin layer. Because of the viscosity of the paint, raised areas in the charms may show through the paint as you see in the heart above. If you want a solid, all-over color you can apply a second coat after 30 minutes. Allow the charms to dry for at least an hour before you touch or move them. The heart shown above has only a single thin coat of paint so the raised areas on the side really stand out.


Here are three different heart charms I painted. The one in the middle has some mysterious painted fuzz on it that I removed very easily after it was dry.

If you wish to seal your charms you can use a thin coat of clear spray paint or for a really shiny, glossier seal apply a thin layer of Diamond Glaze with a small paint brush. The brass heart charms are available here. Tomorrow I'll make something with my charms!

Keep 'em busy! Family Crafts for Thanksgiving Day

Do you have family that you dearly love but would rather not spend too much time talking with? You know, the Aunty who likes to ask you if you have gained 12 or is it 15 pounds since she last saw you? That Uncle who always feels compelled to share the tale of the time when you were two years old and removed your pants during dinner and walked around with your napkin on your head? That second cousin who wants to get into some serious detail about her latest surgery DURING the meal? Of course you know these people, as a matter of fact, they are all having dinner with you this week.

After dinner is over you may want to hide under the coats on the guest bed, or veg in front of the t.v. and pretend to watch some football game while trying not to talk about politics. Don't. You rarely see these people. Torture them with forced crafting. If you were at my house and were one of my crazy relatives you would be forced to do something crafty. I do it every year and every year the reluctant "I can't do this!" family member ends up telling me that they had such a great time.

Here are this year's pics for sure-fire post-dinner crafts for Thanksgiving day:

Felty Pumpkins
This is a craft that almost anyone age 5+ can participate in. All you need are a few balls of wool roving, some felting needles and foam blocks. Lay out the roving, chat for a few minutes about safety with the needles (DON'T poke them in your brother, DO keep them on the table, DON'T poke them in your sister!) and let the family go at it. Choose roving in pumpkin shades or you can even branch out to apples or peaches if your family is super creative.

Get a free downloadable tutorial here and print it out for everyone.

Bonus: family members will channel aggression into the needle and won't remember to make snarky comments about your new gray hairs!

Stamped Name Pendants
Great for anyone old enough to spell, but the younger ones will enjoy just hitting the metal! You'll need a bench block, a set of letter punches, a hammer, a selection of metal discs (I like brass) and a metal hole punch. Spread everything out on the kitchen table or on the back porch and watch your roughest-toughest guys stamp out tags for their hunting dogs. I suggest having each person trace their disc and write out the name they want to punch before putting hammer to metal. That should help cut down on the folks who forget how to spell their own name.

Bonus: Even the most jaded teenager will put down the wii and come see what all the pounding is about. Take pictures!

Bottlecap Magnets
Powdered resins like Amazing Glaze are fun to use and non-toxic and who doesn't want a magnet with a picture of their own favorite Auntie? You can work ahead by printing out family photos, words or team logos and by drinking lots of beverages in capped bottles. Add some do-dads like buttons, glitter, tiny toys or rhinestones and your family members will keep making these until you beg them to stop. Oh, for the magnets you can hit your local hardware store. I love Seaboard Ace Hardware in Raleigh. Use E-6000 or 527 to glue the magnets to the bottle caps.

Bonus: You could make some for absent family members and mail them, nothing says 'we missed you' like commemorative handicrafts!

Get a free downloadable tutorial here and you'll have all the Amazing Glaze tips you could want.

So, have a happy Thanksgiving and remember to be thankful for the crazy, messy, crafty folks you are surrounded with. Send me pictures or let me know how your day went.

Win some Humblebeads...

You can enter a contest here on Heather's blog and win some fab beads in honor of her many accolades and articles this fall. Read the details and for pete's sake, enter. Someone has to win, it might as well be you!

Charm Exchange! I've got work to do!

There is a Charm Exchange Slumber Party coming up at Panopolie. I have been thinking of revisiting my ICE Resin and paper charms or maybe riveting some papers to metal. I still have about half of my initial 1,000 resined paper bits lurking on my table in the studio, so making some charms would give me a reason to put them to good use. Etched metal discs are also compelling to me right now...so that is also an option. Hmm, maybe a disc with resined paper attached with a tiny bolt?

The nice thing about making charms is you can work out several ideas and experiment as you produce the tiny trinkets. Sometimes I will make a series of ten or twelve and then not want to swap them because they all look so good together! I have made several charm bracelets from the many charms I have swapped and enjoy looking at all the tiny detail. One of the other great things about charm exchanges is that you have to just do the work. There is a deadline. Since I am such a procrastinator, I really enjoy that aspect of it.

We're going to have a few Celebrity Swappers at the Charm Exchange. Our first to turn in her charms is Elaine Ray. She made some really great ceramic charms. Maybe I'll get one!

Artisan Workshop this Friday

Come take a class with me this Friday night...we'll play with resins and add text and images to Elaine's ceramic bezels, beads and pendants. There may also be a nice 10th anniversary merlot and some cheese straws. So, it's a date then?

Call 919-834-8634 and ask them to save you a seat.

Details here.