Getting Crafty

This week in stained glass class we finally started building our projects. To do this you need a board to build on. People use all sorts of things to build their projects on. My early copper foil projects were built on cork message type boards. However, since lead is heavier a stronger board is recommended. Our instructor, Jim, from Austin’s Blue Moon made each of us a special board to build our projects on. These boards are basically 24″ square and consist of a layer of 1/2″ think plywood and a layer of 1/2″ homasote. Homasote is a building material made from recycled paper. It’s sturdy and yet you can press the aluminum pushpins into it that stained glass crafter’s use to hold projects in place on the building boards.

In addition to your building board, you’ll need a set of layout strips. These strips will help hold your project in place while maintaining your 90 degree angle. First you place your bottom strip and then, with a t-square, you’ll place another strip on the left side, or if you’re a lefty, on the right side. Like this:

As you can see from the photo above, the layout strips are held in place by the aluminum pushpins. This is very sturdy. Your pattern goes on next. If your pattern has a caming line then you would cut it away and butt the pattern up against the layout strips. Next you’ll want to set your pieces into the pattern to ensure that all pieces fits snugly within the black lines of your pattern. If your pieces don’t fit properly, now is the time to grind them down to size or your pattern will get off kilter.

Next we’ll talk about lead caming and how to cut it and work it around your pieces.

Tip 2 - Dipping Your Sugar Cookies

This is one of the easiest and most fun techniques for children. It can be a little bit messy but what’s the fun of making cookies with kids if there is no mess at all?

One again your take some of your royal icing and thin it down. I like to do this with shallow disposable bowls. Trust me, you’ll thank me when you’re tired and it’s time for cleaning up. Take about a quarter cup to a third a cup of icing, add in your colors and then water, just a drop at a time until your icing is just a little thinner than corn syrup. I like to color all my icing before starting so you’re all ready to go and don’t have to keep stopping to color more icing. For Christmas cookies I recommend red, green & white at a minimum. If you’re doing snowflakes then pale blue is nice and for variety you may like yellow for stars and perhaps a darker blue.

Take your cookie and just dip it into your color. Lift it out, give it a little shake to get rid of the excess and then flip it over and give it another little shake to help it settle and smooth it out. Set it down, icing side up, on wax or parchment paper. At this point you can sprinkle it with sanding sugars, dragée, sprinkles or any other toppings you like and then leave them alone to dry. Here are some cookies I made using this method:

You can make cool swirly patterns by dropping tiny dots of colored icing onto other colors and gently swirling the colors together using a toothpick. This is a technique kids never get tired of and yet it still makes adults go ooooh and ahhh.

I know, Christmas is not for another few months but it can’t hurt to get a headstart on cardmaking! I whipped up this cute little card in less than five minutes.

Materials
Cardstock
Jewel-like brads
Ruler (optional)
Black pen/marker

Directions
Start with a folded piece of cardstock.

Using a pen or marker, draw (freehand or otherwise) the skeleton of a tree, or any other figure that you can dress up with brads.

Poke holes randomly through your tree (or other figure). Attach brads where the holes are. Add a written message of cheer, or rub one on.

Cut a smaller piece of contrasting paper for the inside (to cover up those unsightly brad remnants!

Voila!

At last, I’m finally posting the tutorial for how you can make your own very basic scoubi keyring.

I apologize in advance if the pictures aren’t helpful. Hopefully the words will help explain any tricky bits.

Without any further delay, here we go:

Obtain a keyring and two 3-4 feet lengths of scoubi lacing (or gimp). Contrasting colours look quite nice.

Tie one of the lacings around the keyring (here I have tied the red one) and slip the other piece of lacing through, allowing an equal amount of lacing on each side.

Selecting one colour (here I chose red again), making two loops going in opposite directions (one looped toward you, and one away from you) and hold the loops in place with your finger.

Using the end of the second colour on the left hand side, weave this end over the loop to its right, and under the loop furthest away.

Using the end of the second colour on the right hand side, weave this end over the first loop to its left, and under the loop furthest away.

Pull all four ends tight. I usually grab two ends, each of a different colour, and pull, then pull each individually.

Repeat.

And repeat.

When the desired length is reached, make a double knot with each colour. The result is your very own keychain!

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I left you with a bit of a teaser on Tuesday, and I’m glad that no reports of people jumping off cliffs or pulling their hair out out of anticipation were heard.

Without further ado then, here is how you can make your own wire and bead rings and things:

Start with your materials:

(You will also need a nail clipper or a small pair of scissors to cut the wire thread)

Instructions:

Cut a length of wire, five or six times the length of the finished product (I have large fingers so the longer the thread I have, the easier it is for me to manipulate it).

String on twice the number of beads that you want the width of the final product to be. In this case, I want a ring three beads wide, so I have strung on six beads. You’ll want to centre the beads on your wire thread.

Take one end of the wire thread and thread it through the three furthest beads and pull tightly.

Thread enough beads to make up the width of the ring (in my case that’s three more beads) onto one end of the wire thread.

Thread the other end of the wire thread through the newly threaded beads and pull tight.

Thread three more beads (in my case) onto the opposite side of the wire thread as before, and insert the other end through, pulling tightly.

Continue until the length is appropriate.

Thread one end of wire through the three beads on the other side. Tie the two pieces of wire together along the top (or bottom) edge (there is no official top or bottom).

Voila! You’re done. Try it on and admire your handiwork.

As promised, please find below the instructions for making marble magnets.

There are other sites that offer instructions and if you want some beautiful inspiration, I suggest you check out Not Martha’s site: it was one of the first places that I saw marble magnets.

MATERIALS

• marbles that are flat on one side (also known as glass globs, glass gems, mosaic marbles) and are approximately 3/4 of an inch in diameter



• a strong glue that dries clear (I recommend Elmer’s Silicone Clear Rubber Sealer but it has a strong odour; I have also used Aleene’s Clear Gel Tacky Glue which works but isn’t my first choice. If you come across a better glue, please let me know!)



• paper with a design, image or words that can still be seen clearly when the marble is placed over it



• magnets that are the same size or smaller than the base of your marble (I buy mine at the local dollar store. Some people use the rare earth magnets but I cannot find them here (they must be rare, indeed!). The rare earth magnets are small but reputed to be quite strong.



• a circle stencil or punch that creates circles that fit the base of the marble without being too big or too small

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Find the image you want to make into a magnet.



2. Cut out the shape.



3. Apply glue to the magnet and affix the image to the magnet. I find a toothpick works well to spread the silicone sealer (that was a tip from Not Martha).




4. Add a small blob of glue to the top of the image, press a clear marble over it and let dry for a good 20 minutes.




5. Voila!

I made some of these magnets for a friend’s bridal shower and they were a hit.

I hope you take the chance to try out this craft and report back with pictures of your creations!