How to Make a Glass Tile Pendant with a Bail

We realised recently that in all the blog posts we have written, there wasn't one on how to make a glass pendant using a bail instead of a tray.  This can be tricky sometimes as the back of the glass isn't always very attractive after you have glued on your image.

The simplest way by far is to cover it with something more attractive.

Here I will show you how I do it.

I had a beautiful little bird image that I glued onto a cabochon and let dry for, oh, about a year... not intentionally, I just had lots of these from a previous project!

I got some Glossy Accents, E6000 glue, some glitter and a bail.

The birdie cabochon was nice but a bit rought around the edges, and the paper was obviously too big for the cab, so a bit of cutting and tidying was in order.  The dried glaze that had oozed out of the glass cracked as I cut it but as it would be covered again with more glaze, this did not bother me.  You can find it easier to use a nail file to tidy up the edges.

It bothered me more that the edge of the paper was so bright white, so I painted it with a purple pen to match the glitter I had.

So far so tidy.  No sharp edges, no visible paper, no ink onto the image.  All good!

Next, I glued the bail onto the back using a smidgen of E6000 and ensuring it is nice and straight.

E6000 will leave 'hairs' so I used tweezers to remove these.  You will see in the picture below a good blob of E6000 that doesn't look so good if left uncovered.  If that is your intention, then you can always apply the E6000 with a tootpick onto the bail - just a small amount and none will seep out.  Of course I didn't do it so elegantly here, but it doesn't matter as it will get covered up.

Once the E6000 was dry, I applied a layer of Glossy Accents....

And immediately sprinkled it with glitter so the entire glue surface was covered. Blow gently onto the piece so the excess glitter cleans off.  The bail looks covered in this picture but it cleans up nicely when dry.  You don't want to handle it too much at this stage as it will be very wet. I let this dry straight (aided by the tweezers!) for a good long while.  A day or two is good.

When completely dry, apply another coat of Glossy Accents on the back.  You don't really want to have bare glitter next to your skin or clothes.  Again leave to dry.  As this will be your top coat, look out for bubbles - keep a watch as they may not appear initally.

And there you go - a beautiful pendant, with a smooth glossy and professional looking back!  The coat of glaze over the top (we used Glossy Accents again here) makes the glitter become more of a shimmer, a little more subdued. We like this effect a lot!

Other methods you can try for finishing the back:
- using ModPodge, cover with a decorative paper, and when dry, file the edges and apply a layer of glaze
- paint it
- try using a fabric covering instead of paper
- coat the back with a funky nail varnish
- decoupage the back with pieces of paper and ModPodge
- instead of glitter, try flocking material
- use a stamp and embossing powder
- if you sell these pieces, it's a good place to add your own signature, your logo or your website details

Show us how you make yours on our Facebook page @ jasminstudiocrafts.com!

Glasses Chain

If you are anything like me - myopic and astigmatic to a T - you probably won't have a need for these.  I never can take my glasses off, all hell would quite possibly break loose if I did.  But if you are an occasional glasses wearer, say for reading, you will understand the value of a chain for your glasses, that you can hang around your neck, always keeping your specs at hand ready to be put on at a moment's notice.

We now stock the handy little rubber bits that connect the chain to the glasses, so we thought a trial was in order.  We got together some chain, jump rings (not shown), some fancy bow connectors that have just arrived in the shop, two 10mm connector blanks and a set of epoxy stickers to fit - as the connector blanks are double sided we used four stickers.  We picked a piece of scrapbooking paper with a sweet little rose pattern for our inserts.  All the metal pieces are vintage copper finish.

We started by making the little connector blanks, first stick the epoxy domes onto your patterned paper and cut around this, then ModPodge the little pieces onto your connector blanks, allowing them a bit of time to dry.  If the glue is too much and overspills (like it did here!), it's not a big problem as it cleans up nicely when dry.

Then lay out all your pieces so that all your bows and your flower images are facing the right way up.

Attach to your chain, pop your rubber connectors on with a jump ring and model on your glasses.  Result!

Shrink Plastic Jewellery

We have now started selling amazing shrink plastic.

Here are some quick instructions on what we do:

• choose the right product for your purposes: Shrinkles Shrink Art will be good for stamping and drawing; Shrinkjet for printing from an inkjet printer
• use permanent inks (thin lines work best) or coloured pencils (not soft or waxy).  For the black shrink plastic, metallic pens work well

• cut your artwork around the shape of the design.  The plastic may not shrink evenly so you may not get a perfect circle or square, even if you use a craft punch, but free flow shapes will be great
• make any holes you may need for jump rings at this stage (a standard hole punch 7mm away from the edge is good for this)
• preheat your oven to 175oC, 350oF, Gas Mark 3
• prepare a flat and smooth baking tray by lining it with foil and a layer of baking parchment.  High walled baking trays will not work well here.
• the makers recommend a book but we like to warm up a pan a little bit and have another piece of baking parchment nearby.
• pop your piece onto the cool baking tray and in the oven.  You will see it curl up and then flatten. 
• once flat again remove the baking tray from the oven, immediately cover your piece with parchment paper and press the warmed pan over it.  If the pan is hot it could burn your piece - keep it warm only - the idea is that your piece will be kept warm enough by the pan to flatten completely.
• carefully remove the piece and leave to cool
• at this point you can tidy up any sharp edges or uneven shape with a file
• use a couple of coats of ModPodge to seal the image
• we also like to apply a top layer of glossy accents onto the image for a glossy, resin-y look
• glue/thread onto the jewellery of your choice

We will add some photos of the process soon - in the excitement we forgot to take any good ones!  Now we have to have another making session all over again.  Ah, well.  A perk of the job. :)

New Hollow Bowls

Hello Inspiration! Good to have you back! We know you only went away momentarily as we were fretting and faffing with taxes and pricing and all unexciting things, but then in came these beautiful hollow bowls and there you were! It is good to have you here again!

So you will have already seen these amazaroola new hollow bowls.  They are delicate, they are fragile, they have a lovely handmade feel about them.  They will serve to encase your precious mementos, your artistic little sculptures and a myriad miniature worlds.

We have come up with several ideas for them already, but we must pace ourselves. So we bring you just one little idea, nothing particularly new about it, it simply revolves around the idea of picking a simple concept and converting it into a small (very small) representation of the life-size one.  In this case, I had been sitting in the garden and thought I would try to encapsulate my garden into a pendant tray.  Yes I could have taken a photo and set it under a cabochon, but I really wanted a diorama effect.  So I gathered my materials:

and went about the making of the piece.  I had:

• ModPodge
• a pendant tray
• a hollow glass dome
• a piece of backing paper from a scrapbooking set
• a detailed scrapbooking paper sheet
• scissor, brush, pointy tweezers - and not in the photo, but they were nearby, a set of colourful Sharpie pens

Firstly I glued the blue backing paper into the tray.  I had traced around a bigger piece using the glass dome and cut it to size so it would fit the tray. As it had a slight wave pattern and I wanted it to sit straight, it needed a bit of gentle manouvering into position.

I then applied glue to the bottom border and glued on the nicer and greener bits of moss I found.

With another coat over the bottom of the moss itself I was able to add a second layer for depth.

I had picked the larger scrapbooking paper because it had some teeny tiny butterflies and ladybirds that I could cut out - easier said than done!  It might have been better to use an X Acto knife here as the detail was just too much for my huge ploddy scissors.  Alas, we did what we could.  These tiny paper insects were then folded slightly for a slight 3d effect and glued into position in the tray.  

Hmm, not quite right.  The insects looked washed out and the paper could be seen through the rim of the glass. Resort to Sharpie help.   Coloured pens gave the insects the extra burst of colour I wanted, and a quick go around the edge of the background paper with a black pen meant any paper showing would not be visible around the edge of the glass.  Of course I needed to push the moss into the tray a little bit to allow the glass to sit nicely at the very edge.

Let everything dry for a good day or so.  As all the bits of glue dry, if you pop your glass top onto your piece too soon, you will find droplets of condensation form soon after. 

When dry, I dabbed a little ModPodge on the rim of the glass - this glass is very fragile and so it won't be subjected to many knocks and bumps.  I believe ModPodge will be strong enough for the job, but if in doubt, you can use E6000.  Place it gently onto the piece, ensure there are no stray bits of moss escaping and there you have a cute little diorama piece.  

Sweet!  

Easy Wooden Letter Tile Pendants

Not sure if we ever showed you how easy it is to make a lovely wooden tile pendant.  All you need is:

- A wooden letter tile or Scrabble tile

- ModPodge glue

- E6000 or superglue

- Epoxy Sticker to fit the tile

- A bail

- A toothpick

- A pretty image

First gather your materials:

Then apply the sticker onto your chosen image - laser prints and professional prints on good thick paper work best.  Felt tip and inkjet inks may run, so try to avoid using those if you can.

Once the sticker is on, press all over the surface to ensure no air pockets remain, and carefully cut around the edge of the sticker.

Apply ModPodge to the back of the Scrabble tile and lay your image over the top.

Give it a few moments to 'grab', and then you can work on the bail right away. E6000 is very viscous and can leave trails of glue all over your work - the best way to apply it is to squeeze a drop of glue onto a piece of plastic,

and then using a toothpick, just grab a bit of the glue on the end (and if it trails you can wind it around the toothpick, like spaghetti!)

And apply it carefully over the middle of the bail, you won't need to use too much.

And immediately set it onto the centre of the tile.  Leave a couple of hours to dry completely.

Ta-da!!  

All tiles, stickers, bails and glues used in this project are available to buy from our shop - try it for yourself, and see how easy it is to make gorgeous personalised jewellery!

Here's a New Idea - Word Necklaces

How about making some fab new necklaces for spring?   I felt the need to make something, and I did not have much time - so I opted to use epoxy stickers, which look great and are really really easy to use.

I gathered my materials:

• epoxy stickers in 12mm and 15mm sizes, 
• silver plated charm blanks also in 12mm and 15mm,
• ModPodge, scissors, printer, laptop! 

First I printed out a sheet with everyone's names written on it, in capital letters with big spacings.  Here I am showing you the necklace I made with my own name (part of a set I was making), and obviously you will need an adequate number of stickers and trays for the length of the names or words you are preparing.

I wanted to make these necklaces with a mix of big and small trays and found the 15mm trays went well with a 24pt font size and the 12mm ones suited the 16pt size nicely. 

Once printed, I just centred the stickers over the top of the individual letters - I went for a big-small-big-small pattern, but you could do this differently.

Then I cut around the letters to make reasonably tidy circles (!), and simply ModPodged them into the trays.    Finally, I used jump rings to join the trays in sequence to every second link in the necklace chain, and it was all done!   Really easy, it took ten minutes in all, and everyone was really pleased with their necklace!

Love it!

Below I made a slightly different necklace - firstly I used printed images instead of letters, or rather, the leftover borders from some images I used on another project.  I used the same stickers and same charm blanks but a different chain.

And the beauty of this one is that as the chain is smooth without links (much like ball chain or snake chain), all the charms dangle together clinking as you move, making this a lovely playful piece.

And just because I had some of the little flower print outs, I made some earrings using our new vintage copper ovals and matching 13x18mm stickers.  Easy!

Have fun making!!

Sizing Issues

Those of you who use our glass or stickers and trays regularly will already know that sometimes there are very slight discrepancies in size - all our items have a small percentage of tolerance by which they can vary, this is normally fine and unnoticeable, but sometimes you find that you get a piece of glass or a sticker that feels a bit loose for the tray.  This happens more often than the other way round, it would be disastrous if glass was always bigger than the tray therefore the insert is usually made just a notch below the specified size, so even a small discrepancy in size should not normally make it impossible to fit the glass or sticker into your chosen bezel.

What is a lot more common, however, is that sometimes the insert can feel slightly loose in the tray, and often, especially if you use silver plated trays, you can see the back of the tray next to the glass and it doesn't look very appealing. See here my earlier attempt with one of our brand new oval stickers - can you see the base?

The best way to correct this is very simple - just grab a black permanent marker, and off you go!

Paint the visible edge of the tray:

All the way around:

And paint the edge of the paper, taking care not to go over the sticker or glass:

And there you have it, a lovely finish!