Enameled Paper Beads

Our May meeting was a tutorial on making enameled paper beads using a melting pot, UTEE and tiny embellishments. This is a great use of old text weight scrapbooking paper, wall paper samples, printed tissue, etc. The beads are rolled from long rectangular or triangular strips of paper and then rolled in melted Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel, like a blown glass bead. Then sprinkle with tiny glass beads or glitter and melt another layer of embossing powder on to encase them. A fun finish to the beads is melting metallic or colored embossing powder onto the ends.

I made two 3.5 inch long beads that I would like to use as doll's legs on my next doll project. These have gold mica flecks in them and copper embossing powder at the tips.

Hopefully, some of you will post your finished product or something that you have used your paper beads on.

Slider Frame Project

Maggie, Deb and I met up at Tanny's a couple of weeks ago to make these cute little slide frames. This was a project I got from Club Scrap quite awhile ago and I really liked it, but I wanted the frame to be wider so the background picture would show more. So, I modified the directions to accommodate that. I think next time we try this I'll try to get a little thicker book board so that there is room for 4 feet on the bottom. These ended up being a little narrow.

I loved Maggie's idea of putting an extra border on one corner to give it a little asymmetry. I added some flowers and die cuts and even found a little bird in my old jewelry stash.

Tanny's PaintStick Doll

Another beautiful creation by Tanny! A Paint Stick Doll. 

She's so clever!

April Luminaries

Our April meeting was a surprise project taught to us by Carroll Marohl. We were instructed to bring an old towel, a handful of nails and a small hammer. We were all perplexed as to what we would be making at this meeting. It turned out we were going to make traditional Norwegian Luminaries. Carroll had tins ready for us to punch patterns in with our handful of nails.

The secret to getting a good punch without crushing the can is to freeze water in them overnight, when you're done you just run it under warm water and out comes the ice. Also, freeze an inch of water in the bottom first then fill it up, now the bottom won't bulge out. The towel was to set your can on to catch condensation and keep the can steady.

Carroll brought several of his own luminaries to show us.












One was even done in a large popcorn tin. Very cool!












I took a picture of mine outside in the dark. I think next time I'll choose a little less intricate pattern or maybe less holes. It's a butterfly with a swirly tail.

A big thank you to Carroll for sharing this technique with us. It was fun!

Maggie's Marvelous Dolls

Here are Maggie's lovely dolls from March's meeting. 

This is Maude the Saucy Spinster

THE BLACK AND WHITE doll was made using my aunt’s bathing suit, from a photo transferred onto a transparency, and Tanny’s grandmother’s head copied onto cardstock.  The pantaloons were created from wooden blocks and old lace and the black and white body and head were from a sheet of washi paper adhere to a wooden block.  I call her Maude, the Saucy Spinster

This is Sister Wife

The other wooden doll was my experiment doll.  I love her.  I stamped the face onto a piece of colored transparency paper, used a transfer copy of my aunt’s dress and put some colored legs on her.  She is holding a baby, also made from wood.  Her headdress is elaborately made from one side of a used towel bar I found at the thrift store and inked with alcohol ink then topped off with an old knob.  I call her sister-wife for no other reason except that she reminds me of one of the women on the hit show about sister-wife’s, as in you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get.

Thanks to Tanni and her help, I also made a soda pop doll.  I love to glitz my art out and this Sassy girl is no exception.  I utilized found jewels from garage sales along with metal this and that’s from the Habit store.  Tanni made me a face by inking and coloring on piece of chipboard. She is whispering “come here big boy”.

Tanny's Latest Creations

These are Tanny's latest dolls. It looks like 2 of them are based on the wooden dolls Maggie showed us in March and the other is one of her gorgeous soda can dolls. Enjoy the eye candy!

Wonderful creations Tanny! I love that swank of hair on the soda can doll. Great idea!

Maisie de Witt

Our March meeting was hosted by Maggie. She showed us how to make a doll from scrap pieces of wood, transparencies and found objects. I finished my doll this week and would like to introduce you to:

Maisie de Witt

Here are some close up pictures of her different parts. I used some plastic waste product I found at the Creation Station in Lynwood Washington a few years ago along with some brads, light bulbs, charms and jewelry bits from my stash.  

I covered the plastic bits with alcohol inks and added some bling and hardware pieces. 

Her body has old jewelry bits, a game piece and a plastic compass. 

Her legs are 2 plastic waste tubes covered with alcohol ink and some fibers glued around the top, sort of like boot tops. 

It was a fun project and will be fun to make another one some time. Thank you to Maggie for showing us the How To. 

Rachelle