charming challenge

are you participating in Roben-Marie's charming challenge?.... she is doing an affirmation alphabet that she turned into charms. 

these are a couple of charms i have made so far..... the round is a metal circle key label and the small square below is an inch by inch mini canvas.

sometimes you have to be brave to come to the studio and work even if you are not inspired; or you have to be brave to post your work on social media (heaven knows my style is not everyone's style).

but, participating in the art community is worth it. i have met so many art friends over this art journey that makes it worth it all..... you are my community that means so much to me. 

• views on the blog 
• comments about the blog post
• just being able to share my work (and of course.... only the good stuff- haha! the rest goes under the counter to be gesso'd and used again and we are not going to talk about that mountain....)

love the little stitching on the canvas and the little paperdoll.

here is to you- my community.

xo. kristin

worked like a charm...

recently i spied an idea from Alisa Burke using sculpey clay to make package charms. all pics here are of mine....

i followed her instructions and the baking the instructions on the clay and made a handful of Christmas package charms....and i am so excited to share!

i bought an off-white, red and black sculpey clay to make my charms; but, there were a ton of colors to choose when shopping at my local Michael's store.

the packages of clay seem kind of small but, i was able to make many charms from one package. the clay is divided into 4 strips of clay. when i made my charms, i used about 1/3 to 1/2 of a strip to make a charm. rolling it into a ball and then using my fingers to then work the ball into a flat shape. once flat, i stamped into each one mainly using my new stamps from Rae Missigman. i also punched a hole into the charm so i can tie onto packages.

when baking, i lined my pan with parchment paper and baked according to the directions.

once the charms were done baking, i let them cool and then painted with black and white acrylic paint. i wiped off the excess paint off of the surface, leaving the acrylic paint to stay in the stamped shapes- hi-lighting the shapes. i was curious what they would look like using colored acrylic paint- so i tried a turquoise; and gold ink, and finally spraying with several dylusions inks (but, only one color per charm- sticking to a color similar to the clay- so i used red, pink and orange sprays with the red clay.)

the charms look juicy and so colorful....just loved how they turned out. i did dab off some of the ink to help in the drying process, but, the charms held a lot of their color and the gold really added a nice pop to these charms.

i had so much fun and plan to make more! but, wanted to share in case you would like to try this yourself!!

turning "finds" into charms

in town we have these clothing collection metal bins. someone apparently did not understand the "clothing only" and there was stuff outside of the bin. so when i ran to the grocery and had come to the stop sign and glanced, over....my eye was caught by this sparkling item that had been left there. the junker in me kicked in, and going around the block gave my mind just long enough to think of the potential that this item may hold. so i went back and grabbed it.

i wish the pieces there straight across at the bottom, but, hey, sometimes you need to roll with the punches and not look a gift horse in the mouth! so this is the first mixed media "charm" i made. i am not sure about the book paper, but, i definitely like the diamond napkin and the black and white polka dot washi tape.

yes...definitely like the diamonds....can't wait to make more charms. my plan is to hang the charms with ribbon. what are your thoughts on this charm? let me know what you think! thanks for visiting and comments!

friday's charm

i had bought stuff to make charms, and finally had a chance to play. these were a few of my first ones. i, of course, used shinky dinks, stamping, staz-on ink, and UTEE. can't wait to put them onto a bracelet!