Category Archives: crafting

About arts and crafts, my forays and better things others do

stopped planning and actually made something

In the last decade-plus, I’ve dabbled with rubberstamping, which is a nifty craft. You get to create nice looking things even if you don’t draw all that very well. I started down that road after visiting a rubber stamping store without knowing about it being a crafting activity. I was fascinated by the embossing samples on display. Mostly, I’ve played with stamping on paper, usually making cards and bookmarks.

For many months, I’ve been toying with the idea of covering some plastic pieces I’d saved and using that to create jewelry. So last week, I decided to finally get to it. I covered a piece with stamping sticker paper. Next, I took a half circle stamp of a sun that had worked well embossed in gold for a card last year and stamped it on, then embossed it in gold. Then I took markers and colored between the embossed lines. Trimmed it down to the shape of the stamp and embossed more around the edge. I coated it and embossed the edge a bit more and then glued on a pin back.

pins

I liked how it came out, so I made another pin, too. This one started with a cat and bird I’d stamped and embossed a while ago for a card. The image was fine but I’d messed up the card, so I had cut out the embossed image and saved it. I glued it onto another piece of plastic. Decided it looked good uncolored, as is. But then I wanted to emboss around the edges with copper embossing and I kind of messed that up…made the edge wider than I’d planned. So given it was now a “failed” piece, I experimented further and widened the edge a bit more and coated over the top with goddess gold embossing powder. That comes out mostly clear with just flecks of shining iridescence over the image. My friends liked the piece, so I decided to finish it and keep it. I coated it and added a pinback.

These were really just first try pieces. I want to refine the idea a little. But it’s something new and I’m glad I finally stopped thinking about it and tried it. I should do that more often. Sometimes it works out just fine.