Every Christmas, I like to reward my Stamp Club members and downline with earrings and pendants made from the Christmas trinkets in the Holiday Catalogue. Imagine my chagrin this year when, at the last moment, I realized that there really wasn't any trinkets that were good for making jewelry! I guess I could have used the jingle bells, but I didn't order enough of them for the job and there was no time for doing that.
What I did find, however, was a photo that someone had created earrings using the 1" Circle Punch, Brightly Gleaming DSP and the Shimmery Crystal Effects. I was determined to do the same, not realizing the difficulties about to ensue. I did learn some valuable lessons though, that will definitely make a difference if I ever decide to do this again.
- The paper itself is perfect for earrings! It's dramatic, dark in colour and it has the metallic copper accents that shine out so well through the Crystal Effects. Although it is already sold out for this year, look for it to return with next year's Holiday Catalogue.
- The difficulties are getting the Crystal Effects to spread evenly over the surface of the whole circle, as the Crystal Effect seems to tend to pull toward itself in the center, leaving the edge empty. The remedy is two pours but that can cause other problems, with the new Crystal Effects sometimes sitting in a cloudy layer over the old layer, if you don't do the pour at just the right time.
- I would punch the hole for the findings after I've poured the Crystal Effects and it has dried, because I did it first and then I got the Crystal Effects leaking through the hole and marring the other side of the earring.
- I used Stampin' Blends of the same colour as the paper to colour the edges after the Crystal Effects had dried, so the white edges wouldn't show.
- The silicon craft mats are incredibly useful for this project as the Crystal Effects doesn't stick to the silicon and you can easily peel the earrings off them and trim the excess glue around the edges.
- I made the holes in the earring with the long retired, but still amazing Crop-o-dile!
- The display piece for the earrings was made with the Everyday Label Punch and the Crop-o-dile.
They were well received even though they weren't perfect! My team and customers are wonderful people and they appreciated my efforts on their behalf. That said, I hope Stampin' Up brings back the Christmas trinkets next year!!
Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.
Crop-o-dile; jewelry findings
