Keychains? Or Bookmarks?

Hello!

I have something for you today that I was playing around with using products from the Creative Inspirations Paints store and wanted to share.  And you may decide for yourself what they really are.  (They're not keychains.)  :-)
 

I know, I know, they LOOK like keychains, and I suppose you could use them for that if you wanted, but I think they'd be really cute bookmarks as well.  At least that's what I'm telling my husband when he opens his Father's Day card and one of these falls out.  Shhh...

They are made with clear shrink plastic, Creative Inspirations Paints, CI Resinesense, and rhinestones (one of which is a CI Jeweled Inspiration).

I cut the shapes with regular dies (the largest of each shape), punched a 1/2" hole in one end, sanded one side with fine grit sandpaper, and painted the sanded side with CI Paints, in this case Gold and Garnet.  Now before I go any further, let me say that some of the pictures don't match the finished products because I wasn't really planning on doing a tutorial per se and just snapped a few pics here and there as I was experimenting.  The pic below on the left was not a keeper.  I tried to use more than one color and it didn't work out.  The one on the right worked fine.

Two colors turned very muddy when shrunk.

A single color worked much better.

After painting the shapes, I stamped images with Staz-On.  Then I put the heat gun on them until they were shrunk.

Here's a confession: I was actually trying to use the shiny (non-sanded) sides of the shapes, but after several failed attempts, it turned out that the painted side looked better - shimmery and glittery!

Tip:  For larger shapes, dust with Embossing Buddy first so the shape doesn't stick to itself when shrinking, like this one did.  It was a challenge to flatten it out.  (Some colorful language may have ensued.)

At this point I  painted the backs of the shapes with the same color paint, four coats.  Then I signed them and topped things off with a coat of clear glaze.

Now it was time to finish the fronts.  I used CI Paint's newest product, the wonderful one-step resin, Resinesense.  I applied several thin coats to allow the resin to build up into an attractive, full shape.  Of COURSE I goofed and caused one of the shapes to leak resin into the punched hole, but a small drill bit took care of that after it dried (because that was when I discovered it).  The good news is the shimmer from the paints isn't dimmed at all by the resin. 

I applied a rhinestone to one and a Jeweled Inspiration to the red shape.  It just took a tiny bit of glue to hold them until the resin could anchor them in place.  Those babies aren't going anywhere.

And here are the finished products.  There is a lot of room for creativity here.

Needs more stamping.

A little too much stamping.

This one's juuuust right.

Thank you for joining me and I hope you give these keychains er... bookmarks a try.  We'd love to see them!  And don't forget to join our current challenge, the theme of which is Inspired By: Father's Day!

Happy crafting!

Supplies used:

From the Creative Inspirations Paints store: Paints: - Gold, Garnet; Jeweled Inspirations; Resinesense.
Clear shrink plastic
Rhinestone
Staz-On ink

Challenges entered:

Crafty Cardmakers #93 - Father's Day
Creative Card Crew #38 - Metal
Simon Says Stamp - Masculine/Father's Day
Pile It On #23 - For or From a Father
Eclectic Ellapu - "B" is for... (bookmark, bling) 

Paris (or...I can dream, can't I?)

Hello!

Today's card is a "just because" kind of card that I've made using the ever delightful Creative Inspirations paints.  I love, love, LOVE them, and one of my favorite ways to use them is the marbled background technique, which you can find here.  It is my new favorite technique and I've already done it several times.

This time I've used Tutu Pink, Mellow Yellow and Pink Highlights, the last of which is interesting because it looks ivory until you turn it towards the light, then the shimmery pink shows up.

I had to photograph the card at a couple of different angles to try to capture the shimmery goodness.  See that slight pink?

Here's another closeup.  You can see more of the pink down there to the right.  I really wish I could have a video within a picture so I could move the card around and show you the shimmer.  It is a fascinating way to create an interesting background that can pretty much stand on its own.

I used some lovely product from the Inspired By Stamping shop, including the always versatile Paris stamp set, the new Background Basics III stamp set (behind the word "Paris"), the Fancy Labels Die, and some Colonial Rose Satin Ribbon.  Some dots of gold glitter glue at the bottom finish this card.

And that, dear friends, is today's card.  Thanks so much for joining me and I wish you a lovely, craft-filled day.

Happy crafting!

Challenges entered:

Divas By Design - Anything Goes
Crafty Ribbons #45 - No Design(er) Paper
Delightful Challenges - Stash It (use from stash - gold embossing powder, gold glitter glue)
Fussy and Fancy #88 - Anything Goes

Tuesday Alchemy #53 - Over the Pastel Rainbow

Hello!

It's time again for another challenge at Tuesday Alchemy.  The theme for Challenge #53 is Over the Pastel Rainbow, and who doesn't love using pastels! 

The prizes are awesome and are as follows: 

Di's Digi Downloads - $10 store voucher

Stitchy Bear Stamps - $10 Store Voucher

LEJDesigns - 4 Digital Images

The DT was challenged to choose a color and do a monochromatic card in that color, and I chose green.  Huh??  What was I thinking?  Green butterflies?  Green flowers?  I must have REALLY been in the mood for a true challenge.  LOL!  But not being one to back down, here is what I came up with:

How's that for some green?  There are green flowers out there, and who knows, maybe somewhere in the tropics there may be some type of green butterfly.  (These almost look like the common sulphur yellow that are soon to be seen in the garden.)

The image is from Stitchy Bear and is "Floral Swirl," which you can find here.  I paper pieced the flowers with scraps of green printed CS and popped them up on dimensionals, and the butterflies were white which I colored with yellow-green and green Copics.  There are butterflies printed which are part of the floral stamp, but I felt like going the 3-D route this time and covered them with my embossed die cut lovelies.

I glittered the stamens on the flowers.

I applied SU Shimmer Paint to the debossed areas of the base layer.  Why debossed?  Because I was sloppy in applying the paint to the embossed side and thought I'd give the debossed side a try before trashing the piece, and turns out I preferred the look! 

I made a nice, squashy bow out of hand dyed seam binding then added a custom charm which I already had on hand - perfect match!

And that, dear friends, is my monochromatic pastel card.  Thank you so much for joining me today, and do stop on over at Tuesday Alchemy to play along and see what the rest of the lovely DT has made for your inspiration! 

Happy crafting!

Supplies:

Stamps: Floral Swirl (Stitchy Bear)
Paper: Always Artichoke, Wild Wasabi, Subtles Stack (SU); white scraps, green print scraps
Ink: printer
Extras: Dies: Ovals Stax 1 & 2 (Dienamics); Embosslits Beautiful Wings (SU), Copics, rhinestones, seam binding, custom charm, Shimmer Paint (SU), ef (unknown)

Challenges entered:

SCS TLC422 - Monochromatic Madness
Incy Wincy - Pastels
Love to Create #58 - Pastels
Inky Impressions #102 - Flowers
Charisma Cardz Challenge #11 - Diecuts
3 Girl JAM #14 - Green w/Ribbon
Frosted Designs - Up, Up and Away
Really Reasonable Ribbon #68 - Flowers & Ribbon
Red Carpet Studio #29 - The Secret Garden
613 Ave. Create - Anything Goes