Pins and Bling

Hello!

Today's post is about one of my favorite crafts, that of making blingy stick pins.  Stick pins, also known as hat pins (though who wears them that way any more?), are a wonderful accessory with so many uses.  They can adorn cards, scrapbook pages, tags, altered art, hats, handbags, scarves...you name it, a stick pin can probably embellish it.  Here are a few examples of past stick pins I have made and the cards they dressed up.  This one was from March 2013. 

I started making them a couple of years ago and use them from time to time on my own cards, but now my daughter and I have both decided to start adding them to our Etsy inventory so that others may share in the blingy goodness.

See how prettily they can dress up a card?  They add that little extra pizzazz and I think of them as "card jewelry.  This one was made in July 2013 and I've added a little charm to it.



This one was also made last March, only I didn't use a stick pin, I used one of my little handmade jeweled charms, the two of which I often make together.  


 So here are the ones I made this weekend.  I hope they find good homes.

 Pretty greens and teals.

Blues in the shades of varying ocean depths.

Can't go wrong with pink and light blue.

And some guardian angel charms for good measure.

Thanks for joining me today and I wish you a lovely week full of blingy, charmy goodness!

Happy crafting!








These pins and charms are all for sale in my Etsy shop, as are many more!

(The cards in the photos are for illustration purposes only and are not for sale.)

Purple, Gold and Bling

Hello and good morning!

Warning, this post today is photo heavy.

Today is a new challenge over at Tuesday Alchemy - Challenge 41 Anything But a Card.  Do you KNOW how fun that is?  The sky's the limit, and the prizes are awesome.

4 Digital Stamps

  

3 Digital Stamps

So hop on over and start crafting.  You have until Monday, Nov. 26 at NOON Pacific to submit your project, Anything But a Card!  (You may enter as many times as you wish and combine with as many challenges as you wish, too!)

My "anything" this week is the jewelry I make for my cards, specifically, hat or stick pins.  Not all of them wear a pin, but I'm starting to use them more because let's face it, no matter how pretty the face, doesn't it look a little better wearing a bit of jewelry?  

You'll have to forgive the dreadful green tomato pincushion, it was the best I could find, which tells me I need to make my own - something tall (in a wineglass maybe?) and lacy and elegant in which to hold my sparkly bits.  It would be decorative all by itself.  Now on to the pins...

The variety can be endless when you make your own.  Some of mine are short, made on pearl-head dressmaker's pins, some are 3" long, and some as yet to be made will be 5" long.  Now THAT'S some serious pinnage.  I've only just received those long ones in the mail and will be starting on them later this week.

Isn't this little pig cute?  But hmmm, to whom can I send a card with a PIG on it?  

I love these copper angel wings.

 

Dominoes - how fun!

 

I often add a charm to the pin.

And now for an example of how to use them.  The colors used on this card are for the current CR84FN color challenge to use plum, gold and tan.  (There's a wee bit of tan around the edges of all that purple!) 

You need to make sure that the embellishment behind which you stick these pins is secured to the card tightly so the pins won't become too heavy and try to lean or fall off the card.

 I made this pin specifically for this card, which was made for a couple (well, three actually) challenges today.  Believe it or not, I didn't have a single pin in my stash that would fit, but since they go together in minutes, it wasn't a problem.  These pins are very relaxing to make - the hardest part is deciding which blend of beads, gems and/or findings to use!

The base layer has been embossed with a snowflake ef and then brushed with gold pigment ink on a sponge dauber.  The squares are two layers consisting of a bottom layer of gold glitter CS and the top layer of purple CS embossed with an overall snowflake design, then again brushed with gold pigment paint.

The snowflake is a two layer die cut from the gold glitter paper, and the sentiment is a tiny Dienamics tag.  The bow is seam binding from my stash.

The pin in all of its glory.  These pieces really do finish a card nicely.  And they are so easy.

So thank you for joining me today, and I hope you find time to go check out Tuesday Alchemy and make your own "anything" for the Anything But A Card challenge!

Happy crafting!!

Ingredients:

Paper: SU Elegant Eggplant, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, gold glitter CS
Ink: gold pigment ink
Stamps: SU Teeny Tiny Wishes
Accessories: SU Northern Flurry and Snow Burst EFs, SU square and postage stamp punches, Dienamics Mini Wavy Pennants and Let It Snowflakes dies; seam binding, sponge dauber, custom stick pin.

Challenges entered:

CR84FN Color Challenge #67 - Plum, Gold Tan
Pause Dream Enjoy Challenge #46 - Thank You Project
The Sweetest Thing SSSC172 - Sketch