gingerandgeorge

Way Back Wednesday :: Faux bois pendant

I'm struggling to believe it's almost two-and-a-half years since I posted the original version of this project on the Banana Frog blog, but the dates don't lie. May 2009 pretty much counts as 'way back', don't you think? Here you go with pics and a quick tutorial.

 

TO MAKE A STAMPED CLAY PENDANT

You will need:

Polymer clay (e.g. Fimo or Sculpey)

Rolling pin  

Woodgrain stamp (I used this one) and acrylic block 

Water-based ink pad 

Cookie cutters or a small knife 

Baking sheet and foil  

Clear varnish or adhesive (optional)  

Cord, ribbon or thong for stringing  

Beads/jewellery findings (optional)

 

What you do:

1. Knead a medium-sized piece of clay between the palms of your hands until it’s soft and pliable. Roll it out on a smooth, flat surface to a thickness of around 5-7mm. Apply ink to your chosen stamp.

2. Carefully press the stamp down on top of the clay, pressing firmly all over. Lift it back up again to reveal your impression.

NB. If, at this point, you aren’t happy with how your stamped clay looks, clean away the ink with a baby wipe, then gather the clay back into a ball and re-do the first three steps.

3. Cut out your pendant shape, using a cookie cutter or small knife. For the woodgrain pendant, I used an oval-shaped cutter, with a smaller ‘0’ in the centre to add interest.

4. Cover a baking sheet with foil and place your pendant on top. Bake the clay according to instructions on the packaging (usually around 130ºC for 20-30 minutes). Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

5. To protect, seal and add a sleek finish to your pendant, spray with clear varnish, or apply a coat of shiny adhesive (e.g. Glossy Accents). String on to a length of ribbon, cord or thong and add any extra details, as desired.

TIPS:

 :: If you haven’t worked with polymer clay before, there are plenty of tips, info and video tutorials online – try a quick search to get you started.

:: Mix your own custom-coloured clay by kneading two or more shades together.

:: Although most polymer clays are non-toxic, it’s best not to roll or cut it with utensils you’ll later use for preparing food. If you don’t have an old rolling pin, try wrapping your usual one in a thin, smooth layer of cling film which can be removed once you’ve finished rolling the clay.

:: For a more subtle effect, stamp with a clear or watermark inkpad. (You can make an impression without using ink at all, but the clay might stick in places and you’ll also find it’s harder to lift your stamp away.)

:: Experiment with pieces of spare clay to see which stamps create the best impressions. You can see a couple of my alternative versions below.

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Palette Pingpong (No.36) :: Desktop wallpapers

 

Anatomy of a Palette Pingpong post

Gabrielle sends me a picture.

I use it to make a colour swatch.

I set about making something fancy from the colour swatch.

I work on it for over an hour.

Photoshop crashes.

I remember that Command+S is my friend.(Command + S saves time, and sanity, and most importantly of all, it saves the stuff you’re working on.)

I start again.

Because I like you and I want to share something pretty with you.

(Press Ctrl+click for Mac / right click for PC to save or set as background)

I hope you like them.

I hope you’ll download them.

I hope when you look at them, they will remind you Command+S is your friend, too. Saving stuff is good.

The end.

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Avast ye, blogmates

Apparently, today is international Talk Like A Pirate day. If the number of images I found while hunting for something to celebrate this is anything to go by, it would seem I am a little obsessed with ye olde seafaring types. 

Seriously - a pirate dog?

I am inclined to blame Johnny Depp. 

Arrr.

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Way Back Wednesday :: String up some spooky

Although it still seems a little early to be thinking about Halloween, these chaps have been spooking their way onto quite a few Pinterest boards over the last couple of weeks. 

In case you missed out when I originally posted them last year, and (unlike me) are already planning your Halloween celebrations, I thought you might enjoy a quick Way Back Wednesday revisit. The ghosts are free to download, and you can dress them, decorate them and print at whatever size you like.

Trick or Treat isn't quite such a big deal here in the UK as it is in other parts of the world, but our little string of ghosts, plus a carved pumpkin and some cookies made with the scooped-out insides made for a really fun seasonal celebration last year. 

You can find the original ghost post here, and if dressing up strings of creatures is your thing, you might also like to check out their rabbit cousins.

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DIY stamping

Today, I'm sharing a guest post on making and using custom rubber stamps over at Jo's blog, A Bit Of This & A Bit Of That. The tutorial is part of her month-long New Skills Festival, and you can find it here.

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Back to buttons

Afternoon, blogettes. How are you?

I have a very quick download to share with you today, courtesy of PaperCraft Inspirations magazine. 

Button cards - the small backing-cards to which buttons are attached in haberdashery stores - are mostly very dull these days. Once upon a time, though, they were much, much fancier. You can often find pretty vintage versions at flea markets or on sites like eBay and Etsy, and they're perfect for adding to cards, collages, parcels, packages or even your dining table. 

If, however, pesky things like time, budget and good-thrifting opportunities are conspiring against you, there's always the cheat's option:

You can see how I used each of the cards in the magazine (which I think is still on sale for another couple of weeks), and/or help yourself to a printable set of all 7 from the PI website.

At some point, I'm hoping to share a fun bonus project with you here, but things at Casa G+G are a little on the crazy side right now. Good-crazy for the most part, but fancy-pants-blog-ideas-will-have-to-wait crazy all the same. The minute things calm down, I promise you'll be the first to know. 

In the meantime, if you put the cards to good use - or, frankly, any kind of use at all - take a picture and link to it below so I can include a little round-up when I do get to that bonus project post. Deal? 

Deal.

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Palette Pingpong (No.35)

So, apparently today is Thursday. How that happened, I'm not quite certain, but Thursday it is and round here that means Palette Pingpong.

Even though she's been crazy-busy launching a new (and very gorgeous) Christmas line over at the green gables, Miss Gabs was still up for a little colour-schemeing, and this here is the picture I chose as her challenge:

Pretty, no? It's from The Wedding Chicks (and before you go reading anything into that, I found it via Pinterest). The site is lovely, particularly if you *are* looking for wedding ideas, or even engagement/couples/general party inspiration. Despite its ability to steal away hours of time you didn't have to spare, I do love how Pinterest so often leads you to blogs, websites, shops and artists you might never have otherwise discovered. 

For now, though, it's me leading you over to Gabrielle's blog to see what she's done with that photograph... 

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Superhound Sunday

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In a state

While that title could easily be applied to my hair (needs dying), socks (full of holes) or house (poodle-sized dust bunnies), it does in fact refer to something far nicer. This, in fact:

I'm falling-off-my-chair happy to say one of my projects is included in State of Craft, a new book, put together by Victoria Woodcock and Ziggy Hanaor, who were also responsible for the amazing Making Stuff a couple of years ago. You can read a little bit more about the idea behind State of Craft here (towards the bottom of the page), and although it's not published for a few weeks yet, you can pre-order at Amazon and very probably your local, friendly, independent book shop, too.

Excited as I am to see how my project turned out (there's a little glimpse in the picture above), I'm also itching to have a good look at everything else. This moustachioed gentleman has already caught my eye.

And you know I'm a sucker for creatures wearing glasses.

Did I mention I was quite excited about all of this? 

OK, then. As you were. 

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