A garnet heart flows....: contest

It's INTERNATIONAL CHARM DAY TODAY ! A big THANK-YOU to Amber Dawn of Inventive Soul for starting this fun event ( you can click on her link in the links list, or click on the Charm Day image upper right ). Hopefully it will become a yearly event too :)

So okay, I'm off to a slow start. It's 10:33 a.m. as I write this, been feeling just a wee bit under the weather but nothing that a good hot cup of tea won't cure.

Let's first start off with the charm I'm offering as a prize, woohoo ! I posted it yesterday too, and all you have to do is leave a comment either on the post below or on this one. When our son comes home from school today ( around 2:40 ), I will get him to pick a name ( names will be on paper and placed in a bowl ). The winner will be announced here in a new blog post, so check back by 3 p.m. ( pacific time ) to see if you're the lucky recipient of this fun charm !

These are Scrabble charms using actual vintage Scrabble tiles I found at a flea market several years ago. Last year I was all 'gung-ho' about starting my own style of Scrabble tile charms on Etsy, but it didn't last long because I just got bored. Yup, bored. As much as I love working in small format, these proved to be a bit too small for my liking. So I pulled them out of my shop and have decided to use them in other ways.

On these tiles I used a variety of items, from stars, to lace to vintage 1950's Popular Science magazines. The bales are handmade from sterling silver wire and then glued ( E6000 ) to back. Some tiles have a layer of Triple Thick gel gloss, others were sealed with a ployurethane varnish.

This goofy fun charm was a test. I had this acrylic chandelier pendant just hanging around and wanted to see how well it would accept an ink jet copy of part of one of my vintage valentines. But before I glued on the image ( using Crafter's Pick The Ultimate Glue ), I first glued on individual letters from a vintage dictionary, spelling out 'That's a spicy meatball'. Then I glued on the image and waited. Well, for some unknown reason the image peeled off after 2 days of drying ! The letters stayed firm. I decided to reglue the image ( same glue ) and waited about 4 days. This time it stayed stuck and I then dabbed some orange and pink glitter around the edges, painted back of crystal with Halo Gold Lumiere paint and sealed the back, really well, with polyurethane varnish. It's now been a couple of months and so far nothing has come loose, phew !

The other 'charms' you see were my attempt at Sculpey mini-foods. I've made several cupcakes using various beads, glitter, etc...a couple of donuts and my most fav. piece: a chocolate covered cherry ! The heart was just something random, mixing glitter into the clay and sprinkling on top before baking. And to let you know, I first tried pushing in hardware hooks but soon switched to homemade hooks. The hardware ones would split the clay, you can just make out a split on the donut.

Here is another test charm, using a vintage Buss Fuses container ( about 2" long and 1.5" wide ). I found it in my dear dads pile of woodshop junk and fell in love with its possibilities. There were a couple of fuses left so I took one, along with glitter and stars, layered it inside the clear plastic fuse case and covered all with a big dose of Triple Thick Gloss gel. The handmade copper bale was attached via two small drilled holes and glued with E6000.

Well, unfortunately I'm not super fond of this charm. I was hoping the glitter would be much glitterier and the fuse a bit more obvious. Plus, the coloring on the plastic stars began to come off and seep into the gel. Sigh. Oh well, it was a test piece and I can always remove the Buss Fuses box and use somewhere else. For now I may still wear as a charm but add some other funky charms along with it.

This is one of my favorite charms ! I should have taken a before shot of this pendant, darn :P
It started off as a plain clear glass 'intaglio' ( I believe that is what the cameo is, carved into the glass from the back ), the surrounding was a dull silver colored filigree metal. The cameo was quite easy to remove simply by rasing the prongs. My dear friend gave me some purple silk which I had to use on this cameo ! But first I glued some golden stars around the cameo edge, along with glitter of course, and then glued the fabric over the back. Once fully dry I sealed the back with several layers of varnish to 'tighten up' the fabric. The silver colored filigree surround was painted with Lumiere paint ( a rich gold purple ) and then I hand sewed a variety of beads and plastic stars, sealing with more varnish and finishing with a lovely rich purple metal rose. I just LOVE this charm !! If I could find more I would be in heaven :) I'm not a sewer, but sitting there, sewing on those beads, etc...was so very relaxing, and seeing it come together so prettily WHILE I was sewing, what a thrill !
I am contemplating whether or not to sell one of my Charmblies with this charm ( a Charmbly is a whimsical paper dolly that comes with it's own charm, in my Etsy shop ). If I come across more 'sewable' pendants like this, then I'll go for it. For now it's mine :)

These fun charms will soon grace my Charmblies in my Etsy shop.
--'Be the author of your own love story' was made with Scrabble tiles and using faux gems, pink bugle beads, a wee bit of pink glitter, paper, heart charm and words from some vintage book ( don't remember which one ).
--'I am' was created on the backside of a plastic eyeglass lens, using vintage 'magic numbers' paper ( it came from my 1970's Magic Hat toy ), the eye came from a vintage advert. about hypnosis, the word 'am' also vintage paper and the red 'burst effect' from a bag of super fun paper cutouts I found at Michaels ( sometimes they do have fun stuff ! ). Edged with black paint and sealed on the back. Not yet complete, I may add other smaller charms to it.
--'Marilyn' was one of those 'let's see how fast I can make a charm' challenges ( just a personal thing I like to do ). I think Marilyn was created in an hour. Her image was slightly altered to give her pink hair ( a light wash of watered down paint ) and then faux pink gems attached. I glued her to some recycled cereal box, added pink glitter and handsewed some thick pink thread around the edges. A pink anodized jump ring hangs from the thread and below dangles a plastic 'lucite style' heart on which I used a pink Zig marker on one side only ( really makes the pink POp ! ). Marker was covered with a coating of Triple Thick. Charm was finished with a rather wonky looking large pink eyelet ( I do okay with small ones but these large ones never work out properly for me, they always get that raised edge. Is that normal ? ) and handmade wire 'jump ring'. Oh, forgot to mention the cereal box back was covered with pink plum blossom paper. FuN !

Finally, these are shrinky dink charms I made from a computer collage using some of my own photos and collected images. You can see my original shrink plastic collage pendant ( with these images ) in my Etsy shop, it's called 'getting to the other side'. These two future charms ended up being too small for my liking ( wasgoing to use individually ) so I may create soome kind of fun dangly thing with both of them.

Hopefull you can click to enlarge these pictures. If they are clickable but look the same size, sometimes you can make them larger by clicking the zoom button on your monitor. Look for a small magnifying glass image on the bottom right, it will say 100% next to it. Click on it and you can enlarge the picture 125% or 150%. And as always, photos don't do any justice, these creations look much more awesome when in 3d :)

Wow ! There you go ! I'm tempted to post more charm pics., maybe when I post the winner of the playing card charm later this afternoon.

I hope you enjoyed going through my wee stash 'o charms and their descriptions, maybe they inspired you to make more of your own charms or start your first one.....? Would love to see a pic. if you do feel like creating :)

So HAPPY CHARM DAY EVERYONE !!!!!

---now go and leave a comment so I can put your name in to win my playing card charm :)

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

I am thrilled to show off my birthmom to you :) We had our first meeting last Thursday on a lovely sunny day at Island View Beach ( in Saanichton British Columbia ). We sat, gabbed and ate lunch munchies on a log from noon until just after 5, boy was me bum tender ! Then Judy came back home with me where she got to meet my husband Jacques and our son Christian :) It was all so very wonderful, lots of smiling and laughing.
Of course I couldn't help but wonder what similarities we had. Judy enjoys whimsy, crows and ravens, among many other things.
Although I will always love my quiet time, I do look forward to her and I becoming good friends :) I believe my dear mom and dad, now both passed, have had a spiritual helping hand in this meeting and that of my birthfather. It's rather amazing that in less than a year I've been reunited with both of them !!

This perfectly made robins nest was found in our large cedar tree that grows in front of our living room window. Photo was taken a couple of weeks ago. My husband has since taken another photo a couple of days ago, the nest was housing 1 brand new baby robin and 2 robin eggs. I'll get the photo up asap !

*♥*♥*Okay folks ! Here is one of my charms I'm previewing the day before CHARM DAY APRIL 28th !*♥*♥* AND YOU COULD WIN IT !! Please see my last blog about this special fun day or click on the link to your top right.

This charm was made in 2006, using a playing card, wire, broken jewellery bits, faux gems and shell-like 'chips' ( or teeth is what I call them ), along with dabs of paint. The card was attached to the back of some peel and stick floor tile ( remnants from when I was a teenager back in the '80's and wanted to move downstairs. My dear dad created a black and white checkerboard floor for me ).
This is definately considered an 'altered art' charm because of 'altering' the playing card into something other than it's normal use. It's 6" long and 3" wide with the wire. Make a necklace, hang in your window, turn into a magnet, whatever you wish :)

Would you like to win this charm ? All you need to do is leave a wee comment on either this post or tomorrows post. When our son comes home from school Tuesday afternoon, I'll get him to draw a name from a dish. Good luck !!