This is what life looks like....in Leighland...

Tuesday 16 December 2014

Silver Fingerprints

I've always loved finger print jewellery and have a gorgeous foot print necklace from when Lola was a baby. I've always wanted to buy more but they're really, really expensive!

Thanks to Tiny Trinkets YouTube video, I was able to figure out how to make them myself!

I've slowly bought the materials over the last few months and while it hasn't been cheap to buy, it still works out cheaper than having them made professionally!! I plan on making 2 key rings,  each with 4 finger prints spread over 2 charms and have spent £70 on buying all of the required tools and materials. If we bare in mind, a 1 charm keyring typically costs £60 and now that I have the tools, I'll only need to buy silver clay when making these in future, I think it's a pretty good price!

So first things first, I need finger prints!!  I mixed equal amounts of Silly Gum Silicone Putty that I bought on ebay to make my moulds then squished a small ball of putty onto the index fingers of my daughter and her 3 cousins. I very quickly marked their initials on the top of each mould so I knew which print was from which kid and 5 mins later they were done!!

I repeated the process again, this time squishing the silly gum in to the finger moulds to make the actual finger print.

Using Badger Balm, I greased up a teflon sheet, opened the pack of silver clay and began rolling it to the required thickness. I took a really small heart shaped cookie cutter and cut my shape out. The clay can dry out quickly so it's important to wrap up the excess and seal it in a zip lock bag as quickly as you can, pushing as much air out as you possibly can.

Sing pushed 3 of the 4 finger prints into the heart, then I rolled out a little more clay, cut a smaller heart and pushed Lola's finger print into it - I now have 2 hearts, my big brothers 3 kids' finger prints on 1 and my kids finger print on the other.

I followed the instructions in the kit (bought from Amazon) to fire the charms and they now need to cool for 20 mins.

I have to say, I'm a little concerned as to what they'll look like when the process is fully finished as at the moment they just look like white clay rather than silver charms!!!

I'll post pictures once they've been polished and set with the keyring findings!

Teacher's gifts

Wow, it's been a while huh?! I kind of lost my mojo for a while after having a few medical problems, but I've been starting to get inspired again lately and have been starting to make things again.

Today is a big craft day for me as I have a number of Christmas gifts to get on with before its too late!! I thought I'd start with the teachers gifts as they're the ones I need to hand out first.

Personalised mugs

I love, love, love taking my Lil Monster to ceramic painting places but wow are they expensive!!! Money is really hard at this time of year so I really needed a cheaper alternative!! Pintrest is full to the brim of Sharpie crafts so I thought I'd put them to the test!!

What you need:
1 Plain mug
1 Sharpie pen
1 Oven

It's that simple!!!

You can use the sharpie to make any design you want, I'm terrible when it comes to drawing so I decided to fold a sheet of paper in half and cut out a heart shape.  I then held the heart securely over the mug (you could use blue-tac or tape to hold it in place) then made lots of small dots around the heart.

As you can see, this makes a negative heart design on the mug which I then added to with more dots to make it a little prettier.

I went for plain white mugs (£2 each from Asda) and a metallic gold sharpie pen. Before you start your design, pre-heat your oven to 180°. Once your design is finished, bake for 30 mins then allow to fully cool. These mugs will be finished when my Lil Monster gets home from school and writes 'Love from Lola' on the back of them!!

I also bought a few chocolatey bits to put inside the mugs, a sachet of hot chocolate, mini marshmallows and a Lindt bear.

I really wanted some little sachets of marshmallows but I couldn't find any anywhere, so I bought a big pack and some paper cups. I then cut the lip off then cut down in straight lines to make tabs all around, if you fold each tab inwards, your paper cup will magically transform into a pretty little favour box!!

Put 1 marshmallow filled favour box, 1 hot choc sachet and 1 choccy bear into each mug then pop into a gift bag with some tissue paper on top et voila!!! I've made 4 of these 3 for the teachers at school and 1 for my Secret Santa gift for work!!