A Trio Of Paper Jewels To Wear

Stephanie Loomis’s embellishment of her paper flowers really makes her jewelry unique.  She uses glass beads, chain, micro beads, wire and charms to complete each piece.  Her three piece set of burgundy and orange is quite amazing. 

My photography however is not quite so amazing.  It really made me sad today when I couldn’t get a picture that truly captured the beauty of this trio.  I’ll keep working at it.  Even though photography isn’t my forte it is a necessary skill for blogging and sharing!

Here is a closer look at the necklace: 

  And a close up of the coordinating lapel pin:

Thanks for sharing with us Stephanie! 

And now we want to share the love with our readers!  If you would like a chance to win one of Stephanie’s necklaces  just send me an email that says “Stephanie’s Jewelry Rocks!”  My email address is suzanne@pennywisearts.com

The random drawing will take place next week!

Hugs,  Suzanne

P.S.  If you’re just joining us be sure to look at the last several posts to see how Stephanie made these!

Foam Flower Wearables

Stephanie also created a pretty necklace with fun foam.  This one was inspired by the paper flower idea she got in a magazine.

 

How To Make The Foam Flowers

Supplies: fun foam, die cut machine (Sizzix), black ink (Staz-On by Tsukineko), rubber stamp (sentiment or small pattern. Mine is The Angel Company), white glue, microbeads, mulberry paper

Directions:

1.  Cut flowers from foam.

 

2.  Stamp on flowers.

3.  Discard flower centers

4.  Cut a base for the back side of the flower. (I used a rounded rectangle) 

5.  Tear mulberry paper into leaf shapes.

6.  Glue leaves onto base.

7.  Glue flower on top of leaves.

8.  Fill flower center with white glue.

9.  Add micro beads.

 

10.  Let dry.

 

From there the directions are the same as the paper necklace (see previous post)

Necklace:

1. Decide how the flowers will be clustered.
2. Glue them to a base of felt or foam.
3. When dry, trim the base so it doesn't show.
4. Use a paper piercer to create holes in the base to add jump-rings, wire, and/or ribbon.
5. Embellish as desired....

Stephanie also created a matching hair clip to complete this fun fashionable artwear.

 

Just wait until you see the NEXT set Stephanie created,….. oh my WOW!

Hugs, Suzanne

A Hairclip To Match

  As I pulled all of Stephanie’s jewelry pieces out to photograph them I discovered this cute little floral hairclip, it matches the necklace I just posted. In handling each piece over and over to get reasonable good pictures I realized just how durable these flowers are!  Don’t let the idea of paper jewelry scare you off – these guys will definitely last a long time!

Hugs, Suzanne

Handmade Paper Jewelry

Our featured designer for the month of April was Stephanie Loomis.  With all the retreat hoopla I forgot to schedule her projects on the blog.  So sorry Steph!

Stephanie is a Southern Belle and makes her home in Georgia.  Stephanie has been around the PWA community for almost as long as I have!  She’s visited us here in the Seattle area for a retreat and I’ve have the adventure of visiting her and attending a retreat in Georgia.  Fun stuff!

Steph calls herself and accidental artist.  I’ll let her explain.

“I call myself an Accidental Artist because I came to art by a circuitous route--via literature, theater, photography, music, education, and rubber stamping. Now I fully embrace mixed media and altered arts as my expression and my therapy. I teach secondary school literature and composition two days a week which leaves me studio time. I frequently incorporate art elements into my literature classes to teach symbolism, point-of-view, and anywhere else I can combine literature and art. I've been married since 1987 and have three daughters born 1990, 1993, and 1996. God is good--all the time. That's the motto of my moments and the inspiration of my life.”

For her first project of 2011 Stephanie says,  “I was inspired by the March/April edition of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. There was an article there about making paper flower jewelry. I tweaked it to meet my skills.”

This is one of the gorgeous paper jewelry pieces that Stephanie submitted for her assignment.  There is a close up picture at the end of the tutorial where you can really see and appreciate her attention to detail.

How To Make The Paper Flowers

Supplies:

White Glue, old paper (newspaper, old books, whatever), fun foam (or felt, which is what the magazine used. I happened to have to foam on hand.), acrylic paint, water, alcohol ink spritzer (Shimmerz by Tsukineko; Walnut ink by Tsukineko; Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels), micro beads from Pennywise Arts

Directions:

1.  Paint papers with watered-down acrylic paints. Be messy.

2.  When paint is dry, Spray with alcohol ink spray.

3.  Tear paper into strips about 1" wide.

4.  Tear strips into pieces 1/2" - 1" long. (The magazine recommended a barrel shape, but that was too hard for me to do consistently.)

5.  Twist each piece at one end and fan out the other end. This is a single petal.

6.  Cut or punch a circle from the foam.

7.  Assemble the flower by gluing one petal at a time,   beginning with the outside of the foam circle and working inward in layers.

8.  Let dry.  (Showing another color combo)

9.  Apply glue to the petal edges with a toothpick.

10.  Dip in micro beads.

11.  Let dry.

How To Make The Necklace:

1. Decide how the flowers will be clustered.
2. Glue them to a base of felt or foam.
3. When dry, trim the base so it doesn't show.
4. Use a paper piercer to create holes in the base to add jump-rings, wire, and/or ribbon.
5. Embellish as desired....

Here is a up close shot of Stephanie’s beautiful and beadiful necklace! 

Remember you can click any photo on the blog to see an even larger version!

Well done in an amazing way Steph!  And there’s more to come!

To see more about Stephanie and her art, photography and life all mixed together visit her blog:  

http://mrsl-dramateach.blogspot.com/

Hugs, Suzanne

3-D Zots

When I was at the stamp show in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho last month I took a class from Mary Jo McGraw and she used a new to me “beadnique”.  Imagine that!  So simple too!  Got 3-D Zots?  Julie Imsland does!   I borrowed hers to show you what the box looks like.

All you need to do to be successful with this technique is stick the Zots on something,( in this case I used flowers) and put the sticky dot in the centers.  Once in place just smush micro beads into the Zot and tap off the excess, viola! 

Both of the flowers above were done using stamps from Outlines.

This next example was made using the Tim Holtz Tattered Floral die cut with fabric and the plastic packaging that the die came in.  Following the tutorial from Laura Denison’s Following the Paper Trail YouTube video I glued the fabric to the plastic and let the glue dry.  Then I heated the plastic until it was soft enough to mold.  A 3-D Zot in the center finishes it off quite nicely. Besides the obviously cool design look, I love that they resemble those old time jelly candies with the little crunchy colored dots on the outside that my grandma used to keep in her candy jar. Does anyone know what they were called?  

Another fun thing about the Zots is that they stay gooey underneath so you can poke them and they squish a little.  It’s a tactile thing, I just can’t help myself.  Ü

Hugs,  Suzanne