the link to charms...

Hello my wonderful friends. I'm glad to see you survived the Mayan end of the world. =)

Why is it that when you are stress and strapped for time, the store never has what you need?

This week I was in desperate need of charm blanks to make bookmarks with. I made a whole bunch months ago for the kids in my church, but we found out we were about 10 short to finish out the year. Yikes!  I went to my local variety store in hopes that they might have something... They have in the past, so it wasn't too much of a stretch. Of course, because I needed it, they didn't have it. One of the drawbacks to living out in the middle of no where is that major craft stores are quite a drive away. So, I was forced to get creative.

So today, instead of sharing a technique that I am familiar with, I will take you along for the ride as I figure out how to make charms from chains.  I was making this up as I go and taking pictures in hopes that it wouldn't be a total flop. LOL!

I was able to find this large link chain at the store and decided it was my best hope for making a workable charm....

I began by separating the links.

(I was pretty sure that would be a safe place to start. LOL!)

I wanted a back to my charm that could withstand the abuse of daily use, so  I decided to stamp my image on some acetate with StazOn ink.... It was amazingly hard to find images to fit in these particular links because they are narrow... I ended up using just a small portion of an image.

Next I put a tiny bit of Glossy Accents (by Ranger) on the back of the link and centered it over the image. I ended up putting an acrylic block over it to weigh it down as it dried to make sure it made a good seal.

Once the seal was made, I filled the whole thing up with Glossy Accents. I then set it aside to dry overnight. Talk about a hard wait! I didn't know if it would work or if I should keep trying other options, so I tried a few other things just in case...  (UTEE is not a good option... it cracked when I dropped the link.  Paper worked ok, but I didn't like the back... I'll share a pict at the end of the post anyway.)

In the morning it was clear and dry, so I started cutting it out. To my dismay, when I was half way through cutting it out, the acetate peeled right off!   I was about to throw in the towel at that point but then I noticed that the StazOn ink had transfered perfectly to the Glossy Accents! And it didn't scratch off!  I suddenly realized that discovery in of itself could lead to some interesting projects!

(I love it when things don't go as you hoped, but end up being better!  You can discover so much if you take the time to experiment!!!)

Ok, so here was the part I was most concerned about... could I punch a hole in it without ruining it???? I honestly had no idea.  I crossed my fingers and tried.

Turns out, you can. =)  *whew!* 

the result... a clear charm!!! Yay!!!

Now to add some color...

Non-pourous surfaces are hard to add color to. Water based products just won't work. Alcohol inks work, but they would react with the StazOn ink and smear it. So my first idea (and favorite!) was to use Creative Inspirations Paints.  It worked like a charm. (ok, so that pun was lame, but when I first thought it, I wasn't trying to be funny.... it made me laugh when I noticed what I had just said. LOL!) I added the paint to the back of the charm. That way the black outline would not get covered.

Success!  I'm really glad it worked! Now my brain is a whirl with ideas of how to mix it up... What about adding Resplendence to the Glossy Accents? Or swirling Creative Inspirations in it.... Or...or...or... Guess who's going to be playing with charms! =)  

(if you have any great ideas for this, I would love to hear them!)

So here is the finished book mark.  I really love these shepherd's crook book marks!  They are fabulous!  I had a hard time finding them in bulk for a good price, so here is a link to the place I used. If you only want one or two, you can try ebay or esty.

Here is one of the other experiments that worked...

I painted a piece of cardstock with Creative Inspirations Paint, then stamped the image on it. I then did the same thing I did with the acetate (filling it up with Glossy Accents...)  It looks great from the front, but I didn't like the look of the paper on the back. However, if you were going to glue this to a card or LO, it would look fabulous!

I must say, I am very glad this worked!  Thanks for coming along for the ride. I hope you all have a safe and "charming" holiday/end of the year!  (yes, another bad pun.... I just couldn't help myself! I think I need more sleep.)

Enjoy!

~Kassi