Collage Pendants!

The Craft Fantastic line of Art Image Sheets is glorious in style, color and tone! Anne, the owner extraordinaire, has carefully curated the designs and selected images that complement each other. However, if you need even MORE options, this collage technique will fit the bill!

Last year I shared a blog post featuring the Collage Words Art Image Sheet. The projects were oodles of fun and I meant to create more pieces using this technique, however, the excitement that is Craft Fantastic distracted me and I never got back to it. Recently, Erin, one of our newest Show Team Members started creating samples using layers of our Art Images. The results were so fabulous, that it made me want to share another post with you regarding collage and how to incorporate it into your jewelry pieces. By the way, the wonderful sample at the top of this post is one of Erin's.

Let's get started...

What You'll Need

Craft Fantastic Art Image Sheets - An assortment of your favorites.

Craft Fantastic Glass Cabochons - Whatever sizes and shapes make you happy. 

Fantastic Glaze & Glue

Super Fine Glitter - Optional

Scissors

Cotton Swabs (not pictured)

Scrap Paper - To work on.

A few meager supplies and I'm ready to go!

I've selected a nice background image, a couple of butterflies and a lovely lady in profile.

 I cut them out using scissors.

I also decide to add a couple of words from the Collage Word Art Image Sheet. I lay them out to get an idea of how I want my piece to look. I use some of the Glaze & Glue to start gluing my smaller images to my background to make sure everything stays in place when I lay my piece of glass on top.

I use a generous amount of Glaze & Glue on the back of my glass cab to ensure that no air bubbles get trapped between my layers and show up later. I sprinkle a bit of super fine glitter on the glue as an after thought.

I lay my glass cab on top and firmly push out the air bubbles as I normally would. I let this set for a few seconds, then wipe away the excess glue with a cotton swab. I let it dry completely before I trim away the paper edges.

I quickly made a slew of these! I used a little bit of glitter on a few and then left the others plain. Erin's beautiful piece is in the middle. 

I hope you enjoyed this week's tutorial! Super easy, but SUPER creative! 

Thanks for joining me. Stay up to date on all of the Craft Fantastic tutorials, product peeks, and giveaways by following this blog via EMAIL (sign up in the side bar), liking Craft Fantastic on FACEBOOK, and subscribing to our monthly NEWSLETTER! 

See you next week with something new!

Chunky Bracelet Chain

We sometimes receive requests to carry a chunkier chain. While we love the dramatic look of a bigger chain, we hesitate to add one to our product line. Primarily because our pendant bails on our basic trays would not easily slide on and off. A large jump ring would accommodate the pendants that contain a flat loop, but our beautiful pendant trays with the lovely pendant bails would not work with them. It would be a crime.

However, now that we're carrying these new charm bracelets, it's easy to create a fresh, chunky chain just by stringing them together! Gather round Crafty Friends, this is going to be a quick tutorial! If you blink, you'll miss it! 

Let's get started...

What You'll Need

Craft Fantastic Charm Bracelets (3 or 4) - It depends on the desired length. I wanted something long and stylish for my samples so I opted for 4.

Pliers

Scissors (not pictured) 

As I said, this is going to be a lightening fast tutorial!

Our new Charm Bracelets have an adorable ball dangle at the end, which makes for a lovely detail on the bracelet, but not so much for our chain. I clipped the dangles off easily using a pair of scissors. 

I've removed the dangles from my bracelets and now I'm ready to string them together.

I attach a lobster clasp from one end of a bracelet to the exposed jump ring of another bracelet. I do this with all four bracelets.

VOILA! I like the substance of this chain and I even like the detail of the lobster clasps. They provide an edgy, modern appeal. Plus I have the flexibility of using the bracelets again later as bracelets if I so desire. I could easily remove the lobster clasps and attach them with small jump rings if I wanted to give the chain a cleaner look and I knew I was only going to use it as a necklace. 

The chain looks pretty great as is and a large jump ring will allow the addition of a tray with a flat loop to slide right on. HOWEVER, for something even more stylish, I added a large jump ring to the small jump ring of one of the bracelets, along with a couple of our fabulous pendant trays and attached the lobster clasp directly to the large jump ring. This creates an elegant long piece (which I adore)!  

Now that is a good looking piece of jewelry! Substantial and rich! The addition of the Extra Large Round Tray and Small Round Tray is perfectly balanced by the chain and doesn't overwhelm it. 

Here's a version in silver using our new Grand Cross. I added a small glass round that I created using the Faux Turquoise Water Marbling Technique I featured in a previous post. This piece really speaks to me as it is reminiscent of New Mexico art, sky, and terrain. The Southwestern style of using silver and turquoise together is sort of our state's notable jewelry collaboration. You can tell I love the Land of Enchantment :) 

A closer look!

Four bracelets strung together create a necklace approximately 32" long, three bracelets create a necklace approximately 26" long. Do you want to wear it long one day and short the next? No problem! Just remove one bracelet! Want to wear one of the bracelets as an actual bracelet? Again, not a problem! I guess you could consider this a truly convertible piece!

I'll be honest. I really love the bohemian look of the longer pieces layered together with shorter pieces. Sort of like the wearer just threw them on with carefree abandon, but the layers come together to create something artsy and original. Now that I'm thinking about it, these longer chunky necklaces would be perfect with our Faux Leather Cords!

I hope you're as excited about this alternate use for the Charm Bracelets as I am! Be sure to follow us on the Craft Fantasic FACEBOOK PAGE, sign up to receive our monthly NEWSLETTER, and subscribe to the BLOG (in the sidebar) so you never miss a post. We frequently host giveaways, share project ideas, feature customer creations, provide product sneak peeks and MORE on all of our social media sites!

See you next time with something new and CRAFTY!