Family Heirloom Necklace

Hi everybody! Kim here from My Kraft Kloset sharing with you a beautiful heirloom necklace that was created using these amazing vintage antique brass pieces from Craft Fantastic that can be passed down through the generations to treasure for a lifetime. 

Let's get started:

1.  Choosing from hundreds of Craft Fantastic images is always the hardest part. So for this project I chose a couple of my families favorite flowers, the word "family" and the letter "K" for our name.

2.  To collage with the word "family," cut it out, add a couple drops of Fantastic Glaze & Glue to the back of the word, and place where you want it on your flower image and press down to make smooth. Allow to dry for a few minutes. If you don't, the glue could smear your image under the glass and could appear cloudy. 

3.  Add a couple drops of Glaze & Glue to a MEDIUM GLASS ROUNDS and place over the newly collage image, and press gently for a few minutes until set. Wipe off any excess glue around the edges with a Q-tip. 

(Do this step for the duo side daffodil flower image and the alphabet image too)

4.  Once dry, cut around the glass and cut out the images.

5.  Next choose a tray for your beautiful images. I chose a double sided "duo" tray so I could use two flower images and this lovely twist link tray in antique brass to give it a vintage quality. Adhere a Fantastic Super Sticky Dot to each tray. Use more dots if your tray is larger. Remove red sticky dot backing and place glass images in the trays.

6.  Attach trays and tree charm to each other with small jump rings and pliers. 

7.  To complete this design I cut my chain in half with scissors and made them equal lengths on both sides. Using small jump rings and pliers, attach a flourish connector to each piece of the chain. Attach a celtic type knot connector on each end and attach to the top of a V connector. Then attach the bottom of the V connector to the top of the duo side charm tray. 

(as shown with arrows in the picture above)

Voila! There you have a stunningly vintage heirloom piece, complete with the tree of life and a family monogram to pass down through the generations to treasure forever. I'd love to get this from my mom or grandmother. Wouldn't you?

Be sure to check out our *NEW* Designer Kits-of-the Month and get started on a few custom gifts for all your upcoming special occasions. And keep a few for yourself too, because the possibilities are truly endless with these amazing Craft Fantastic  products! Leave us a comment and tell us what you think. Thanks for stopping by!

Kim Klinkovsky @mykraftkloset


Supplies Used:

MEDIUM ROUND DUO SIDE CHARM TRAY antique brass (double sided two flowers)

(2)MEDIUM GLASS ROUNDS

MINI ROUND TWIST LINK TRAY antique brass (monogram alphabet)

MINI GLASS ROUNDS (for alphabet images)

NATURE CHARM COLLECTION antique brass (family tree charm)

Click to see All Charms

Seed Packets all jeweler's glass sizes (blue/white daisies image)

FLOWERS & TEXT all jeweler's glass sizes (daffodil image)

ALPHABET #1 mini & small glass sizes (the letter "K")

COLLAGE WORDS all jeweler's glass  (word "family")

Click to see All Images

FLOURISH CONNECTOR antique brass

V CONNECTOR antique brass

KNOT CONNECTOR antique brass

SMALL JUMP RINGS antique brass

FANTASTIC GLAZE & GLUE 2 oz.

FANTASTIC SUPER STICKY DOTS

MULTI PURPOSE JEWELRY PLIERS

Qtips

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!

Using the Craft Fantastic Collage Words Art Image Sheet!

I love to use printed words and text in my art projects. The simple addition of 3 or 4 words can make such an impact whether the desired results are humor, inspiration, motivation, etc. They can be 3 or 4 powerful stand alone words to drive the point home or a series of words to create a complete thought. Whatever the case, they certainly add so much more meaning and creativity to an image. 

The Craft Fantastic line of Art Image Sheets consists of many beautiful designs featuring images found in nature, vintage images, destination images, etc., but we also offer a Collage Words Sheet composed of a variety of words in a typewriter font, perfectly sized to easily work under the Craft Fantastic Glass Cabochons. This sheet is a hidden gem nestled quietly among the more artsy sheets. Today I'm giving this sheet it's due and showing you how something so simple can add so much.

Let's get started...

What You'll Need

Collage Words Art Image Sheet - The star of the show!

Miscellaneous Art Image Sheets

Miscellaneous Craft Fantastic Glass - I used larger glass sizes for these so I had plenty of room to showcase the wonderful images and add a few words, too.

Corresponding Craft Fantastic Pendant Trays  

Fantastic Glaze & Glue

Fantastic Jeweler's Dots

Scissors

Cotton Swabs 

Scrap Piece of Paper 

I selected the images I wanted and poured over the Collage Words Sheet to cull just the right 2 or 3 words for each design. I trimmed out each word pretty close so that they would fit neatly under my glass. 

I decided to have some fun with image below so I started with a bold sunflower from the Sunflowers Art Image Sheet and then tore one of the squares on the diagonal from the Text Art Image Sheet. Next I added my Collage Word. I laid these pieces out so I could get a feel for how I wanted them positioned and to make sure they would display correctly under my Large Glass Square. Working on a scrap piece of paper, I laid my main image down. I lightly covered my torn pieces with glaze and glue making sure to apply it right up next to the edges. I gently pressed these down and positioned them across the opposite corners. Next, I laid down just a tiny strip of glaze and glue across the area that I knew I wanted to put my collage word. 

When using these tiny words, I found that they were hard to handle because of their petite size and the fact that I have fat fingers, but if I dipped a toothpick in the Glaze and Glue and touched it to the front of the word, then I could easily pick it up and lay wherever I wanted with better precision. 

Once I had glued all my words down, I made my glass using the same steps that I normally would. If you need a refresher, here's a link that might help. I found I needed a wee bit more glue than usual in order to make sure that I was able to press those air bubbles out. Even though the paper is thin, the added layer of the word can result in air bubbles if there is not enough glue applied to the glass piece. 

All done! A pile of pretty glass waiting for a pendant tray to show it off!

Here's an upclose look at each piece. 

To finish these off, I added a Fantastic Jeweler's Dot to my Pendant Trays and pressed the glass pieces into each one. I love how the collage words add a bit of humor and beauty to each of these finished pendants and I can't wait to make them into fabulous neckwear!

Thanks for joining me this week! I hope you had as much fun as I did and I hope you will play with the Collage Words Art Image Sheet at home! If you do, feel free to share pics of your finished pieces on the Craft Fantastic Facebook page. We LOVE to see what our Crafty Friends are up to! 

Be sure to visit next week for something new!