Cute Stick Pin Embellishments...

Hello, Mandy here, back from a long (life-changing) trip to Kenya, Africa.  It's good to be back with you all, I've missed crafting so much!

After I'd caught-up on my sleep and hung out big time with dh and the pile of teenagers that live here, I came up for air and needed to get crafty inspiration i.e. blogs and sites of the crafty online variety.  Of course I checked out IACW and all that I'd missed while away (inspiring as always).  Then, while I was browsing on 2 Peas  I noticed a swap for scrapbook embellishments that caught my interest.  It was a stick pin (and toothpick) swap organised by a crafter called gus-gus.  I decided this was just the gentle start to getting back into crafting I was looking for.  I'd never taken part in a swap before and decided it was about time ;}     I checked it was OK to join in the swap from here in the UK and was warmly welcomed (crafters are so friendly!).  I didn't want to make stick pins with beads and decided to use air dry clay.  These are what I came up with...

I began by putting out what I expected to use.  The air dry clay is very lightweight, just right for scrapbook embellishments... it's called 'Super Clay' came in 12 colours and was only £4 from Home Bargains.  (Click on the photo below to make it bigger)...

Then I settled down, radio on, to play and have some crafty fun.  I used to use FIMO quite a lot in the past, making canes, beads etc so was surprised at how different the Super Clay was to work with.  Soft is an understatement (the packaging says 'Super Soft' and they were not fibbing) ...

B-U-T within a very short period of time (like 10 minutes) the clay changed and began to dry.  Instead of being 'stringy' and pliable it started to 'snap' (like blu-tac) and not be so easy to work with.  They had provided a zip-lock bag in the packet and I found that I had to keep putting the clay back into the zip-lock bag and only take the smallest pieces that I was going to use right then.  Saying that, two colours marbled beautifully together.  I knew I wanted to use a teeny heart cutter and after trial and error, this is the best way I found of making hearts on the end of the quilters pins I was using (they're longer than normal pins as specified in the swap a minimum of 2" length was asked for).  Make a larger than pea sized ball of clay.  Splat it and lay the pin as shown...

...fold over the clay and gently press it down...

Position the cutter and carefully press each edge of the cutter with the pin inside...

The finished heart totally covers the quilters pin head.  I also enjoyed playing and making a cupcake, mini eggs and a chocolate chip cookie...

I pushed the pins into a pin cushion to dry over-night...

Here are the six sets of 4 stick pins that I decided were going to be sent off in the swap (and notes on how they were made)... 

I covered the clay in 'Glossy accents' to add a shine, then left them overnight again, to dry hard... 

 

I used some teeny MM eyelets that I've had in my stash for a long time to decorate an egg and a heart.  They did need a tiny bit of Glossy accents to make them permanent in the clay.   I think these are my faves.  Oh, and a small sprinkle of purple glitter jazzed up a plain pink heart...

 The finished pins looked super cute on a new pincushion that dd bought me at the weekend...

 BUT, they needed packaging up into sets to be posted over to the USA for the 2Peas stick pin swap.  The postage was only £2.07 in a jiffy bag.  Can't wait to see what pins I get back in the swap. 

Cheap, fun and ready to personalise a scrapbook page (or card).  Ticks my boxes!

See you later in the month,

Mandy McK 

 

Comments

[Laura G]

So cute- looks like great stuff to work with when it's still soft.I find Fimo very hard work! Great to have you back! xx

[jayne]

Firstly Welcome back :)
I love these and deffo like the cookies. Also the eyeley ones are effective seeing i have loads of unused eyelets....remember when they were the "in thing" :)
Love this post & the packaging xxx TFS

[jayne]

ooops meant eyelets not eyeley ones !

[Debbie]

Lovely to see you back Mandy, and I am loving the pins all the different effects are beautiful and really clear instructions. x

[Erika]

Great idea, love that chocolate chip cookie.
Erika.

[Bev]

Gosh love this idea. A good way to try out this sort of thing without buying expensive fimo.. I might just have to visit Home Bargains now! Thank you for sharing.