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--Ms. Molly



Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Butterfly Charms

I'm still here!  My blogging has been poor at best lately, but I'm still crafting--mostly doing a little commission project that I'll share soon.  In the meantime, here's a project I just remembered I hadn't posted yet.
Last winter when I went to Creative University in Idaho, I signed up for the charm swap,  Having never done ANY jewelry crafts of any kind, I was stressed.  Pretty silly to get stressed over something like this when life is full of real problems, but that's just me.  Anyway, the theme was "Woodland Fairies" and you could use anything that fit the theme.   The only "don't" was silver color or metals.
I came up with this butterfly charm for my art charm, which I showed on an earlier post, but here's the step-by-step how to:
I used plain wooden disks, about the size of a quarter.  I sponged theme with green, purple, and a little turquoise inks.
Next, I stamped a butterfly from CTMH's stamp set "Butterfly Kiss" on each charm.  I like that the image runs off the edge a little bit.
I edged the charms with this Krylon gold leaf marker.  It covered so well, with only one coat, and the edges were perfect.  It gave the charms a very finished look.
I used my Crop-a-Dile to punch a hole right through the wood charm--no drilling!  I do need to mention that you need to make sure your image is positioned the same way on both sides of the charm.  I didn't do this with my first batch, and many of my butterflies were upside down or sideways on one side.  I kept them all, and I'll use them sometime because all together they look like butterflies in flight, but for these charms that were given out singularly, I needed them to all be right side up.
Lastly, I sealed my charms with gold shimmer Modge Podge.  It's hard to tell from the photo, but the charms have a slight gold glittery shimmer.
Here are the finished charms.  I think they turned out pretty well for a first-time charm-maker.
I tied the charm (along with a filler charm we had to create too) on to a piece of cardstock and added my name and contact info.
I used this picture for the reverse side.  I found it on an antique postcard.  I thought she looked a little like a woodland fairy.
And here's a last picture of all my charms packaged and ready to trade.