Paper Beads

There have been pictures of gorgeous paper beads all over the internet and so I had to make some. I'm not going to go into how-to steps as there are lots of good instructions on the web already, such as the instructions on Adrienne Butikofer's blog.

I don't have any fancy tools and did not want to invest in any new tools or abuse my knitting needles. I found inexpensive 36" Wood Dowel Rods at Michaels in the Wood Crafting Dept (here's an example on Amazon) and bought several widths, 1/8", 3/16", 1/4", 5/16" and 3/8". I had my husband cut each dowel rod into 9" pieces.

I cut straight and triangular 11" - 24" long strips in various widths ranging from 1/4" to 1" from scrapbooking paper, brown wrapping paper and magazines. I also used regular printer paper that I printed my own patterns on.

Using a regular Elmer's Glue stick to secure the ends, I rolled each bead around the wood dowel taking care to keep the paper centered. Different dowel rod widths were used to vary the size of the bead holes. The paper bead was removed from the wood dowel prior to painting, glazing or embossing. The rolled beads were placed on the thin plastic handles of some cheap paint brushes for finishing as they slid easily off the shiny plastic without sticking.

I did various things with the beads. Some were painted inside and outside (used a toothpick to paint the inside of smaller bead holes). Crackle paint and glitter paint was used on some of the painted beads while other beads were colored with permanent marker. Some beads were coated with a glaze (inside and outside) and other were embossed with UTEE as demonstrated in this YouTube video by sandrahensrud81.

RESULTS

Paper beads look good but are definitely not durable. The biggest issue is moisture as they are not waterproof. The painted beads held up fairly well as acrylic paint plus glaze worked well to seal the paper layers of the bead. The beads embossed with UTEE showed a lot of wear after a few months, became dull and looked rough around the edges of the bead.

In terms of paper, the brown wrapping paper beads were the most durable and the easiest to paint. In the pictures below all the solid, brightly colored beads are made with brown wrapping paper.

Printer paper was the easiest to work with and scrapbooking paper also worked very well. Not surprisingly I found that small scale patterns worked much better than larger scale patterns. The magazine paper was simply too thin, too hard to work with and so I discarded all of those beads.

This is a fun project but I would not use paper beads to create any durable and long lasting jewelry. I think instead, I will try creating some beads out of fabric because fabric is easier to seal and is more durable.

In the picture just below the brown beads were made with brown wrapping paper, decorated with red and black marker lines and then embossed with UTEE.

Spraying Homemade Alcohol Ink onto Fabric

Polyester fabric remnants

I've been seeing a lot of Pins about making alcohol ink on Pinterest. I have several colors of Rit dye so I thought I'd try it with a twist. I didn't follow any actual recipes because I wanted to test the process for myself. I did run into a problem with the first spray bottle clogging up so I began mixing the ink and alcohol in a different bottle before transferring to a spray bottle.

I decided to test both polyester and cotton fabrics because alcohol ink should be permanent on both types of fabric. Both fabrics took the alcohol ink well but the colors were deeper and more intense on the cotton. I also tested paper towels and they looked awesome with the inks looking very bright.

I also decided to use white gesso on the fabrics because it acts like a resist when used with alcohol ink.

NOTE:
I ironed my fabrics once the alcohol ink was dry using a protective cloth behind and in front of the inked fabric. There was just the tiniest smudge of pink on one of the protective fabrics when I was done so I would recommend washing the fabrics if you're planning to use alcohol ink sprayed fabrics for anything other than craft use.

SUPPLIES

1. White Cotton Fabric remnant from my stash
2. Beige Polyester Fabric remnants from my stash
3. Viva Paper Towels
4. 91% alcohol from Walgreens
5. Clear 3 oz Spray bottles from the Dollar Store
6. Clear 3 oz bottles from the Dollar Store
7. Disposable (10 pack) filter masks from the Dollar Store
8. Disposable (100 pack) plastic gloves from the Dollar Store
9. Liquid Rit Dyes (from my local Joann Fabric and Craft store)
10. Reynolds Plastic Coated Freezer Paper from my local Walmart
11. White Gesso from dickblick.com
12. Hand-carved stamps (supplies from dickblick.com)
13. Paint brush
14. Paint Texture tool (used Martha Stewart)
15. Large flat piece of cardboard or drop cloth

ALCOHOL INK STEPS

1. Put on disposable plastic gloves (optional)
2. Shake the liquid Rit dye bottle thoroughly
3. Pour 1 oz Rit dye into a clear 3 oz bottle (not spray bottle)
4. Add 2 oz of 91% alcohol into the bottle
5. Shake thoroughly and allow to settle
6. Pour settled mixture into a 3oz spray bottle leaving sediment behind
7. Repeat steps for each color you want to mix.

FABRIC STEPS

1. Place fabric remnants on a large piece of freezer paper or other protective surface.
2. Stroke gesso in a thin layer on another sheet of freezer paper.
3. Press hand-carved or commercial stamps into gesso and then stamp onto the fabric.
4. Repeat the stamping until you're satisfied, adding more gesso to the freezer sheet as necessary.
5. Run texture tool through gesso and stroke onto fabric until satisfied.
6. Allow the gesso to fully dry on all fabric.

SPRAY STEPS

1. Go outside or move to a well-ventilated place where you can spray without damaging furniture or carpeting.
2. Place the freezer paper on the large piece of cardboard or drop cloth.
3. Put on a couple of disposable spray masks because you do not want to breathe in the sprayed alcohol. It will irritate your nose and lungs.
4. Spray the different colors of alcohol ink to your satisfaction. You should see the stamped gesso becoming visible as you do.
5. Allow the fabric and paper towels to air dry

SOME RESULTS

Alcohol Inked Viva Paper Towel

Polyester remnant

Polyester remnant with carved eraser stamp

Polyester remnant with carved block stamp

Cotton fabric with carved block stamp

Polyester with Martha Stewart texture tool

Cotton remnant with deeper, more intense colors

A Transparency, an Ink Jet Printer and Resin

I'm on a roll tonight. I have not written any blog posts since March 20, but have done tons of stuff since then. Apparently tonight is the night my brain chooses to regurgitate what I've done.

Anyhow I saw Sherri Haab's YouTube video on using transparencies in resin and I was intrigued. The comments indicated that only laser-jet printed transparencies could be used so I decided to test that theory.

I already had transparencies on hand that I had purchased from Amazon.com (sadly that great deal is gone) plus I have an ink jet printer. For the image I used an alcohol inked, embossed image I had scanned in.

The front of the transparency is glossy and smooth and the back of the transparency is rough with a gel-like coating. The pattern is printed on the rough side of the transparency. I knew that I had to seal the ink on the rough side (because it will run otherwise) so I tried several products I had on hand.

I cut one of the transparencies up into several pieces and used each piece to test with a different sealer. The Decoupage Gloss Sealers worked the best to seal the ink from the ink jet printer.

1. Delta Ceramcoat All Purpose Sealer: The result was ho-hum and the transparency appeared dulled.
2. Liquitex Matte Gel: This product is great as a glue and fabric sealer but horrible for transparencies. It stripped the gel in some places and had a very dull finish.
3. Elmer's Gloss Finish Decoupage: Not sure if this product is available anymore as I can't find it but it worked absolutely great. Shiny, glossy finish and none of the ink ran.
4. Golden Soft Gel Gloss: Like the matte gel it stripped the transparency in places but  had a shiny, glossy finish everywhere else.
5. DecoArt Triple Thick Brilliant Brush-On Gloss Glaze: Don't try this product for sealing ink-jet printed items. All the colors ran into a muddy mess.
6. ArtMinds Decoupage Glue Sealer Gloss Finish: I don't see any available online but it is available from Michaels. Like the Elmer's Gloss Finish Decoupage, this Decoupage Gloss Sealer worked extremely well.
7. DecoArt Craft Time All-Purpose Sealer:  The result was ho-hum and the transparency appeared dulled.

After the printed transparency was sealed I added it to resin where the ink remained sealed and bright.


HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN 

Below is the original alcohol inked, embossed image I started out with.

1. Scan in your own artwork to use your own unique images. 
2. When you print make sure the glossy side of the transparency is face up in the printer. 
3. Use a Borderless print setting and print at high quality. 
4. Set the paper option to Glossy Photo Paper.
5. Wait a few minutes for the ink to completely dry on the transparency.
6. Use a soft, wide brush to cover the rough side of the transparency with glossy decoupage sealer (any brand) using even, long strokes.
7. Wait about 15 minutes or until dry.
8. Do not add any additional layers of decoupage sealer.

I used this jewelry mold purchased at Amazon.com. 

1. Photocopy the back of the mold to get an image to cut out and use as a template to create our own jewelry. Cover the mold with white paper or a white cloth while photocopying or you'll get a mostly black image.
2. The image will not be exactly sized so push the template into the bottom of the mold you've selected to size it.
3. Trim the template as needed.
4. Once the template is the correct size place it on the glossy side of the transparency and trace around it with a black Sharpie marker.
5. Then cut just inside the marker line.

This mold is fairly deep so I marked a halfway point on the outside of the mold (it's clear) and just poured until the resin reached my mark. You can make the earrings and pendant as thin or as thick as the mold will allow. A clear mold makes it easy to see any bubbles after you've added resin. Just lift the mold up to the light. I use a tooth pick to move the transparency around in the resin and remove any bubbles.

Here are some earrings I created;

Here is the matching pendant;

And one more where I used a paint palette as a mold;

SUPPLIES

1. 16 oz EnviroTex Lite at Michaels using a 40% off coupon ($13.19) or a 50% off coupon ($10.99).
2. Environmental Technology Castin' Craft EasyCast Resin Jewelry Mold, 11 Popular Jewelry Shapes On One Tray from Amazon.com for $7.55 with Prime shipping.
3. Graduated medicine cups from Amazon for $2.58 with Prime shipping.
4. Mixing sticks, plastic gloves, 50% alcohol (for cleaning resin) and large measuring cups at my local Dollar Tree for $1 each.
5. Transparencies from Amazon.com or any Office Supply store.

Avoiding Sticky Resin and Recycling Resin Mixing Tools

AVOIDING STICKY RESIN

I've been working with EnviroTex Lite resin for several months now and seem to learn something new every time.

 = 

I never read instructions (not a good thing) but recently the EnviroTex Lite hardener changed from a yellowish color to clear, just like the resin. Previously I had depended on seeing the clear resin and yellow hardener becoming an even, clear mix to know when I had mixed enough. So after a sticky resin batch I finally read the instructions and learned several new things.

Lots of the YouTube resin videos I had watched showed the demonstrator mixing the resin and hardener in a circular motion to avoid creating bubbles. The EnviroTex Lite PDF instructions however said to mix in a whipping motion from the bottom to the top and not to worry about creating too many bubbles. It also said to mix for only two minutes and to pour immediately.

I tried this and noticed two things. The first was that when whipping from bottom to top, the mixture immediately becomes cloudy. The second was that once the cloudiness clears, bubbles immediately started moving to the surface and bursting. In five minutes all bubbles cleared from the poured mixture. Following the instructions ensures a clear, hard resin that is NEVER sticky.

The instructions also said that it was okay to blow onto the resin (don't inhale over the resin mix) as carbon dioxide breaks up any stubborn bubbles. I still do this but have noticed that I don't need to do it as much as I did previously when the hardener was yellow.

I also learned that before adding more resin to a previous layer I needed to wipe the cured layer with alcohol. Oops, did not know that.

RECYCLING RESIN TOOLS

But the absolutely best thing I learned was how to recycle the tools I use such as the measuring cups and mixing cup. Simply add alcohol (I use 50% alcohol from the Dollar Tree) to the cups and use a paper towel to ensure the alcohol reaches all inside and outside surfaces. When the alcohol becomes milky pour it out and repeat the process. After the second alcohol cleaning simply wash the cups with dish detergent and set out to dry so they can be re-used.

I mentioned a sticky resin batch earlier in this post.  I had used my favorite paint palette for this very sticky resin batch and did not want to trash it. So I scraped out as much resin as I could onto wax paper and started using alcohol on the paint palette to remove the resin. It took about 30 minutes of cleaning but I ended up with a reusable paint palette.

SOME BUYING TIPS

I buy mixing sticks, 50% alcohol and large measuring cups at my local Dollar Tree for $1 each.

I buy the 16 oz EnviroTex Lite at Michaels using a 40% off coupon ($13.19) or a 50% off coupon ($10.99). That price is lower than I've seen online for the same size.

You can get 100 graduated medicine cups from Amazon.com for $2.58 with free Prime shipping. There may be cheaper options but this is the only one I could find after much hunting.

Dyeing Dollar Store Cotton Twine with Acrylic Paints

I've recently gotten into macramé but didn't want to spend tons of money on expensive hemp while I was still in a learning curve. I found a soft, 7-strand cotton twine at my local Dollar Tree but soon became bored with the natural color.

I decided to dye the cotton twine different colors. I have lots of Rit dyes but thought that would take too much time. I considered Adirondack alcohol inks because they are permanent on fabric but thought I would need too much of this expensive product. So I decided to use acrylic paints which are cheap and are also permanent on fabric once they are dry.

I mixed several colors of acrylic paint (multiple brands) and water in a 50/50 mix in recycled plastic takeout containers. I used several shades of each color (including glitter colors) to get a variegated look. I also swirled some different colors together. I cut the cotton twine in 10 yard pieces (30 feet), wound them and then tied them loosely around the middle to avoid tangles.

I left multiple bundles of cotton twine soaking in each container of acrylic paint / water mix for several hours to allow the color to seep into the twine. Each bundle was then lightly squeezed to remove excess moisture and left to dry in the sun. It took a full 24 hours for all bundles to completely dry.

The results were better than expected. Most of the colors were softer than the original acrylic colors but were still bright. The midnight black did become grayish black. The original cotton twine was very soft and did not look very distinctive once macraméd. The colored cotton twine was slightly stiffer which made it much easier to work with and more distinctive looking when macraméd. The slight stiffness is because acrylic paint binds the fibers together. Best of all was that even after coloring the twine is still soft on the skin.

The bracelet below was made with cotton twine colored with a swirled red, yellow and orange acrylic paint mix.

Below are some of the other colors I dyed. I did not edit the original pictures so you could get an accurate idea of the colors attained with acrylic paint dyeing.

Frosted Resin Problems With Amazing Mold Putty Molds

We needed a 50mm cabochon for a jewelry project. My daughter had a glass 50mm cabochon she had purchased but it was too heavy for the project we had in mind. A 50mm resin cabochon was the perfect solution because in addition to being clear and shiny, it would also be lightweight. After searching the internet exhaustively the largest commercial cabochon molds I could find were only 38mm in diameter so clearly I needed a custom solution.

Using the Ranger Melt Art Mold-n-Pour silicone putty I created a custom mold using the 50mm glass cabochon. The mold had a small imperfection so I purchased the Amazing Mold Putty from Michaels with a coupon ($11.99 before tax). We made several molds using glass cabochons of different sizes and most of them turned out well, with no "perceptible" imperfections.

Since I had never used the Easy Cast Clear Casting Epoxy before I decided to test with different types of molds. I had a 38mm cabochon mold purchased on Amazon, a paint palette tray that I'd seen used in a TC Beads YouTube video and of course the custom Amazing Mold Putty molds I'd created.

The results were a mixed bag. All the cabochons popped out easily from the paint palette tray, the commercial cabochon mold and the custom silicone putty molds. There was a major difference in how they looked though. The resin cabochons from the paint palette tray and the commercial cabochon mold were clear and shiny with no imperfections. The resin cabochons from the Amazing Mold Putty molds and the single Ranger Melt Art Mold-n-Pour mold all had a frosty look and a rough surface. Very disappointing because I really needed a clear 50mm resin cabochon.

I thought that perhaps I had not properly cleaned or conditioned the silicone putty molds so I cleaned and conditioned them with a Mold Release Conditioner and tried again. Same result. So I started researching the issue of frosted resin on the internet and came up with several links, here, here and here where others had experienced the exact same issue with the Amazing Mold Putty molds. The issue with the cheaper silicone putty is that it does not properly cure and has imperceptible flaws that cause the frosted look.

So I've done a lot more research and watched a lot more YouTube videos. I've decided after watching the Beadaholique Youtube videos, here and here, that my next experiment will be with Easy Mold Silicone Putty and Easy Mold Silicone Rubber. There are more expensive products like Silicone Plastique that have a longer working time so if the Easy Mold products don't work I'll try that next.

Just a note that I do use Amazon links (not affiliate links) a lot because that is where I make a lot of my purchases. Yes, there are online stores that are often cheaper, but just not as fast or consistent with delivery. Case in point, I've been waiting for delivery of a purchase from benfranklin.com for about 6 weeks now, but that's a topic for another day.

Turning Craft Images into Digital Scrapbook Paper

I have a huge passion for beautiful images (hence my love for Pinterest) and an even bigger passion for modifying images. I generally start out with a photo I took or a piece of cardstock, paper or foil I have embossed and/or colored with inks, acrylic paints, chalk or watercolors. I don't typically plan what I will do with an image, preferring instead to let my instinct guide me. Every image turns out differently even if the same steps are taken.

I typically use more than one image editing software to make the changes. My favorites include the open source Inkscape program and  and the freeware Gimp and Paint.net programs simply because they work well, are free and are not computer resource hogs. I am learning to use Adobe Photoshop Elements and very infrequently use CorelDRAW Suite 5 (due to the horribly strict licensing constraints on how you can use your work).

I in no way consider myself an expert, really more of a life long learner. I will happily share the things I've learned along the way and will be happy to hear any tips anyone else has to share.  

Today I am going to go over some of the changes I made to a piece of glossy photo paper (see pic below) that I embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and then colored with Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Inks. The matte side of the image was used in this example.

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Ink.jpg

The first thing I did to this image Ink.jpg was to open it in Paint.net and use the Hue/Saturation feature under Adjustments to change the Hue. 

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Ink_sat.jpg

 I used the Curves feature in Paint.net to deepen the Midtones.

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Ink_sat_curves.jpg

• In Paint.net the resulting Ink_sat_curves.jpg image was resized to 1000px by 1500px with a resolution of 300 dpi. 
• A New image was created to make a pattern 2000px x 3000px x 300 dpi. 
• It is very important that the resolution matches in both the existing and new images or the next step will not work.
• Ink_sat_curves.jpg was flipped horizontal, copied and then pasted into the New image. 
• The pasted image automatically snapped into the top, left quarter of the new image. 
• The bottom, left-hand corner of Paint.net should show the following "Selection Top Left 0, 0" when the image is perfectly situated.

• Ink_sat_curves.jpg was flipped horizontal again, copied and then pasted into the New image. 
• The pasted image automatically snapped into the top, left quarter of the new image. 
• The pasted image was carefully moved right until it fit perfectly in the top, right corner of the New image.
• The bottom, left-hand corner of Paint.net should show the following "Selection Top Left 1000, 0" when the image is perfectly situated.

• Ink_sat_curves.jpg was flipped vertical, copied and then pasted into the New image. 
• The pasted image automatically snapped into the top, left quarter of the new image. 
• The pasted image was carefully moved right and down until it fit perfectly in the bottom, right corner of the New image.
• The bottom, left-hand corner of Paint.net should show the following "Selection Top Left 1000, 1500" when the image is perfectly situated.

• Ink_sat_curves.jpg was flipped horizontal, copied and then pasted into the New image. 
• The pasted image automatically snapped into the top, left quarter of the new image. 
• The pasted image was carefully moved down until it fit perfectly in the bottom, left corner of the New image.
• The bottom, left-hand corner of Paint.net should show the following "Selection Top Left 0, 1500" when the image is perfectly situated.

The result is a beautiful unique pattern. The New image was renamed Ink_sat_curves_pattern.png.

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Ink_sat_curves_pattern.png

 Ink_sat_curves_pattern.png was resized to 1000px x 1000px x 300 dpi and renamed to Ink_sat_curves_1000px_pattern.png

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Ink_sat_curves_1000px_pattern.png was used to create another pattern.

• A New image was created to make the pattern 2000px x 2000px x 300 dpi. 
• It is very important that the resolution matches in both the existing and new images or the next step will not work.
• Ink_sat_curves_1000px_pattern.png was copied and then pasted into the New image. 
• The pasted image automatically snapped into the top, left quarter of the new image. 
• The bottom, left-hand corner of Paint.net should show the following "Selection Top Left 0, 0" when the image is perfectly situated.

• Ink_sat_curves_1000px_pattern.png was pasted again into the New image.
• The pasted image automatically snapped into the top, left quarter of the new image.   
• The pasted image was carefully moved right until it fit perfectly in the top, right corner of the New image.
• The bottom, left-hand corner of Paint.net should show the following "Selection Top Left 1000, 0" when the image is perfectly situated.

• Ink_sat_curves_1000px_pattern.png was pasted again into the New image.
• The pasted image automatically snapped into the top, left quarter of the new image. 
• The pasted image was carefully moved right and down until it fit perfectly in the bottom, right corner of the New image.
• The bottom, left-hand corner of Paint.net should show the following "Selection Top Left 1000, 1500" when the image is perfectly situated.

• Ink_sat_curves_1000px_pattern.png was pasted again into the New image.
• The pasted image automatically snapped into the top, left quarter of the new image. 
• The pasted image was carefully moved down until it fit perfectly in the bottom, left corner of the New image.
• The bottom, left-hand corner of Paint.net should show the following "Selection Top Left 0, 1500" when the image is perfectly situated.

The resulting image was renamed Ink_sat_curves_1000px_patternB.png. You can continue with the last set of instructions and make the pattern as small-scale as you wish. 

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Ink_sat_curves_1000px_patternB.png was edited using the Hue/Saturation feature in Paint.net to create the following results.

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Ink_sat_curves_1000px_patternB.png was edited using the Colorize filter in Inkscape to create the following results.

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Ink_sat_curves_1000px_patternB.png was edited using the Colorize filter in Gimp to create the following results.

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Ink_sat_curves_1000px_patternB.png was edited using the 3D Mother of Pearl filter in Inkscape to create the following results.

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Ink_sat_curves_1000px_patternB.png was edited using the Emboss filter in Inkscape to create the following results.

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These were just a few of the results I obtained from a single base image. You will be amazed at the results when you experiment with multiple image editing programs. Instead of hunting for special images to use on your blog, on your digital scrapbooks or printed cards, make your own. They will be uniquely yours and you can share them or use them any way you want to without any licensing restrictions.