Saturday, July 2, 2011

Altered CD and easy homemade beads

One of the nicest things I've done for my creativity was joining the "Off the Page" group at the Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack. I really just joined to see what people came up with, but this is a really active group and you get pulled right in despite yourself! The first project I tried was the "Altered CD/DVDs" theme:
It's just a thing, although I might remake it as an actual clock. I made the clockface stencil in SCAL (there's a download link to the SVG in my supply list below), and cut it on the Cricut directly onto adhesive masking paper. Wow, that works so well. I stuck it on the CD and painted it with acrylic paint. The stencil came off easily, and I like the effect of the actual CD showing through. I used my Crop-O-Dile for the holes and edged the CD with shiny purple nail polish. I hand-printed a favorite song chorus onto the center:

"Only time can write a song that's really really real;
The most a man can do is say the way its playing feels;
And know he only knows as much as time to him reveals."
Richard Hell & the Voidoids: lyrics / song

I didn't have any embellishments that worked, so I made my own! The beads and center were all made with opaque polymer clay that I colored with Copics after baking. Here's a quick photo tutorial of how I made the spiral beads shown in the top photo:

That was really quick, wasn't it? If you don't want to have to take the beads off the tool, you can bake them on wooden skewers; just soak the skewers in water first. Then just bake them: about 15 minutes at 275F, or according the the package directions.

Tools: Crop-O-Dile, oven (to bake clay), SCAL & Cricut
Other: Ranger acrylic paint (thanks Stampin' Dymonz!), Elmers gel pen, Copic markers, ZipDry glue, Inkadinkado masking paper, tulle, Sculpey polymer clay, nail polish
Stencil: download SVG file (please let me know if you do, by commenting; and I'd love to see your projects)

3 comments:

  1. Hello Christina. This is beautiful and so different. I love the colours you have used, just wonderful to look at. Happy crafting.
    With love, Sandra xxx

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  2. Lovely recycling and the bead is super
    Cheers
    Sonia
    http://cardsandschoolprojects.blogspot.com

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  3. Wow, so much to admire there... recycling to start with. And look at those pretty handmade embellies! Clever you! Mighty impressed!!!

    Thanks for the warm welcome back...

    Hugs,

    Monica

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