Fragment Charms, Jewlery and Embellishments

I have been experimenting with Tim Holtz Idea-ology  Fragment Charm.  They are Tim's acrylic bits and pieces of different shapes and sizes (the ones that come pre-drill with holes)  when used along with Rangers Glossy Accents  you can create embellishments and jewelry.

The easiest technique is to apply the Glossy Accents to one side of the charm, lay the piece on a patterned paper, wait until the Glossy Accents drys, cut off the excess paper around the charm and there you go...you have a one of a kind charm. Add a jump ring and cording and you will have a pendent...if you use one of the smaller pieces you will have a charm for a bracelet. 

 I experimented with stamping the charms with Staz-on ink , then adding a patterned paper behind the stamp. I tried his technique for embossing the charm by sanding one side to create a frosted look. I then stamped an image with Versa Mark and applied clear embossing powder. Then I used a heat gun to melt the embossing powder which created an etched look on the charm. I now have a jar full of completed charms...there has to be more to these Fragment Charms that to just make jewelry!

While rooting in my patterned paper scraps I found a old Jenni Bowlin paper that looked like a collage of old post cards. One of the post cards had a great teal green background with variegated orange flowers...I created a charm with a portion of this image. While the charm was drying I covered a manila tag with the rest of the collage paper and added some of the text from the paper to the tag. When the charm was dry I added a bow. For an embellishment, I lined up the image on the charm to the image on the tag and adhered it to the tag with Ultimate Glue. The tag was finished off with Tim's Wild Honey Distress Ink.

I was pretty pleased with how the tag turned out...who knows I may spend the next week creating tags and adding Fragment Charm embellishments to them all!

The End

All good books must come to an end, and these are the last pages in the Summer Book. Which by the way still doesn't have an official title. The page on the left is another junk mail envelope with a large velum window, stamped, rub-ons , distressed with ink and lined with Basic Gray patterned paper. The tag has puzzle pieces that I sanded, then inked.

An acrylic page has a black rub-on flourish. Behind the acrylic is the last page. It is of my grand kids. I photographed them (and photoshop the picture to sepia) as they were walking away, turning to wave good-bye. I have taken care of both GK since they were three weeks old. This year they are both off to school, so except for holiday weeks I won't be watching them. The side of the page reads "8 years of Granny Day Care" and on the bottom of the page"Remember everything I taught you and when you need me I'll be here".

We all know that summer ends when the school year starts, so...the end

Working Title..."Summer Book"

I have taken a trip every summer for the last nine years ...big trips, sometimes more than one. The kind you really diet, scrimp, save, bring sack lunches to work, look up on the Internet all the wonderful things you are going to do, find it all on a map, kind of trip. When I come home I scrapbook them all. In fact trips are of my favorite things to scrapbook (next to my grand kids). Places like Scotland, Ireland, Shetland, England, San Francisco, New York, San Diego and last summer I even dipped my toe in Paris (which means it was a really quick trip). This summer there wasn't a trip. None, Zilch, Nada, Zip. Despite the fact British Airways taunted me with their fabulous "low" fares. This summer I had to use my imagination to run away from home.

Now I told you that story, to tell you this story...

I was helping my grandson open a toy he had gotten for his Birthday. I started complaining about the over packaging. Thick sheets of plastic acrylic, book board weight backing. There I was holding the pieces in my hand, getting ready to toss them in the recycle when the creativity began. I measure and cut until I had 2 pieces of acrylic and 2 pieces of backing the same size. They sat on my work bench for about a week waiting for me to get inspired.

While shredding the junk mail I came across some envelopes with large velum windows that were the same size as the acrylic and the backing. A design for making a book was coming together. The book would be my summer get away. I didn't design the pages in any kind of order. I only set two boundaries for myself. I had to use supplies I already had and the pages had to be about the summer of 2008.

As of today, this book still doesn't have an official title.

To be continued...