A Pin for All Seasons

So, I've been just a leetle busy this week--when not glued to all the fun spoilers about the new Stampin' Up! catalog (coming out Jan. 19)--I've been busy creating these pins for a friend. Yeah, I've been on a little craft high, & it's not from the E6000 glue to adhere the pin backs (although, wow--does that stuff have potent vapors or what?)


She commissioned me to make holiday pins she could wear when volunteering in the school lunchroom & gave me carte blanche to be creative. I was really excited to be able to play with my new "Melt Art" melting pot that I bought myself as a Bday present. A little trial & error, but I'm pretty happy with how they turned out! If you've never seen the melting pot, check out Suze Weinberg's site --she's the Queen of Melt Art. It works by melting Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel Powder & then you can dip or pour it on projects. It's like making your own resin finish or you can even pour into molds to create shapes. I used it to coat my projects to make sturdy pins.

I made the Valentine one first & discovered that adding UTEE Flex to my UTEE in the pot made it a little too yellow for my taste. (Flex is supposed to make the UTEE stronger.) I'd followed the recommended ratio (1 scoop Flex to 4 scoops clear UTEE powder) but in the future I'll put in less Flex. I also learned (by the fourth pin) that it's better to place the pin face down in the pot than dip it (paper scorches on the bottom--duh, right?) Then I let it drip to keep the layer of UTEE thin to minimize the yellow. The cool thing is you can use your Heat Tool to smooth the surface and get rid of bubbles or tweezer dents.

The Valentine pin was made using the new Love You Much stamp set & 3 Heart Punch that are part of the Valentine Bundle promotion going on right now. All the other pins were made by paper piecing together shapes from Stampin' Up! punches. I also put a piece of shaped chipboard behind the little characters to add a better base. For the rabbit, I covered the oval in DCWV Nursery paper.

The Easter one was the biggest Flex "yellow" challenge--really dulled the colors! So, to try to remedy that, I painted over the egg with Perfect Pearls. You can really see the Perfect Pearls on the ghosts too! (By the way, can you tell that's supposed to be the moon behind the ghosts?) Finally, I had lots of fun playing with my many colors of Stickles (have I mentioned how much I lub them?) for eye-catching glittery goodness. Oh & the Valentine one has a smattering of pink microbeads--they stick if you put them on when the UTEE is still hot. If you're wondering how I adhered all the little paper pieces--Tombow Multi glue.

For my inspirations, I have to credit "Memory Lane's" gallery on splitcoaststampers.com for the rabbit, ghost & pumpkin shapes, the Oct. '08 Stampin' Success for the turkey and LW Designs for the reindeer--my personal favorite! I cobbled the leprechaun together from many different sources.

My friend accepted them today on the condition that I charge more for them at craft fairs than I charged her--um, yeah, I think I can do that...twist my arm :) Thanks for the good time, Elizabeth ;-)

A Pin for All Seasons