woensdag 25 mei 2011

Blog about deco?

I'm going to make a list of different blogs about deco so you'll can find inspiration or other people who like this hobbie. Do you have a blog where you post your deco projects? Or do you know any blogs about deco?
Let me know in the comments and I'll add it to the list!

maandag 23 mei 2011

Making jewelery with cabochons: easy and quick!

I haven't done a tutorial in a while and getting those cabochons from Sophie & Toffee, made me wanted to craft. Making these jewelery is very easy and quick, you can pop a thing up in 5 min. and than wait for the glue to dry =D
So last week I took an evening off and made a few things. 
Now for the tutorial,
You'll need:

Findings: ringpads with small or large pads depending on how big the cabochon is, ear-studs, pendant bails, ... I forgot to include hair clips but you can use those too :) You can get these at your local craft store if you want to try it, but from my own experience, you can better buy these online 'cause they are cheaper there, for example on etsydawandaSophie & Toffee.

 Glue: best is Epoxy glue or 2 component glue. Hot glue (like with a glue gun) isn't going to hold your cabochons on your findings (been there, done that). When using epoxy, you'll have to mix up the 2 components so you'll also need some toothpicks and a scrap of paper, use an old magazine or some cardboard from an cereal box (don't use a white piece of paper, reuse is better!)

And off course your cabochons, you can find these things on etsy, dawanda, in beading shops, Sophie & Toffee, just look around you, if it has a flat back you can use it! In this picture you also see some fabric roses, little diamonds which they use in scrap booking, you can also use buttons, broken earrings, and so on. 

Now onto the 'how to',
prepare your glue, mixing the components and take a toothpick to add your glue to the ringpad or the cabochon. I like adding the glue to the ringpad so you won't use to much glue but it will hold. Hold it in place and than let dry. Finished! Yep, it's that easy!
Here are some backs of rings I did.  

 And the result, the black/orange thing are 2 buttons stacked on each other.


 You can also turn these things into ear-studs. Remember the fruit cabochons I got? I turned them into earrings ^^ 

 The strawberry things you see were shanked buttons, I simply removed the shank with a plier or wire cutter (be sure to cover your eyes if you're doing this 'cause the shank will fly everywhere)

 I love these apples ^^

That's it for today. In the next few days I won't be posting much as I'm very busy for school. I'll post an update from time to time how I'm doing and such.
Have a nice week and thanks for reading! 

This post is crossposted to riechanster.blogspot.com

donderdag 19 mei 2011

Sophie & Toffee Review

Disclaimer: this post is sponsored by Sophie & Toffee, but I will give my honest opinion on these products.

Shop: Sophie & Toffee
Location: Singapore

The package arrived here quite fast, in 6 working days.
Everything was very tightly wrapped with bubble wrap and came in different little packages.
  

Now onto the items, I forgot to add a coin in my close-up pictures so here's an overview:

Some of the items aren't here anymore 'cause I took a evening of from schoolwork yesterday and did some deco ^^ Post is coming this weekend.
 Now onto the close-ups. 
I actually never heard of Anna sui ... after a quick trip to wiki, I found out she is a famous American fashion designer. I really like the rose on the emblem though ^^ This item also has glitter! The butterflies you see here are also very glittery, especially the black. And glitter = win! ^^

I think these flowers are really adorable, they are very glittery and I think one of these would be very lovely as a big ring.

 Another type of flowers, while the above ones are plastic and aren't movable, the petals of these white and black flowers are movable. The petals are each attached with fish thread (I call it this way, don't know the real name, it's clear plastic thread used in jewelery making)


Next are another type of flowers, which are made from clay. A flower with different coloured petals, butterflies with golden edges and 2 poodles and a purse. I'm not such a fan of poodles
 flowers

And here are the backs of the 3 types of flowers, you can see the glittery flowers has a very wide back, the black one has the petals attached and the clay ones has a smaller back.

I love these fruit pieces! Although the only downside is that the apple slice and apple halve aren't in the same colour. But I don't know it that's for all the pieces or that it differs.

And last but not least, a bag charm which I added to my mobile. At first I thought it was clay but it turns out to be plastic/silicone, which I think is a good thing because my mobile get kicked around in my bag and coat and such and when the charm is clay and has little parts sticking out it's sooo likely going to break off :( But with this one, the little pocky sticks are bendable so won't break ^^ The glass to hold the icecream is plastic.
Reading from the site, these usually get sold in surprise packs but they let you pick the design you want ^^
And it also says it comes with an edible chewing gum, ..., I have yet to find that XD
Conclusion: I think they have really nice products, in very different sizes and styles which is great to deco. Hope this review was useful to you!

(The products shown in the pictures are linked for easy access under each picture, items not linked are not available yet on the website but will be linked after they are available )
This post is crossed posted to riechanster.blogspot.com.

woensdag 18 mei 2011

Ambassador for Sophie & Toffee

Hello everyone!
I recently became one of the ambassadors of Sophie & Toffee,
an online shop which sells all kind of deco and art supplies like cabochons, clay, kits, and so on.
If you are interested in these things, please check out their shop!
I wanted to became their ambassador because they have a wide variety of things available, not only ready made deco supplies but also clay, kits, findings, molds and miniatures.
I just love the items they sell and would buy 80% if I had an nonstopflowing cash supply. The owners are very nice and friendly too which I think is higly important in stores, on- and offline.
Their prices are also reasonable. And I just LOVE the name ^^ How cute is that, Sophie & Toffee, I always imagine a little girl in a giant milkshake/icecream for some reason ^^.This is what the other ambassadors have to say about Sophie & Toffee:
sassyNpunk loves Sophie and Toffee because they provide crafty people and small businesses with the best and most kawaii supplies around! Come check out all of our one of a kind pieces made with the help of Sophie and Toffee products @www.sassyNpunkBoutique.com"
"I love Sophie & Toffee because it's such a convenient and easy way tobuy Japanese craft materials... where you'd normally have to searchetsy for days to find all the items you need, I can just get them allfrom the one shop! I also like that you have a high standard of theproducts you select for your shop. You can never really determine thequality of an item from just photos, but I always feel a little moresecure shopping from a "real" store rather than a private seller. Andin my experience the items have been great in quality compared to whatI used to buy (especially the metal hardware!). And of course, thewebsite is totally cute and the staff is really lovely and helpful through the facebook page ♥" 
"I love Sophie & Toffee because I have a passion for crafting! The Sophie & Toffee website always brings a great deal of inspiration to me. I love all the cute products this company has to offer. I am so excited to be a part of the Sophie & Toffee family of ambassadors!"
You can expect a review of some of their newest items tomorrow!

(this post is crossposted to Riechanster.)