Creating Gifts From Cherished Memories.

This set is designed to remind us of people and places we love and where we have come from. I've featured my Grandparents in this piece. The way they lived with each other will always be an inspiration and I miss them more than I can say.

We learn to love the same way we learn to craft....

by watching.

Materials needed to complete this project:

*I've used STAEDTLER Fimo soft because of its quick conditioning time and easy stamp-ability. This design works well with all Fimo clays.*

Colours of Fimo clay used:

Fimo soft Black# - 9

Fimo soft White# - 0

Fimo Effects Metallic Ruby Red# -28

Fimo Liquid Deco Gel 50 ml # 8050-00BKU

Fimo Metallic powder Gold 8709BK

Medium dark coloured chain about sixty cm.

Many different rubber stamps, one that says “love”.

Findings to match chain, head pins, eye pins, lobster claws, ribbon clamps, jump rings, earring findings.

Black one and a half cm sheer ribbon, you will need 10cm.

Old newspaper with small scale local landscape photos

Sticker paper with some old family photos printed onto it in black and white

E6000 adhesive

Tools to create this look:

Oven

Parchment paper

Wrist diameter sized mug

Baking sheet

Clay roller or pasta machine (non food use)

Thick wire, wooden skewer or toothpick to make holes in beads

Clean protected work surface

Jewellery pliers

Creating the central heart pendant:

Condition and roll out half a block of black Fimo clay to 3mm thick. Cut out a heart shape using a cookie cutter or create your own heart shape that is about 5cm by 5cm. Load one of your rubber stamps with gold powder and tap off the excess powder. Stamp randomly around the hearts outside edge, turning the stamp periodically to keep the pattern random. Condition and roll out the metallic red Fimo clay to 3mm thick. Cut out a smaller heart to go on top of the black heart as shown. Load your love stamp with gold powder and tap off excess. Stamp the word onto the red heart keeping it centred as much as possible. Push eye pins into the black Fimo heart in the two top points and one into the bottom point. Bake the piece according to package instructions.

Creating the photo charm:

Make a disk of black Fimo clay that is 5mm thick and no wider than 2cm. Push a thick wire or thin dowel through this disk from the top edge to the bottom edge. Print out family photos onto some sticker paper making sure to size them to the beads you wish to create. Cut your picture sticker to size and stick onto the top of the disc. Coat the picture sticker and the edge of the disc with liquid Fimo. Make sure to cover the edge of the sticker with liquid Fimo. Bake piece according to package instructions.

Creating the postcard charms:

Condition and roll out some white Fimo clay. Cut out some 2cm by 2 1/2 cm rectangles. Find a small black and white news print picture of some local scenery from a news paper. Cut picture out leaving lots of extra space on the edges. Cover the picture with a layer of liquid Fimo and lay the off white Fimo rectangle onto the coated picture. Press lightly with your fingers to seat the clay into the image. Make a hole with some wire in one corner of the postcard leave the wire in the clay for baking or the liquid Fimo will fill the hole back in. Bake piece according to package instructions. While piece is still warm, peel off the newspaper to reveal the printed image. Remove wire and let piece cool. With a fine point permanent marker write a note onto the back of the postcard. My image is of the local falls, the printed newsprint image isn’t as crisp as the embedded image above, but I enjoy the contrast in the piece.

Creating the different beads:

I simply made tons of different sized and shaped balls and cylinders. I poked holes with a wire or thin skewer and then rolled the bead over a stamp loaded with gold powder. Make a few beads the same size and shape so the earring beads have a mate. I will also encourage you to use the black clay first and NOT clean your hands before using the red clay. The slightly dirty look adds to the piece. Make sure the smaller beads have smaller holes so the head pins don’t just slip through them later. Bake according to the package instructions and let cool.

Constructing the necklace:

*If necessary use E600 to glue the inserted eye pins into the baked clay to make sure they are secure.*

Attach a piece of chain to an eye pin on each side of the heart, making one side 4cm longer than the other. Size the piece to suit your needs. On the longer end of the chain add some beads on a head pin and on the shorter end add a lobster claw clasp.

Tie a bow around the chain close to one side of the heart using the sheer black ribbon.

On the bottom of the heart add an eye pin loaded with some beads.

On this bead add three different lengths of chain with different charms on each chain.

One chain will have a photo charm on the end with a bead to finish it.

The second chain will have a photo charm in the middle of the chain and a head pin loaded with beads to finish it.

The third chain will have the postcard charm on the end of it.

Making the bracelet bar:

Condition and roll out black Fimo clay to 3mm thick. Cut out a rectangle that is 10cm by 5cm. Use a stamp loaded with gold powder to emboss the edge of the rectangle as you did the heart pendant. Condition and roll out to 3mm thick the red metallic Fimo clay. Cut out a rectangle that is 8cm by 3cm and place it in the center of the black rectangle. Stamp the word love onto this rectangle as you did the heart pendant. Push an eye pin into both ends of each short edge of the black rectangle. These eyes will hold the ribbon later. Wrap a mug roughly the size of your wrist in parchment paper and lay the bracelet bar onto the mug to achieve a curve. Bake the piece on the mug as directed on the package instructions. Let it cool completely before removing it from the mug.

Constructing the bracelet:

Thread some 20cm lengths of 2cm wide sheer black ribbon through each of the four eye pins inserted into the bar. Braid these ribbons loosely together and pin to hold braid in place while finishing piece. Clip a ribbon clasp onto the end of each bracelet end after trimming to desire length. (Seal the ribbon edges with fabric adhesive first if you worry about it fraying.) Add a 4cm length of chain to one end of the piece and finish it with beads on a head pin. The other end will be finished with a 2cm length of chain with a lobster claw.

Constructing the earrings:

Load some beads onto a head pin smallest bead to largest. Turn an eye in the end of the head pin and attach to an earring hook.

I pin things into boxes for gift giving. Adding a backing of foam-core into the box before adding tissue gives you something to pin to. It keeps the pieces from jumbling all together in the corner of the box and keeps them from tangling. I also added a little bag of extra beads to encourage the recipient to invent more pieces.

Hope this helps with your family gift making!