A Busy Week - Queens Diamond Jubilee

I must apologise for my lack of blogging absence this week, I have had a very busy crafting week with the run up to the Queens Diamond Jubilee.  I have been busy completing orders for my Limited Edition Jubilee Pieces, along with restocking my shelf at Things British.  So for now have a fantastic time celebrating the Queens Jubilee whatever it maybe that you have planned .

Jubilee Red White Blue Elasticated Bracelet

Jubilee Red White Blue Brooch

Jubilee Union Jack Charm Bracelet

Jubilee Fever - Facebook Cover Photos

Facebook Cover Photos

Jubilee fever is kicking in, so I have designed a new Facebook Cover Photo to celebrate, What do you think?

If you'd like to know more about creating yourself a cover photo for Facebook here is a fantastic link that I used to help me along the way.

Getting Creative With Your Facebook Fanpage by Handmadeology

Its a fantastic post, a great blog to boot and provides all the sizes and dimensions you need to guide you along the way.

Lumiere Paint on Polymer Clay

Jacquards Lumière Paint 

I finally got round to ordering myself some Lumière paints for my polymer clay, I've had my eyes on these gorgeous colours for quite sometime and once they arrived it dawned on me that I don't actually know what Lumière paints really are.

Jacquards Lumiere Paint - Exciter Pack

 What are Lumière Paints

Well turns out they are acrylic paints, Lumière paints are a range of paints that are metallic or pearlescent in colour.  They appear quite thick and are said to 'brush on like butter' and have been designed not to spread unlike alcohol inks.  They are also usable on many types of surfaces such as silk , fabric, paper, leather, wood and of course polymer clay.

Testing Lumiere Paint on Polymer Clay

I am using the Jacquard Lumière Exciter Pack and tested each colour on cooked and uncooked strips of clay to test application and check for colour difference, I also tested on both black and white clay to see the difference in colour.  The drying time for these samples was quite quick, most where touch dry within 30 mins, I expect this will vary depending on the thickness of application.

Uncooked Clay Application

Uncooked Clay Application - testing Lumière paints

Cooked Clay Application

Cooked Clay Application - testing Lumière paints

As you can see there is no difference in the colour when applied to either cooked or uncooked clay, some of the paints really stand out on the black clay.

Lumière Paint & Polymer Clay Project

This project comes from the Polymer Pizzaz - 27 Great Polymer Clay Projects by Bead & Button called Painterly Polymer by Dotty McMillan.

Lumière paint application on 3 clay sheets

I decided to stick to similar colours as those used on the project photos, and took the opportunity to test the application using three different methods   

1. Far left was created using the coarse side of a sponge.
2. Middle application was created using my finger 
3. Far right application was created using a sponge

For my project sheet I settled with the sponge application below

Lumiere paint on polymer clay sheet

 After allowing to dry I stamped onto the clay sheet using a black ink and a small decorative stamp, which was hard to distinguish on the sheet due to my initial colour choice of paints.

Lumiere paint on polymer clay beads

 Again after allowing to dry, it was time to make the beads for the project and this is unfortunately where I ran into problems.  Each bead I made would crack, despite my reducing the centre to a smaller side when it came to sealing the edge together it would still crack, I do think this is because the paint had somewhat dried out the clay making it less flexible a way around this maybe to make the beads first, even cooked before the paint application is applied.

And so I scrapped them so that I could use the remain sheet to have an experiment and play around.  Heres what I made

Lumière paint on polymer clay pendants

 I created some pendants with the remaining sheets and painted some Lumière paint onto the clay directly, much like its description says as the paint is quite thick and does not spread i was able to create this dotted pattern along the length of the last pendant.

Painting on polymer clay with Lumiere paint

Painting on polymer clay with Lumiere paint

You can see above I had a little play with some other colours and wanted to try out some simple painting with the Lumière paints

 

My Conclusion

Much like my first experience with alcohol inks, I've not been greatly overawed with the results from this project, I do think this could be due to my colour choice, it is too muted for my taste and I was disappointed that the beads cracked when I tried to put them together however little test with painting  holds promise and a few other tests I'd like to do are to see if a crackling effect can be achieved and also to try with metal leafing and foils.

 

Can You Help

I spent a lot of last night googling many pages trying to find projects or even links to others experiences using Lumière paints, but my hunt was somewhat fruitless.  If you have covered or now of someone that has wrote about Lumière paint and polymer clay but not excluding the paints other applications such as silk, wood and paper, I would be most grateful if you could share you links.  I think it would be great to see what else this paint is truly capable of, Thanks.

Help me find my MOJO

Who Stole my MoJO!

What do you do when you feel your motivation slowly slipping away from you. Since January I have felt like I've been on a mad roller coaster ride of making, creating, blogging, promoting, listing and networking so much so I needed many to do lists to keep me on track.

But over the last few weeks I have felt my motivation slipping away, slowly at first but this last week it seems to be rapidly gaining momentum, I have been keeping my head down doing my best to focus on my to do lists and keep ploughing through my work in the hope it will suddenly return but to no avail and now I find myself asking, before it runs away for good:
  

How can I get my Creative Mojo Back

So please help, comment and share your tips and ideas on how to get your motivation moving again, do you know any inspirational blogs or websites to kick you into gear or so you simple have some great tips or motivational quotes you can share to help me.

Image source from http://toons.wikia.com/wiki/Mojo_Jojo

Treasury Tuesday

Not long to go now before the Queens Jubilee Celebrations are in full swing, are you ready for a Great British Knees Up

 

'Queens Diamond Jubilee Celebrations ' by Lottieoflondon

In celebration of the Queens Diamond Jubilee and everything British from dressing to impress on the day, collectible memorabilia, home decor and goodies to help you celebrate in style!

Jubilee Union Jack ... Lottieoflondon $14.00	British Jubilee Bro... cuttlefishlove $18.00	Red, white and blue... MummybirdPrett... $6.00	Jubilee Vintage 50&... LINDSAYHP $23.00
Union Flag / Jubile... TheCakesmith $12.95	Jubilee Party Cake ... cherrybcandles $6.99	Tea Cozy/Cosy Londo... FrangipanCraft... $15.99	Union Jack Jubilee ... robinredcrafts $8.50
Diamond JUBILEE Sou... eastwitching $29.00	Dog Street Party Cu... senorpickleswo... $11.00	KIT - Diamond Jubil... DianeMachin $34.00	Union Jack cotton t... sugarushuk $9.00
Catnip cat toy - Pa... MollysMice $9.95	Union Jack, Jubilee... Finnspirations $24.99	OOAK Wiltshire Libe... artyandbella $40.00	Queens Diamond Jubi... mckenziebrooke... $17.00

Treasury tool supported by threequickquestions

You can read all about My Limited Edition Jubilee Collection here

And the Winner Is....

We are please to announce the winner of our Handcrafted Beaded Ribbon Necklace Giveway is ...

Chris Towey

Congratulations Chris,  I will be in touch shortly for your contact details and your prize will be dispatched asap.

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend everyone

Monthly Round Up - April

April Showers

 April was both a sad and yet really exciting month for me.

Sad because I had finally made the decision that it was time to close my bead shop.  I'm sad to see it go after building it up from scratch, but unfortunately my interests have since been drawn elsewhere and I was struggling to keep the business going in the current climate.  I do however still have a lot of beads left over and will need have to have a massive de-stash, if you have any suggestions on the best place to sell my remaining beads please let me know.

Farewell Beads

And exciting because at the end of April also held for me a wonderful surprises trip to New York for my birthday, cunningly deceived  into thinking i was off to Dublin by my husband and friends. I had a fantastic time and I want to go back.

Hello New York

My new Jubilee collection is also now available for purchase both from my Etsy Store and at Things British in Carnaby street, this is a limited edition collection to celebrate what a great year it is for us here in the UK with both the queens Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics.

Jubilee Themed Charm Bracelet

And finally April saw the start of my first giveaway for one of my beaded Ribbon necklaces.  The giveaway CLOSES TONIGHT and the winner will announced tomorrow so you still have time to enter here Lottie Of London Giveaway

Lilac Rose Ribbon Necklace Giveaway

Don't forget to check back tomorrow to find out who the lucky winner is.

April Round Up

Beaded Ribbon Necklace Giveaway
Jubliee Limited Collection
Destination Unknown - New York


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