Welcome Back GD: Wanda Hentges Project #1 JOFY JOY

"Hello everyone, Wanda here. I'm thrilled to be back and want to take a moment to say THANK YOU for all the wonderful comments last month!  And to thank you for coming back now"!

This month I'm using stamps from the newest JOFY sets and we'll be making a variety of items that you can have for yourself or you can choose to give them as gifts. First up is earrings. All the great ornament stamps had me thinking I needed some new earrings for the holidays and we'll also make a card that can hold the earrings if you'd like to make a pair (or more) to give to friends and family. Any of the ornament stamps would make great earrings!!

I'm using stamp sets JOFY 26 and JOFY 28 along with shrink plastic, a sanding block, heavy smoothy cardstock, Fresco Finish paints (Chalk, Cherry Red and Turquoise from the newest JOFY Limited Edition Set; Evergreen from Lin Brown's Limited Edition Set; also Zesty Zing and Hey Pesto), and Metallic Glaze.

You'll want to start by sanding one side of your shrink plastic, sanding across horizontally in straight lines and then vertically in straight lines. There should be no shiny spots left on the shrink plastic.  Stamp two ornaments on the shrink plastic with Archival Ink Jet Black and let the ink dry. You can dry it with a heat tool if you are careful not to let it get hot enough to start shrinking.

We need a way to hang the ornaments being sure we have the plastic wide enough that it doesn't want to break off. I punched a 1/4" hole in a piece of scrap paper, placed that hole over the stamped hanger and drew a pencil line. This pencil line is my cut line and after cutting the ornaments out, I used a 1/8" hole punch to make my hole in the plastic.  After the plastic is shrunk the hole will be just shy of 1/16".

Next comes the paint (or whatever you want to use to add color). All color will be darker after shrinking.  You can see in the next couple of pictures that I kept the paint very thin/light by really watering it down. Cherry Red, Turquoise and Hey Pesto were used in the circles and Zesty Zing on the hanger.  I used Metallic Glaze, again watered down, in all the areas I didn't use color. Even the Metallic Glaze gets more dense with shrinking as the metallic flakes get closer together. If you make the paint or glaze too thick before shrinking then it will get bumpy when it shrinks as it runs out of room to lay flat (paint and glaze don't shrink, just the plastic).

And here you see them after shrinking. I hadn't used my shrink plastic in a long time and I forgot some important information, but that's good because I got a reminder and can pass it on to you!!!!  Shrink plastic doesn't shrink exactly the same from both directions so if you want two things to shrink exactly the same they need to be oriented the same when you stamp them. I had a partial piece of plastic that I first used and the stamping fit better if I turned one.  You can see below the final result... two pieces that don't look the same!!  

So I made another one giving me a matching pair! The extra one can be used as an embellishment on another project!!  

You can use your heat tool to shrink the plastic or you can lay your pieces on some cardboard and put them in the oven. I've done both in the past. The hardest part when using a heat tool is stopping the piece from flying away, a box can be helpful. If you try to hold the piece down with tweezers or something, it can leave a mark in the shrink plastic. With the oven, nothing flies away but you don't always want to heat the oven just to shrink something. If you want to manipulate your piece while it's warm, I like the oven better because it's evenly hot and I feel like I have slightly more time to work before it's too cool. For these earrings I wanted to give them a rounded shape as if they were a ball. I have a 2 1/2" wooden ball that works great for this. You take the piece out of the oven, immediately place it on the ball and press over the top with a smooth cloth. You only need to hold it a few seconds and it's done.

My finished earrings!  I kept it simple, just a silver bead and ear wires. 

If you wanted to give a pair as a gift you could just put them in a box or you could make a card that has the earrings hanging inside :)   

I had started work on a panel for the front of the card and was waiting to take a picture until the first few steps were done as you would be able to clearly see them all. However, I stamped the ornaments too far to the right and realized I wouldn't be able to stamp a border all the way around. I could have done something to make that work but I was also thinking that maybe I should have stamped two of the round ornaments instead of having the oval one and that way it would match with the set of earrings, so I decided to start over. Since I had the started panel, I thought I would just play around and be sure of what I wanted to do. I originally had red around the edges and was thinking maybe I wanted blue instead and so put blue over the red just to get an idea. I continued on from there (the steps follow this next picture) and by the time I was done I had decided, for the most part, I really liked the way it came out!!!  This next picture is that first panel. I did start over on another tweaking things just a little and taking pictures for each step.  

The panel is 4" x 5 1/4".  I tapped Chalk paint over the whole piece so I had a base of acrylic to work on top of.

Without waiting for the Chalk color to completely dry I added Cherry Red around the edges actually getting it wider than the original panel. I didn't plan to make it wider, just happened, and I actually like it better narrower.

Next I added the Turquoise over the red.

I stamped the ornaments, the border images, and the word Joy with Jet Black Archival Ink. And, as you can see, I decided to keep with the two different ornaments. 

I painted in the ornaments, first adding the colors and then adding metallic glaze over each ornament and the word joy. The left-over Metallic Glaze was mixed with some water and sponged on the edges for a little bit of sparkle there also.

I lightly sponged some Hey Pesto in the white areas and dried it.

I watered down a little puddle of Hey Pesto and a little puddle of Evergreen. I brushed the Hey Pesto around the top of the ornaments and the Evergreen around the bottom. I blotted each color right away using that old stained towel you can see just a bit of in the picture to give it a mottled look.

I stamped the stars/dots image with Chalk and eventually added white dots to the oval shaped ornament (I had done this on the original panel, like it, but had almost forgot on this one and remembered after taking the next few pics).

I added shading under the ornaments and letters with a charcoal pencil smudging it with my finger, drew the hangers with Pitt pens and added white highlights to the letters with a white Gelly Roll pen.

I made a panel for the inside that the earrings could hang on. Happy Christmas is stamped with Jet Black Archival Ink. Happy is painted with Cherry Red. Turquoise is sponged around the edge. White added to Happy with the gel pen.

I cut a piece of Heavy Smoothy 5 1/2" wide and 8 7/8" long. I made a score line 4 1/4" from each end so when it is folded there is a spine allowing enough room inside for the panel and the earrings to hang. I stamped the flowers with Jet Black Ink and painted them with Chalk, Cherry Red, and Zesty Zing.  The dots were made with Chalk paint.

I attached the panel with a double layer of foam mounting tape which gives the earrings enough space to poke through the holes and lay nicely. Once the earrings are removed the card still looks good!!!

I hope you've enjoyed this project and are inspired to have a go! Do be sure to link up to the monthly challenge if this post inspires any type of project. See ya tomorrow!!!!

~Wanda~

A huge thanks from all the team at PA HQ ... Goodness me where to start Wanda. Looks like you have had lots of fun playing with the JOFY stamps. A beautiful array of clean & simple designs. Love the quirky bauble earrings.

We would love you to join in with our monthly challenge. If you are inspired by any of this month's guests who have blogged between Oct 1st 2014 and Oct 31st 2014 then join in and link up your creativity HERE. You will go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. You need to add your link by 19:00 (London time) Oct 31st 2014.