Friday, October 23, 2009

Not So Charmed, I'm Sure

What a Debacle with a capital D. I'm starting to think Holidays. Yup, It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. In my mind, anyway. I thought I would get started on making Christmas Gifts for my friends and family. This year finances are tight and I have been hording supplies to make wine charms as gifts this year. Oh, uh, I let the cat out of the bag, but what the hell. These are not looking good enough to give to Anyone, let alone someone I like. teehee. Things started out well. I had the bottle caps on hand ready to go. I punched circles out of almost all of my Favorite Handmade papers to put in the caps. There is no more Favorite Paper left. sigh. I've never made charms before and thought, how hard can it be? I mean a third grader can do it right? WRONG. Maybe one in Honors classes.
Here is a closeup of some of my papers. I made some in my class with Fred B. Mullet and some with deli papers at home. Acrylics, twinkling H2o's, gold papers, glimmer mists, you name it, its on there. I used a little bit of the DG3 as glue with a brush to adhere the papers into the caps. Let that dry.
Had fun stamping the backs with Alcohol inks. So far so good, right? No premonitions of the disaster to come......
Had fun making little collages in them. I know this stamp is overused but I love it. Stamped on a transparency then punched out. German glass glitter courtesy of Robin. Thanks again, gal!!! This one is shown after adding the DG3 gel. Still feeling good. Cocky, in fact. They are so cute, easy, Cheap!! What great gifts. Until......
I just loved this one. I cut words from my old Wuthering Heights book. Added the transparency punch. Poured in the DG3 gel. An hour later, What the Hell?? The letters on the back of the word Escape are starting to show through!!! Crap!!! I let it keep drying hoping it would go away. I took both of theses charms to work to ask the girls their opinions. Dr. S could not tell that there was a face in the charm and could barely make out the word. There was also a fingerprint impressed into the surface. I think she did it. But won't admit it. teehee. Seriously, it looks like Shit. And the Secrets one??? Has scratches on the surface. 2 days later I stuck my fingernail in it to test it. Yup, it make a big indent. Now What In The Name Of All That Is Holy did I do Wrong??? I can't give these as gifts. People think I'm an Artist, these Charms Do Not REPRESENT!! HOLLA!! Can I get an AMEN on that!!

Here are 4 that are barely ok. They are still not hard, like 5 days later. This is not the simple slap it together thing I thought it was going to be. I guess I will have to paint the back of a tiny word cutting to obliterate the word on the back. But the paint will be over the letters, so the letters will still show thru, right? I'm so confused. I could print it out, by that's so much Work and not as Authentic dammit. I want to use an old book. Wah Wah.
Here are the 3 worst ones!! This is so embarrassing. The ink completely dissolved off the transparencies, and they were really cool shells, one was a dragonfly.

I wasted really good words too. Is the secret doing like 10 really thin layers? What a pain in the A Double Scribble. Seriously, I thought you poured it in, popped the bubbles with a pin, let them dry to harden and then laughed all the way thru the Christmas holidays without the Gift Monkey on your back.
I am completely obsessed with making this work. If ANYONE has any advice or has made these before or used DG3 before Please Advise. My goal besides making wine charms for my family, was to make charms to send to all my beloved blog friends. I owe you guys for visiting, commenting, supporting, inspiring, advising and well, the list goes on and on. So Robin, PaulaBeth, Kim, Terri, Jean, Marsha, Gaby, Dee, Lorri, Leslie, Mary, Hollie, Sherry, Chris, Joy, Lori, Lesley, Marianne, Kathy, Katelen, Cathy, Roberta, Diva, Diane, and anyone else who I am so sorry I forgot to name, cuz the DG3 has rotted my brain, Help me out here and show me how It's Really Done!!! And by the way if I haven't traded with you before, I won't have your address. So please email me privately, not in the comments, with your address, so I can send you a Humble Gift of Gratitude this Holiday Season. If these damn things don't work out, I'll come up with something else, I promise!! Is Anyone Else thinking Holidays yet??Hey, don't shoot the Messenger!! teehee. xoSusan

10 comments:

  1. Ohhhh, Sweetie!!!! I feel SO bad for you, and I also feel your pain!!! I'm not sure Diamond Glaze is all that it's cracked up to be - frankly, I've NEVER used it without bubbles forming. So, unfortunately, I'm no help to you. I HAVE seen bottle cap charms done with Tacky Glue. Yup! Plain, old, tacky glue. After you glue your paper in the cap, take a little of the tacky glue and smoosh it around the top of the paper with your finger. Voila! That's it! Not as shiny as DG, but effective! OR you could try just using the plain Diamond Glaze. Good Luck! Hugs, Terri xoxo

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  2. Well - big load of poo!

    I'm in bed with the flu and I'm thinking you probably feel even worse than I do right now.

    Diamond Glaze would have been my assumed go-to also, so I'm stumped. I don't know what to do that will dry better/quicker. Let me think on that. I once made a tea tray with Staz-On inks on domino's and the Enviro-Tex bled all the Staz-On. Pissed me off no end - hours and hours and hours of work right down the drain.

    I'm thinking that you'll need to use images and words from laser printers - waterproof. I think using words from old books is a freaking brilliant idea AND it's probably not going to work.

    Don't open any veins and let's see what inspiration arrives for the enameling. I've got nothing but time on my hands while I lay in bed watching The Matrix so I'll start googling.

    p.s. When one has the flu - Keanu Reeves makes great company :)

    Kathy

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  3. Okay - me again.

    What I've found is that with the DG3 you'll need to do thin layers, with 48 hours of dry time between each layer.

    Maybe not the best news in the world, but I'm pretty sure it will work. I don't know if the ones you've done already are ever going to dry.

    Good luck - and, of course, now you've got me thinking about Christmas. Hmm.......

    Kathy

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  4. Okay - me AGAIN :)

    Another internet friend said she's done this VERY successfully with regular Diamond Glaze.

    She provided this link: http://www.ehow.com/how_4686405_make-photo-magnets-bottle-caps.html

    Okay - I'm out for the night......
    K

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  5. Hi there Soul Sister from Far away :)

    I don't use Diamond Glaze for charms at all - Personally I think the stuff sucks, unless used for tiny small 'accents' like a wet looking tear or something. It's better as a glue!!

    For me, RESIN - the messy, often hard to work with two part EZY POUR works perfectly.

    Drys glass hard, clear and bubble free if you do it right :)

    I like your charms and don't mind the words not being easy to read - I like grunge remember haha

    Ok, another thing, did you mod-podge or seal your text pieces first??? - If not, YOU MUST if you want the words to stay fresh and clear.
    Both sides!! so the liquid glaze, resin or whatever you choose to pour over the top into your charm base doesn't absorb into the paper.

    Come over here and lets make charms together!!

    xoxoxoxo

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  6. Sorry, Don't you just hate when it seems so simple and then it all makes you feel like you are a first grader. I have never used that. I used the diamond glaze with some luck..One time I even tried clear nail polish..LOL..Not so good. Yet I still wear one on a necklace I made.
    Katelen

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  7. Sorry that I have no advice on the bottle cap charms....I haven't tried them yet! However, I still like what you have made and see you have been given some good info for the future!

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  8. hello! new to your blog and have been super loving your medieval theme, atc's and manuscript, awesome!

    as for advise for your charms - i've made charms in the past, few with bottle caps, but more with metal bezels and backings. what i did was glue my backgrounds with mod podge (or acrylic gel medium, which ever i had around) and every layer of paper or vellum or transparency i would cover with a thin layer of the mod podge or gel medium. then after it was ALL dry, which usually would be the next day or something, i would add to the finish a super thin layer of diamond glaze (never tried with the DG3) but if you put it really thin it stills gives a shine, but not really bubbles. and i've never had problems with images or words doing weird stuff cause it was all sealed by the glue. hope this helps!

    would love to see if you give your charms another go!

    take good care
    jennlui

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  9. you. crack. me. up. i love your blog and wish you lived in my town. thanks for sharing your humor and your art.

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  10. LOVE IT! You crack me up everytime I read your postings! For my jewelry I use ice resin - a jeweler's grade resin. It is wonderful to work with. You just don't want to work with it when the room is too cool... it takes forever to set. You can use it on paper, leaves, sticks - just about anything (except feathers - they tend to glob up). It also domes wonderfully and is waterproof and pretty well scratch resistant.

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