Make a Valentine's Day Cuff Bracelet

Before: Scrap paper, metal

Happy Valentine's Day! Today is the last day in our V-Day series as the big day has arrived. Whether you love Valentine's Day or think it is a commercial hoax victimizing the American people, February 14 arrives every year. We like to use V-Day as an excuse to craft using hearts and other themes of love. 

Oops! Stamping error

Today we grabbed some scrap metal and the front page of a magazine to make a cuff bracelet. The metal was previously cut into cuff bracelet length but was relegated to the scrap heap due to a stamping error. The second letter was sideways. Oops. Nobody will know the cuff bracelet was originally created for a different design because we covered the stamping error with paper that we decoupaged as a form of cold enamel over the entire surface of the cuff bracelet.

After: Bracelet by GeltDesigns.com

Tools
Xacto knife
Self-healing cutting mat 
Oval bracelet mandrel  
Rawhide mallet 
Cross peen hammer 
Steel bench block
Half-round file 
Lortone tumbler (optional)


Materials
Scrap paper 
Scrap 16-gauge nickel silver sheet metal
Diamond Glaze or Mod Podge
Paint brush
Bowl of water (to clean paint brush)
Transparent embossing powder
Heat It Craft Tool

Cut paper to size

Step 1
Place the paper on a self-healing mat and cut out the paper using an Xacto knife. 

Step 2

Hammer the edges

Form the bracelet. Use the rawhide mallet to shape the cuff bracelet around the oval mandrel. File the edges of the metal until jewelry smooth. Place the cuff bracelet on the steel bench block and hammer the edges of the cuff bracelet to thicken the edges, add sparkle and harden the metal so it retains the oval cuff shape.

Stamped Gelt

We stamped the inside of the bracelet with our signature "Gelt."


Step 3
Decoupage the paper to the cuff. Glue the paper to the cuff. Paint Mod Podge over the surface of the paper using a paint brush. Sprinkle transparent embossing powder over

Decoupage the paper onto the bracelet

the wet Mod Podge. Shake off excess powder. Use a heat gun to melt the embossing powder.

Related Tutorials
Cold Enamel a Washer to Make a Pendant
Make a Valentine's Day Necklace from Shoe Lace Charms
Make Heart Earrings from Copper Staples
Make a Beer Bottle into a Heart Pin
Make "Kiss Me" Heart Earrings
Make a Valentine's Day Pendant from a Scrabble® Tile
Make a "True Love" Bracelet from Scrabble® Tiles
Make a Valentine's Day Pendant from a Copper Washer
GeltDesigns Tutorials by Topic
NJAD Index (Days 1 to 60) by Type of Jewelry
NJAD Index (Days 1 to 60) by Type of Found Object  


Further Reading 
"500 Bracelets: An Inspiring Collection of Extraordinary Designs (500 Series)"; Lark; 2005.

Day 86  Month 4. Jewelry from Found Objects.  $ spent to date: 0
Found materials: magazine, scrap metal
New Jewelry a Day.

Have a very happy and crafty Valentine's Day! Tell a friend, family member or lover how much they mean to you.

Make a Necklace from Shoe Lace Charms

Before: Shoe charms

My daughter saw these shoe lace charms and said they remind her of the "foot prints of love." Today is project seven of our V-Day series and we decided to make a simple necklace using shoe lace charms and our imitation leather.

Tomorrow is the big day. Valentine's Day in our house is all about crafts and chocolate. We reject the commercial aspects of the holiday, but love a theme for making stuff. And, of course, we love chocolate. And ice cream.

When my kids were little, I loved working with them to make Valentine's Day cards for each of the kids in the class and all their teachers ... today its all about wearing our hand crafted jewelry and eating chocolate...and reminding each other (and our friends) how much we love and appreciate one another.

Materials
2 shoe charms
2mm leather, imitation leather, satin or other stringing material
Findings (end caps and clasp)
Glue (optional)

After: Footprints of love by GeltDesigns.com

Step 1
Select the charms.

Step 2
Feed the charms on the stringing material and attach findings.

You can glue the charms to hold them in a particular position or allow the charms to dangle and clang.

Related Tutorials
Make Earrings from Shoe Charms 
Make Heart Earrings from Copper Staples 
Make a Beer Bottle into a Heart Pin 
Make "Kiss Me" Heart Earrings 
Make a Valentine's Day Pendant from a Scrabble® Tile 
Make a "True Love" Bracelet from Scrabble® Tiles 
Make a Valentine's Day Pendant from a Copper Washer
GeltDesigns Tutorials by Topic
NJAD Index (Days 1 to 60) by Type of Jewelry
NJAD Index (Days 1 to 60) by Type of Found Object  

Further Reading 
"500 Plastic Jewelry Designs: A Groundbreaking Survey of A Modern Material (500 Series)"; Lark; 2009.
"500 Pendants & Lockets: Contemporary Interpretations of Classic Adornments (500 Series)"; Lark; 2008.
"500 Necklaces: Contemporary Interpretations of a Timeless Form (500 Series)"; Lark; 2006.

Day 85  Month 4. Jewelry from Found Objects.  $ spent to date: 0
Found materials: shoe lace charms
New Jewelry a Day.

Have a great week!

Make Heart Earrings from Copper Staples

Before: Copper staples

Today's project is completely the result of the creative genius of my wonderful daughter. When I was opening a package that came from UPS the other day, my daughter noticed that the staples holding the box together were copper. Score! She immediately got out the wire wrapping tools and started designing projects that could reuse and repurpose the copper staples. Such a good idea!

After: Copper Hearts by GeltDesigns.com

After playing with the found wire for a while, we decided to shape two of the staples into hearts to use as charms for earrings in our V-Day series. Seriously, would you guess these were staples otherwise destined for the garbage (and by extension the landfill)?

Materials
2 copper staples
Beadalon 20-gauge magenta Artistic Wire 

Gather your tools

Tools
Eurotool wire looping pliers
Chain nose pliers
Eurotool Wrap n' Tap pliers
Grobet No 2 half-round file
Lortone tumbler

Step 1
File the edges of the staples until they have no sharp edges and are jewelry smooth.

Form staple into circle

Step 2
Form the staple into a circle using the Wrap n Tap pliers or a mandrel.

Step 3
Form the circle into a heart using the wire looping pliers or round nose pliers. File again, as needed.

Step 4
Repeat to create second, matching heart.

Step 5
Make ear wires and attach the ear wires to the hearts.

These ear wires were leftover from another project where we either made extras and never used them or made these and decided we did not like the shape or color for the project and made something else instead.

Step 6
Place in tumbler to burnish and harden metal.

Related Tutorials
How to Make "Fish Hook" Ear Wires
How to Make an Ear Wire Jig

How to Straighten Wire

How to Smooth Sharp Wire Edges
How to Measure Wire
How to Use a Wire Gauge
GeltDesigns Tutorials by Topic
NJAD Index (Days 1 to 60) by Type of Jewelry
NJAD Index (Days 1 to 60) by Type of Found Object  

Further Reading 
"Complete Metalsmith: Professional Edition";  Tim McCreight; 2004.
"Jewelry: Fundamentals of Metalsmithing (Jewelry Crafts)"; Tim McCreight; 1997.

Day 84  Month 4. Jewelry from Found Objects.  $ spent to date: 0
Found materials: copper staples
New Jewelry a Day.

Enjoy your weekend.

Make a Beer Bottle into a Heart Pin

Before: Glass bottle

I miss the days when my three kids and I made Valentine's to hand out in school. Alas, they have outgrown the in-school, everybody-in-the-class Valentine exchange ... but nobody is ever to old for the annual V-day chocolate binge.  None of us can wait. Yum.

Today is Friday and project five of NJAD Valentine's Day week. We went back to our stash of bottles, broke a beer bottle into glass frit and fused it to create a nifty heart shaped pin. With so many, V-Day inspired jewelry, my daughter and I are going to have to negotiate who gets to wear what.

Have a great weekend.

After: Heart pin by GeltDesigns.com

Materials
Glass bottle
1-inch pin finding
Etching cream
Rubber gloves

Tools
Eye goggles Dust mask HammerKiln safe bisque mold
Kiln wash/ shelf primer
Glass fusing kiln
Welding goggles


Step 1
Clean the bottle.

Break bottle into frit

Step 2
Put on eye goggles and a dust mask to protect your eyes and lungs from glass dust and flying, broken shards of glass. Put the glass bottle into a plastic bag and wrap a towel around the bag to reduce the risk of flying shards of glass. Use a hammer to break the glass bottle into very small pieces. Warm glass artists call small pieces of broken glass frit.

We used a Carlsbad beer bottle. Carlsbad makes beer bottles in a really, really nice shade of green and the color withstands heat in the kiln.  

Put frit in heart mold

Step 3
Place the glass frit into a heart shaped mold prepared with kiln wash.


Step 4
Place the mold into the kiln. I based my firing schedule on experience from fusing the pendant from a beer bottle on January 4. I used a small top loading kiln, so I could watch the glass closely and see when the glass melted. For this project, I raised the kiln to 1500 degrees F and held it for about six minutes.

Note: Always put your kiln on a fire safe work surface and wear protective eye goggles (such as those used for welding or lampwork) when looking into a hot kiln.

Step 5
Anneal the glass. Lower the kiln to the annealing temperature(about 960 degrees F) and hold the kiln at that temperature for 10 minutes to anneal the glass.

Step 6
Allow the glass to cool to room temperature. Remove the glass from the kiln and wash off any kiln wash on the glass.

Step 7
Etch the glass. Put on rubber gloves and etch the glass with etching cream.

We etched the glass to give it a mat finish so that the findings were not visible through the pin.

Glue on pin back

Step 8
Glue the pin back finding to the back of the etched, heart shaped glass.

Related Tutorials
How to Make a Pin Back
Make Glass & Copper Earrings
Make a Pendant from a Bottle
Turn a Glass Jar into a Pendant
Make a Glass & Knotted Leather Necklace
Make a Glass & Brass Link Bracelet
Make Recycled Glass & Sterling Silver Earrings
Make a Kiln Formed Bracelet
Make a Glass Charm Necklace
NJAD Index (Days 1 to 60) by Type of Jewelry
NJAD Index (Days 1 to 60) by Type of Found Object 

Day 83.  Month 4. Jewelry from Found Objects.  $ spent to date: 0
Found materials: Carlsbad glass beer bottle
New Jewelry a Day.

Make "Kiss Me" Heart Earrings

Before: scrap book hearts

Today is project four of NJAD Valentine's Day week. We had some plastic hearts that were leftover from a scrap booking project. We decided the two pink "Kiss Me" hearts were perfect to make into post earrings.


Materials
2 plastic hearts
2 surgical steel post earring findings with 4mm pad

After: Earrings by GeltDesigns.com

2 surgical steel ear nuts
3M wet/dry sandpaper

E6000 or glue of your choice
Black Sharpie marker


Step 1
Select the hearts you want to use.

Step 2
Color the lettering with the black Sharpie or marker of your choice.

Step 3
Sand the pad of the post to rough up the metal and make the glue stick better. Sand the plastic where you plan to glue the pad.

Glue on earring post

Step 4
Glue the earring post to the back of the heart. Allow the glue to dry overnight or according to manufacturer's instructions.


Related Tutorials 
Make a Valentine's Day Pendant from a Scrabble® Tile
Make a "True Love" Bracelet from Scrabble® Tiles
Make a Valentine's Day Pendant from a Copper Washer and Scrap Sterling
Make a Heart Pin from a Glass Pebble
Make Button Earrings

Further Reading
"500 Earrings: New Directions in Contemporary Jewelry (500 Series)"; Lark; 2007.

Day 82.  Month 4. Jewelry from Found Objects.  $ spent to date: 0
Found materials: scrap booking supplies
New Jewelry a Day.