DIY bouquet charms & a PP sketch challenge!

WARNING: PHOTO-HEAVY POST AHEAD!!

Good evening, everyone! I feel like I have really been out of the loop this month with everyone and everything out there in crafty blog land. That's mostly because I have gone to working 6-day work weeks during prom season. I still have a little less than 3 weeks to go, and although I love what I do, I'm starting to get a little burnt out. I just really need those 2 days a week to do errands, keep my house clean, grocery shop, pay bills,  not to mention have some me time and down time and fun time. I know I've got to keep pushing through and it's only gonna get worse if I don't make the best of it, so that's what I'm trying to do right now. Today was my first day off since last Sunday and I was able to get a lil' crafty time in. I also got to eat lunch at one of my fav restaurants- California Dreaming, and I finally got a new phone!! An iPhone 4S. Super excited about it....been wanting one for a while and finally broke down and spent the money to get one. I know it will be worth it though, in the long run of planning this wedding, J and I are going to need these phones!!!

Alright, enough of my babbling on. A few weeks back I decided to tackle one of the crafts I wanted to make for the wedding day, DIY bouquet charms. I have seen a few different versions, mostly here . I was inspired my Mrs.Crab Cake over at the Hive. I have seen other ones, but I thought taking this idea I could make another version similar to it and get the same effect. Overall I'm really happy with how they turned out, even though they show a few imperfections I think I will probably not re-do them because everyone I have asked says that they show 'character' and it makes them look old, which is kind of what I was going for- vintage, right?? So without further ado- here is my complete tutorial:

1. The first thing you should do is select your photos. I used head shots from a few old pictures that I happened to have in a large bin of old family photos and had them re touched at a kiosk at  Walmart. This was the simplest way for me, however if you're photo shop wiz which I am not, you could certainly do them yourself and print at home on photo paper. At the kiosk, I retouched them and printed them all in wallet size for the purpose of the size of the charms and also they were all changed over to 'sepia' which I liked more than the black and white option. 

 2. The second step is to cut all your photos down to size, the easiest method to do this is to measure using the glass scrabble tiles/ jewelry findings or whatever you are using for your backings and trim it down from there if you have to. For mine, I made 2 larger circle ones and 4 smaller rounded squares, basically 2 sets because I wanted to give one set to my sister. For the squares, I cut them down as close to size as I could and used a corner rounder to give them that rounded edge. Even on a small scale, I think it worked pretty well! 

 Here is a close up on one side of the circle ones- 

 And the other side of the circle charms- backed with glass so I used 2 photos back to back that I double sided and taped together.

And here is a closie of the rounded square ones, not perfectly matched but I LOVE these!

 3. Next, to add dimension to them, I decided to put a slate blue mini pearl on each one. None of the examples I saw had these, but for some reason I just thought it made them look more 'bridal'. I tried to stick them each in the same spot so they would all be uniform.  I didn't take a photo here of the circle one, but i added a larger pearl to it as well. 

 4. The last step in my opinion, is the hardest. I used glossy accents or 'liquid glass' as some of you call it to cover over the entire charm. I was very careful in the beginning to do an even coat and make sure bubbles were popped, but I found that hard to do since I wasn't sitting there watching them dry. I even dried one coat with my heat tool and then did another coat to make it a little thicker and there were still tiny bubbles. Obviously if you were using glass scrabble tiles in this step that would be avoided, but I already had the liquid glass on hand and I was trying to buy as little as possible for this project. 

 Here is a close up of them before they were dry. As you can see here it looks like most of the bubbles were gone, but they will still pop up over the drying period. So annoying! Although, everyone in my family that I have showed them to says that makes them look vintage and old and have character, so I guess I'm cool with it! LOL!

5. The last thing you have to do of course is find the type of ribbon you want to tie them to your bouquet with, I was able to find this super cute velvet ribbon in the 'malibu' color for my wedding, and it worked perfectly as far as the thickness I needed. Here are a few close ups of what they turned out like!! Voila:

  Ok, so the last thing I will share with you tonite is a quick little LO I did at the last minute to get in on the sketch challenge over at Purple Pumpkin Crafts.  I absolutely LOVE their handmade embellishments and their March Sale is actually tonite, about 3:30am Central Standard time...if I didn't have work so early in the am I would be getting up at that crazy hour to make an order. I still have quite a stash from the last one and I need to really get in my crafts room and organize....ahh another day. There's alot of stuff in there that I forgot that I have, don't you love when that happens?? Ok, so here was the sketch we were supposed to use:

I apologize for these photos, some of the first ones I've taken with my iPhone  today and I can't figure out how to rotate these, so this will have to do for now!! 

 Ok folks, that's about it for me tonite. Thank you once again for stopping by and I promise I will be leaving some comments on all your blogs very, very soon. Feels great though to have another LO out in the world... I am on my way to making a facebook page all about scrapbook consulting, technique teaching, and maybe even doing personalized books for anyone if they are interested. We'll see how it goes...def not my full time job right now but I would LOVE if it was. Good night, and PEACE Y'ALL~ VV

Supplies List:

Bouquet Charms:

The Jewelry Shoppe findings- Hobby Lobby -

 18mm square stamping blanks x 4

1 1/4 round frames w/ glass x 2

steele blue stick on mini pearls- Michael's

Tim Holtz distress ink in Vintage Photo

corner rounder

fine tipped scissors

Glossy Accents 'liquid glass'

double sided tape

ribbon of choice

Layout:

background paper- unknown from stash

12 x12 sheet used for scalloped square- Bo Bunny 'Ad Libs Verbiage' #12

My Mind's Eye- 'Stella Rose' collection title words - 'Mabel So Sweet'

Recollections Signature floral embellishments- browns

teal and dark brown cardstock from stash

fabric covered buttons- Purple Pumpkin Crafts

yellow stickles

Smooch Spritz in gold glow

Tim Holtz distress ink in Tea Dye

dark brown cat eye- Colorbox

Tim Holtz paper distressing tool

The Jewelry Shoppe- 2.5mm flower cabochans

fabric pieces- straps from an old sundress (bought @ Buffalo Exchange in Portland, OR)

stick on pearls in white, dark brown, and dark teal- Micheal's

brown Zig marker

pop dots