Marie Segal's very clever word moulds

During CHA I had the wonderful pleasure of chatting with Marie Segal (polymer clay artist extraordinaire) whilst she was conducting make and takes at the Rupert, Gibbon and Spider booth. I also got to play with Cernit, the pthalate free polymer clay and create this little piece below. This one is going to my daughter who has joined a youth ministry team for the next 12 months and will be living away from home for the first time...... I'm sad to be letting go of her, but happy knowing that she will be enjoying what she's doing! But what I want to chat about today is Marie's very clever word moulds which we used to create the words for the top layer of our pendants. Marie has generously shared her idea and how she created her moulds on her blog here . Do check it out, it's such a neat idea! Now if you're in Australia, you're unlikely to find the alphabet noodles that she talks about in the Mexican aisle at your local supermarket but check out the Italian aisle and......

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CHA - Jewellery - Beads, Bangles and Baubles

Where do I start with this post? The jewellery market was very well represented with beads and findings ranging from top of the range Swarovski crystals to pre-packeted plastic bead kits and every other kind of bead and finding in between. Beading and jewellery making is thriving! Some notable finds were at Beadalon where they had a number of new items. My favourite was the wire twister which can twist up to 5 strands of wire at once into a single length of multi coloured wire. Turn the wire into jump rings using the jump ring mandrel and then you have some really funky, and very strong, rings to use as unique connectors for your jewellery. Beadalon also has the wire twister packaged as a kit with the round and oval jump ring makers - a neat idea. They have also added connectors to their range which are used to attach fancy rings to each other without the need for jump rings and another new addition is the stainless steel loop crimp - an eye loop with a hollow shaft that you insert bea......

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CHA - Other general crafting finds

Yesterday I shared some of the new paper ranges which took my eye so today I want to move on to other crafting/mixed media/home decor/painting items I liked the look of. My first two are from Ranger. Inkssentials has brought out the cutest Memory Capsules - and they're designed to fit Memory Frames and glass. These are just adorable and are small enough to work on either a card front or a scrapbook page. I also liked the look of Tim Holtz's new Adirondack Alcohol Inks Fillable Pens. These pens are dual tipped with a broad end and a finer tip. They come empty, ready to be filled with your favourite colours. I can see a whole lot of new and interesting alcohol ink techniques being developed from this idea. The release is scheduled for March and I can hardly wait to get hold of these products. I also really liked this range: Canvas Home Basics. This is a range of unique decorative hardware fittings designed by interior designers for home decorating enthusiasts. The samples in thei......

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