Fun DIY Jewelry Projects from your Recycle Bin!
February 24th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Spring is just around the corner! In the spirit of spring cleaning, we made some Upcycled/Recycled Catalog and Junk Mail Jewelry. Click on any image for a closer view.
I used our flat round glass tiles 303F and pendant base 1239 to make this jewelry set from a colorful Pizza restaurant mailer.
These same finished glass tiles can be used as on our bracelet forms 1442, fridge magnets, bottle caps, more!
Anne finished one of our 412A 2″ rectangle pendants/glass with a lovely cropped detail from her Sunday paper’s Import store ad.
To finish any of our glass tiles, see our detailed instructions below.
Watch out – this is a VERY easy crafting project and once you start – you’ll be looking at your recycling bin in a whole new way!
Secret Scent Charm Bracelet Here is a charm bracelet with a sweet little secret. The pretty pink bottle 1203C holds a little of Anne’s favorite perfume. Opening it is instant aromatherapy! The little photo charms that dress it up a bit more are our 419A used with our 110 downloadable art and our 802B epoxy bubbles. HINT: Use different bottles for different perfumes and attach to this or any charm bracelet chain with our lobster clasps.
Tiny Beach in a Bottle Charms Anne crafted these adorable tiny beach charms to use for necklaces or earrings (they are less than an inch high). The shells and sand in the bottles shift around as you wear them. She stuck a trimmed eye pin in the cork ~ you could also use our eye screws – see kits on right of this page. The jump rings are 6mm. She added a few of our beach themed charms. Embellish with our Mini Message Bottles, Starfish and Scallop Shell charms 6. Attach with jump rings onto one of our simple chains or cords.Sand and shells picked up on the beach. Now they are ready to incorporate into your next charm bracelet or necklace project – they’re tiny enough even for earrings!
Happy Chinese New Years Jewelry Look what Cheryl dreamt up with our braided PU cords 368BD, some of our Asian Coin charms 634H, 634I, 634J etc., and a few green cats eye beads from our 1228 mix! Wow!
We have a LOT of new items ~ so remember to check our listings for FEB and MARCH.
For instance, we have some wonderful new HOW to beading books, as well as some really interesting shell beads which Anne made some lovely, quick beaded pendants.
Remember to use your newsletter promo code MAR2012 for 20% savings off all items in your cart!
In case you missed it – we have a sweet instant download Freebie for you! Our new Cherry Blossom alphabet – fit for 1″ glass tiles and our small ovals.
The light background works with either squares or circles. Open the file here - right click to “save as” to your computer. Your printer setting should be ”fit to print” or print at 8.5×11 letter size. You can also import into MS Word and scale to letter size. Happy creating!Why do the best ideas seem to come at the last minute? I’m usually pacing while my glass tile art is drying. Sound familiar? Well, I’ve just crossed this last-minute frustation off of my list:
Here’s how to stop ink jet art from running under glass domes and tiles while the sealer is curing..
The secret is as close as your microwave!
Take a few of our glass tiles or glass domes. Cover the back 1/2 the surface area with thin layer of 3D Crystal Lacquer. Press firmly onto your photo or print out and swirl lightly to get a thin seal, bubble free.
Microwave your sealed art (glass ONLY no metal) on low for 3 minutes. Repeat. Finish for a minute or two on medium.
Your customized glass tile will be fully dry and ready to glue into one of our many bezel cups, pendant, charm bases or key rings. You’re done!
To review, here’s the magic steps to working with our favorite sealer, 3D Crystal Lacquer, for all of your glass tile and glass dome jewelry and craft projects:
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Apply thin layer 3D Crystal Lacquer on center 1/2 to 2/3s of the back of the tile
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Then do the smoosh down and swirl around to get a thin layer with no bubbles.
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COOK them in the microwave on low, several rounds, several minutes.
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This keeps the ink jet ink from saturating the paper and prevents running. (You can also use a warm oven set at 225 – 250).
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Glue into our bezels, charm bases, pendant bases, key chain forms, or apply a magnet to the back with a small dollop of our e6000 craft adhesive.
Glue into any of our charm, pendant bases or bezels with e6000 adhesive. Think ahead – great for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day! Easy for children to make!
Microwave Your Way to Quick and Easy Glass Tile Jewelry + FREEBIE Cherry Blossoms Alphabet
January 27th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Love is in the air and we have a sweet FEB Freebie for you! Our new Cherry Blossom alphabet – fit for 1″ glass tiles and our small ovals. The light background works with either squares or circles. Open the file here - right click to “save as” to your computer. Your printer setting should be ”fit to print” or print at 8.5×11 letter size. You can also import into MS Word and scale to letter size. Happy creating!
Here’s some great quick crafts using some of our 60 + NEW items for Jan/Feb!
We also have a section devoted to Valentines. . We hope you enjoy these tips!
My best ideas seem to come to me at the last minute. So, I’m usually pacing while my glass tile art is drying. Sound familiar? Well, I’ve just crossed this last-minute frustation off of my list:
Here’s how to stop ink jet art from running under glass domes and tiles while the sealer is curing..
The secret is as close as your microwave!
Take a few of our glass tiles or glass domes. Cover the back 1/2 the surface area with thin layer of 3D Crystal Lacquer. Press firmly onto your photo or print out and swirl lightly to get a thin seal, bubble free.
Microwave your sealed art (glass ONLY no metal) on low for 3 minutes. Repeat. Finish for a minute or two on medium.
Your customized glass tile will be fully dry and ready to glue into one of our many bezel cups, pendant, charm bases or key rings. You’re done!
To review, here’s the magic steps to working with our favorite sealer, 3D Crystal Lacquer, for all of your glass tile and glass dome jewelry and craft projects:
-
Apply thin layer 3D Crystal Lacquer on center 1/2 to 2/3s of the back of the tile
-
Then do the smoosh down and swirl around to get a thin layer with no bubbles.
-
COOK them in the microwave on low, several rounds, several minutes.
-
This keeps the ink jet ink from saturating the paper and prevents running.
-
Glue into our bezels, charm bases, pendant bases, key chain forms, or apply a magnet to the back with a small dollop of our e6000 craft adhesive.Glue into any of our charm, pendant bases or bezels with e6000 adhesive. Think ahead – great for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day! Easy for children to make!
5 Creative DIY Gifts + FREEBIE Holiday Cheer Download Art for You!
November 30th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Happy holidays! Our gift to you ~ our Dec 11 Holiday Cheer Circles FREEBIE download sheet. Download the page, save to your computer, (right click, choose “save picture as”), open, print out full size (letter) for festive 1″ circles, or reduce, enlarge as you’d like.
Click here for our HOLIDAY CHEER CIRCLES download file. It is in .jpg format and will be HUGE on your screen. Right click with your mouse and save to your computer. Ask your printer to print letter size, or 8.5″ wide.
Peel n stick, pop the finished dome in our bottle cap pendants (inside or outside) and you’ve got an instant, interchangeable bottle cap pendant necklace. When you get home, you can put it back on the fridge or on your jewelry organizer! 
We are now well-stocked in all sizes and shapes of glass domes, cabochons, and matching pendant bases. 
Glass Dome Pendants become Key Chains with just a Key Ring!4. Epoxy Domed Zipper/Backpack Pulls.
Start with 1 of our 100D Flattened Bottle Caps w/Epoxy Dome cover, add a lobster clasp to the jump ring, and you’ve got an instant zipper pull or backpack hang tab.
4. Blossoms of Red & Green Necklace Get in the Holiday spirit with this necklace using our Millefiori Single Flower Glass Beads. These 12mm beads are cut out in single flower shapes in a rainbow of colors. You might also try our Millefiori Stars or Millefiori Mixes. For this project, Cheryl chose the red flowers and green flowers only out of the 30 beads on a strand. Combined with red, green and clear seed beads as well as bright silver ridged spacer beads, Cheryl has created a very festive necklace. She chose to make her design in a matinee length at about 22 inches. We are sure you will be inspired to make your own holiday creations to enjoy this party season.
5. Fridge Mag Snow Globes! Featuring your family and friends! Just add your photo or last year’s holiday card to the back of our magnetic fridge mag snow globesfor instant personalized results!Try our matching mini photo tags – we now offer a double sided blank -perfect for reversible or two-sided charms and pendants – one of our most frequent customer requests.
Wrap it all up with our 10 pack gift bags! ~ Choose from Velveeteen Opaque (no peeking!) or etherial Organza Bags ~ easy on the pocket book and easy on the eyes! Makes gift giving a breeze.
5 Quick DIY Gifts, Host a Wine Charm or Earring Party, Free Photo Crop Link
November 5th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
We have a whopping 125 new items – new bead mixes, strands, findings, adhesives – click here Oct and here Nov to see them all. Shown: last year’s customer favorites just restocked: Little magnetic photo snow globes!
Try our bottle cap pendants or bottle cap magnets with adhesive domes included, assembled photo bracelets, assembled photo charms, fridge mag snow globes, charm bases with adhesive domes included, even typewriter key charm kits! Adorable! Affordable! Easy! Done!
Recycle last year’s photo holiday cards – Yours, family members, friends’. Use a tight crop so that you see your subject’s face – not a whole bunch of other things. Many times – larger photos are already the right size since what you’re trying to crop or frame is a face that is between 2/3 to 1.25″.Free online photo cropping tool! If you need to reduce or enlarge your photo, try Google’s FREE online tool ~ go to http://pixlr.com/ You do NOT have to download any software – you can work online, add any image, crop, shrink and print! If you have Microsoft Word – just copy your photo and open a new document. Insert your photo. Grab or click on the corners, crop or trim, and print.
Photo labs at your local drugstore or office supplies superstore - You can also go to your local photo copy center, sometimes even your local grocery store has a photo kiosk, and have them help you make the reduction you need. Just measure the acetate insert and take in your photo – they can print out a sheet for you.
It’s easy to shrink your image! Work in fractions,divide, find your desired reduction. For instance: You need your photo to be 1″, your original is 3″ – 1 divided by 3 is ….33% – you will need to print out your oriignal at 33%. You can do this with any set of measurements easily!
Our photo bracelets and mini memory frame charms have acetate inserts in each of the frames – if you take out one of the inserts – you can use that to place over your photograph and trim to size.
Our Recipe for an Easy Holiday Crafting Party:
Here’s what’s great about earrings and wine charms - anyone can make a pair or a set to take home - especially beginners! With very few supplies, your guests can leave with their own handmade party favors!
Earring Crafting Party: Take 1 set of our 100pc ear wires, 1 set mixed crystal bicones, combine with 1 set 10pc assorted millefiori bead strands, add 1 set of our headpins, eyepins, jumprings assortment, and you’ve got a recipe for fun!
Holiday Wine Charm Crafting Party: Take a set of our ribbon photo charms or memory frame minis, 1 set of our jump ring mega mix, a sheet or two of our laminating film, some simple adhesive squares, and just about any 1″ art you’d like. Our friend and coworker Anne made these with artwork from return address labels.
OK! Now get to it! Remember to reward yourself with a 20% discount on all items in your cart with the code NOV2011 in the promo code box on your payment page. Thanks always and happy creating from all of the folks at Rubber Nation Crafts, RubberNation.com and soon, eCrafty.com
As always, e-us with any questions: rubbernation@comcast.net Happy creations!
Double the Fun! 2-Sided Glass Dome Charms, Magnetic Bottle Cap Pendants
September 30th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Our friend and coworker Anne came up with these brilliant little tricks to make your craft supplies serve double duty!
Peel n stick, pop the finished dome in our bottle cap pendants (inside or outside) and you’ve got an instant, interchangeable bottle cap pendant necklace. When you get home, you can put it back on the fridge or on your jewelry organizer! 
2. Convert Mini Bottles into Art, Message in a Bottle Charms. Add a set of our new eye screw tops 1206A to the corks of any of our mini bottles ~ roll up your art or scrap or fabric and put it inside ~ 
smooth against the edges with the thin wood end of a paintbrush. You can make your mini bottle coordinate with just about anything with a simple switch of a scrap!
3. Create 2-sided reversible rectangle pendants using our new 1×2″ domino size epoxy bubbles e6000′d on the back side of our rectangle pendants 412A. You will have to trim about 2mm (tiny tiny amount) off of the bottom of the epoxy bubble.
4. Make 2-sided glass dome keepsake jewelry. This works best with our thin-rimmed pendant bases such as 413A bases and glass dome tops. Try some combos like a photo with initial on the back, a baby pic and grad pic on the other side, wedding day and first date pic, etc.
You get the idea! Our square bases 400P work well for double sided square charms and pendants. You can use them with either our 1″ square epoxy bubbles or 1″ square glass domes. (This is Anne’s baby to grad sample with daughter Molly).
5. Create reversible charm blanks
- no domes needed! Try our 1500J Photo Frame Charms – just under 1″ tall each. Trim your photo or art, cover with our laminating film (instant) and e6000 onto the base. Turn over, repeat, done! You can also get the same effect using our 3D Crystal Lacquer and our Ink Jet Fixative stick – let dry overnight.
6. Epoxy Bubble Finger Rings. Our friend and coworker Shenoa, Cheryl’s granddaughter, made this fun, bright finger ring using just our 1″ epoxy bubbles, one of our brown and pink floral batik beads, and ring blanks, along with a dab of e6000. This is a great idea for kids, teens to make for quick and fun instant jewelry.
7. Fall Hues Necklace. Our friend and coworker Cheryl (Shenoa’s grandma) made this lovely necklace by intertwining just a few of our new items ~ sparkle and watercolor beads by the yard, and a medallion from our new Fearless Crafters’ LIghtweight Metal mix, along with a with a few of our customer favorite ~ 10 yards of seed beads necklace in amber red fall hues.
Jewelry Ideas Made with our “In Black & White” Freebie Collage Sheet
August 31st, 2011 § Leave a Comment
(Anything but) Black and White! 6 New Inspired Projects for You!
Wow! We had an amazing response to our “In Black and White” freebie download collage sheet from the July newsletter and Facebook post. We hope you find these 6 projects as inspiring as we did! Click on any photo to for a closeup.
First up, Kristine Richards joins us as a regular contributor and creative force extraordinnaire. Lucky us! She works in many mediums – this time she used polyclay along with our clear epoxy domes and favorite inks, wire and crystal faceted beads to transform our “In Black and White” freebie download collage sheet into the gorgeous necklaces you see here. Hang on to your collage sheets ~ there’s more to come! This is probably do-able for a medium-level crafter. For a detailed project sheet (PDF format – printable instructions) on Kris’ necklace, just e-us.
Next up, our friend and coworker Hannah Greenberg came up with a different rainbow interpretation of our “In Black and White” freebie collage sheet – using watercolors on a black/white printout. She trimmed and rolled the colored squares of paper inside of our mini glass bottle charms. The results are gorgeous – and probably just the right level for beginning crafters. For a detailed project sheet (PDF format – printable instructions) on Hannah’s’ mini bottle charms, just e-us.
For our bead loving readers, our friend and co-worker Cheryl Satterlee came up with two ingenious ways to incorporate our ball chain necklaces with our spunky black, white and pink lampwork beads. Her latest creation is a new twist on a beaded necklace and chain using 20 gauge wire and assorted glass pearls.
Here is another variation on this new technique from Cheryl. She chose the focal bead with the largest hole for the centerpiece of this pendant. Again using 20 gauge wire she threaded a mixture of focal beads, spacer beads and metal bead caps onto the wire. But this time she created a loop at the bottom and threaded the wire through the center bead twice. The tops are just loops of wire connecting the pendant to the ball chain.
For a detailed project sheet (PDF format – printable instructions) on Cheryl’s ball chain technique, just e-us.
Last but by no means least, our friend and co-worker Shenoa Satterlee (Cheryl’s granddaughter) made a beautiful necklace for Grandma Cheryl in all of her favorite colors. Here she used one of our Batik Focal beads as the center of this design. She created a pattern of beads and chain for this necklace. Try one of ourJewelry Makers Mixes in your favorite colors. A few findings of jump rings, headpins, chain and clasps are all you need for a gorgeous new necklace.
If you’re still reading this, then you are a die-hard crafter indeed! Don’t forget to use your 20% Newsletter Subscriber coupon code SEP2011 in the promo code box on the payment page at checkout. You must be signed in for this promo code box to appear.
If you cannot see it, or you bypass it at checkout, just e-us in the “comments” section on your order – we’ll arrange a discount for you in the form of a refund when your order ships. Remember, SEP2011 in the promo code box saves you 20% on every order this month!
Thank you to our wonderful contributors this month:
Kristine Richards lives happily ever after in the mid west, taking time to smell the roses, create poly clay and lampwork beads and jewelry, attend craft and bead classes, spend time with her family, all the good stuff. There is probably a more accurate bio to write on her – but the newsletter deadline is near! We’ll do a formal bio on her project sheets. Welcome Kristine! You are our fairy godmother of craftiness!
Cheryl Satterlee lives happily ever after here in Northern California with her family and grandchildren nearby. We’re very grateful to have her help on EVERY front! Packing up your orders, looking after things that would normally slip thorugh the cracks, and creating beautiful jewelry in her spare time. She is multi-talented and enjoys beading, baking and babysitting for new family members!
Shenoa Satterlee lives here in Northern California just a stone’s throw from Grandma’s house. She is a bright, industrious middle schooler who helped us a lot over the summer here in the office. Thank you Shenoa!
Hannah Greenberg also lives here in Northern California, works hard in high school and does some amazing bending of wire and beading of beads in her spare time! We’re lucky to have her here helping us and thinking up so many COOL new uses for our craft items!
DIY Typewriter Keys & Wistful Traveler’s Jewelry + Freebie Download for You!
July 29th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Happy August! Here’s 3 fast and fun ideas for near instant art jewelry.
2. Faux Typewriter Key Rings (click to enlarge)
Our new 1″ thin-rimmed SP square bases with matching epoxy bubbles just arrived - I made fast use of them on this nearly instant project!
Use these as we did for the jewelry samples above, or embellish our bamboo tiles. Great for scrapbooks. These also make a killer set gift set of fridge magnets. Add our 1″ pendant bases + instant adhesive domes - or print out slightly larger and punch out 1″ circles too ~ use with our bottle cap pendants and magnets !FREEBIE Download Collage Sheet + 5 New DIYs for You to Try!
June 30th, 2011 § 1 Comment
We’ve got 5 fresh new projects for you to try, as well as a FREEBIE printable collage sheet download when you “LIKE” US on Facebook (click here)!
If you’re not on Facebook, you can still get the same freebie – just refer a friend to our site here or sign up for our newsletter here, OR just e-us using this link or mention ”collage sheet” in the subject!
Use these as is, or as backgrounds for your own personalized words, initials - or trim out an initial from a magazine or print out from your computer. Add our 1″ pendant bases + instant adhesive domes - or print out slightly larger and punch out 1″ circles too ~ use with our bottle cap pendants !
Make instant pendants, magnets, more! Add our epoxy domes, or 3D Crystal Lacquer + glass domes.
We hope you’re having a wonderful summer with some extra time to set aside for crafts and family. Let’s get started!
Wondering what do to with our Yard of Beads, or 10 Click here!. Anne took our 10-pack seed bead necklaces by the YARD assortments and added a few simple dangles – the results are really great.
Make these necklaces your own with a few simple charms, beads, etc. Click on the sample to see four great color combos!
Look at these fun sets of wine charms Anne made with our word and message charms.
You can do the same with any of our photo charms, or themed charms below, with just a few wine charm rings.
Very easy, really fun! All new themed charms are in – wonderful for wine charms, charm bracelets, earrings and necklace inclusions – even scrapbooking ~ see them all here.
Some of these charms even work as bails – see some examples here.
In praise of ginormous beads and return address labels.A little light went off in Anne’s head (it doesn’t take much!) when she came across some free return address labels – the result? Gorgeous wine charms! The outcasts from our Everything but the Kitchen Sink 1135 mix lead to the picnic tablecloth weights below.
Here’s some simple tablecloth weights she made from our Ginormous Beads (2 for $1) and our Crystal Ice Pendants, Tumbled Glass Beads, along with some headpins, eyepins, jump rings and a few curtain clips (from IKEA). What a fun hostess or neighbor gift! If you don’t need Ginormous Beads, you might want to check out our expanded selection of our customer favorites – our amazing Jewelry Maker’s Bead Mixes – color coordinated with spacer beads and matching pairs ~ just waiting for your next inspired idea.
Sweet Summer Earrings. Our friend and newest co worker Hannah made these breezy summer earrings with our ear wires, a few bicones and some of our new flower charms. Our new bicones mix contains all 4mm bicones in a rainbow of colors – just perfect for earring pairs and smaller scale jewelry projects, dangles, random rainbow designs.
Buddha Glass Tile Pendant: Instant inspiration from magazine pages continues ~ Kim made this Buddha pendant in a flash from a home decor magazine page. Magazine clippings are perfect for our cameo and collage pendants because the paper is already sealed – just use a small drop of 3D Crystal Lacquer directly on the magazine image, place your glass tile on top, slide tile on surface to remove bubbles, let dry. e6000 your completed art glass tile into the base.
This was a super simple version – very cool additions would be to find some inspiring words in the article, or grab some cool lettering or smaller pics/patterns – collage it. In addition to squares, we have a TON of new ovals and rounds – all in 4pc kits ready to use!
What else can you do with magazine, newspaper, wrapping paper and other things found in your recycling bin? Use our memory frame minis – the 2-sided acetate insert is your template – trim and wear. Any of our fine glass tiles can be made into a personalized pendant, with a little glue-on bail, a magnet, dab of our 3D Crystal Lacquer or Diamond Glaze or e6000 – you’ve got instant wearable art or fun customized fridge magnets. Remember, like us on Facebook or refer a friend, get a free printable collage sheet to use now!
Remember, you can save 20% off everything in your cart (non-bulk/wholesale items) by typing JULY2011 in your promo code box AFTER you SIGN IN – on your payment page. You must be signed in in order to see the promo code box appear! That’s $20 off a $100 order or $4 off a $20 order – whatever the amount – the discount is the same – GREAT! See you soon at Rubber Nation Crafts and eCrafty.com!
5 New DIYs! Try our New Jewelry Bases + Glass Domes
May 29th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
What fun we’ve got for you this month! So many new things to try! Let’s get started!
2. Bollywood Vintage Matchbox Label Bracelet
3. Typewriter ART Glass Dome Bracelet
We just got these in and the possibilites for instant crafts seem kind of endless. I’m thinking especially of summer crafts but you can get very nice results for grown-up crafts as well. I used a postcard printout and an image from a magazine to create these samples with our new dog tags with matching epoxy covers (two sizes availalble). Add a ball chain, cords, etc., a couple of charms, you’ve got a nearly instant, really cute and easy project for all ages!
Bear with me, you know how I love to use scrabble tiles for everything – This is a ROUGH idea – I did not take the time to glue in the scrabble tiles so it’s a little wonky – take any 8 scrabble tiles (I used DREAMBIG) and glue them in to our square bracelet form. Done.
We are now well-stocked in all sizes and shapes of glass domes, cabochons, and matching pendant bases. Take a peek – a little dab of e6000 or 3D Crystal Laquer is all you need to take your printouts, scraps, family photos or collage art to a new wearable (or fridge-magnet) level! Great gifts, fun for kids too! You can see them all here.How to Make a “Key To My Heart” Ball Chain Necklace
May 22nd, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Key To My Heart
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. Our friend and co-worker Anne recently whipped up this little gem from our new arrivals box. It couldn’t be simpler. Attach a silver prong bail to one of our crystal heart pendants which you can find in the dollar beads section (yes, .99 cents!). Make a simple crystal dangle using one of our headpins or eyepins, little crystal bicone, and spacer beads of your choice. Add one of our new antique key charms and voila! Simple, heart-felt, easy and ready to give. What could be sweeter?
