"Ivory" Pendants & Elephant Bead/National Craft Month

These are three of my newest things which I made this week. I've been doing a lot of really shiny, fancy stuff lately, so I thought that for a change of pace, I'd make something more matte and beaten up looking.

These were made with my ivory mix which is, like most of my mixes, very uncomplicated (1/2 and 1/2 white and ecru). The pendant on the left is more diamond shaped, stamped with an old plastic filigree piece and a button (the two round parts). The elephant is a bead that I sculpted from the clay. It's totally cute and has a little tail and everything which I didn't show, but will probably show later when this bead ends up in some kind of necklace. The pendant on the right is my favorite, though, because it was a surprise. Lemme 'splain...


I love the texture on these buttons, but have never used them for stamping because I thought the button holes would look awful and make the final piece look far to button-ish. I decided to stamp them anyway this time, though, and thought I could get rid of the round pieces or set little crystals or something. But when I stamped the first big button, I LOVED the look of the little circles in the middle and decided to do a pattern with the little button all around. I don't think the final result looks at all like I just stamped the pendant with buttons, which is the best part.


I picked these buttons up at JoAnn a while ago, but you can still find them there. They're in all colors. But I loved this firey orange the best, and I've put them onto a few things I've knitted. Now I've got to make sure to keep at least these two for future stamping. ^_^

I think everyone should try stamping with buttons! It's awesome!

Also... March is National Craft Month! I'm thinking of doing an entire month of craft projects in celebration. I'll post a craft project for each day (not necessarily every day) to show my progress. I think this is a great way for us to get a little bit more art into our lives. I'd encourage my fellow bloggers to do the same. Even if it's a simple little pair of earrings--let's all make something every day in March and make sure we post pictures!!!