Sunday, March 11, 2012

Kiki Lowenstein's Lucky Charm

This is a great recycling project! No one will ever guess where the raw materials came from—and you’re saving our landfills from the scourge of more plastic!
Supplies:

Clear plastic lid (Cut out from a salad dressing take-out container is best. Your plastic should have an edge or a lip around it if possible.)




Here’s what one looks like in the raw—the cut version is in the lower right corner.

You'll also need:

Alcohol inks

Plastic page protector or wax paper

Plain paper

Ink pen (Sakura 01)

Liquid Copper Paint Marker (Uchida)

Sandpaper or an Emery board


Steps:

1. Cut out a disk from the lid, making sure to keep a ridge around the outside if possible. (Tip: If your cut isn’t quite even, use the emery board or sandpaper to smooth out your circle.)

2. Drip a few drops of alcohol ink on the plastic page protector or the wax paper. Fold the plastic page protector or wax paper in half and smear the inks around so the colors blend.

3. Drag the plastic circle through the colors. (Tip: If the finished colors aren’t to your liking, use rubbing alcohol and remove those colors and try again. You can also spray the finished ink with alcohol--or use a perfume because that's mainly alcohol. Or even dip a cotton swab in alcohol and dab a little off.)

4. Let dry.

5. Go around the outside edge of the circle with the Copper Ink. (Tip: If you left on the ridge, you can “feel” where the tip of the pen needs to go.) It will look like there’s a real copper border!

6. Use the plastic circle as a temple. Draw a tangle to fit inside the circle. (Tip: You can also use colored paper for your tangle. If you do used colored paper, try using white ink as a contrast. The result is a pleasing highlighted area.)

7. Cut out the tangle. Adhere to the right side of your tangle to the wrong side of the circle with a clear drying glue such as JoAnn’s Craft Essentials Real Deal Tacky Glue. (Tip: At first the glue is milky. Don't panic! It will dry clear!)

Your finished charm will look something like this:



 This charm appears on the cover of the new "Kiki Lowenstein Short Story" entitled, "Kiki Lowenstein and the Lucky Charm."

Here are two more that I made:



Do you have a lucky charm? How's it working for you?

2 comments:

Linda O. Johnston said...

How delightful, Joanna, and so creative! But you're definitely good at that.

Joanna Campbell Slan said...

Oh, Linda, I just have the BEST time playing. And I make such a mess! But I have tons of fun.